Brian (Brian French),
In the "Inland Empire" (Spokane, Washington - east to Idaho and
north to southern British columbia) both the Knights of Pythias and the
Masonic orders came in with the "American" miners when the hard rock
boom began in the early 1890's. By going to the B.C. Archives site:
http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/visual/visual.htm
you can search for either Knights of Pythias or Masonic Halls.
Barkerville, an earlier gold mining town had both a Masonic Hall and a
Chinese Masonic Hall. Photos date from 1900, but the halls existed much
earlier.
Very early there was a Knights of Pythias Hall in Nakusp and a
Masonic Hall in New Denver ( a little further into the Slocane). Both
these orders existed in many of the mining towns, and both orders had
higher orders in Spokane to which their members tended to travel. These
were, of course, the Shriners for the Masons, and the D.O.K.K. for the
Knights of Pythias. A Knights of Pythias Lodge was started in
Kimberley, B. C. in the early 1920"s. The KP's were a fraternal and
benevelent order, which, at least in Kimberley, seemed to be a stepping
stone to the Masons and which worked behind the scenes to do much
charitable and service work in the community. I am not sure when
individual lodges had their beginnings, but both KPs and Masons were
common throughout the Inland Empire. Later the Elks, Eagles, I.O.O.F.,
etc. started lodges in many centers. Basically, however, both the
Masons and Knights of Pythias did not have bars in their halls. Both
the Elks and the Eagles did.
Both the Masons and the Knights of Pythias were common in
Western Mining towns very early - both were in Virginia City in the
1860's, and I assume in Butte, Montana in the 1870's. From a
genealogical point of view, both lodges had sections in local cemeteries
that they maintained for their members, and both would carry out burial
services for their members.
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