Supreme Royal Circle of Friends of the World

Back in 2014, while doing fieldwork for Tennessee's Reconstruction Past: A Driving Tour (a project I am very proud to have worked on and very dear to my heart. You can see it here.), I came across another fraternal group in Shelby County.  I was at the Gray's Creek Missionary Baptist Church and Cemetery (a congregation started, incidentally in 1843) when I noticed several tombstones with the "Supreme Royal Circle of Friends of the World" etched on them.  They all also had either chambers or circles noted, much like the Mosaic Templars. The symbology was very interesting at well, a lion over an inverted triangle.

Top of a tombstone showing the Supreme Royal Circle of Friends of the World

I have not had time to research the group extensively, but it appears to have started in Arkansas in 1909, in the town of Helena. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, by 1944, the group had spread and had more than 100,000 members nationwide.  The founder was Dr. Richard Williams, an Arkansas native. Intriguingly, Dr. Williams was educated in Nashville (at Meharry) and practiced medicine in Knoxville before moving to Helena in 1905. Despite his connections to middle and west Tennessee, I have not yet found chapters of the organization in that part of the state.

The group's headquarters later moved to Chicago. They opened two hospitals for the benefit of its members - one in Memphis and one in Little Rock. The hospital is listed in the 1923 Polk directory of Memphis as being located on South Fifth Street. According to Calvin White, Jr. in The Rise to Respectability: Race, Religion and the Church of God in Christ, the hospital failed in 1924 and the property purchased by the Church of God in Christ (COGIC).

Listing for the Royal Circle hospital in Memphis in the 1923 Polk City Directory. Courtesy the Shelby County Archives.

Back to the cemetery at Gray's Creek, a number of circles and chambers are listed. Some of these include the Crescent Circle No. 304 and Eads Circle No. 1045. I would like to find out what other circles and chambers existed in Tennessee.

Symbol for the group

Tombstone showing that the deceased was a member of Eads Circle 1045

To learn more about the group, see its entry in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture.

Number Nine Hall Cemetery, Memphis, Shelby County

Number Nine Hall Cemetery (image by author)

Not far from the Mississippi state line in Shelby County (less than two miles) is a cemetery belonging to the Independent Pole Bearers Number Nine Hall. The Independent Pole Bearers started in Memphis shortly after the Civil War, and were initially a semi-military group with the members having the right to bear arms (Green Polonius Hamilton, The Bright Side of Memphis, 207).  The Pole Bearers were an active group, and by the end of the nineteenth century there were multiple lodges throughout West Tennessee.

The Articles of Incorporation for Independent Pole Bearers Association No. 9 states that the group was incorporated in 1896 and that it was located in the 12th Civil District of Shelby County, near the town of White House.  According to the Articles, "The object of this incorporation is to establish a means whereby we may secure for cash other exemption from neglect in the exigencies of sickness, want and death; to secure for each other employment, and to hold social meetings for the purpose of advancement of each other" (Record Group 42, Secretary of State Charters of Incorporation, Volume O-O, Page 172, located at the Tennessee State Library and Archives).  Various lodges of the Independent Pole Bearers continue to exist in Shelby County.

In April 2013, I visited this cemetery in Shelby County. The cemetery is adjacent to a Church of Christ church, and is very well-maintained.  There were several examples of hand-carved tombstones in the cemetery. There is no sign indicating the name of the cemetery.  The most recent grave dated to 2011.  It is possible there are a number of unmarked graves in the cemetery as there were several sunken spots in the rows of graves.  The tombstones were some of the most interesting that I have seen.

Example of hand-carved tombstone. Image by author.

Hand-carved tombstone.  Image by author.

Image by author.