The Independent Order of the Good Templars 
The   Independent   Order   of   the   Good Templars,  otherwise known simply as the Good Templars,  was an extremely large and powerful organization that operated in the mid-  to late 19th century. It was also an early impetus to the eventual passage of Prohibition. The Independent Order of Good Templars (IOGT)  was created in Oneida County in upstate New York in 1851, when several members of a discontented faction of another fraternal society,  the Order of Good Templars, decided to break off and begin another organization.

Two lodges were launched in Utica, and eleven lodges were started within Oneida county, according to Peirce and Thompson,  authors of the History of the Independent Order of Good Templars. These authors attributed much of the credit of the initial growth of the organization to Nathaniel Curtis, a reformed alcoholic from Ithaca,  New York,  who had taken the pledge of sobriety with the Washingtonians. It was also Curtis who decided that it was important for women to become members of the Good Templars.

In 1868,  the Templars had more than a half million male and female members in the United States and Canada.  By 1876,  the IOGT boasted of having initiated more than 3 million members worldwide,  with members in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Britain, and elsewhere. The name of the organization was changed to the International Order of the Good Templars,  to acknowledge the many members in other countries.

A fraternal society in the 19th century,  with many of the same accoutrements of other fraternal organizations,  such as secret handshakes,  rituals, and ranks, the Good Templars was uniquely different in several ways. First, it required its members to take a vow of sobriety,  and it also supported the prohibition of the sale of alcohol.  Second,  it allowed females full membership,  unheard of at that time,  calling their male members “brothers” and their female members “sisters.”  During the Civil War,  female members were credited with holding the organization together. However, some females complained that they did not have full equal status with men.

Despite this complaint, their role exceeded that of any other fraternal organization in the United States at that time.  Other fraternal organizations let women join auxiliaries of the main membership, at best. Some female members who cut their teeth in leadership roles within the Good Templars later became members and leaders of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.