‘Father’ Upchurch
A Founding Myth and a Founder’s Cult in American Fraternalism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jrff.v3i1.33Keywords:
Fraternalism, benefit systems, leadership, invented tradition, visual pietyAbstract
The alleged role of J.J. Upchurch (1822-1887) in the creation of the Ancient Order of United Workmen as a successful fraternal order is a fine example of an invented tradition. A set of repetitive narrative, ritual and symbolical practices were constituted around his personality that were designed to promote fraternal values, to enhance group cohesion and to represent the order’s activities as continuous with a partly fictional past. While Upchurch was key to the start of the order, his fame as the creator of the order's mutual benefit system - its most notable feature - was a fiction. The growth of a cult around Upchurch resulted from a campaign by a leading Californian fraternity man with political ambitions. While the latter widely toured Upchurch as a fraternal icon through his State, it was Upchurch himself who proved to be instrumental in generating his own personality cult. This cult eventually found its way to the order’s narratives and “iconic practices”, generating a secular version of what David Morgan calls “visual piety”. The mythical Upchurch image became constitutive of the collective identity of the order, steered the collective memory regarding its foundational myth and helped to symbolize fraternal relationships of protection, charity and mutuality.
References
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Shutter, M.D. (ed.), History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest (Chicago & Minneapolis: S.J. Clarke Publishing, 1923).
Stevensm A.C. (ed.) Cyclopaedia of Fraternities (New York: E.B. Treat & Co., 1907).
Striner, R. Father Abraham Lincoln’s Relentless Struggle to End Slavery (Oxford: University Press, 2006).
Tobin, J.J. Investigation into the Plans and Practices of Co-operative Insurance Organizations, Chiefly those Known as Endowment Associations by the State Bureau of Labor Statistics (Sacramento, CA: State Office, 1889).
Williamson, G. Gleanings of Leisure Hours (Detroit, MI: International Publ. Co., 1894).
Wynne-Davies, M. (ed.), Dictionary of English Literature (London: Bloomsbury, 1997).
Yates, K.L. The Fogarty Years. A History of the AOUW (Seattle, WA: Evergreen, 1972).
Bates, J. History of the Bench and Bar of California (San Francisco, CA: Bench and Bar Publications, 1912).
Basye, W. History and Operation of Fraternal Insurance (Rochester, NY: Fraternal Monitor, 1918).
Beito, D. From Mutual Aid to Welfare State. Fraternal Societies and Social Services 1890–1967 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2000).
Blackman, J.L. Jr. ‘The Seizure of the Reading Railroad in 1864’. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 111 (1987), 49-60.
Brown, J. ‘“The Social and Sensational News of the Day”: Frank Leslie, The Days’ Doings, and Scandalous Pictorial News in Gilded Age New York’. New-York Journal of American History 66 (Fall 2003): 10-20.
Carnes, M.C. Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989).
Clark, P. British Clubs and Societies 1580–1800. The Origins of an Associational World (Oxford: University Press, 2000).
Clawson, M.A. Constructing Brotherhood: Class, Gender, and Fraternalism (Princeton, NJ: University Press, 1989).
Cordery, S. ‘Fraternal Orders in the United States: A Quest for Protection and Identity’. In Marcel van der Linden (ed.), Social Security Mutualism. The Comparative History of Mutual Benefit Societies (Bern: Lang, 1996), 83-110.
Dawson, M.M. ‘Assessment Life Insurance’. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 26 (July–December 1905), 120-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000271620502600209
Falk, P.H. (ed.), Who was Who in American Art, 1564–1975 (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999).
Harrison, T.G. The Career and Reminiscences of Amateur Journalist and History of Amateur Journalism (Indianapolis, IN: Harrison Publisher and Printer, 1883).
Hatch, F. Protecting President Lincoln. The Security Effort, the Thwarted Plots and the Disaster at Ford’s Theater (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2011).
Henisch H.K. and Bridget A. Henisch. The Photo¬graphic Experience 1839–1914. Images and Attitudes (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 1994).
History from 1852 to 2005 (San Francisco, CA: n.p., 2006).
History of Alameda County, California (Oakland, CA: M.W. Wood, 1883).
Eric Hobsbawm & Terence Ranger (eds), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: University Press, 1994).
Holzer, H. Washington and Lincoln Portrayed: National Icons in Popular Prints (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1993).
Holzer, H., Gabor S. Boritt & Marc E. Neely Jr. The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984).
Irvine, L.H. A History of the New California, Its Resources and People (New York & Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905).
Kaufman, J. For the Common Good? American Civic Life and the Golden Age of Fraternity (Oxford: University Press, 2002).
Kennedy, W.D. Pythian History. Containing the life, death and burial of the founder of the order, Justus H. Rathbone; the birth and progress of the order; the creation of the Supreme lodge and a review of its conventions since 1868 (Chicago, IL: Pythian History Publishing Company, 1904).
Lekisch, B. Embracing Scenes About Lakes Tahoe and Donner. Painters, Illustrators, and Sketch Artists, 1855–1915 (Lafayette, CA: Great West Books, 2003).
The Life, Labors and Travels of Father J. J. Upchurch, founder of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Written by himself. To which are added poems & eulogies by prominent members of the order. Revised and edited by Sam Booth, P.M.W. (San Francisco, CA: A. T. Dewey, 1887).
McWhirter, C. Battle Hymns. The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2012).
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Song Book for the Use of the Commandery of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Collins, 1883).
Miller, J. An Illustrated History of the State of Montana (Chicago, IL: Lewis Publishing Company, 1894).
Montgomery, D. Beyond Equality. Labor and the Radical Republicans 1862–1872 (New York: Knopf, 1967).
Morgan, D. Visual Piety. A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998).
Reps, J.W. Views and Viewmakers of Urban America: Lithographs of Towns and Cities in the United States and Canada, Notes on the Artists and Publishers, and a union catalog of their Work, 1825–1925 (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1984).
Ryan, M.P. Civic Wars. Democracy and Public Life in the American City during the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997).
Sackett, M.W. Early History of Fraternal Beneficiary Societies in America. Origin and Growth 1868–1880 (Meadville, PA: Tribune Publishing Co., 1914).
Samuels, P. and Harold Samuels. The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1976).
Shuck, O.T. (ed.), History of the Bench and Bar of California: Being Biographies of Many Remarkable Men, a Store of Humorous and Pathetic Recollections, Accounts of Important Legislation and Extraordinary Cases, Comprehending the Judicial History of the State (Los Angeles, CA: Commercial Printing House, 1901).
Shutter, M.D. (ed.), History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest (Chicago & Minneapolis: S.J. Clarke Publishing, 1923).
Stevensm A.C. (ed.) Cyclopaedia of Fraternities (New York: E.B. Treat & Co., 1907).
Striner, R. Father Abraham Lincoln’s Relentless Struggle to End Slavery (Oxford: University Press, 2006).
Tobin, J.J. Investigation into the Plans and Practices of Co-operative Insurance Organizations, Chiefly those Known as Endowment Associations by the State Bureau of Labor Statistics (Sacramento, CA: State Office, 1889).
Williamson, G. Gleanings of Leisure Hours (Detroit, MI: International Publ. Co., 1894).
Wynne-Davies, M. (ed.), Dictionary of English Literature (London: Bloomsbury, 1997).
Yates, K.L. The Fogarty Years. A History of the AOUW (Seattle, WA: Evergreen, 1972).
Published
2013-10-15
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Tyssens, J. (2013). ‘Father’ Upchurch: A Founding Myth and a Founder’s Cult in American Fraternalism. Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, 3(1), 33-59. https://doi.org/10.1558/jrff.v3i1.33
