Knights of Honor

The Knights of Honor (K. of H.) was a fraternal order and secret society in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Knights were one of the most successful fraternal beneficiary societies of its time.

The origin of the order goes back to disputes in the state of Kentucky among members of the Order of United American Mechanics and the Ancient Order of United Workmen in Kentucky in the early 1870s. Unlike most fraternal orders of its day, the Knights of Honor did not require prospective members to swear an oath in the initiation rite, but merely to promise to obey the rules of the order and "protect a worthy brother in his adversities and afflictions." The secrecy of the order was declared to be only that which was necessary to keep "intruders and unworthy men" from gaining benefits.

Membership was open all acceptable white men of good moral character, who believed in God, were of good bodily health and able to support themselves and their family. In 1875, the Supreme Lodge created a female auxiliary called the Degree of Protection open to the wives, mothers, sisters and unmarried daughters of the Knights, as well as males who were already members of the Knights of Honor. However in the years that followed only a few Lodges of this degree were created and in 1877 the Supreme Lodge abolished the degree. Thereafter, representatives of the degree met in Louisville and organized a new society, the Order of Mutual Protection of the Knights and Ladies of Honor, subsequently known as the Knights and Ladies of Honor.

The Knights were founded by an original group of 17 men in 1873 and increased to 99 by the end of the year. By the end of 1874 it had increased to 999 members. The group was hit hard by the yellow fever epidemic of 1875–1878. In 1878 alone, the order had to pay out $385,000 for death benefits for 193 members. Despite this, the Knights disbursed large sums of money to suffers of the yellow fever who were not members of the order. Over the next 18 years, the order steadily increased its membership, reaching 126,000 in 1895. That year, as stated, the group changed from the graded assessment program to a more actuarially sound one, causing costs to go up and membership began to decline. There were 96,000 members in 1897 and 90,335 in 1898.

In 1896 the Knights had thirty six Grand Lodges and 2,600 Subordinate Lodges with an average of fifty members each. By 1910, however, the number of Subordinate Lodges was down to 1,234. The national headquarters of the organization was in St. Louis, Missouri. Unfortunately, when the Knights changed to a more actuarially sound financial basis in 1895 membership declined as insurance began to cost more. The group disbanded in 1916.

Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA