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Article contents
The Social Functions of Voluntary Associations in a Nineteenth-Century American Town*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 January 2016
Extract
Recent research in American urban history has given us a polarized view of the social order of nineteenth-century cities. At one extreme the studies of urban spatial and social mobility have revealed a restless shifting population of individuals moving through the city attached by little more than a brief term of employment. “American society…,” concluded one such mobility study, “was more like a procession than a stable social order. How did this social order cohere at all?” To a large extent the answer to this question has come from another body of studies which have reexamined a variety of institutions from police to public schools and found them to be part of a broad effort among Protestant middle-class leaders to bring control and order to this strange new urban world. The new research on mobility and social control has enlarged our understanding of American social history in many important ways, however, our emphasis on mobility and the mechanisms of coercive social control may obscure the social order that citizens of nineteenth-century communities defined for themselves.
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- Copyright © Social Science History Association 1977
Footnotes
*
The author wishes to thank the Vanderbilt University Research Council for its assistance in preparing this article for publication.
References
Notes
1 Thernstrom, Stephan and Knights, Peter R., “Men in Motion: Some Data and Speculations about Urban Population Mobility in Nineteenth-Century America,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, I (1970), 34Google Scholar. Thernstrom’s The Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970, Harvard Studies in Urban History (Cambridge, Mass., 1973), 220-61 summarized much of the recent literature on mobility.
2 Examples of recent research on social control are Rothman, David J., The Discovery of the Asylum: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic (Boston, 1971)Google Scholar; Katz, Michael, The Irony of Early School Reform: Educational Innovation in Mid-Nineteenth Century Massachusetts (Cambridge, Mass., 1968)Google Scholar; Lane, Roger, Policing the City: Boston, 1825-1885 (Cambridge, Mass., 1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Berthoff, Rowland T., An Unsettled People: Social Order and Disorder in American History (New York, 1971)Google Scholar applies a social breakdown-conservative reaction theory to nineteenth-century society at large.
3 Gist, Noel P., Secret Societies: A Cultural Study of Fraternalism in the United States (Columbia, Mo. 1940)Google Scholar; Schlesinger, Arthur M. Sr., “Biography of a Nation of Joiners,” American Historical Review, 50 (1944), 1–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Oscar, and Hardin, Mary, Dimensions of Liberty (Cambridge, Mass, 1961), 89–112Google Scholar; Berthoff, Unsettled People, 254-74, 444-54; Thernstrom, Stephan, Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth-Century City (Cambridge, Mass., 1964), 167–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Glazer, Walter, “Participation and Power: Voluntary Associations and the Functional Organization of Cincinnati in 1840,” Historical Methods Newsletter, 5 (1972), 151–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Blumin, Stuart M., The Urban Threshold: Growth and Change in a Nineteenth-Century American Community (Chicago, 1976), 150–79Google Scholar, all contribute important insights on the role of voluntary associations in American social development.
4 A good introduction to the social science literature on voluntary associations is: Sills, David L., “Voluntary Associations: Sociological Aspects,” in Sills, David L., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 16 (New York, 1968), 362–79Google Scholar; Michael Banton, “Voluntary Associations: Anthropological Aspects,” Ibid., 357-62, is also useful.
5 Wirth, Louis, “Urbanism as a Way of Life,” American Journal of Sociology, 44 (1938), 1–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tyler, Alice Felt, Freedom’s Ferment: Phases of American Social History to 1860 (Minneapolis, 1944).Google Scholar
6 Wiebe, Robert H., The Search for Order: 1877-1920. The Making of America (New York, 1967)Google Scholar, takes this organizational approach to progressive reform.
7 Heinl, Frank J., “Jacksonville and Morgan County: An Historical Review,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 18 (1925), 5–38Google Scholar (hereafter JISHS); Doyle, Don Harrison, “Chaos and Community in a Frontier Town: Jacksonville, Illinois, 1825-1860” (Ph. D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1973)Google Scholar. A revised and expanded version of this study is forthcoming from the University of Illinois Press, fall, 1978.
8 Persistence figures are based upon a study of the “non-dependent population” (all household or family heads, all gainfully employed, all other males twenty years or older) reprinted in the U.S. Census manuscripts, Morgan County, Illinois, 1850, 1860, 1870. This included some women, who are more difficult to trace, but male persistence alone was only slightly higher.
9 Berthoff, Unsettled People, 254-74, describes voluntary associations as part of a “conservative reaction” to nineteenth-century individualism and social disintegration. I believe they are better understood as instruments of modernization that served a variety of positive economic, social, and psychological functions.
10 Tocqueville, Alexis de, Democracy in America, 2 vols., ed., Bradley, Phillips (New York, Vintage paperback, 1945), 2:114.Google Scholar
11 Without complete membership lists for all associations there is no way to determine accurately the level of participation in the community. The estimate is based upon the number of known associations multiplied by an estimated average membership of thirty. Even contemporary inquiries on this matter were frustrated by the imcomplete records and high turnover of members and associations. One local historian estimated over one hundred voluntary associations had been organized in Jacksonville; “some of these societies had a brief existence, owing to the somewhat transient character of the residents … and the mortality that affects all human organization.” William Short, ed., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois … Morgan County (Chicago, 1906), 738.
12 Social data from the census manuscript on members of the Odd Fellows Illini Lodge, for example, conforms in most respects to the profile of the leaders. “IOOF Illini Lodge No. 4, Record Book, 1847-1851,” IOOF Temple No. 4, Jacksonville, Illinois.
13 Records, City of Jacksonville, 1834-44; 1840-55; 1855-66; 1867-76,” 4 vols., City Clerk’s Vault, Municipal Building, Jacksonville, Illinois.
14 For example, the report on the Tract Society of Morgan County listed no fewer than twenty officers and participants, Western Observer (Jacksonville), June 12, 1830.
15 Williams, C. S., comp., Williams’ Jacksonville Directory and Business Mirror for 1860-61… (Jacksonville, 1860)Google Scholar; Nixon, W. A., comp., Jacksonville Directory for 1868-69… (Jacksonville, 1868)Google Scholar; Holland’s Jacksonville City Directory for 1871-72… (Chicago, 1871).
16 Racial, ethnic, and sexual boundaries were all reinforced by voluntary associations in Jacksonville, but the associational impulse reached all parts of the community to some degree. Many of the generalizations made in this essay apply to the voluntary associations of minorities and women, but space does not allow the special consideration they deserve.
17 For example, at least fourteen of the fifty-four members and initiates of the Masonic Harmony Lodge in 1852 were also active members of the Odd Fellows Illini Lodge. Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Illinois … 1852 (Peoria, 1852), 58; “IOOF Illini Lodge No. 4, Record Book, 1847-1851.”
18 Doyle, “Chaos and Community,” 280-313, 346-352. Brown, Richard D., “The Emergence of Urban Society in Rural Massachusetts, 1760-1820,” Journal of American History 61 (1974), 29–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I am presently embarking on a study of voluntary associations and kinship in nineteenth-century southern cities.
19 The membership of the Odd Fellows Illini Lodge, for example, included one born in New England, thirteen from Middle Atlantic states, seven from the Southeast, seventeen from southern states west of the Appalachians, seven from the Midwest, and five who were foreign born. IOOF Illini Lodge No. 4, Record Book, 1847-1851.
20 Data on church membership are scattered and incomplete, but the religious affiliations of more than one-half of the leaders has been determined, and the pattern of integration among Protestant denominations, and congregations within denominations, appears to have been prevalent. Lodges like the Odd Fellows and Masons were proud of their ecumenical character. Among their members the Masonic Harmony Lodge could claim strong representation from Episcopalians, Christians, Methodists, Old School Presbyterians, and a few Congregationalists, New School Presbyterians, and Baptists. Heinl, Frank J., Harmony Lodge, No. 3, A. F. and A. Masons, Centennial Commemorations … (Jacksonville, 1937), 7.Google Scholar
21 Ibid., 1-2, 6. Partial data on party affiliation can be gleaned from newspaper accounts of party candidates, delegations, and rallies. Also useful were “Poll Books, Morgan County, Jacksonville Precincts, No. 1, No. 2, Presidential Election, 1848,” Illinois State Archives, microfilm copy. Much of the social science literature on voluntary associations stresses their integrative functions. Coleman, James S., Community Conflict (Glencoe, Ill., 1957), 22–23Google Scholar, argues interlocking memberships are an important antidote to social conflict. Two useful studies of the problem of social integration in new towns are: Gans, Herbert, The Levittoumers: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community (New York, 1967)Google Scholar, and Form, William H., “Status Stratification in a Planned Community,” American Sociological Review, 10 (1945), 605–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Glaser, William A. and Sills, David L., eds., The Government of Associations: Selections from the Behavioral Sciences (Totowa, N.J., 1966), 63–67Google Scholar.
22 Illinois Statesman (Jacksonville), March 18, 1844.
23 Speech by B. F. Bristow, reprinted in Journal (Jacksonville), February 23, 1865.
24 Rev. Court, Alexander Van, An Address Delivered Before the Members of the Illini Lodge No. 4, IOOF (Jacksonville, 1848), 7.Google Scholar
25 Illinois Sentinel (Jacksonville), June 2, 1865.
26 Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1:199.
27 Daily Journal (Jacksonville), April 27, 1866.
28 Moore, Ensley, “The Club,” JISHS, 18 (1925), 201–4Google Scholar; “Minutes of the Club, 1861-1883,” Illinois History Collection, Tanner Library, Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois; Wood, William Dustin, “The Literary Union,” JISHS, 18 (1925), 205–8Google Scholar; Anderson, Paul Russell, “Hiram K. Jones and Philosophy in Jacksonville,” Ibid., 33 (1940), 478–520.Google Scholar
20 U.S. Census mss., Morgan County, Illinois, 1850, 1860, 1870, National Archives, microfilm copy.
30 Derived from “IOOF Illinois Lodge No. 4, Record Book, 1851-74,” and U.S. Census mss. Morgan County, Illinois, 1850, 1860.
31 Newspaper advertisements and business guides in the city directories (see n. 15) give the most vivid picture of business organization and practices in Jacksonville. See also U.S. Census Office, 8th Census, 1860, Manufactures of the United States in 1860… (Washington, 1865), 100. A total of 111 manufacturing establishments had less than $300,000 in invested capital, and employed 294 men. By 1870 there were 127 manufacturing establishments, with over $866,000 in capital investments, and 636 employees. Walker, Francis A., comp., A Compendium of the Ninth Census, 1870 (Washington, 1872), 819.Google Scholar
32 Atherton, Lewis A., The Frontier Merchant in Mid-America (1939; rpt. Columbia, Mo., 1971), 142–53Google Scholar, et passim.
33 Mackey, Albert G., A Lexicon of Free Masonry …, 5th ed., (Philadelphia, 1866), 234.Google Scholar
34 Masons and Odd Fellows recorded the names of all those expelled or suspended from the lodge along with the reasons for dismissal. Most involved failure to pay dues or attend meetings, but among a variety of moral offences there were cases of expulsion for fraud, breach of contract, or some other violation of business ethics. See the annual Grand Lodge reports: Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Illinois…; Journal of the Right Worthy Grand Lodge of the State of Illinois Independent Order of Odd Fellows…; both in the Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Illinois.
35 R. G. Dun & Co., Credit Ledgers, Morgan County, Illinois, 3 vols., Dun & Bradstreet Collection, Baker Library, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, microfilm copy. My thanks to Dun & Bradstreet and to Robert Lovett of the Baker Library for allowing these records to be microfilmed. See also, Madison, James H., “The Credit Reports of R. G. Dun & Co. as Historical Sources,” Historical Methods Newsletter, 8 (1975), 128–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36 R. G. Dun & Co., Credit Ledgers; Gusfield, Joseph R., Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement (Urbana, 1963).Google Scholar
37 For example, R. G. Dun & Co., Credit Ledgers, “J.H.B.” 1:295.
38 See Grosh, Aaron B., The Odd Fellows Manual… (Philadelphia, 1853), 337–38Google Scholar for model forms for visiting members, transfer of membership, and visiting wives or widows of members.
39 Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of… Masons… 1852, 58; Ibid., 1860, 76; Journal, … IOOF…. 1854, 90; U.S. Census mss., Morgan County, 1850, 1860, 1870.
40 Similar data on all members in the Illini Lodge did not differ from the leaders; three in four were between twenty-five and forty years old, three in four were married, two in three had children, and the fathers averaged three children each. “IOOF Illini Record Book, 1847-51,” and U.S. Census mss., Morgan County, 1850. The correlations between family status and participation in voluntary associations have been well established by contemporary studies in the social sciences. See Wright, Charles R. and Hyman, Herbert H., “Voluntary Association Membership of American Adults: Evidence from National Surveys,” American Sociological Review, 23 (1958), 284–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Glaser and Sills, eds., Government of Associations as “Who Belongs to Voluntary Associations,” 31-37; Bell, Wendell and Force, Maryanne T., “Urban Neighborhood Types and Participation in Formal Associations,” American Sociological Review, 21 (1956), 25–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Glaser and Sills, eds., Government of Associations, as “The Influence of the Neighborhood,” 45-51.
41 Journal (Jacksonville), February 23, 1865.
42 Illinois Sentinel (Jacksonville), April 12, 1861; January 24, 1864, are two typical examples of resolutions of bereavement by the Odd Fellows and Masons. The analogy of the family was used often in many of the fraternal societies. See, for example, Grosh, Odd Fellows Manual, 59, 64.
43 Aries, Phillipe, Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life, trans. Baldick, Robert (New York, 1962), 365–407Google Scholar; Sennett, Richard, Families Against the City: Middle Class Homes of Industrial Chicago, 1872-1890 (Cambridge, Mass., 1970).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
44 Putnam, Elizabeth Duncan, ed., “Diary of Mrs. Joseph Duncan (Elizabeth Caldwell Smith),” JISHS, 21 (1928), 1–92Google Scholar; “Duncan Family Calling Card Scrap-book, 1825-1873” and Julia Duncan, “Album of Friendship, 1853-1873,” both in Duncan-Kirby Family Collection, Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Illinois. Sallie Ellen Evalyn Hammond, “Happenings at No. 1 West College Street: A History of the Aaron Hammond Family, 1600-1946,” 3 vols., Illinois State Historical Library; Heinl, Frank J., Centennial, J. Capps & Sons, Ltd. (Jacksonville, 1939), 18–19Google Scholar; Morgan Journal (Jacksonville), February 2, 1860.
45 Cf. Wirth, “Urbanism as a Way of Life.” This is not to say that kinship was unimportant even in Jacksonville’s young and mobile population. A reconstruction of male-linked kinship groups from the census mss. and genealogical data show at least one quarter of adult males in 1850, and one third in 1860, had one or two more adult brothers, fathers, or sons in Jacksonville. The R. G. Dunn & Co. credit reports also reveal the importance of kinship among Jacksonville businessmen.
46 Sills, , “Voluntary Associations,” in Sills, ed. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 16: 373–74Google Scholar; Babchuk, Nicholas and Edwards, John N., “Voluntary Associations and the Integration Hypothesis,” Sociological Inquiry, 35 (1965), 149–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Little, Kenneth, West African Urbanization: A Study of Voluntary Associations in Social Change (Cambridge, England, 1965), 103–17.Google Scholar
47 Ibid.; Heinl, Harmony Lodge, 6. Cf. Wallerstein, Immanuel, “Voluntary Associations,” in Coleman, James S., and Rosberg, Carl G. Jr., eds., Political Parties and National Integration in Tropical Africa (Berkeley, 1964), 318–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
48 The Constitution and By-Laws of the Jacksonville Mechanics’ Union (Jacksonville, 1840), 8, in Illinois State Historical Library.
49 Illinois Patriot (Jacksonville), November 24, 1832; “Records, Odeon, 1868-June 69,” 9-12, Illinois State Historical Library; Holland’s Directory, 1871, 23-26.
50 Van Court, An Address, 8.
51 See, for example, descriptions of the several public meetings to debate the effort of Republicans to control Jacksonville’s Fourth of July celebration after the Civil War. Illinois Sentinel (Jacksonville) June 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 and July 7, 1865.
52 Illinois Patriot (Jacksonville), January 26, 1832. See Doyle, “Chaos and Community,” 76-127 on the prevalence of social conflict in early Jacksonville.
53 See, for example, “Records, Odeon, 1868-June 69” and “Jacksonville Singing Society Constitution, 1828,” Illinois State Historical Library; Constitution … Mechanics Union. See General Robert, Henry M., Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised; A New and Enlarged Edition, ed. Robert, Sarah Corbin (Glenview, Ill., 1970), xxxvi–xliiGoogle Scholar, for a description of one man’s effort to establish uniform precedural rules for all voluntary associations in the nineteenth-century city. I am currently working on a study of the origin and diffusion of Robert’s Rules of Order between 1876 and 1920.
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