Series II: Junior Order of United American Mechanics Records, 1912-1920

Extent:

0.2 cubic feet (1 box)

Scope and content:

Historical Information:The Junior Order of United American Mechanics was founded in 1853 as a fraternal and political secret society. The full title of the governing body was the National Council of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics of the United States of North America, Inc. Founded as the Union of Workers in Philadelphia in 1845 by a group of working men, their aims were to stop immigration, especially Catholic immigration, and to provide the usual mid-19th-century benefits of a sick fund and a funeral fund. Members were required to undertake efforts to publicize and campaign against the hiring of cheap foreign labor and to patronize only "American" businesses. It changed its name to the Order of United American Mechanics shortly after its foundation. Membership was open only to native-born white American men who professed belief in a supreme being, supported the separation of church and state, and were not engaged in the liquor trade. In 1853, the O.U.A.M. authorized a junior lodge, to be called the J.O.U.A.M. The J.O.U.A.M. soon outgrew the parent organization, which it absorbed some time after declaring its independence from them in 1885. Eventually the organization also admitted women in their own right, though there was also a short-lived women's auxiliary, which was founded in 1875. After the 1840s and 1850s, which were the high point of xenophobic nativist parties in the United States, the J.O.U.A.M. settled down more and more into a conventional fraternal benefit society. In addition to very modest fraternal benefits and dues, the J.O.U.A.M. also operated a legal reserve insurance department, which had been in operation since 1899.

Includes boxes containing material identified as organization records. These records may be flat filed or foldered but not fully processed.

Physical location:

Library of Virginia

Access and use

Contents