The Sons of Temperance was and is a brotherhood of men who promoted the
temperance movement
The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...
and mutual support. The group was founded in 1842 in New York City. It began spreading rapidly during the 1840s throughout the United States and parts of Canada.
United States and Canada
Membership
The organization originally had a highly restricted membership. In order to become a member (called a “brother“), a man had to be
nominated
A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example:
* to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs.
* ...
by an existing brother. Three other brothers would then investigate his life to determine if they thought he was worthy of membership. The Sons of Temperance required a two-dollar
initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation ...
fee, an amount equal to a week's wages of an ordinary worker. In addition, the weekly membership fee was six cents. It had secret rituals, signs, passwords, hand grips and
regalia
Regalia is a Latin plurale tantum word that has different definitions. In one rare definition, it refers to the exclusive privileges of a sovereign. The word originally referred to the elaborate formal dress and dress accessories of a sovereign ...
.
Currently, membership in the Sons of Temperance has three degrees, Love, Purity, and Fidelity.
Membership of women
Women were initially admitted only as guests.
For a while a
female auxiliary Fraternal orders often have "side degrees", auxiliaries or appendant (as opposed to primary). Some of these are created as female "sister organizations", youth organizations or side degrees proper which are organizations associated with or within t ...
, the Daughters of Temperance, were active. These were first created in the English chapters of the order after a public outcry against females meeting with males in secret lodges. Daughter of Temperance lodges were created that worked with, but were not governed by the Sons of Temperance. The idea soon crossed the Atlantic to North America. At the 22nd Annual Session held June 21, 1866 at Montreal, "ladies" were admitted to full membership.
Membership of Blacks
A proposal to form a separate division of black members was voted down in 1844.
In Ohio, the Grand Division admitted a black member in 1849, raising the issue of social equality.
In the years following the American
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, two Grand Divisions and a number of subordinate divisions were formed exclusively of "colored members."
By the early 1880s, "most" divisions initiated members with "no distinction on account of color."
Benefits of membership
![Sons of Temperance Fountain Philadelphia 1961](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Sons_of_Temperance_Fountain_Philadelphia_1961.jpg)
The constitution of the Sons of Temperance required the brotherhood to pay thirty dollars to cover the burial costs of any brother who died. In short, the organization acted as an insurance company. It required the payment of fifteen dollars for the funeral costs of a member's dead wife. A
bylaw
A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...
required fellow brothers to visit any sick brother at least once a day, and one of the orders of business at each meeting was to identify any brothers who were ill.
Growth of the organization
The organization had approximately 5000 chapters by the 1850s.
The chapter at
West Columbia, South Carolina
West Columbia, formerly Brookland, is a city and commuter town in the suburban eastern sections of Lexington County, South Carolina, Lexington County, South Carolina, United States. According to the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the popul ...
was housed in the
Mount Hebron Temperance Hall.
UK
The Order of the Sons of Temperance was introduced into the United Kingdom in 1849, the first division being formed in an area of Liverpool known as 'Old Gory'. By 1855, it was sufficiently widespread that a charter was granted by the parent body for the institution, on 6 April 1855, of the National Division of Great Britain and Ireland.
The Sons provided friendly society benefits, in place of the state welfare provisions which did not then exist. There was also a youth section called the Cadets of Temperance.
The main officers of each local Division were the W.P. and W.S. (Worthy Patriarch and Worthy Scribe), or Chair and Secretary. At Grand Divisional level, the main officers were the Grand Worthy Patriarch and the Grand Worthy Scribe; and at the National Division, as the national organisation was known, there were the Most Worthy Patriarch and the Most Worthy Scribe.
![LBG as GWP](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/LBG_as_GWP.jpg)
There were 135,742 UK members in 1926.
According to the 1928 Blue Book of rituals, the Worthy Patriarch told new members at initiation that 'While we rejoice at our own deliverance, let us remember that the world has claims upon us. Intemperance is peculiarly a social evil. We therefore resist its terrible power by a social and fraternal combination. We join hand in hand, and heart to heart in this Institution, to protect ourselves and meet a common foe with the victorious power of organisation'.
Under the revised 1979 Rules, the Platform of the Society included the wearing of Regalia by all officers while conducting business as ‘an essential matter to be enforced in all branches’.
The arcane ceremonies, the wearing of regalia, and the use of ritual, were modernised under the revised rules of 2000.
After 2012, the society ceased the provision of life insurance, savings plans, etc., but continued its social, fraternal and educational activities. The society was voluntarily dissolved in 2019.
As of 08/08/22, there is an archived copy of the 2015 UK Sons of Temperance website online here https://web.archive.org/web/20150223024735/http://sonsoftemperance.info/index.htm
Australia
The Order was established in the then colony of New South Wales by a Dr Hobbs, Baptist minister. In 1868, a National Division was established, with Bro George Lucas as first Most Worthy Patriarch (MWP). Over the years they agitated on issues around temperance, and set up a Friendly Society. The Friendly Society now appears to have ceased. At present they are concentrating on education and furthering the temperance cause. As a teetotal society they are continuing, and will be enhancing, their social, fraternal and educational activities.
A jubilee group portrait order of Sons of Temperance Corio branch (Geelong). The hall of the Sons of Temperance, with the date 1878, is in the background.
New Zealand
In
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
on 8 February 1871, W.D. McBride, Alexander Rennie, Thomas Sinclair, William Henderson, Robert Bacon, Henry Sears, and John Adams organised an inaugural meeting of the first Sons and Daughters of Temperance Lodge in New Zealand. The Australian chapter of the Sons of Temperance granted their charter. By the end of the year, they had recruited thirty new members. By 1887 a New Zealand Grand Division was established, granting a charter to a new lodge in Wellington.
A Lodge's main role was to provide for members in times of illness and death. There were separate funds to support widows and orphans, and a Lodge would pay for a member's funeral coffin, plot, and headstone.
See also
*
List of Temperance organizations
The Temperance and prohibition movement has taken many organizational forms, from fraternal orders to political parties to activist groups.
Activist groups
* American Temperance Society
* Anti-Saloon League, which was renamed as the American C ...
*
Templars of Honor and Temperance
References
External links
{{Commons category
Records of the Marshall Division No. 3 of the Sons of Temperance of the State of Virginia, Minute Book, 1844-1848At James Madison University's Special Collections.
Guide to the Records of the Sons of Temperance, Montauk Division,1836-1871
Sons of Temperance
Temperance organizations
Alcohol in the United States
Alcohol in Canada
Organizations established in 1842
1842 establishments in New York (state)
Fraternal orders