The Cyclopaedia of Fraternities traces more than six hundred secret societies in the United States since 1797, of which more than three hundred and fifty survive, with a membership amounting to forty percent of the present male population of the country who are twenty-one years of age, in contrast with less than one-quarter of one percent of the adult male population who were members of secret fraternities one hundred years ago.
—Albert C. Stevens, The Cyclopaedia of Fraternities, 1899
IN THIS POPULOUS WORLD of secret societies, why the secrecy or the pretense of secrecy?
After all, the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite Temple—the self-proclaimed “Mother Supreme Council of the World”—claims that there are no real secrets at all and that the library at Washington, DC, headquarters is open to any non-Mason’s inspection. Scottish Rite members further insist that they are not really a “secret society,” but a “society with secrets.”
Though the authors of this book admittedly have trouble understanding this distinction, we also know that the secret rituals, such as pass grips and passwords, can be discovered with any simple Google search.
Perhaps the obsession with secrets within secret societies is an out-of-date and self-important throwback to a time when secret societies were considered a true threat to monarchies and the church. Maybe it’s all a misguided obsession, like an astronomer who turns around a telescope to search instead for insects in the backyard grass.
We believe that the true secret is found in the depth and breadth of fraternal organizations in the American landscape, so all-encompassing that they remain hidden in plain sight.
Drive into Anytown, USA. One finds a welcome sign and a billboard peppered with symbols of the brotherhoods: the Masonic Lodge, Odd Fellows, Knights of Columbus, Rotary, Lions Club, Order of the Eastern Star, Kiwanis, Eagles, Elks, Optimists, or Soroptimists. You might also see remnants of the Red Men, Woodmen of the World, Druids, or Knights of Pythias. It’s right there in plain sight and yet, like the ticking of an old clock, too obvious to even notice.
In America it is difficult to escape a connection to a fraternal Order. Practically every town and city has been built on a secret edifice.
The title of this excellent 1937 book is an obvious reference to the famous 1927 hit song “Fifty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong.”
One can jump in the pool of the Brotherhood in America from just about any point.
What about public buildings? Cornerstones have been laid with Masonic rituals, from government structures to public hospitals like Marshall Hospital in Placerville, California, a town that also carries a monument of the Order of the Druids in an old-town intersection, an imposing stone torch licking the sky.
Impressive temples exist in town after town, like the old Maccabees Temple in Port Huron, Michigan, the skyscraping Elks Tower in downtown Sacramento, California, or the House of the Temple in Washington, DC, which carries the remains of Confederate Brigadier General Albert Pike, hailed as a Masonic genius but less known for his battle on behalf of slavery and the white man.
Prince Hall lodges for black men balance the all-white character of the typical Masonic lodge membership in town, and while women have typically been segregated from such gatherings as well, they have their own auxiliary Orders, and can be seen charitably gift-wrapping at bookstores near Christmas time. Nationalistic or ethnic Orders still sport members in dwindling bastions of immigration, proud of their roots and heritage.
Across the United States, Mormon temples, carrying a trumpeting statue of the angel Moroni, claim to house the “original Freemasonry” and continue the rituals of necrobaptism—baptism of the dead—and “sealing” of husbands and wives, while upper stories of downtown buildings house meetings of Freemasons, Rebekahs, Daughters of the Nile, Knights Templars, Job’s Daughters meetings of girls and DeMolay gatherings of boys.
Public schools, like Gold Oak Elementary in the northern California foothills, sport a square and compass, the Masonic emblem, in front of the district office entrance. The street layout of Washington, DC, itself strangely resembles a square and compass from an aerial view, and while Masonic authors periodically downplay some of this as a coincidence, they also claim credit for other national Masonic symbols with great pride—such as the Masonic/Egyptian obelisk known as Washington’s Monument. Even death is not immune from a Masonic escort, as evidenced by the common sight of obelisks as Masonic grave markers and the occasional Masonic burial.
Shriners Hospitals for crippled children get periodic attention during parades where men in red fezzes, sometimes bottle in hand, honk at Shriner clowns in their tiny cars, all part of the fun and philanthropy associated with this fraternal Order given to Muslim symbolism and oaths paying homage to Allah. Such activities can be juxtaposed with the political activism of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, a Jewish lodge, or the pancake breakfasts of the Knights of Columbus, Catholic fraternal men who offer insurance discounts to the faithful in support of the Pope.
At the head of most villages, towns, and cities in America: the sign denoting the presence of many fraternal groups. Photo courtesy of Rob Matheny.
Two clubs, two balls, and the generative symbol.
In the fraternal town pool, a few breaststrokes bring one to local architecture, parades, education, government, city planning, weddings, breakfasts, religion, and even healthcare, connecting to brotherhoods that meet in secret but whose effects are as common as the All-Seeing Eye on the back of the U.S. dollar bill.
Or try sports. One might think a baseball game is as far from a secret society as one can imagine: an open-air, public event that admits anyone who has a ticket. But the Masonic origins of baseball are surprising and clear. Famous Freemasons have pitched the ball or swung the bat, from Grover Alexander to Ty Cobb, and the diamond itself bears the stamp of the Brotherhood.
As for golf, a report by Reuters sums it up: “Freemasons Invent Golf Club.”
The most explosive secret about Freemasonry and fraternal influence in America: it’s all over the place.
The terms of kinship are written on the gates which guard the mysteries of politics.... Of all terms of kinship, none has had so enduring an appeal, as so firm a place in political symbolism as fraternity. Fraternity is a cry that survives the ages.
—Wilson Carey McWilliams, The Idea of Fraternity in America
Scottish Rite 32nd Degree
DeMolay
Knights Templar cross
Very few among the six million members of nearly three hundred secret societies, fraternities, and sisterhoods in the United States are familiar with the origin, history, or function of these organizations.... Few who are well informed on the subject will deny that the Masonic Fraternity is directly or indirectly the parent organization of all modern secret societies, good, bad, and indifferent; but fewer still are able to explain why or how.
—Albert C. Stevens, The Cyclopaedia of Fraternities, 1899
THESE ARE the original or the oldest, spinning off the Mother of All Lodges, the Freemasons. Masonic bodies have traditionally initiated families into related Orders, even giving directions to the Man on how to run the house. Here we find Blue Lodge Masonry, the basic Craft on the corner in each town, delivering the three basic degrees up to Master Mason. We can also find the lodges of higher degrees, such as the York Rite and its Royal Arch, Cryptic Masonry, and Commanderies of Knights Templars; Allied Masonic Degrees and Masonic Rosicrucianism like the Rosicrucian Society of the United States, and the Knight Masons. Many of these Orders are also chivalrous, reveling in celebrations of military imagery. York-related groups also include the Red Cross of Constantine and the Holy Royal Arch Knights Templar Priests. The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite peaks at 33 degrees, with Grand Lodges of Perfection, Councils, Chapters, Consistories, and Supreme Councils, and also has spin-off, appendant Orders like the elite Knights of St. Andrew. There are also several auxiliary groups for women and Orders for children such as the Order of the Eastern Star, the Order of the Amaranth, the White Shrine of Jerusalem, the Social Order of Beauceant, the Daughters of the Nile, the Ladies of the Oriental Shrine, the Order of the Rainbow Girls, Job’s Daughters, and the Order of DeMolay (Bill Clinton was famously the senior-most member during his presidency). And we have barely begun.
We have barely scratched the surface regarding the types and names of the brotherhoods that have claimed the allegiance of millions of Americans over the past couple hundred years. Listing them alone would form an encyclopedia (and has); it will be better to introduce them to you by a sampling of names, grouped under some descriptive categories. We will only give the idea of the landscape.
And the list goes on. To give a random sample: the Ancient and Honorable Order of the Blue Goose, Ahvas Israel, the American Knights of Protection, the Ancient Order of Froth Blowers, the American Order of Owls, the Ancient Order of Sanhedrins, the Alliance of Transylvanian Saxons, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Benevolent Order of Monkeys, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen, the Catholic Association of Foresters, the Colored Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Honor, the Cold Water Army (a temperance group), the Daughters of Rebekah, the Knights of Pythias, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Fraternal Order of Beavers, the Girls of the Golden Court, the German Order of Harugari, the International Order of Hoo-Hoo, the Invincible Club, the Knights of the Mystic Chain, the Mystic Knights of the Blue Ox, the Maine Boys Sweet Corn Club, the Military Order of the Cootie, the Military Order of the Serpent, the New England Fat Men’s Club, the Order of Bugs, the Order of Good Times, the Order of Pink Goats, the Patriarchal Circle of America, the Pythian Sisters, the Protestant Knights of America, the Rite of St. Vitus, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Iron Brotherhood, the Patrons of Industry, the Sons of Norway, the Supreme Order of White Rabbits, the Theosophical Society, Ye Ancient Order of Corks, the Order of Mules, the Mafia, the Tramp “Fraternities,” the Molly Maguires.
Master Mason
Royal Arch Degree
THE ANCIENT ARABIC NOBLES of the Mystic Shrine, or Shriners, are famous both for partying (with an occasional scandal) and for helping crippled children. The Mystic Order of the Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, or (originally) the “Fairchild Deviltry Committee” and nicknamed the “Grotto,” claims four U.S. presidents as former members, dividing itself similarly in frivolity and charity. The Royal Order of Jesters has seen several scandalous headlines of late. The Tall Cedars of Lebanon, the Ancient Egyptian Order of Sciots, and the High Twelve (a lunch-hour group) also come under this general heading.
An array of Shriner fezzes and iconography
Mystic Order of Veiled Prophet parade announcement
Royal Order of Jesters patch icon
The Viking-looking icon of The Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm. To join one of its two hundred “Grottoes,” potential members must be Master Masons.
THE DAUGHTERS of the American Revolution typify the patriotic Order that serves to solidify Americanism. Others have included the American Protective Association, the American Patriotic League, the Knights of Reciprocity, the American Knights of Protection, and the Templars of Liberty. The John Birch Society is modeled in some respects on these Orders. The Fraternal Order of the Police boasts a membership of 325,000 cops. The National Sojourners is an Order of military Masons, which raises natural queries regarding the intersection of Freemasonry and potential consolidations of power. Surprisingly, it is very little discussed.
Who does your friendly neighborhood policeman answer to? The state, or his secret society?
National Sojourners
Fraternal Order of Police
Cracked glass negative of a Fraternal Order of Eagles gathering
IF FREEMASONS seemed top-heavy with white collars, the derivative Independent Order of Odd Fellows at one point outgrew them with blue-collar membership. Close alliances exist between organized labor and fraternal brotherhoods that assist their causes, from the Ancient Order of United Workmen, founded after the Civil War by a Freemason in Pennsylvania, to the Grange (for farmers). Life insurance was originally dominated by the Brotherhood, famously tied to the Woodmen of the World. Other Benevolent or Friendly Societies have included the Foresters of America, the Knights of Pythias, and the Ancient Essenic Order.
The first American lodge of Odd Fellows was established in Baltimore in 1819 by immigrants who were affiliated with the English governing lodge the Manchester Unity. James Ridgely, a nineteenth-century historian of the Order, described the American founders as men of “limited education, and in a humble sphere of life.” They usually met at night in taverns “of not the most select character” to drink beer, sing ribald songs, and take part in revelries that sometimes attracted the attention of the constables. “Spirituous liquors soon began to supplant the beer and what was comparatively an innocent indulgence became a serious and growing evil,” Ridgely added.
The early historians of the Order lionized one Augustus Mathiot, the only founder who shared their middle-class sensibilities.... In 1823 he applied to join the Freemasons but was rejected because he belonged to “that Bacchanalian Club of Odd Fellows.” Mortified, Mathiot labored for the rest of his life to persuade the Odd Fellows to adopt middle-class reforms, especially temperance...
Independent Order of Odd Fellows (FLT stands for Friendship, Love, Truth)
Modern Woodmen of America
Pre-insurance company optimist on the part of The Maccabees
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen
Modern Woodmen of America
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, International Brotherhood of [unknown], Foresters of America
THE PREOCCUPATION with the past did not lead to historical accuracy, and many of the depictions were patently ludicrous. The Pythians superimposed the imagery of medieval knights upon the Greek legend of Damon and Pythias. In the ritual of the Knightly Rank Pythagoras himself appeared before the armor-clad initiate....
Some ritualists frankly admitted that they cared little about historical authenticity. Mackey conceded that there was no evidence for the existence of the Secret Vault of Enoch, described in an important Masonic legend as a temple antedating Solomon’s by several millennia. He wrote, “Like every other myth and allegory of Masonry, the historical relation may be true or it may be false; it may be founded on fact or be the invention of imaginations; the lesson is still there, and the symbolism teaches it exclusive of the history.”
—Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America
NOT A FEW of the philippics directed against the Odd Fellows were in the form of sermons, denouncing them for the fast and frivolous life they led and essaying to “guard the young, the inexperienced, and the thoughtless against the lure of sinful doings.”…
The spread of life insurance can be traced directly to the fraternal benefit societies that arose during the last half of the nineteenth century. These societies—the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the various tribes of Woodmen and Foresters, Royal Arcanum, the Maccabees, and the like—not only started insurance for the ordinary man but are now among the strongest insurance bodies in America....
Unlike the Masons and the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias are indigenous. The Order was born in Washington, DC, at the height of the War Between the States. The claim is made that it was “of Divine Conception, for it sprang into existence the moment it was needed.” Tradition has it that the seven young men who set up the brotherhood in the midst of national fratricide were dragged before Lincoln as traitors.
—Fifty Million Brothers
Knights of Pythias
Modern Woodmen of America, Woodmen of the World
Fraternal Order of Eagles, National Association of Letter Carriers, Woodmen of the World
Foresters of America
General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
Ancient Order of Turtles, Salvation Army
BOTH ENDS of the bottle have had their Orders to support their causes. The Ancient Order of Turtles is a drinking club that began between World War II fighter pilots. After joining the Elks Club, one of the authors was told, “We’re like a church with a bar.” On the other hand, temperance Orders have existed as well, including the Templars of Honor and Temperance, the Independent Order of Rechabites, the Independent Order of Good Samaritans (African-American), and the Salvation Army.
PROHIBITION had a century for a prologue, in which white-ribboned followers of the gleam recited stirring pieces about Demon Rum, and men and women marched together in thousands of associations with belligerent mottoes and weekly powwows. It was a procession held in line by the silver strands of fellowship and oaths and lodge-like love. It was the spirit of the Elk and the Shriner distilled for a higher purpose that prepared the way for the 18th Amendment....
Later writers blush and report that in early societies, “the most deplorable apostasy was common in all quarters of the Union.” So much was this so that “the enemies of sobriety, when a man was seen more than ordinarily drunk, were wont to say, ‘There goes a member of the Temperance Society.’”
Royal Tribe of Joseph. Organized at Sedalia, Missouri, in 1894. Those eligible were “white men between twenty-one and sixty years of age, believers in a Supreme Being, not engaged in the manufacture of or traffick in alcoholic stimulants.” The ritual was based on the miraculous provision of bread in Egypt when there was no corn.
—Fifty Million Brothers
A brotherhood against tippling togetherness
Order of Stars & Bars
Polish Falcons of America, Totem of the Eagle (Red Men of America), Sons of Confederate Veterans
International Order of Red Men
National Slovak Society of America
Ku Klux Klan
THE MASONIC ROOTS of the Ku Klux Klan was a widely forgotten topic among Worshipful Masters of the Craft, but was undeniably present. In fact, many ethnic groups created Orders dedicated to their Norwegian or German or African or what-have-you roots—groups such as the Alliance of Poles. White men dominated the Masonic lodges, but black men imitated the scene with Prince Hall Masonry and even more creative versions, including the revisionist Fez promotion of Noble Drew Ali. Even a Redmen Order sprang up for white men to play at being Indians—with an exclusion of real Native Americans as part of the charter.
WITH ALL our moral ferocity, no reform among us has ever been able to command the sustained fellowship of white and black. In fact, questions of race have from the first embarrassed the pretensions of all the large brotherhoods. Odd Fellows, Masons, Knights of Pythias, and the Elks remain essentially Jim Crow. The Negroes, not content merely to be organized into bumfuzzling temperance bands, early put in a claim on these Orders, but with only slight satisfaction.
—Fifty Million Brothers
THE DRIVE for higher wisdom or simple protection of one’s faith has led groups to adopt Masonic structures, ranging from the Catholic Knights of Columbus to the Jewish B’nai B’rith. Ritual and sexual magic found havens in Brotherhoods with groups like the Golden Dawn and the Ordo Templi Orientis (Order of Oriental Templars of O.T.O.). The Assembly of Wicca was derived from Freemasonry in its structure, and even the Church of Satan had a structure of degrees.
Order of the Omah Language
Temple of Isis
Society of Eleusis
Brotherhood of the West Gate
Order of the Magi
Hermetic Brothers of Luxor
Order of the SSS and Brotherhood of ZZRRZZ
Order of the Sufi
Brotherhood of the New Life
Ancient Order of Osiris
Esoterists of the West
Rochester Brotherhood
Order of SEK
Fifth Order of Melchizedek and Egyptian Sphinx
Order of the White Shrine of Jerusalem
Genii of Nations, Knowledge, and Religions
Altruistic Order of Mysteries
—Mystical and Theosophical Societies from The Cyclopaedia of Fraternities
Knights Templar “In this Sign You Shall Conquer”
Methodist Youth Fellowship, Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), Pentecostal Young Peoples’ Association
Church of Satan, Knights of Columbus
Independent Order of B’nai B’rith, Rosicrucian Order ring
Rotary welcome
Optimists International, Soroptimist International, Rotary International, Kiwanis Club
Loyal Knights of the Round Table, Associated Advertising Clubs National Exchange Club
Fraternal Order Orioles, Lions International
THE ROTARY, Kiwanis, Lions, and the Optimists add a community-service touch to fraternalism. Professions have had their own Orders, and some have grown far beyond their original purpose, such as the Bohemian Club, originally for journalists, now a powerhouse of Presidents, Pentagon officials, and banking billionaires. Some elite groups, such as Yale’s Skull and Bones, have shown a clear ability to concentrate power, as in the 2000 election in which both Bush and Kerry were members.
Rotary was founded in 1905 by a lawyer who was lonesome in Chicago, and no one anywhere has been lonesome since.
—Fifty Million Brothers
TONGUE-IN-CHEEK ORDERS sported a bit of sadomasochistic humor, and that humor was acted upon widely among most Masonic Orders in initiating candidates. College fraternities and their pranks are fully derived from this source. Humor in the lodges also carried over racial themes, including support and guidance to the creation of minstrel shows.
THE CONCATENATED Order of Hoo-Hoo first showed its head at Gurdon, Arkansas, in 1892. Made up of lumbermen, newspapermen, railroad, and sawmill executives, it chose the black cat as its symbol, with a view to combating superstition and convention, and boasted of having nothing “that other Orders possess that can in any way be avoided.”
—Fifty Million Brothers
Advert for burlesque ritual routine as sold by Masonic book distributors
Proper humiliation was a big part of fraternal exercises.
Burlesques provided lodges a safe way for lodge members to laugh at themselves.
Hee Haw a century before its time
Order of the Owls, Ancient Order of Tramps
AMERICAN COLLEGE secret societies, better known as Greek-letter fraternities, have an indirect connection with the high grades of Freemasonry, which were elaborated in the eighteenth century, and in some instances a more direct inspiration from the parent secret society.
—Stevens, The Cyclopaedia of Fraternities
THE COLLEGE FRATERNITY has a scheme of ruthless mock initiations appropriately known as Hell Week. One dean tells of entertaining in his office three severely battered freshmen who got that way at the house of a national fraternity which had presumably discarded this sort of thing. The condition of the freshmen, quite apart from a prolonged absence from their classes, bordered on the critical. There are other atrocious incidents: of the young man who suffered blood poison[ing] from a fraternity branding; of another who had a nervous breakdown as the result of a mock trial for oath violation; of another who was shot in the leg by a farmer who took him for a marauder; of others jailed and fined.
—Fifty Million Brothers
WHILE ALMOST ALL sports are played on rectangular fields or rinks, baseball is played on a peculiarly shaped field that contains figures considered “sacred geometry” in Masonic teachings. The field bears an astonishing resemblance to the square and compass of Freemasonry. The field, from home plate to the left field and the right field walls forms a compass; the entire outfield wall is the semicircle that this compass draws. Upside down, overlapping this compass, the bases form the square. Thus, the baseball field is the emblem of Freemasonry.
This is what the Masonic Lodge of BC have to say about the compass and the square:
“The square and compasses are the oldest, simplest, and most universal symbols of Masonry. All the world over, whether as a sign on a building, or a badge worn by a Brother, even the profane know them to be emblems of our ancient Craft.”
The numerology aspect of baseball is something to look at closely because it relates directly to the sacred numbers. You will notice that almost all numbers related to baseball are multiples or divisors of nine:
three strikes / three outs
nine fielding positions / nine innings
twenty-seven outs per game
eighty-one home games
eighty-one games on the road
In Freemasonry, nine derives its value from its being the product of three multiplied into itself and, consequently, in Masonic language the number nine is always denoted by the expression three times three. For a similar reason, twenty-seven, which is three times nine, and eighty-one, which is nine times nine, are esteemed as sacred numbers in the advanced Degrees.
Famous Freemasons and baseball go hand in glove, so to speak. Rogers “The Rajah” Hornsby, an original member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, is listed on Masonic sites among the famous. The baseball stars are a Who’s Who of famed Freemasons: Grover Alexander, Ty Cobb, Carl Hubbell, Branch Rickey, Honus Wagner, and Cy Young, to name a few.
Cartwright’s Knickerbockers had to play someplace, and intriguingly, the “base ball” team found a “roomy spot called Elysian Fields” in Hoboken, New Jersey. Needless to say, “Elysian Fields” carries a significant name.
Among the Greeks, the Elysian Fields, or the Elysian Plains, was considered the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous. In Greek mythology, Elysium was a section of the Underworld (the spelling Elysium is a Latinization of the Greek word Elysion).
Elysium is an obscure and mysterious name that evolved from a designation of a place or person struck by lightning: enelysion, enelysios. This could be a reference to Zeus, the god of lightning, so “lightning-struck” could be saying that the person was blessed (struck) by Zeus (lightning).
Scholars have also suggested that Greek Elysion may instead derive from the Egyptian term ialu (older iaru), meaning “reeds,” with specific reference to the “Reed fields” (Egyptian: sekhet iaru/ialu), a paradisiacal land of plenty where the dead hoped to spend eternity. Today, Elysian Fields Quarterly—The Baseball Review is a popular magazine for the diehard baseball fan.
Babe Ruth gets barbered in his Omaha, Nebraska hotel room to play with the Woodmen of the World team in its hometown.
Barnstorming Shriner and Grotto baseball teams match up a professional baseball stadium.
The “big three” of Cleveland lead a contingent in the big Shriner’s Day Parade in Boston. They are Lawrence Gardner, Tris Speaker, and Leslie Nunamaker.
