Chosen Friends: Fraternity, Aid and Protection

Lapel pin for the Canadian Order of Chosen Friends. The initials F.A.P. in the centre of the ring were the Order’s motto of ‘Fraternity, Aid and Protection’.

The Canadian Order of Chosen Friends, for a modest monthly fee, offered death, disability and sick benefits to members at the turn of the last century.

The Chosen Friends was a unique benevolent organization with lodges spread across Huron County from Dashwood to Fordwich.

Their motto of “Fraternity, Aid and Protection” enjoyed wide appeal for people who wanted to help themselves and their neighbours in times of need.

The Chosen Friends was organized in Indianapolis, in 1879 and quickly spread through North America as a fraternal benefit society.

In an acrimonious split, the Canadian Order of Chosen Friends broke away from their parent organization over Canadian laws governing insurance benefits. After the American Order was ‘unfriended’.

A Grand Council of the Canadian Order of Chosen Friends was established in Hamilton in 1887. Provincial ‘grand organizers’ travelled far and wide to organize Chosen Friend Councils, or lodges, in every city, town and hamlet in the province.

Like the American Chosen Friends, the Canadian Order was a fraternal society like the Freemasons, Orange Order and Oddfellows with secret rituals. Yet, unlike other fraternal orders, the Chosen Friends accepted women as full members; no denominational requirements were required, and rituals were only to keep away fraudsters.

The Chosen Friends invited prospective members and the public to join them in picnics, entertainments and other social activities.

Locally, the Canadian Order of Chosen Friends formed its first Council in Exeter with 17 charter members on October 7, 1891. Meeting in the Exeter Oddfellows Hall, Exeter Council #94 branched out and formed lodges in Woodham, Elimville, and Cromarty that same year.

The Exeter Advocate announced the Chosen Friends’ arrival with the heading “A Great Society in Town”.

In an age when a wide array of fraternal groups competed for members, the Chosen Friends succeeded field in attracting a host of members. The Advocate noted that despite Exeter’s size, the village had “more Societies than probably any other town of its population.”

What attracted so many members to the Chosen Friends was that it was an insurance society that offered generous death, sick and disability benefits to its members at a relatively low cost.

An 18 to 30-year-old paid a monthly fee of .25c which guaranteed a pay out of up to $2,000 in case of death and sick benefits in case of disability or illness.

As one aged, the monthly fee increased until age 52 when the applicant was deemed too old to join. Paid up members who had joined before age 52 could continue to pay their dues and receive an annuity at age 65.

All that was required for membership was a physical exam by a local doctor appointed and paid for by the lodge. It is assumed that high risk health applicants were rejected for membership.

To retain members and attract new ones, Chosen Friends held several social events a year. The Elimville Lodge held an annual picnic in Grand Bend, which attracted hundreds of people.

In April 1892, the Exeter Council engaged the famed “Dramatic and Humorous Impersonator” Dr. W Meeke to an evening of entertainment in Drew’s Opera House. Annual church parades reported in the papers reinforced the Orders’ numerical strength.

The Order of Chosen Friends spread rapidly throughout the county and the province. In1894, the Clinton New Era reported that the Chosen Friends organized in Clinton “some two

years ago, it appeared to be growing in favour and popularity, as additions to its membership are

constantly being made”.

The Order, the paper noted, was “regarded as a cheap method of carrying life insurance”.

Indeed, so many joined the Clinton Council that separate councils were established in Porter’s Hill, Holmesville and, in 1915, Bayfield. By 1900, Chosen Friends’ Councils were established in Wingham, Seaforth, Brussels, Zurich, Centralia, Dungannon, Gorrie, Fordwich, Wroxeter and other places in the county.

Members enjoyed the social bonding. Friendly rivalries between lodges were reported in the local papers. The annual lawn bowling tournament between Porter’s Hill and neighbouring lodges seemed to be especially keen. Christmas time dinner parties at member’s homes attest to the on-going fraternal spirit of the Order.

Helping one’s neighbours was a major part of the organization’s creed. The Elimville Council were particularly active in helping members in distress. The Elimville Council even built its own brick hall in the 1890s.

Yet, the greatest appeal of Chosen Friends was its promptness in paying out claims.

Letters published in the local press attested to the Chosen Friends’reliability. One typical letter printed in the New Era, in April 1896, by Margaret Shannon, the widow of the late W. Shannon thanked Chosen Friends for the ‘promptness’ in handing her a cheque for $2,000 after only “15 days elapsed” since Mr. Shannon’s death (An average working man’s wage in 1900 was about $550).

At the Chosen Friends’ 1907 Grand Council meeting it was reported that the Order had “over 32,000” members. Almost 9,000 were dues paying women.

In 1915, dues increase because of greater member liability was instituted which decreased membership to under 20,000.

The Chosen Friends also honoured policies of members killed in the Great War. However, one distraught Wingham widow, Mrs. W. Darnell, was denied benefits because her husband was declared missing and not dead. It was a local outrage for the Wingham papers, but the local council explained that unless her husband declared officially dead, they held out hope that he was alive.

The dilemma was resolved when the Wingham Advance reported that readers “will be pleased to know that Mrs. Darnell received her insurance money as she is left the sole breadwinner of her family” and, further, Sgt. Darnell “must have been killed or Mrs. Darnell would have heard from him before this”.

To re-stoke the membership, Chosen Friends established a Child Insurance Department, in 1917.

It was not enough as membership, at least in Huron County, dropped dramatically at war’s end. The smaller communities could not support a local Chosen Friend Council with higher dues and decreased membership.

Trust in the Order’s ability to make payments seems to have waned during the war. One Brussels writer reported that members were told the Chosen Friends assets were as “impregnable as Gibraltar” but increasing membership fees cast the old assumptions into doubt.

Some idea of membership loss in Huron County is evidenced by the need to auction the Elimville Hall in 1926. The Elimville Council had long since been dormant. The building was sold and dismantled for its brick.

In 1943, the Canadian Order of Chosen Friends was purchased by Reliable Life Insurance Company, which it remains today.

In Huron County, the popularity of Chosen Friends for almost 30 years attests to the commitment that earlier generations had to the well-being of not only themselves but their neighbours and friends.