 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(January 2024) |
The Catholic Order of Foresters are fraternal benefit societies in the United States.
| | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(January 2024) |
The Catholic Order of Foresters are fraternal benefit societies in the United States.
On 30 July 1879, some members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Boston, Massachusetts, most of them Irish immigrants, desiring to have a Catholic fraternal insurance society, organized one on the plan of the "courts" of the Independent Order of Foresters and called it the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters. Originally membership was confined to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, except in one instance, where a court was formed at Providence, Rhode Island. On 1 January 1909, the official report stated that there were 235 courts organized, with a membership of 27,757. Of the members 9679 were women. The insurance in force on 31 Dec., 1908, was $27,757,000.
On August 11, 1958 the Agreement of Association, Articles of Incorporation, Constitution and Bylaws of the Society were amended to change the name of the organization to Catholic Association of Foresters. It is headquartered in Braintree, Massachusetts.
On 24 May 1883, a number of Catholics of Chicago, Illinois, taking up the plan of this Massachusetts society, organized on the same lines the Catholic Order of Foresters of Illinois. A flat all-around death assessment of one dollar was adopted, and men of all ages were admitted to membership at the same rate. Later, when courts were established in a number of other States and in Canada, an international convention in 1895 adopted a graded system of assessment insurance. Catholics between eighteen and forty-five years of age were eligible for membership. The word Illinois in the original title of the organization was dropped in 1888, as the membership had then extended beyond the limits of that State.
From the date of organization to 1 June 1908, it paid out $10,639,936 for death claims, and $2,500,000 in funeral and sick benefits. It had in April, 1909, 1600 courts and a membership of 136,212 distributed over twenty-six States and the Dominion of Canada. The main offices were at Chicago, Illinois. The official organ, The Catholic Forester, was published at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This society was not affiliated with the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters.
It is headquartered in Naperville, Illinois.
A Women's Catholic Order of Foresters was organized in 1891 at Chicago, having for its object benevolent co-operation among Catholic women with assessment life-insurance at low rates. Women at that time were not allowed to vote or incorporate, so their articles of incorporation were signed by men. By 1909 it had a membership of 54,350, with courts scattered over many of the States. The main offices were at Chicago.
Membership was extended to men and boys in 1958, and at their Diamond Jubilee Convention in 1966, the Women's Catholic Order of Foresters became the National Catholic Society of Foresters (NCSF). In 2021 NCSF rebranded to 1891 Financial Life; reflecting the year of their formation and their fundamental purpose as an organization, continuing their commitment to membership to help financially protect families while enabling members to help their community. Their motto has not changed: Love Benevolence and Charity. It is presently headquartered in Mt. Prospect, Illinois.
The Independent Order of Foresters, operating as Foresters Financial, is a fraternal benefit society headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that provides life insurance and other financial solutions in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. As of 2022, Louis Gagnon has served as the company's president and CEO.
The Slovene National Benefit Society, known in Slovenian as Slovenska narodna podporna jednota, and by its Slovene initials S.N.P.J. is an ethnic fraternal benefit and social organization for Slovene immigrants and their descendants in the United States. Founded in 1904, it is headquartered in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA near Imperial. SNPJ publishes a newspaper, Prosveta.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen was a North American railroad fraternal benefit society and trade union in the 19th and 20th centuries. The organization began in 1873 as the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, a mutual benefit society for workers employed as firemen for steam locomotives, before expanding its name in 1907 in acknowledgement that many of its members had been promoted to the job of railroad engineer. Gradually taking on the functions of a trade union over time, in 1969 the B of LF&E merged with three other railway labor organizations to form the United Transportation Union.
A benefit society, fraternal benefit society, fraternal benefit order, friendly society, or mutual aid society is a society, an organization or a voluntary association formed to provide mutual aid, benefit, for instance insurance for relief from sundry difficulties. Such organizations may be formally organized with charters and established customs, or may arise ad hoc to meet unique needs of a particular time and place.
Sons of Norway, founded in 1895 as the Independent Order of the Sons of Norway, is a fraternal organization principally representing people of Norwegian heritage in the United States and Canada. The organization includes in its mission the promotion and preservation of the heritage and culture of Norway and other Nordic countries and to provide life insurance and other financial products to its members. The organization is classified as a non-profit 501(c)(8) fraternal beneficiary society.
The Order of Scottish Clans was a fraternal and benevolent society The dual purpose of the Order was to provide life and disability insurance to Scottish immigrants and their descendants, and also to preserve the culture and traditions of Scotland among Americans of Scottish ancestry.
The Polish National Alliance (PNA) is the largest and one of the oldest Polish fraternal organizations in the United States. The original goal was to mobilize support among Polish Americans for the liberation of Poland. For much of the 20th century, it was locked in battle with the rival organization Polish Roman Catholic Union of America.
Modern Woodmen of America (MWA) is one of the largest fraternal benefit societies in the United States, with more than 750,000 members. Total assets reached US$15.4 billion in 2016. Though it shares the same founder, it is not affiliated financially in any way with another, similarly-styled fraternal benefit society, WoodmenLife, and despite the name "Modern" is actually older than its counterpart.
Catholic Financial Life (CFL) is a Milwaukee-based life insurer and fraternal organization. It is one of the largest Catholic not-for-profit financial services organizations in the United States, second only to the Knights of Columbus. Fraternal benefits societies are nonprofit membership organizations that designate a portion of their income for charity.
A fraternity or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in the Western concept developed in the Christian context, notably with the religious orders in the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. The concept was eventually further extended with medieval confraternities and guilds. In the early modern era, these were followed by fraternal orders such as Freemasons and Odd Fellows, along with gentlemen's clubs, student fraternities, and fraternal service organizations. Members are occasionally referred to as a brother or – usually in a religious context – frater or friar.
The Ancient Order of United Workmen (AOUW) was a fraternal organization in the United States and Canada, providing mutual social and financial support after the American Civil War. It was the first of the "fraternal benefit societies", organizations that would offer insurance as well as sickness, accident, death and burial policies.
The American Fraternal Alliance (AFA) is an umbrella group of fraternal orders in the United States. It was founded as the National Fraternal Congress of America in 1913, in Chicago and adopted its current name in 2011.
The Degree of Honor Protective Association is a fraternal benefit society. It was originally organized as a female auxiliary to the Ancient Order of United Workmen, but split off in 1910 to become its own independent group. It merged with Catholic Financial Life in 2017.
The National Fraternal Society of the Deaf was an organization of deaf people in the United States and Canada modeled on ethnic fraternal orders that were popular at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The history of the Knights of Columbus begins with its founding in 1882 by Father Michael J. McGivney at St. Mary's Parish in New Haven, Connecticut. The Knights of Columbus was initially a mutual benefit society for a membership of practicing male Catholics. Today, it advocates for Catholic causes and provides a range of philanthropic and support services to Catholic institutions worldwide. It is also one of the world's largest insurance companies and operates the shrine to Pope John Paul II in Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth Flynn Rodgers was an Irish-born American labor leader. One of the first women to hold an office in the Knights of Labor, Rodgers fought for women's rights in the workplace while raising her ten children. She led a small group of women to organize the Working Women's Union in the 1870s, the first labor union for women in Chicago. In her later years, she helped found a fraternal life insurance organization, the Women's Catholic Order of Foresters, leading the organization for over fifteen years.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Meehan, Thomas (1909). "Catholic Orders of Foresters". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia . Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company.