Haymakers

Now that the excitement of RootsTech has died down a bit, and my life is slowly getting back to normal, I wanted to take some time to get back to my ongoing effort to understand fraternal societies and their role in genealogical research. In late 2013 and January of 2014, I focused more on the process of investigating my own family members and their involvement in these organizations. I did make some progress, but I also want to understand the scope and variety of the numerous other societies that existed (or exist, as some are still alive today).


My interest is focused primarily on those that were created and flourished in the United States, but I certainly am not intending to limit myself to just one country. In the coming posts, I hope to simply expose some of the more unheard of groups and do a bit of digging to see what I can come up with.

Today, I start with the Haymakers. 

This name has actually been associated with two organizations: the National Haymakers' Association and the Ancient and Honorable Order of Haymakers. 


According to Axelrod (1), the first was organized in 1879 as the friendship society of the Improved Order of Red Men. Although most likely defunct now, as late as 1980, they had 10,000 registered members, and was headquartered in Pennsylvania. It consisted of traditional fraternal icons, such as meeting places called Haylofts, and various officers. The titles these roles held are somewhat creative, with the secretary referred to as the Collector of Straws, and the treasurer known as the Keeper of Bundles.


The second organization was actually completely fictitious! Apparently stemming from a made-up example used in a speech by President Warren G. Harding, it was mistaken by some historians to be a reference to an actual organization. Now that is a piece of history to enjoy, and one for your next trivia game!


I made an attempt to locate a transcript of that speech, but was unable to do so. It was given on 5 June 1923, just two months before President Harding passed away. As a side note, during this effort, I did come across this website that includes the more significant speeches from all the U.S. Presidents, the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. This excerpt from the speech was located at: http://www.fbaptistc.org/warrengamalielharding.html:

"I wish somehow we could have fraternity among nations, as it is taught in America among men....the ideals of brotherhood recited in the Golden Rule, and the righteous fellow-relationship which every man knows his God approves."

There seems to be little online for further investigation into the National Hamakers' Association:

• Wikipedia
• Haymakers entry on the Phoenix Masonry Site (which is a great resource for numerous organizations)

Note that the Phoenix Masonry page has a "call to action," if you know more about this organization, there is an individual listed there who would like to talk to you. 

1) Alan Axelrod. The International Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders. Checkmark Books, New York, New York, 1997.

Fact, Fiction or Malarkey?

Conspiracy theories run rampant in fraternal societies and similar organizations. Hollywood loves them, fictional authors expand them, and there are certainly those that believe them to be 100% true. I am not here to say they are or they aren't, but I do want to follow the correct path of research, and for me, its important to weed out the ludicrous.

Cloister Conspiracy by Philip Jackson
Image: WikiMedia.org

I am way too much of a “common sense” type person to fall for the very outlandish. At some point over time, I guess much of the more radical stories and ideas that have been presented about fraternal organizations could have been truth, but I have a hard time believing that all individuals in a particular group participated and practiced every ritual and ceremony in exactly the same way. We are human, after all, and have a tendency to change things up a bit. (You’ll note I’m being fairly vague about the specifics. I will leave the process of finding these theories of conspiracy up to you, but you've probably heard them once or twice. A simple internet search will give you a very good idea of what I’m referring to here.)


It does seem appropriate in this endeavor to go straight to the source, and that is what I will continue to do as a researcher when investigating these organizations. They are, by nature, secret societies; some of the information they hold within their ranks, and is not to be shared. That is actually ok with me. I guess if I wanted to know every detail, I would have to join (but then I’d be sworn to secrecy too, and wouldn't be able to work on the organizations in the manner I have been…)  Admittedly, knowing it all would mean that some of the appeal would be lost.


Finding the information you need as a genealogy focused researcher is not difficult, but can be a bit time consuming (some of you have asked, and yes, I’m still waiting to hear back from the Shriner’s in Denver regarding my ancestor I inquired on). The social history aspect of the research can be done fairly efficiently, depending on how much you want to know. I have found a few sites that have proven to be very helpful, and have included a few of them here for you. Depending on which society you are investigating, you may or may not find similar resources.

• Three Minute Mason; Grand Lodge Free & Accepted Masons of Wisconsin, 2006 (http://www.wisc-freemasonry.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Three-Minute-Mason.pdf)
• Henry W. Coil Library & Museum of Freemasonry (http://www.masonicheritage.org/)
• Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences; Albert C. Mackey, M.D.. Made available on the Phoenix Masonry site: http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/mackeys_encyclopedia/s.htm

The Masonic Lodge, especially, as a whole seems to have recognized the need to “educate the masses,” and although some of the above list is really designed for current members, they can be helpful to the outsider as well. Other organizations may not have the operating expenses, personnel, volunteer base or other needed tools to share to this extent. When that is the case, consider turning to your local library for more.


I am lucky in that I am very close to the Denver Public Library and its Western History and Genealogy department. A quick search in that repository provides me with material from the Elks, the Slavic Fraternal Lodges of Crested Butte, I.O.O.F., Knights of Pythias, Templars, Masons, and more.


If you do not have a collection of this nature in your neighborhood, try reaching out to other facilities through WorldCat to see what might be available via inter-library loan. You just never know.



On the flip side, I do think it is also important to be aware of the fluff. You need to be able to readily identify the fiction from the facts, and that is why I make a point to read some of the more mainstream publications, over the academic ones. I recently picked up a copy of a book on Freemasons, even though I knew that the reviews of the text were essentially all negative. I need to be able to see the ridiculous - the malarkey - and this seems to be an easy way to keep on top of the latest theories and angles.