America’s “Great Fraternal Movement” spawned regalia houses devoted to supplying the paraphernalia, equipment, and furnishings for fraternal orders. M.C. Lilley & Co. of Columbia, Ohio, was the largest such company in the world.

Photo: Knight Templar ceremonial sword created by M.C. Lilley & Co. from the Archives of the Supreme Council, 33°(Elizabeth A. Williams, The Scottish Rite Journal)

In the years from 1865 to 1918, a massive social phenomenon spread across the United States as millions of men joined thousands of lodges affiliated with hundreds of secret fraternal societies. It was termed “The Great Fraternal Movement.” At the moment of its greatest popularity, 1890 to 1915, one in every five American men belonged to one or more fraternal societies.1 Fraternalism dominated the social life of some twenty percent of men in this country! The societies influenced how members behaved, how they spent their time and money, and how they perceived themselves and were perceived by others.
At the height of America’s industrialization, in a nation that honored entrepreneurs, in an economic system committed to capitalism, private enterprise and free markets, the fraternal movement and American business formed a unique relationship. As the lodges required special products—publications, supplies, equipment, furnishings and regalia—a separate industry developed to meet the requirements of this niche market. The concerns of this specialized industry and those of the fraternal lodges intertwined. Each entity was dependent upon the other; their fortunes rose and fell together.

Founders of the M.C. Lilley & Co. (clockwise from top): Mitchell C. Lilley, John Siebert, Henry Lindenberg, and Charles H. Lindenberg(From The Masonic Chronicle, vol IX, no. 10, July 1890, p. 115

Origins of Regalia Houses
The two great firms that came to dominate the regalia industry, M.C. Lilley & Co. and Pettibone Brothers, both began as printing and bookbinding businesses. Both of these firms produced a variety of printed and bound paper products, including but not limited to ledger books, receipt books, membership cards, certificates, and various printed matter used by fraternal lodges. Mitchell Lilley was not a member of a fraternal order prior to the Civil War, but his partner William Siebert was active in a German-language Odd Fellows Lodge. Siebert’s relatives also were Odd Fellows, as were most of his close friends.
In the late 1850s Siebert’s nephew John Siebert, and his close friend and lodge brother Henry Lindenberg obtained equipment and began publishing a German-language fraternal tabloid newspaper, Der Odd Fellow. This venture was moderately successful, thanks in part to Henry Lindenberg’s salesmanship. Correspondence from later years suggests that early on Henry actively worked to build membership in the lodges and at the same time solicited subscriptions to his publication from the new initiates. Lindenberg’s activities at this time are the first evidence of a mutually beneficial relationship between a business and a fraternity.

Promoting Fraternalismfor Profit
Although the partners of the M.C. Lilley & Co. did not get rich that first year, the firm was solvent. The owners realized that fraternalism was on the rise, and they recognized it as a commercial market waiting to be tapped. The marketing techniques they developed with the Odd Fellows served as models, used later with other fraternal orders.

John Siebert and the Lindenbergs intended to make money from their business. And certainly, as the financial backer, Mitchell Lilley shared that goal. Perhaps with advice and guidance from their investing partner, and certainly with his approval, the fledgling publishing house soon added a new dimension to the business: brokering supplies to fraternal lodges. As this proved profitable, the company took a short but important step, moving from brokering supplies to manufacturing them in quantity as well. From this success, they took a bigger leap and began producing more than lodge supplies. They made and sold regalia. After five years, they were still publishing The Odd Fellow’s Companion, and they were making and selling supplies and regalia for other fraternal orders as well as for the Odd Fellows.

Editor Lindenberg and his partners understood that the expansion of fraternalism was a key to profits for the company. Through their magazine-format publication, they encouraged the creation of new subordinate lodges as a means of generating demand and creating market outlets for the firm’s products. Further, they used their personal ties to fraternal leadership to secure rights to supply the products to lodges in designated areas. The M.C. Lilley & Co. would continue this promotional strategy for the next forty-five years, and it would serve the business very well. Their competitors in the regalia business followed suit. The formula was successful.

Jas R. Carnahan, Major-General Commanding, Uniform Rank Knights of Pythias, showing off the splendid Knights of Pythias uniform. (John Van Valkenburg, The Knights of Pythias Complete Manual and Text-Book (Canton, Oh.: Memento Pub., 1885), facing p. 229.)

Fraternalism after 1860
For many young men who had gone to war and experienced the strong bonds of male sociability associated with military life, joining a fraternal order upon their return home was a means of continuing such associations. For those returning soldiers who had belonged to a fraternal society before the war, a return to the lodge was one means of re-establishing pre-Civil War social norms. In a society that was searching for order, fraternal organizations exuded order.

As men joined and lodges were constituted, lodge buildings popped up in every town and hamlet. Local chapters sought new members in order to form new lodges in sufficient numbers to constitute Grand and Supreme Lodges. In turn, to secure and enhance their own existence and importance, the Supreme and Grand Lodges urged the creation of more local lodges. In spite of the professed concern with selectivity of membership, the fraternal societies welcomed almost every man. Building membership was a prime objective of every fraternal society.

New lodges required furnishings, furniture, equipment and supplies. Each newly constituted lodge or chapter, and each new lodge hall represented a customer for the producers of publications, business forms, furnishings, supplies and ceremonial clothing and accessories. Moreover, to entice new members, the fraternal societies developed new rituals which required scripts, additional garments and accessories, stage props and scenery, robes and regalia.2 Someone had to design, manufacture, sell, and distribute those goods. By the 1870s, fraternal societies in America con-stituted a visible commercial market.

In 1865, Justus Henry Rathbone founded the Knights of Pythias with the intention of creating a militaristic fraternal society. This fraternity was wildly popular, and by 1870 the Knights of Pythias had thousands of members, owing primarily to its emphasis on militarism. The key element to this success was the intense desire on the part of the joiners to wear military-type uniforms, to carry ornate swords, and to parade publicly as a ceremonial military unit. Within thirty years it was the third largest fraternity in the United States.3

Engraving of the M.C. Lilley & Co. building, 1890

The Freemasons had a military branch in place for years, the Knights Templar, which had always used a distinctive, but relatively simple uniform that included a sword. By 1860, the uniform of an American Knight Templar was much more elaborate and militaristic with characteristics of both medieval chevaliers and European military officers.4 From the 1860s forward, the uniform of the American Knights Templar changed very little.

Not unmindful of the popularity of uniforms, other fraternal orders invented militaristic degrees, chapters, commanderies, and ranks. The fraternal orders both old and new recognized that a focus on militarism, with parades and uniforms would draw men to their organizations. Uniforms changed the appearance and extent of fraternalism in America.

By 1877, the manufacture and sale of fraternal military uniforms and regalia was the singular most profitable unit for The M.C. Lilley & Co. And profit they did! Even as the company moved into large-scale manufacturing, making and selling furniture along with regalia, they continued to publish fraternal literature. They used the publications to create markets for their products and to promote use of regalia.

In 1881, The M.C. Lilley & Co. began a new publication: The Masonic Chronicle. The format of this paper was identical to that of The Odd Fellows Companion, but the content—lodge news, calendars of events, etc. was aimed at Freemasons, and Knights Templars in particular. Some of the editorials and general treatises were the same for both papers. Undoubtedly, the business technique—using a publication to promote activities that required the purchase of goods from the publisher—was successful.

The July 1890 issue of The Masonic Chronicle celebrated M.C. Lilley & Co.’s twenty-five years in business. The issue listed the company’s sixty-four separate regalia catalogues for the year. Of these, fifty-five were for fraternal orders, four were for band and/or military uniforms, and five were for trade organizations. Evidence strongly suggests that the regalia houses, Pettibone Brothers and The M.C. Lilley & Co. in particular, influenced the regalia committees of the fraternal orders to require certain uniforms and regalia, and to approve basic uniform designs which were the same for multiple fraternal orders (to achieve economies of scale).

Product design was coordinated with marketing, so that the purchase of one M.C. Lilley & Co. item led to the purchase of another. The Sword Department fabricated ceremonial swords, while the leather goods operation made baldrics and scabbards to hold and carry those swords, and the uniform department inserted metal clasps into uniform coats to hold the sword belts. The suitcase department made carrying cases to fit the oddly shaped chapeaux; and they made compartmentalized trunks to hold sets of regalia. All M.C. Lilley accessories were made to be used with M.C. Lilley garments. This practice facilitated mass distribution of standardized goods, to reduce per unit cost to produce, sell and deliver; and to increase per unit profit on each item sold.

An advertisement for Lilley’s comical side, Sons of Osiris, used to promote sales of equipment required for the degree. Catalogue No. 143 Costumes, supplies and paraphernalia for the Ancient Order of Hibernians (Columbia, Oh.: n.d.).

Creative Fraternalism!
Even without its monthly publications, The M.C. Lilley & Co. actively promoted and encouraged the expansion of fraternalism, devising new degrees as a means of enlarging markets for the company’s clothing products. The inside back cover of Catalogue 143, Costumes, Supplies and Paraphernalia for the Ancient Order of Hibernians is a full-page advertisement (see below right) for a “Swift New Side Degree.” Along with a few sketches of men in costumes, the text says:

This is it . .Get It! The Sons of Osiris is a New Degree of initiation, with new features to interest lodge members, induce a larger attendance and make meetings more lively and interesting—A ritual that will put life into your lodge and attract new members.

The degree is offered in sets which include ritual scripts, and costumes for five named characters. Prices range from $3.75 for the least expensive set (without costumes) to $25.00 for the most expensive, which is described as “very complete.” The small print at the bottom of the page offers advice in securing funds to pay for the outfit. “Send in your Order. You can raise the necessary amount in five minutes by starting a collection among your friends. Try it, pass around the hat. The degree is all right and you’ll not be disappointed in anticipating a merry time in conferring the ceremony.”

The End of an Era
After the company ceased publication of its journals (which were less profitable than regalia), it targeted lodge officials and committees for advertising and promotional efforts. M.C. Lilley & Co. sponsored hospitality suites at Grand and Supreme Lodge conventions and handed out souvenir tokens at smaller gathering. But it no longer needed to promote its products or its name to the rank and file of the fraternities. Lodges knew that M.C. Lilley & Co. was the world’s largest manufacturer of fraternal regalia.

World War I signaled the end of the Great Fraternal Movement, and the popularity of fraternalism as a social form had diminished considerably by mid-twentieth century. With a waning customer base, regalia as a singular product line was no longer profitable. M.C. Lilley & Co. closed its doors in 1953. True to history, the fortunes of the regalia houses paralleled that of the organizations they served. The unique interrelationship between the regalia houses and the fraternities remained strong for some eighty years. That relationship, and that moment in time provides a fascinating chapter in the history of fraternalism and the history of American business.

Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from Dr. McBride’s article, “Business and the Brethren: The Influence of Regalia Houses on Fraternalism,” from Heredom, vol. 12 (2004), pp. 163–201.

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Endnotes

1. W. S. Harwood, “Fraternal societies in America,” The North American Review, vol. 64 (1897), p. 617.

2. Brockman, C. Lance, ed. Theatre of the Fraternity. Minneapolis: Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, 1996.

3. James R. Carnahan, Pythian Knighthood and its History and Literature (Cincinnati: Pettibone Bros. Mfg. Co., 1909), p. 218.

4. Carnahan, p. 114.