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The founder of the "Knights of Pythias", Harry Rathbone, was a man of many talents. He was well educated, a school teacher, a musician, playwright, a "Royal Arch Mason" and a member of the "Improved Order of Red Men". While teaching school prior to the Civil War, Rathbone conceived the idea of forming a fraternal order. A current play of the time, Damon and Pythias provided his inspiration for the name of his order. But it wasn't until 1864 that the first lodge (Washington, D.C.) was formed.
Rathbone's personal disjointed journey with the KP and SPK began one month after the formation of the first lodge...when he resigned from the order. The rest of the story is quite complicated but Rathbone would
According to the Pythian web site: |