Grand United Order of Galilean Fishermen

The Grand United Order of Galilean Fishermen was an African American fraternal order founded in 1856. Open to both men and women, it provided members sick and death benefits.

History
The order was founded by Anthony S. Perpener, a Prince Hall Freemason and Grand United Order Odd Fellow, in Washington, D.C., in 1856. Credit for founding the order is also given to Hemsley Nichols of John Wesley Methodist Church in Baltimore, Maryland. The order claims a link to Scottish Rite Freemasonry. It was one of the few fraternal orders open to both men and women in the nineteenth century.

The organization spread to Maryland in 1869 and became one of the largest African American fraternal organizations there with over 5,000 members in Maryland by 1890. A Galilean Temple was built in Rockville, Maryland, in 1903 and established a cemetery in 1917. A marker stands at the former location of the Temple. The organization spread to Virginia in 1874 and established a bank and printing office in Hampton, Virginia, in 1901. In 1885, the Fisherman's Hall was built in Charles Town, West Virginia, and is still in use today as a community center. In 1902, the Order's Tabernacle No. 47 purchased a tract of land where the first Rosenwald School in Calvert County, Maryland, would be constructed in 1921.

In 1897, there were 56,000 members and had a value of $125,000. The order was a strong proponent of civil rights and in 1889, it raised funds to pay for the legal defense of the eighteen men convicted in the 1889 riot on Navassa Island. The case, Jones v. United States (1890), went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. The case was lost, and the men were convicted of murder, but, due to organizing of Black organizations and communities, the sentence was commuted to prison time by President Benjamin Harrison.

Symbolism
The emblems of the order include the fish, Passion cross, rose, and INRI of the eighteenth degree of the Scottish Rite.

Further Resources

 * Grand United Order of Galilean Fishermen, Gideon Tabernacle, No. 14, Berryville, minute book, 19211934. 1 vol. Mss4G7629b at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.