Knights of the Maccabees

 

ASTRA CASTRA NUMEN LUMEN

  The title and sub-title are mysterious (at least to me), but our subject today is a mundane one - Insurance. The KOTM was a fraternal organization and the motto translates as: "The Stars My Camp, The Deity My Light." The reason for this post is explained by the receipt pictured below. 

   One of my sisters found the receipt among the few belongings left behind by our grandfather. I was asked if I could have a look at it and determine the purpose for which the 70 cents were spent. It did not take me long to do so, not because I am a particularly good researcher, but because also on the receipt (but not shown above), is the Latin motto: Astra Castra Numen Lumen. I am even less good at languages, but if you simply google that phrase, you will be led directly to the KOTM.

   "So what?", you are thinking. Well, it is interesting, at least to the small number of remaining family members, (which is a larger number than the one that would be used to indicate the number reading this blog), that the receipt issued in Somerset County, Maryland in 1903, was for the purchase of insurance from the Knights of the Maccabees, which was founded in London, Ontario in 1878. London is the home of this blog. Small world, isn't it?

   It is slightly odd that my grandfather purchased insurance in 1903 in the town of Princess Anne, where I grew up, from a company in London, Ontario, where I now live. I did not know that and I did not know that fraternal organizations such as the KOTM offered sickness and death insurance, well before the 'real' insurance companies came into being. I also didn't know that such an exotically named organization started right here. 

Sources:

  If you are more interested than I, in insurance and local history, carry on. You can find these two books in Weldon Library at Western:

Historical Sketches of the Ancient and Modern Knights of the Maccabees ;with Biographical Sketches of some of the Principal Officers of the Order. -. Port Huron, Mich. : Huronia, 1889:.

History of the Maccabees, Ancient and Modern,Together with Extracts from Papers, Speeches and Poems regarding the Order 1881 to 1896. Port, Huron, Mich.: Riverside printing co., 1896.

There is little about the London origin and I will provide the text here:

1889 version - p.19

“In the year of 1878, a few gentlemen in the city of London, Ont., familiar with the history of our ancient namesakes, but lacking business qualifications so necessary to manage the affairs of as society like the K.O.T.M., conceived the idea of organizing a fraternal and beneficiary society, founded upon the noble traditions of that noble band of warriors who followed the fortunes of that valiant leader, Judas Maccabeus. A constitution was framed, rituals prepared and the new Order was born. It started out ostensibly to care for the widows and orphans of those who joined its ranks. It grew rapidly: in fact it grew too fast to be healthy. Inside of two years from its birth it had spread all through the provinces of Canada, reached over into several of the States in this country, and by the first of the year 1881, over 10,000 certificates had been issued, and Subordinate Tents sprang up everywhere like mushrooms.”

   Also, if you google KOTM and London you get this information which is taken from a book by Barbara Matthews - Whispering Mountains: A History of Lewis, New York:

“ The Knights of the Maccabees was the brain child of two enterprising Canadians: John R. Riel and W.H. Gloughton, who felt there was a need for at least one more fraternal organization. The name came from Judas Maccabee, who in the second century BC was a great leader. On August 7, 1878, the first tent was instituted in London, Ontario. They soon had a Maccabee temple in Port Huron, Michigan.” p.58 - no source is given. (I got this from google books).

   There is, of course, a Wikipedia entry and a member of the History Department at Western University wrote a book on the subject (although there is nothing much about the KOTM) - A Young Man's Benefit: The Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Sickness Insurance in the United States and Canada, 1860-1929, George Emery. 

"Friendly societies were the major source of sickness insurance in the United States and Canada before the great depression of the 1930s. Historically the chief cost of sickness had been loss of the family head's earnings, and the friendly society's sick benefit provided a partial re-placement for this lost income. Conditions have changed since the 1920s. The provision of healthcare for all family members, not loss of the family head's income, has become the chief cost of sickness."

The Bonus:
There is a Museum of Fezology.