Metal Detecting Masonic Find

Hey guys, long time, busy life, new house...life is good.

Sorry but revealing anything about the location. (Don't want owner bothered) Found this the day before my birthday. Did some research and hit a dead end. I know the A.O.U.W. was the Ancient Order of United Workmen and have little on the initials J.E.K.. I've researched a few names that may have been owners, but can't be too sure since there isn't any documentation on the internet about any of these people visiting the state where I found this.

Most I want to reveal about the location, is that it's in the somewhat upper Midwest. I ran tests on the metal and the outside is 14k gold with a copper inside. It's only the face of the pocket watch and the damage is from the field being plowed for over 126 years.

I'm planning on donating it to a museum. It's American history, and it should be properly preserved and restored.

If any of you have any information on this or are Masonic/Freemasons experts around, your help would be appreciated.

 

Interesting group, but not seeing a Masonic connection. Looks like a presentation piece. The engraving in the cartouche is unsophisticated, so I would guess done locally, which would make the recipient local as well. As a pocket watch cover, there's an outside chance you could find another watch with the same pattern. What a pain to lose such a thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Order_of_United_Workmen

 

From that wiki page it looks like the founder was also a Freemason and set the AOUW up in a similar format. Perhaps that's the connection?

I wonder, have you considered that the initials might be something other than JEK? I find some engraved letters a bit confusing and at first look I thought the last letter of yours might be an R. For example, on this chart the J and I are very similar. The K and R are similar also. I think the only one that I find clear from just your photo to go on is the E. Just a thought.


https://lindsaypearson.com/necklaces/small-double-sided-initial-necklace

 

I thought it did say JER at first, but after looking at it under my microscope I was sure of a K. I will try the I though thanks for that resource. The only history that could explain why this was lost, is that there was a fire at the site. I found two other cheap tin pocket watches as well. No inscribing or special markings on them, so maybe the owners did the work themselves. There's a huge scratch through the "pyramid" shape and with some care I was able to bend it back so it wasn't so collapsed. This site has been plowed over and over for 120+ years, so I was luck to find it in this shape.