Wandering through cemeteries is a good way to discover fraternal organizations that you’ve never heard of before. Case in point: the Knights of the Maccabees.
This grave, located in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Peninsula, features what, at first glance, resembles a circus tent. However, this tent actually represents the Collier Tent of the Knights of the Maccabees, of which the deceased, Eugene Muar, was a member.
Who Were the Knights of the Maccabees?
Like similar fraternal organizations, such as the Woodmen of the World, the Knights of the Maccabees provided a way for members to have low-cost life insurance and death benefits. The organization started in London, Ontario in Canada, but wound up based in Michigan where a majority of their members lived.
The Knights of the Maccabees took a lot of their inspiration from the Jewish Maccabees in the Bible, and called their individual groups “Tents.” Each local Tent fell under a Great Camp that was made up of all of the members in a particular state. The main organization was called the Supreme Tent, and of course, all of the Great Camps were under its proverbial umbrella.
By the 1920s, the main organization had hundreds of thousands of associates with the Ladies Auxiliary alone coming in at 200,000 members.
Over the mid 20th Centery, the group faded away and ceased to really exist outside of Michigan. By 1962, it was just an insurance company. The Royal Insurance Group purchased this insurance portion of the Knights of the Maccabees in the 1990s. It’s currently owned by Swiss Re and part of the company’s Reassure America Life Insurance Company.
Similarities to the Masons
Like the Masons, members of the Knights of the Maccabees had different “degrees” that they had to earn. These include the Degree of Protection, the Degree of Loyalty, and the Degree of Friendship. All of these were believed to make members upstanding members of society and the organization.
Unlike Masonic and Oddfellow symbols, however, many of the symbols used by the Knights of the Maccabees vanished along with their members. You can, however, find the initials K.O.T.M. on gravestones, along with images of tents. Both can imply that the deceased was a member of the group.
And as for Eugene and Elva Muar? Both were members of the Knights of the Maccabees (Elva in the Ladies Auxiliary, of course) and worked as live-in managers of a cheese factory.
Sources
- Knights of the Maccabees
- The Knights of the Maccabees
- Knights of the Maccabees
- Eugene A. Muar: Find a Grave
- Newspapers.com
Leave a Reply