Featured Knights of Honor K of H presentation medallion or pin 1909

I've hit a wall trying to find out more about this presentation pin. The Knights of Honor were a secret social fraternal organization that started, as many of them did, as a means of providing insurance. This was presented to Ena Thomas Churchill by Brookline Lodge No. 459 on April 9, 1909. The top bar is marked B. R. Co. but I can't find anything out about this company that made this pin. I can't find anything on the Brookline Lodge or Ms. Ena Thomas churchill.
What is the design in the middle square section? Is the star with eye a Masonic symbol?
Total measurement: 3 1/2" X 1 1/4"
Thanks.

 

Brookline, MA. Here's census information for Ena Thomas Churchill.

Debora

https://familysearch.org/search/rec...cord_subcountry:"United States,Massachusetts"

 

This book includes a property tax list from 1912. Ena and her husband Havelock are each listed. Interesting that Ena seems to have been the main property owner:
https://books.google.com/books?id=axMtAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA93&dq=ena+churchill+brookline&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiRj6Tz3YvTAhUl6IMKHcdaCBQQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=ena churchill brookline&f=false

 

Thanks, Debora and Figtree. It looks like you've found our gal. It's so interesting that this ended up in an estate sale in Louisiana!

 

The design in the square bit is a monogram - O M A - or some other arrangement of those letters.

 

I'll play with that a bit but how you saw those letters is a mystery to me!

 

Here is a link to Knights of Honor jewelry in an 1892 Catalog (Illustrated Jewelry Catalog)
- pages 67, 71 and 124. The jewel on p. 67 has this same monogram on a type of delta star, No. 6711. Next to it is a medal for the Knights and Ladies of Honor.

https://books.google.com/books?id=z...=onepage&q="knights of honor" jewelry&f=false

It seems the Knights of Honor, an insurance fraternity - one of a multutude formed after the Civil War, was poorly organized and went bankrupt around 1915.
http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/masonicmuseum/fraternalism/fraternalism_in_america.htm

"The Fraternal benefit society, that curious blend of fraternal lodge and life insurance company, would flourish in that form for about one human lifetime. The reasons for their decline (and transformation) are numerous. Some, like the Knights of Honor, were simply so badly managed that they went bankrupt. Many operated as little more than a “pass the hat” operation with little or no reserves leaving them vulnerable to epidemics or other natural disasters. Some simply died of old age as their members aged and new members could not be found to replace them."

Here is a little history on the K of H:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Honor

As to the jewelry maker, B.R.Co/B.H.Co., I haven't found any info on the company by checking jewelry marks or fraternal regalia companies. I doubt you will be able to ID the company for at that time/era they were probably 100s of companies doing fraternal jewelry. Knowing the date (1909) of this jewelry is a plus in trying to sell this piece.

--- Susan

 

Thanks for the links, Susan. I had read all that Wikipedia and the masonic museum have online but hadn't come across the jewelry catalog. That's a real treasure!
Living where I do I always find Mardi Gras Krewe favors which are usually labelled 'K o _' with the initials of the krewe like KoR for Rex, KoM for Momus, KoH for Hermes, etc. The older ones are really sought after and collected. I thought that this was what I was buying until I got home and looked at it more closely. (lol)
It's been a fun research project for me.
The compact below is one I recently sold that was a 1964 favor for the Krewe of Momus.