The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-07-15
RATHBoNE.

The order of Knights OF Pythias has
spread SO rapidly and grown to such pro-
portions that, though comparatively
youthful, it is beginning to look up It's MS
tory. There is now a movement on loot
among the members OF the order in the
East to take up a collection among the
lodges to establish a fund to place the
Founder" OF the order beyond reach OF
want in his declining years. Clarence NJ.
Barton, the associate Of Rathbene in the
founding of the order, writing in the Phila-
delphia News, says the movement ID not
meeting with great success. He gives an in
teresting sketch OF the life Of the founder.
Justus H. Rathbone, the founder of the
Order of Knights of Pythias, is a native Of
New York, and is about As years OF age
He has had q singular career. He is a son
OF a former judge of the Superior Court Of
New York, and belongs to the old and
wealthy Rathbone family in the n%eighbor.
hood of Albany. Previous to the war he
was, when quite a lad, attached to a negro
minstrel company. He is a good falsetto
singer and a fair musician, playing by ear
almost any instrument, from a violin to a
piano. While teaching school at Houghton,
Keweenaw county, Michigan, just before
the war, he is said to have written the nit
ual OF the Knights OF Pythias. When
the wal broke out he entered
the army as a hospital steward, and
was connected with some OF the hos
pitfalls near Germantown, where he became
a member of Mitchell Lodge of Masons and
of a tribe OF the Improved Order OF Red
Men. His first taste for secret societies
evidently induced him to try his hand at
founding one of a similar character wherein
his ritual could be used. He was in Wash
ington in 1863 and 1864, acting as private
secretary to Surgeon General Barnes OF the
army, and in February OF 1864 established
a lodge OF the new order, which was quickly
followed by the organization of five Others:
In course of time, however, Rathbone aban-
doned the order, previous to which all OF
the lodges had become extinct except
Franklin, No. 2, which was composed OF
hard listed mechanics, who kept it alive.
In 1867 some of the members n adher-
ents of the Mechanic Fire Company OF Phil
adelphia, were induced to organize a lodge,
one OF their number being a member OF the
surviving lodge in Washington. Excelsior
No. 1, was started, and from that day until
the present time the order has
marched sdeadily forward until there
is a Grand Lodge in every State
OF the Union, and nearly one thousand
subordinate lodges, with a membership OF
nearly half a million. There are lodges in
the Sandwich Islands, Germany, Mexico
and Canada. The establishment OF the
Philadelphia lodge saved the order from
becoming defunct. Having what is said to
be q really beautiful ritual, it took like
wildfire in Pennsylvania, and is stronger in
that State in membership and lodges than
nearly all the other jurisdictions combined.
In the meantime lin 1860 Rathbone had
been brought back TO the only lodge that
survived in Washington, and he remained
as a member for a lev years, when he re-
moved to Boston, and from there, in o
sequence OF chickering's and alleged %jealousies
in the order, he published a proclamation
in the daily newspapers OF Washington, dis.
solving his connection with the Knights o.
Pythias and promising to make public the
whole history of his connection with the
K. of p. and the S. P. K, another organi.
cation which he had founded. Rathbone
removed to Washington again from Boston
some ten years g and has resided there
ever since. He was reinstated and fully
recognized as the founder OF the order
officially by the Supreme Lodge, about six
or eight years ago, and given the honorary
title OF Founder"
RathbOne is an excellent interlocutor, OF
middle man, of q minstrel company, and
has written several laughakle musical bur
lesques, or extravaganzas, one OF which,
"Pocahontas in Black" had real merit and
quite a run. The idea that the Founder
is in want is ridiculous. He was for years
a clerk in the second auditors office of the
United States Treasury, and is now the
chief OF the colored troops division OF the
War Department. Rathbone is a genial
fellow, tall and portly, and weighs about
24O pounds. He holds the second highest
position in the Benevolent and Protective
Order OF Elks and is an excellent actor.
He has a charming wife and two children.
The scheme to raise a fund for him should
be pushed.