Ancient Royal Order of Osiris

Ancient Royal Order of Osiris
Motto	"Truth, Justice, and Equity."
Headquarters	Topeka, Kansas

The Ancient Royal Order of Osiris was a community benefit organisation, claiming a lineage dating back to the Egyptian pharaoh Menes, founder of the first dynasty and unifier of Egypt.

A Supreme Lodge of the order, Isis Council No. 1, was based out of Topeka, Kansas from 1888, their lodge space situated above the banking offices of John D. Knox & Co. at 620 Kansas Avenue; this lodge appears to have relocated or dissolved by April 1889.

Press Coverage

• "A NEW LOOK. The Ancient Royal Order of Osiris' Elegant New Quarters.", The Daily Commonwealth (Topeka, Kansas): 4, 23 June 1888, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/61965605/, "For many weeks the splendid hall over the bank of John D. Knox & Co. has been undergoing a renovation and rehabilitation that has resulted in the neatest and most beautiful lodge room in Topeka, if not in the state, and on Wednesday evening, the 27th instant, it will be dedicated to the use of the Ancient Royal Order of Osiris, by the institution of a council whose members will include some of our most respected citizens. We learn from the information pamphlet, which is mailed on request to any applicant addressing "Osiris, P. O. box 265, Topeka, Kan.," of the benefits and the objects of the order, and advantages secured by membership[...] This is doubtless the only world wide organization with secrets which receives into the same council, husband, wife and adult sons or daughters, and by the lessons taught by its several degrees aids each in so pleasant a manner to secure a greater contentment with resulting happiness, and to discharge the duties of a good citizen. On immediate application as above, one may learn all that is necessary to enable him, her or them, to become charter members of the council about to be instituted, and may secure the proper blanks for the purpose." 
• "THE ORDER OF OSIRIS. (Topeka Commonwealth, June 28, 1888.)", Nineteenth Annual Kansas Insurance Report (Topeka: Kansas Publishing House; Clifford C. Baker, State Printer): 60, 1889, https://books.google.com/books?id=trY_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60, "This new institution seems to set forth in its ritual quite a high plane of action. We give a few of its objects and methods: Objects of the Order. To bind in fraternal union acceptable white persons in good health, between the ages of 18 and 60 years old; to inculcate among its members the highest principles of morality and virtue; to cause the practice of deeds of benevolence, charity and unselfish devotion to humanity in general, as well as to members of the order, and those dependent on them in particular; to establish and maintain a system of reciprocal benefits among such of its members as desire them and are approved by the board of judges; and to provide means for such other benefits to its members, their relatives, friends or dependents as may from time to time seem necessary or advisable." 
• "Brief Mention on Convocation of 15 April 1889", The Topeka Daily Capital (Topeka, Kansas): 4, 16 Apr. 1889, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/64729921/, "Isis council No. 1, of the Ancient Royal Order of Osiris, held its stated convocation last evening at Osiris ball, over Knox's bank." 
• "Note on the Improved Order of Red Men moving into Knox Lodge.", The Topeka Daily Capital (Topeka, Kansas): 3, 28 Apr. 1889, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/64730109/, "The warriors of Shawnee tribe No. 14 are now at home in their own wigwam, having rented the Knox hall (the old Odd Fellows' hall) and at the same time purchased the furniture and pictures in the room, which were formerly owned by the Ancient Royal Order of Osiris, and now have as pleasant and comfortable quarters as any secret society in the city." 
• Gould, S. C., ed. (November 1896), Ancient Royal Order of Osiris, "Masonic and Arcane Societies in the U.S.", Miscellaneous Notes and Queries 14 (11): 277, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044092649565;view=1up;seq=291, "The Order of Osiris dates from the reign of the Egyptian King Menes, the first in the Dynasty styled I, by the historian of that ancient country, Manetho, of which Order both these personages were members. The Supreme Tribunal of the Ancient Order bases all its statements on a conservative era, namely, A.D. 1896, or A.O. 5519. The mysteries are called the Lesser and Greater Mysteries. "The Mysteries were instituted in virtue, and proposed the noblest ends, by the worthiest means." The Order seeks "the clothe the naked; to feed the hungry; to educate the orphan; to know each other, and ourselves." Truth, Justice and Equity are their watchwards. The headquarters of the Order is not given in its "History, Objects, and Aims," published in 1887."