Hey Diggers, I made a little road trip this weekend to meet up with Digger Don and Tony Two-Cent. At a park I found this old pin. I had no idea what it was and thought it might be another Knights Templar pin. Once I got home and could research it I learned something entirely new!
This is why I love this hobby!
This pin dates to about 1900 and celebrates an insurance company called the Royal Neighbors of America. Have you ever heard of them? I sure haven't.
Here's what Wikipedia says:
Back in 1895 when women couldn’t vote, couldn’t own property, and weren’t allowed to own life insurance, nine women founded Royal Neighbors of America. It is one of the largest women-led life insurers in the nation!
The early members of the Society were ahead of their time. In addition to providing life insurance for women, they stood firmly behind the women’s suffrage movement. Royal Neighbors was also one of the first fraternal societies to insure children and recognize mortality studies establishing the fact that women live longer than men, and to reflect that difference in life insurance premiums.
In 1888, Mrs. Marie Kirkland, Council Bluffs, IA, placed a notice in her town newspaper asking the wives of Modern Woodmen of America members to meet for a social get-together. Eight women responded and organized what was to become Royal Neighbors of America. Just a year later, the group reorganized as a social organization with a constitution, ritual, and articles of incorporation.[3] The name Royal Neighbors of America was chosen by the women because they adhered to the belief, “For better is a neighbor that is near than a brother that is far.” (Proverbs 27:10). They intended to be that helpful neighbor, combining the Biblical “neighbor” with the word “royal” that signified their belief in the nobility of the work they would do.
