Sons of Italy, Knights of Columbus, the Ancient Order of Foresters — these names mean little to most people today, even though they were once household names alongside the likes of the Odd Fellows and Freemasons. Secret, fraternal benefit societies used be a dime a dozen in the United States, each offering its members the chance to participate in unique initiation rituals whose symbolism was meant to convey important philosophical and spiritual lessons. In addition to the social benefits of belonging to a community of like-minded individuals, some benefit societies — especially those that were created in the 1870s and 1880s — also provided mutual support to its members, whether it be in the form of a helping hand in times of need or the assurance of a proper burial when death finally came knocking.
These societies played an especially important role in the lives of rural communities like ours. A recent donation to the Historic Courthouse Museum provides a fascinating look into one of the more obscure secret societies that called Lake County home: the Independent Order of Chosen Friends (IOCF). Recently Hartley Lodge No. 199 of Free and Accepted Masons here in Lakeport donated an old chest to the museum. Rather than Freemason secrets (you will have to look elsewhere for those) the chest was full of papers, books and badges relating to the IOCF dating to the early 1880s. The research goldmine that this chest has proved to be has allowed me to uncover fascinating information on the history of fraternal benefit societies and their role in the lives of Lake County citizens in the 1880s and 1890s. For the next several weeks I will detail this information in a number of articles.
But first, let’s look at this old chest and the role benefit societies played in the lives of 19th-century Americans. In many ways it was the benefits they provided that made membership to these societies explode across the nation in the last few decades of the 19th century. By 1900, six-million Americans were members of over 300 different benefit societies. More than half of these secret societies paid death, sick, accident, disability, funeral or other benefit to its members.
In an age before Social Security, affordable health care and basic labor laws, the financial benefits some of these societies offered were the only social safety nets available at the time. A broken leg is no longer a sentence to starvation and homelessness, but that wasn’t always the case. In post-Civil War America, with the advancement of the rail roads and the burgeoning manufacturing industry, there was plenty of work for able-bodied men. But if you made your living off the sweat on your brow and the strength of your back, a broken limb would put you out of work for weeks. Without workman’s compensation and other labor laws, your employer would simply give your job to the next man in line. Without health insurance you would pay out of pocket the cost of a doctor’s visit. As the sole provider in your household (which most men were at the time), your family would go hungry until you were once more able to look for work.
It was with a mind towards helping members in just these sorts of situations that the Order of Chosen Friends (OCF, the forefather of the IOCF) was founded in Indianapolis on May 28, 1879. Many of the original founders were Freemasons themselves but wanted an organization that would also pay old age and disability benefits. Like most fraternal societies of the day, the original Order had secret initiation rituals and was organized in the typical three-tiered structure of local “Councils,” statewide “Grand Councils” and a national “Supreme Council.” The stated object of the organization was:
“to unite, fraternally, acceptable white persons of good character, steady habits, sound bodily health, and reputable calling, who believe in a Supreme Being; to improve their condition morally, socially, and materially by timely counsel and instructive lessons, encouragement in business, and assistance to obtain employment when in need; to establish a relief fund from which a sum not exceeding $3,000 shall be paid, first, when disabled by old age (provided 75 years are reached); second, when by disease or accident a member becomes permanently disabled; and third, when a member dies” (Order of Chosen Friends Handbook, Indianapolis, 1879).
Essentially, the OCF offered the initiation rituals of a group like the Freemasons but with a relief fund that paid out under three conditions: if you die, if you became permanently disabled or if you reached the age of 75. If you are thinking that this all sounds a lot like a modern insurance carrier (without the ritual of course), you would be absolutely correct. In fact, many insurance companies that arose in America in the 20th century derived their plans from those first enumerated by fraternal benefit societies like the OCF. In fact, the Canadian branch of the OCF eventually developed into the Reliable Life Insurance Company, which still operates to this day.
For the American members of the OCF, however, problems arose almost immediately. In 1881, the Superintendent of Insurance in the state of New York attempted to rule the Order out of that state because of issues he had with their old age disability feature, going so far as to threaten with imprisonment any officer of the Order. The Order appealed this in the courts and eventually won. However, this friction resulted in New York State seceding from the Order to create its own version of the OCF, which they named the Order of United Friends. Shortly thereafter, the Order of Chosen Friends in California demanded that they have a separate jurisdiction, which the OCF denied. So, following New York’s lead, California seceded from the OCF and formed the Independent Order of Chosen Friends (IOCF) in 1882. A few more years later, in 1887, the Canadians broke off to form what would prove to be the longest-lasting version of the OCF: The Canadian Order of Chosen Friends.
But it would be the IOCF that would play an important, albeit short-lived, role in the lives of several dozen Lake County citizens in the early 1880s. The records, membership cards, handbooks and badges from these local lodges of the IOCF would eventually be deposited in a wooden chest, which has now made its way to the museum. In my next article I will present the information gathered from these records and present for the first time the history of this odd Lake County secret society.
Tony Pierucci is Curator of Lake County Museums
