Junior Order of United American Mechanics, Council No. 63

Monticello Council No. 63
Junior Order of United American Mechanics

Monticello, New York

WAS IT EVER TIED TO CRAFT MASONRY?
- ONLY THE EMBLEMS SEEM SIMILAR -

By THOMAS RUE

In September 2002, I accidentally stumbled across an interesting color plate in a Holy Bible that had an unfortunate fall from a high cloak-room shelf in Monticello Lodge #532, F.&A.M. The large old volume had most likely been on the shelf for many years before being knocked to the floor by some workmen fixing the roof. Having served as both Secretary and Master of the Monticello lodge, I had noticed this massive leather-bound tome on the shelf before over the past decade, but had never climbed up to examine it.
The letters "J.O.U.A.M." were unknown to me, though the familiar Masonic square and compass with a bent arm holding a hammer as if to strike, where the letter "G" usually appears, aroused my curiosity. I placed the loose page in my notebook in order to scan it later. The plate has since been returned to its rightful place from whence it came on the shelf in the cloak-room.

A search of google.com turns up a few references to J.O.U.A.M. in the context of Freemasonry. A reading of this and other information turned up in this manner suggests that the two organizations were never connected and, according to Masonic writers, they bear few if any similarities in their fundamental purposes. "It is ironic that the U.A.M. and its progeny the J.U.A.M., should co-opt the square and compass since some of its tenets were inimical to those of Freemasonry which seeks the advancement of all mankind," says the author of the Fraternal History of Mill Valley California.
"The United American Mechanics more than any other imitator of Freemasonry's structure and symbolism sought to co-opt for itself the good-will and respect associated with Freemasonry by the square and compass emblem of Masonry," the same author explains.
"The Jr. O.U.A.M. irritated the Masons with their use of the Square and Compass and it said the Masons hauled them into court to try to get them to stop using it. This was obviously not successful as they are still using it today," adds David Lettelier of the Phoenixmasonry Masonic Museum.
The Junior Order of United American Mechanics, historians inform, was a "nativist" order organized with stated goals of protecting "American principles and American-born citizens; to uphold the Federal Constitution, the free, unsectarian common school and the reading of the Bible therein; and to furnish sick and funeral benefits to members"
Other sources dub the J.O.U.A.M. "anti-Catholic" and lump it with the Ku Klux Klan due to its radical "nativist" orientation (seemingly a euphemism for the racist exclusion of anyone but white American-born men.) One source claims that the K.K.K. and the J.O.U.A.M. once published a newsletter together called The Searchlight in the area of Atlanta, Georgia.
An article in the May 2002 issue of Christianity Today attributes the zeal with which the J.O.U.A.M. and K.K.K. advocated a rigid separation between church and state, far from being based in enlightened Jeffersonian liberalism, was rooted in a xenophobic fear of Catholics and foreigners -- which was evidently shared by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and perhaps others on the high court. The article describes a lawsuit filed by a member of the J.O.U.A.M. which resulting, in 1947, in the overturning of a New Jersey statute authorizing local school districts to make rules and contracts for the transportation of children in the community to Catholic parochial schools (Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township, 330 U.S. 1). Wolf reports:

"All these strands came together in the Everson case. Arch Everson, who brought the suit, was a member of an organization, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, that had its origins in 19th-century nativism; his lawyer, Albert McCay, had represented similar groups in earlier cases. More important, the author of the Court's majority decision, Hugo Black, had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan, the most notorious anti-Catholic organization in American history. Hence Black's invoking the ideal of separation of church and state serves to remind Hamburger of the more unsavory history of this particular doctrine. And it thus throws into question decisions by the Court since Everson that rely on the doctrine of separation of church and state to keep religion out of American public life.

Though the J.O.U.A.M. is not a Masonic organization by any stretch today, some evidence exists that there was a time when the two organizations were mutually supportive. The history of Hoffman Lodge #412, F.&A.M, of Middletown, New York (26 miles east of Monticello) reports that after a 1922 fire inflicted heavy damage on the Masonic Temple there, "[e]arly in December, the lodge accepted the hospitality of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics (J.O.U.A.M.) on Washington Street until the lodge could be rebuilt."
Over time, the original nativist mission of the J.O.U.A.M. has allegedly been modified in favor of more charitable aims. "It became an independent secret society by 1885 with its fundamental purpose directed at keeping undesirable foreigners out of the country," writes Joyce M. Tice in her description of commemorative flag-holders in Bradford, Chemung and Tioga counties of New York. "It considered German, Irish and Roman Catholic persons as among those undesirables and it concentrated its rituals on religious 'principals'... Over time, J.O.U.A.M. changed its ideology and requirements so that Jews, non-whites, and Roman Catholics could join, and women were also accepted as members. It is hard to understand why groups that were formerly targeted by this organization would want to join it," Tice concludes.

Hard indeed. It equally as hard to imagine what place, if any, such hateful ideas could have ever had in the beneficent Masonic fraternity with its immutable landmark that Masons meet together on the same Level, children of one G-d. Maybe the only similarity between the J.O.U.A.M. and the Freemasons was that they both held closed-door ceremonies for members only, and were viewed by the world as "secret societies". More than this, among the founders of the J.O.U.A.M. there may have been some individual Masons. I don't know this, but it would not be surprising. Yet it is startling to see the square and compass used by a non-Masonic organization. The following information is from the History of the J.O.U.A.M. by Deemer, Shanor, & Deily, published in Boston in 1896 by the Fraternal Publishing Co., as summarized and provided by Masonic researcher and writer R.W. Ronald M. Goldwyn of the Matinecock Masonic Historical Society:

The Order of United American Mechanics was organized on July 8th,1845 Chaired by Mr Luther Chapin as "The American Mechanics Union" whose objects were 1) To assist each other in obtaining employment; 2) To assist each other in business, by patronizing each other in preference to foreigners; 3) To assist the unfortunate in obtaining employment suitable to their affiction; 4) To established a cemetary for deceased members of the society; and 5) To establish a funeral fund. 6)For the establishment of a fund for the relief of widows and orphans of deceased members. In 1852 a group s in a PA council said to the State Secretary that a few young men wanted to form a "Junior Order". Thus on May 17th, 1853 at the Concord School house in Germantown PA the Washington Council No. 1 of the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics was instituted.
PREAMBLE We, the undersigned, Americans by birth, having viewed the disadvantages under which Americans labor from the effects of foreign competition and foreign combinations, not only by the different articles of foreign manufacture being imported into the several States of the Union, thereby depriving the mechanics of American birth from realizing that material benefit from their labors which they should ; but the present system of the importation, into this country, of paupers by the nations of the Old World has been, and is, carried to such an extent that, if some remedy is not very soon applied, the Americans by birth will become paupers themselves-and from past experience and present appearance of the future, instead of the evils abating, there is a certainty of their increasing ; therefore we feel ourselves bound, by the duties we owe our country and our countrymen, to provide for the protection of Americans, by forming ourselves into an association to advance such objects and carry out such principles as shall best promote the interests and shall secure the happiness of ourselves and our countrymen ; in addition to which is added the praiseworthy duty of aiding our brothers in distress. Therefore, for the purpose of advancing such objects and principles, we pledge ourselves, as Americans, to use every fair and honorable means consistent with our sacred duties, and, in accordance with the paternal voice of the Father of Our Country, Beware of foreign influence," agree to be governed by the following constitution. THE OBJECTS OF THE ORDER are set forth as follows: 1. To assist Americans in obtaining employment. 2. To encourage Americans in business. 3. To establish a sick and funeral fund. 4. To prepare the youth of America to become members of the Order of United American Mechanics, and other American orders, when they arrive at the proper age. 5. To use such means, when able, as will prevent the present system of emigration of foreign paupers to our land. They continued to grow in membership and councils, first in PA and then elsewhere. On Sept 30th, 1869 State delegates assembled to form a National Council. They were from PA, NJ,& DE. and continued to grow adding councils in many more states. In 1871 they had 124 councils with 8,317 members. Realize that there was the original Senior Order that took in the Jr. members when they reached the mandatory maximum age. That age was extended to 45 in 1881. In 1882, at the session held in NYC a proposal was made to change the groups name to the "American Legion", but it was soundly defeated. By 1886 they had 15,299 members in 171 councils and worth about $180,000 with two established funds - the Junior American Mechanic Funeral Benefit Association and the American Beneficial Association of the USA. In 1890 they had 893 councils and 81,780 members. Again the name change was put to a vote and again it lost by a vote of 1575 to 11,732. the following were also adopted. DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES

The National Council of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics in annual session assembled declare: That the constant landing upon our shores of the hordes of ignorant, vicious, and lawless criminals of the Old World should be viewed with alarm by the loyal and patriotic citizens of this country. We affirm a warm and hearty welcome to all immigrants who desire to better their condition and become a part and parcel of our nationality, but we have not one square inch of room for the Anarchist, the Socialist, or Nihilist. or for any one who is not willing to bow allegiance to that flag would give every assistance to protect all in the exercise of this liberty, but we object most strenuously to the interference of any church, no matter under what name it may exist, in the temporal affairs of this country, We believe that the Bible should be read in our Public Schools ; not to teach sectarianism, but to inculcate its teachings. It is the recognized standard of all moral and civil law : we therefore believe that our children should be educated in its teachings, but that no dogma or creed should be taught at the same time. We believe that patriotism and love of country should be instilled into the hearts of children, and that, with the sacred words of " Mother," " Home," and " Heaven," our children should be taught that our flag is the symbol of all that makes a " home " for us. We would place a flag upon every Public School in our land, and a Bible within; and the object lesson therein set forth should be a beacon light in every storm that threatens to engulf us.which is powerful enough to shield and protect them, as well as us, in the exercise of all civil and religious liberty. We affirm our devotion to the Public School System of this country. We believe in compulsory education, and that all teaching in our schools should be in the English language, to the end that future generations may be able to take their place in the ranks of our country's workers, educated in the history, the customs, and manners of Americans. We guarantee to every man the liberty of worshiping God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and in this noble and patriotic work we ask the cordial and hearty co-operation of all good citizens. In this grand work we need the helping hand of all organizations holding the same views and principles. We have no time for jealousies and bickering, but with a united front we should march forward, shoulder to shoulder, remembering that " United we stand, divided we fall." In the strictest sense we are a national political organization, but we oppose with unanimity the slightest taint of partisanship. "Our Country" is our motto, and we keep this motto steadily before us. We are cognizant that there are great and powerful enemies within our midst. requiring the strictest surveillance of all who are at heart, word, and in deed AMERICANS. We, as members of this Order, affirm our allegiance to the objects of the Order as paramount to any partisan affiliation, and urge upon the membership harmonious, united, and intelligent action in carrying out these principles. In 1894 they were up to 1980 councils with 153,268 members. They were the first organization in the USA to present flags to public schools starting on May 29, 1888 in Mt. Pleasant, PA. The first council in NY was Independent Council #1 instituted July 21,1870.
On October 12, 1868, "the State Councilor of Pennsylvania, Bro Jno. O. Montanye, submitted a design as a badge of the Order -- a shield, with arm and hammer, compass and square in the center; when it was resolved that the design submitted be made the badge of the Order." It was not until the National convention of 1892 held in Atlantic City NJ that National Secretary Deemer presented a new ritual which was adopted, the previous ritual was obtained by a contest with a $25 prize first used in PA. Then Bro D.A. Reese of PA transferred all rights to the Emblum manufactured by him to the National Council of the J.O.U.A.M.

R.W. Ronald Goldwyn explained separately from and in addition to the above: "As for your last few questions, Many fraternal qroups set up funeral societies, even the Masons. If a member died a postcard went out to each member saying that they owed the society $1 and thus the funeral and burial expenses would be paid to the members family. The Knights of Columbus started off this way and still offer insurance benefits. We don't, but we still maintain the home in Utica.
"It was not unusual for men to belong to more than one fraternal group. Most often you would find Masons and Odd-Fellow emblums on one piece of jewelry. Many a Jewish brother also belonged to Bnai-Brith, so your ideas could be correct. Down South the K.K.K. knew that they could trust a Mason who applied for membership.
"As of three years ago, if you travelled to the N.E. end of Long Island, to Greenport, Along one of the main streets in the business district just yards away from Preston's Chandlery you might still find a sign over a doorway showing that it is or was the meeting hall of the J.O.U.A.M.
"Finally, it was not by accident that I had this book, my collection has a few other histories of fraternities such as the Odd-Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. Yes, to the question -- is their a link to Masonic ritual and other fraternities. Most college greek letter fraternities including the oldest -- Phi Beta Kappa have used part of our ritual in their initiation ceremonies."

In July 2004, Mr. George Williams of Trona California e-mailed the above image of a medal in his possession, after reading this page, and pointed out a new website he found which explains the square and compass combined with an arm and hammer as the symbol of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. "The actual medal is 4" tall x 2 1/4" wide at the top and 2" at the bottom where the shield is mounted. On the back it is marked Whitehead & Hoag Co., Newark, N.J.," Mr. Williams noted.

Anyone with additional light to shed on the origins of the J.O.U.A.M., and particularly to explain the appropriation by that society of the Masonic square and compass as part of its emblem, is invited to e-mail the author of this page. As more more information is received on any historical connection that may ever have existed between Masonry and this nearly extinct order, this page will be updated and appropriate credit given for any new information. I remain, of course, most interested in correcting any errors or significant omissions that may appear above with respect to the impressions and conclusions drawn from the souces cited below concerning the character or fraternal nature of the J.O.U.A.M.

At the height of its popularity, the Junior Order had 200,000 members, dwarfing the high of 40,000 members for its former parent organization [the United American Mechanics]. The word "Junior" in the organization's name had no reference to the age of its members after 1885 and similarly, the word "Mechanic" had no relevance to the members' occupations. The Junior Order defined its objectives as promoting the interests of Americans by shielding them from the economically depressing effects of foreign competition, establishing a Sick and Funeral Fund and working to maintain the Public School System.
The J.O.U.A.M. had initiation and obligation procedures which, like other fraternal groups, were religiously oriented. Membership eligibility requirements changed over the years to include Jews, blacks, Roman Catholics, and women. The Junior Order's mission evolved into one of developing a legal reserve for life insurance benefits. This was due in part to the declining membership in the early twentieth century. Membership was divided into two categories: social members and those enrolled in the insurance program. By 1965 insurance memberships had dropped to 35,172 with 15,000, social members, and by 1979 the group boasted only 8,500 social members and about half as many insurance members.
JOUAM - Junior Order United American Mechanics, article by Paul M. Bessel on his personal website, which cites data from the University of Delaware Library, Special Collections Department. .

Several more radical groups such as the Junior Order of United American Mechanics (JOUAM) shared similar anti-Catholic and Nativist ideology as the Klan, and together they published a periodical known as The Searchlight.

The Invisible Empire, research paper by Rob Brand.

To protect American principles and American-born citizens; to uphold the Federal Constitution, the free, unsectarian common school and the reading of the Bible therein; and to furnish sick and funeral benefits to members, are fundamental objects of the order.

Winnacunnet Council, Junior Order of United American Mechanics, in The History of Hampton by Joseph Dow, on the website of the Lane Memorial Library, Hampton, New Hampshire.

The United American Mechanics more than any other imitator of Freemasonry's structure and symbolism sought to co-opt for itself the good-will and respect associated with Freemasonry by the square and compass emblem of Masonry.

The only feature distinguishing the United American Mechanic's emblem from that of Freemasonry was that the United American Mechanics placed a bent arm holding a hammer as if to strike within the square and compass. Freemasonry either places nothing inside the square and compass or it places the letter "G." It is ironic that the UAM and its progeny the JUAM, should co-opt the square and compass since some of its tenets were inimical to those of Freemasonry which seeks the advancement of all mankind.

Ancient Order of United Workmen (AOUW), on the website of Mill Valley Lodge #356, Mill Valley, California

By 1979, the Jr. OUAM had only about 8500 members. When the National Council Jr. OUAM made the decision to close the Lexington Home in 1939 - 40 the Junior Order members in the state of North Carolina called a special statewide meeting to discuss the closing. In a unanimous vote, the Junior Order members voted to take over the Home. The deed to the Home resides in the State Council Office on the campus of the Home. The North Carolina State Council of the Jr. OUAM is the owner of the Home. Since 1941 the North Carolina State Council of the Junior Order United American Mechanics has operated, and continues to this day, the Home (American Children's Home see their link at www.ach-nc.org). Over time, the Jr. OUAM opened its membership to Jews, blacks, Catholics, and women. The lady�s order of the Jr. OUAM is the Daughters of America.

Also founded in Philadelphia in 1845--and likely with similar objectives--was the Patriotic Order Sons of America. The POS of A claims to trace its lineage to the Sons of Liberty, a Revolutionary War Order founded in Boston. (The Improved Order of Red Men makes the same claim.) Like the Jr. OUAM, the POS of A is largely defunct. Concurrent with both these organizations was the founding of a terrorist organization named the Know-Nothing Party. It also directed its energies against immigrants and may well have been connected with one or both organizations. It has also been charged that the Jr. OUAM had links to the KKK in the 1920�s. There can be little doubt that it once shared the same philosophy.

Jr. OUAM pieces are much more common than the OUAM pieces (upper left). The OUAM piece shown is cheap stamped tin plate with poor quality enamel. The OUAM was clearly a working class fraternity. The Jr. OUAM irritated the Masons with their use of the Square and Compass and it said the Masons hauled them into court to try to get them to stop using it. This was obviously not successful as they are still using it today.
The Nativist Orders, by David Lettelier, on the website of Phoenixmasonry Masonic Museum

Only in the late 19th and early 20th century, according to Hamburger, can we begin to see the emergence of a secular ideal of separation of church and state. And even when it did come, the modern conception of separationism was not as enlightened as it claimed. For one thing, a surprising amount of anti-Catholicism persisted into the 20th century; Paul Blanshard's book American Freedom and Catholic Power, a liberal attack on the Church, appeared as late as 1948, the year after Everson. And liberals who urged separation between church and state had their own distinctive form of religious faith. They could be as censorious and intolerant as the most fanatical believers. They tried to substitute secular rituals for religious ones. They held fast to transcendental ideals of national purpose. "While hostile to Christianity and any other distinct religion," Hamburger writes, "the Liberals glowed with religious intensity."
All these strands came together in the Everson case. Arch Everson, who brought the suit, was a member of an organization, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, that had its origins in 19th-century nativism; his lawyer, Albert McCay, had represented similar groups in earlier cases. More important, the author of the Court's majority decision, Hugo Black, had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan, the most notorious anti-Catholic organization in American history. Hence Black's invoking the ideal of separation of church and state serves to remind Hamburger of the more unsavory history of this particular doctrine. And it thus throws into question decisions by the Court since Everson that rely on the doctrine of separation of church and state to keep religion out of American public life.
Why Separation of Church and State Is Still a Good Idea (even if it may not be what the Founders had in mind), by Alan Wolf in Christianity Today, May 2002.

The Jr, OAUM marker is fairly frequently found in this part of New York State. It was founded in Philadelphia in 1853 as a junior section of the Order of United American Mechanics. It became an independent secret society by 1885 with its fundamental purpose directed at keeping undesirable foreigners out of the country. It considered German, Irish and Roman Catholic persons as among those undesirables and it concentrated its rituals on religious "principals." At the point of its 1885 separation from the OUAM, the Jr. in its name no longer signified age and Mechanics had nothing to do with members' occupations.
Over time, JOUAM changed its ideology and requirements so that Jews, non-whites, and Roman Catholics could join, and women were also accepted as members. It is hard to understand why groups that were formerly targeted by this organization would want to join it.
Over more time it became primarily a legal reserve, fraternal life insurance society. It also eventually absorbed its parent UAM. In 1900 the order had 200,000 members and that was reduced to 8,500 by 1975.
Commemorative Flagholders & Plaques of Organizations & Military - Jr. Order of United American Mechanics, by Joyce M. Tice on her Tri-Counties Genealogy & History website for Bradford, Chemung and Tioga counties of New York.

A reply from the JOAM National Vice Councilor
From: Jim Wolfe (jim@uswolfe.com)
Reply-To: Jim Wolfe (jim@uswolfe.com>
To: Tom Rue (Tom@rue-usa.net)
Date: 12 Oct 2005 01:04:59 -0700
Subject: Your Webpage on the Junior Order
I read with great interest, and I was extremely enlightened by the presentation, which you presented on your webpage regarding the Juniors and the Masons. I must say that your writings are much more fair to the Juniors than most.

I am Past Master of a Masonic Lodge and I am the National Vice Councilor of the Junior Order U.A.M. so I feel capable of writing this essay. I am a third generation Junior Order member as well as Master Mason following in my Dad and Grandfather's shoes - both of whom are deceased now. I must add that I am writing this from a personal viewpoint.

Being a member of both organizations it is obvious to me that the Junior Order ritual and logo were generated by Junior Order members with an intricate knowledge of Masonry. There is no absolute proof of it, but it is evident if you know both rituals. If you are a Mason you will soon be able to read the Junior Order Ritual at our website and determine this for yourself. It is different, but it has a distinctive Masonic overtone.

At a recent national meeting, the Juniors voted to eliminate all "secrets" of the Order. We believe that secrecy may cause individuals to believe that we are doing something subversive, and we are not. We are Americans in the truest sense. We believe that full disclosure will open the Junior Order up to the world. We have nothing to hide and have had no secrets for a number of years. The only secret that Juniors have is the same secret that all Americans have, and that secret is how one may vote at the ballot box.

The Juniors have accepted the fact that the Supreme Councilor did not intend for all of us to be white or black or yellow or red, nor was it meant for all of us to be Protestant, Jewish, Catholic, Hindu, or Muslim. Any one of the aforementioned may join the Junior Order. That was not so when the Junior Order began.

There is a page on the early history of the Junior Order at our website. It was written from my own personal perspective. Links are provided below and you are encouraged to visit the site.
www.jrouam.org

and/or

www.jrouam.org/index .php?pr=History&=SID

Times were so much different in the 1840's and 1850's, and government was much smaller and less powerful than it is today. There were only 31 states in the Union and America was rapidly growing. Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pearce, and James Buchanan served as Presidents from 1837 to 1861.

There was great fear among Americans. It was a fear of the unknown, a fear that a foreigner was going to take your job by working for a few pennies a day less, and a great fear that America was going to be stolen from them. Protestants felt that they founded America, had written a Constitution based on principles taught in the Holy Bible, and therefore, America should be a "Protestant" run and governed country. According to today's standards this thinking is totally unacceptable, but it must have made sense to many Americans in 1844.

Thus, I believe that individuals who write history of our American ancestors and depict them as the worst kind of Americans without outlining the events of the time are doing a terrible injustice to our forefathers. We should have more respect for them than to paint them as criminals. Further, if the writer is a Mason or member of any organization of that period, or if your ancestors were members of one of those organizations, you are writing about them. Does that make what they believed and did were right? You will have to be the judge of that.

Juniors have been linked to Nativists by many writers. I believe that Junior Order members certainly held to many of those beliefs. They were constables, sheriffs, tailors, blacksmiths, pastors, clerks, and so on, but they were
Americans.

There are at least two implied links that you should consider. The first link is that of our forefathers. Many of them held these beliefs and they were supporters of a cause. The second is the link between Juniors, union workers, labor, churches, Masons, Redmen, and other fraternities or organized groups that feared change in America. As I have previously stated I believe that there is a link between most of these organizations and it is my belief that a small group of individuals with Masonic knowledge started the original Junior Order. If we had access to the ritual of the Union of Workers (assuming that there was one) or the original Order (Order United American Mechanics) we could determine with reasonable certainty whether they were created by Masons. I have never seen a
copy of their rituals if they exist.

I do not believe that Masons have been accused of being a Nativist organization, nor has the Methodist or Presbyterian Churches, but Nativist men and women were members of these congregations. Therefore, it is my contention that Americans were Nativists and not just one organization.

I believe in my Masonic Principles and the oath, which I took. I took a Junior Order oath, which I also hold firmly in my heart. I believe that these principles preclude me from incriminating my Masonic Brothers or others that may have helped shape America and allow me to be free today.

One documented Nativist organization was the "Know Nothings," and they had a specific platform. Millard Fillmore former President of the United States ran for President under the Know Nothing platform and party. I am not naive enough to believe that Juniors of that era were not Nativist, nor am I naive enough to think that other organizations did not believe in the same principles.

If this is true, then logic holds that it was Americans that were Nativists. It was a group of Americans who banded together to fight for what they believed was right for America. It was Americans that feared the Catholic Church. It was Americans that formed secret organizations. It was Americans that were members of the Union of Workers. It was Americans that were members of the Junior Order, and Masons, and Redmen, and other organizations.

So now you are asking, "What's the point?" My point is simple. Americans have a lot of baggage to carry - some good, some bad, but it's American baggage. Somehow we have historically attempted to make things right. Most of the time that is impossible. It is a heavy load. We have enslaved Americans, interned Japanese, taken land that belonged to the true native American people and placed them on reservations. It is a very heavy load.

I hope I can find ears that will listen. As a Mason, as a Junior, and more importantly as an American I believe that I have an important task, and I solicit assistance in spreading good news. Virtue, Liberty, and Patriotism are every bit as important as Friendship, Morality, and Brotherly Love.

I thank you for listening and I hope we have an opportunity to meet at some
point.

James A. Wolfe
Junior Order U.A.M.
National Vice Councilor
1501 Wellington Avenue
Wilmington, NC 28401

Bus 910-799-4490
Fax 815-377-3556

Email: jwolfe@jrouam.org

LODGE HISTORY

PAGE POSTED 11-16-2002
UPDATED 07-24-2004

	By THOMAS RUE
	In September 2002, I accidentally stumbled across an interesting color plate in a Holy Bible that had an unfortunate fall from a high cloak-room shelf in Monticello Lodge #532, F.&A.M. The large old volume had most likely been on the shelf for many years before being knocked to the floor by some workmen fixing the roof. Having served as both Secretary and Master of the Monticello lodge, I had noticed this massive leather-bound tome on the shelf before over the past decade, but had never climbed up to examine it. The letters "J.O.U.A.M." were unknown to me, though the familiar Masonic square and compass with a bent arm holding a hammer as if to strike, where the letter "G" usually appears, aroused my curiosity. I placed the loose page in my notebook in order to scan it later. The plate has since been returned to its rightful place from whence it came on the shelf in the cloak-room. A search of google.com turns up a few references to J.O.U.A.M. in the context of Freemasonry. A reading of this and other information turned up in this manner suggests that the two organizations were never connected and, according to Masonic writers, they bear few if any similarities in their fundamental purposes. "It is ironic that the U.A.M. and its progeny the J.U.A.M., should co-opt the square and compass since some of its tenets were inimical to those of Freemasonry which seeks the advancement of all mankind," says the author of the Fraternal History of Mill Valley California. "The United American Mechanics more than any other imitator of Freemasonry's structure and symbolism sought to co-opt for itself the good-will and respect associated with Freemasonry by the square and compass emblem of Masonry," the same author explains. "The Jr. O.U.A.M. irritated the Masons with their use of the Square and Compass and it said the Masons hauled them into court to try to get them to stop using it. This was obviously not successful as they are still using it today," adds David Lettelier of the Phoenixmasonry Masonic Museum. The Junior Order of United American Mechanics, historians inform, was a "nativist" order organized with stated goals of protecting "American principles and American-born citizens; to uphold the Federal Constitution, the free, unsectarian common school and the reading of the Bible therein; and to furnish sick and funeral benefits to members" Other sources dub the J.O.U.A.M. "anti-Catholic" and lump it with the Ku Klux Klan due to its radical "nativist" orientation (seemingly a euphemism for the racist exclusion of anyone but white American-born men.) One source claims that the K.K.K. and the J.O.U.A.M. once published a newsletter together called The Searchlight in the area of Atlanta, Georgia. An article in the May 2002 issue of Christianity Today attributes the zeal with which the J.O.U.A.M. and K.K.K. advocated a rigid separation between church and state, far from being based in enlightened Jeffersonian liberalism, was rooted in a xenophobic fear of Catholics and foreigners -- which was evidently shared by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and perhaps others on the high court. The article describes a lawsuit filed by a member of the J.O.U.A.M. which resulting, in 1947, in the overturning of a New Jersey statute authorizing local school districts to make rules and contracts for the transportation of children in the community to Catholic parochial schools (Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township, 330 U.S. 1). Wolf reports: "All these strands came together in the Everson case. Arch Everson, who brought the suit, was a member of an organization, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, that had its origins in 19th-century nativism; his lawyer, Albert McCay, had represented similar groups in earlier cases. More important, the author of the Court's majority decision, Hugo Black, had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan, the most notorious anti-Catholic organization in American history. Hence Black's invoking the ideal of separation of church and state serves to remind Hamburger of the more unsavory history of this particular doctrine. And it thus throws into question decisions by the Court since Everson that rely on the doctrine of separation of church and state to keep religion out of American public life. Though the J.O.U.A.M. is not a Masonic organization by any stretch today, some evidence exists that there was a time when the two organizations were mutually supportive. The history of Hoffman Lodge #412, F.&A.M, of Middletown, New York (26 miles east of Monticello) reports that after a 1922 fire inflicted heavy damage on the Masonic Temple there, "[e]arly in December, the lodge accepted the hospitality of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics (J.O.U.A.M.) on Washington Street until the lodge could be rebuilt." Over time, the original nativist mission of the J.O.U.A.M. has allegedly been modified in favor of more charitable aims. "It became an independent secret society by 1885 with its fundamental purpose directed at keeping undesirable foreigners out of the country," writes Joyce M. Tice in her description of commemorative flag-holders in Bradford, Chemung and Tioga counties of New York. "It considered German, Irish and Roman Catholic persons as among those undesirables and it concentrated its rituals on religious 'principals'... Over time, J.O.U.A.M. changed its ideology and requirements so that Jews, non-whites, and Roman Catholics could join, and women were also accepted as members. It is hard to understand why groups that were formerly targeted by this organization would want to join it," Tice concludes. Hard indeed. It equally as hard to imagine what place, if any, such hateful ideas could have ever had in the beneficent Masonic fraternity with its immutable landmark that Masons meet together on the same Level, children of one G-d. Maybe the only similarity between the J.O.U.A.M. and the Freemasons was that they both held closed-door ceremonies for members only, and were viewed by the world as "secret societies". More than this, among the founders of the J.O.U.A.M. there may have been some individual Masons. I don't know this, but it would not be surprising. Yet it is startling to see the square and compass used by a non-Masonic organization. The following information is from the History of the J.O.U.A.M. by Deemer, Shanor, & Deily, published in Boston in 1896 by the Fraternal Publishing Co., as summarized and provided by Masonic researcher and writer R.W. Ronald M. Goldwyn of the Matinecock Masonic Historical Society: The Order of United American Mechanics was organized on July 8th,1845 Chaired by Mr Luther Chapin as "The American Mechanics Union" whose objects were 1) To assist each other in obtaining employment; 2) To assist each other in business, by patronizing each other in preference to foreigners; 3) To assist the unfortunate in obtaining employment suitable to their affiction; 4) To established a cemetary for deceased members of the society; and 5) To establish a funeral fund. 6)For the establishment of a fund for the relief of widows and orphans of deceased members. In 1852 a group s in a PA council said to the State Secretary that a few young men wanted to form a "Junior Order". Thus on May 17th, 1853 at the Concord School house in Germantown PA the Washington Council No. 1 of the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics was instituted. PREAMBLE We, the undersigned, Americans by birth, having viewed the disadvantages under which Americans labor from the effects of foreign competition and foreign combinations, not only by the different articles of foreign manufacture being imported into the several States of the Union, thereby depriving the mechanics of American birth from realizing that material benefit from their labors which they should ; but the present system of the importation, into this country, of paupers by the nations of the Old World has been, and is, carried to such an extent that, if some remedy is not very soon applied, the Americans by birth will become paupers themselves-and from past experience and present appearance of the future, instead of the evils abating, there is a certainty of their increasing ; therefore we feel ourselves bound, by the duties we owe our country and our countrymen, to provide for the protection of Americans, by forming ourselves into an association to advance such objects and carry out such principles as shall best promote the interests and shall secure the happiness of ourselves and our countrymen ; in addition to which is added the praiseworthy duty of aiding our brothers in distress. Therefore, for the purpose of advancing such objects and principles, we pledge ourselves, as Americans, to use every fair and honorable means consistent with our sacred duties, and, in accordance with the paternal voice of the Father of Our Country, Beware of foreign influence," agree to be governed by the following constitution. THE OBJECTS OF THE ORDER are set forth as follows: 1. To assist Americans in obtaining employment. 2. To encourage Americans in business. 3. To establish a sick and funeral fund. 4. To prepare the youth of America to become members of the Order of United American Mechanics, and other American orders, when they arrive at the proper age. 5. To use such means, when able, as will prevent the present system of emigration of foreign paupers to our land. They continued to grow in membership and councils, first in PA and then elsewhere. On Sept 30th, 1869 State delegates assembled to form a National Council. They were from PA, NJ,& DE. and continued to grow adding councils in many more states. In 1871 they had 124 councils with 8,317 members. Realize that there was the original Senior Order that took in the Jr. members when they reached the mandatory maximum age. That age was extended to 45 in 1881. In 1882, at the session held in NYC a proposal was made to change the groups name to the "American Legion", but it was soundly defeated. By 1886 they had 15,299 members in 171 councils and worth about $180,000 with two established funds - the Junior American Mechanic Funeral Benefit Association and the American Beneficial Association of the USA. In 1890 they had 893 councils and 81,780 members. Again the name change was put to a vote and again it lost by a vote of 1575 to 11,732. the following were also adopted. DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES The National Council of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics in annual session assembled declare: That the constant landing upon our shores of the hordes of ignorant, vicious, and lawless criminals of the Old World should be viewed with alarm by the loyal and patriotic citizens of this country. We affirm a warm and hearty welcome to all immigrants who desire to better their condition and become a part and parcel of our nationality, but we have not one square inch of room for the Anarchist, the Socialist, or Nihilist. or for any one who is not willing to bow allegiance to that flag would give every assistance to protect all in the exercise of this liberty, but we object most strenuously to the interference of any church, no matter under what name it may exist, in the temporal affairs of this country, We believe that the Bible should be read in our Public Schools ; not to teach sectarianism, but to inculcate its teachings. It is the recognized standard of all moral and civil law : we therefore believe that our children should be educated in its teachings, but that no dogma or creed should be taught at the same time. We believe that patriotism and love of country should be instilled into the hearts of children, and that, with the sacred words of " Mother," " Home," and " Heaven," our children should be taught that our flag is the symbol of all that makes a " home " for us. We would place a flag upon every Public School in our land, and a Bible within; and the object lesson therein set forth should be a beacon light in every storm that threatens to engulf us.which is powerful enough to shield and protect them, as well as us, in the exercise of all civil and religious liberty. We affirm our devotion to the Public School System of this country. We believe in compulsory education, and that all teaching in our schools should be in the English language, to the end that future generations may be able to take their place in the ranks of our country's workers, educated in the history, the customs, and manners of Americans. We guarantee to every man the liberty of worshiping God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and in this noble and patriotic work we ask the cordial and hearty co-operation of all good citizens. In this grand work we need the helping hand of all organizations holding the same views and principles. We have no time for jealousies and bickering, but with a united front we should march forward, shoulder to shoulder, remembering that " United we stand, divided we fall." In the strictest sense we are a national political organization, but we oppose with unanimity the slightest taint of partisanship. "Our Country" is our motto, and we keep this motto steadily before us. We are cognizant that there are great and powerful enemies within our midst. requiring the strictest surveillance of all who are at heart, word, and in deed AMERICANS. We, as members of this Order, affirm our allegiance to the objects of the Order as paramount to any partisan affiliation, and urge upon the membership harmonious, united, and intelligent action in carrying out these principles. In 1894 they were up to 1980 councils with 153,268 members. They were the first organization in the USA to present flags to public schools starting on May 29, 1888 in Mt. Pleasant, PA. The first council in NY was Independent Council #1 instituted July 21,1870. On October 12, 1868, "the State Councilor of Pennsylvania, Bro Jno. O. Montanye, submitted a design as a badge of the Order -- a shield, with arm and hammer, compass and square in the center; when it was resolved that the design submitted be made the badge of the Order." It was not until the National convention of 1892 held in Atlantic City NJ that National Secretary Deemer presented a new ritual which was adopted, the previous ritual was obtained by a contest with a $25 prize first used in PA. Then Bro D.A. Reese of PA transferred all rights to the Emblum manufactured by him to the National Council of the J.O.U.A.M.
	R.W. Ronald Goldwyn explained separately from and in addition to the above: "As for your last few questions, Many fraternal qroups set up funeral societies, even the Masons. If a member died a postcard went out to each member saying that they owed the society $1 and thus the funeral and burial expenses would be paid to the members family. The Knights of Columbus started off this way and still offer insurance benefits. We don't, but we still maintain the home in Utica. "It was not unusual for men to belong to more than one fraternal group. Most often you would find Masons and Odd-Fellow emblums on one piece of jewelry. Many a Jewish brother also belonged to Bnai-Brith, so your ideas could be correct. Down South the K.K.K. knew that they could trust a Mason who applied for membership. "As of three years ago, if you travelled to the N.E. end of Long Island, to Greenport, Along one of the main streets in the business district just yards away from Preston's Chandlery you might still find a sign over a doorway showing that it is or was the meeting hall of the J.O.U.A.M. "Finally, it was not by accident that I had this book, my collection has a few other histories of fraternities such as the Odd-Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. Yes, to the question -- is their a link to Masonic ritual and other fraternities. Most college greek letter fraternities including the oldest -- Phi Beta Kappa have used part of our ritual in their initiation ceremonies."
		In July 2004, Mr. George Williams of Trona California e-mailed the above image of a medal in his possession, after reading this page, and pointed out a new website he found which explains the square and compass combined with an arm and hammer as the symbol of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. "The actual medal is 4" tall x 2 1/4" wide at the top and 2" at the bottom where the shield is mounted. On the back it is marked Whitehead & Hoag Co., Newark, N.J.," Mr. Williams noted.