Sons of Malta

The Independent Order of the Sons of Malta was a fraternal order active in the mid-nineteenth century. Its initiation rites parodied more staid fraternal orders such as the Freemasons.

The origins of the Sons of Malta are obscure and contentious.

B. J. Griswold's 1917 The Pictorial History of Fort Wayne, Indiana, states, "A secret society, known as the 'Sons of Malta,' with local lodges in many of the larger American cities, was organized in 1856 by A. G. Barnett and Morton Taylor....The Fort Wayne lodge enrolled many of the prominent men of the day. It was instituted by General Stedman [sic] of Toledo, Ohio."

The entry for the Sons of Malta in the 1899 Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis states that they were, "A mystic society, which came into existence in St. Louis in 1855, and which about the same time seems to have been represented in nearly all the larger, and many of the smaller, cities of the country. It is said to have originated in Mobile, Alabama, once the queen of mystic society cities, and to have been, in a sense, an outgrowth of Mardi Gras festivities."

An account more contemporary with the origins of the Sons of Malta, though still more than thirty years after the fact, was provided by "old-time newspaper man" Phocion Howard in 1886: "When the yellow fever for the first time became sporadic in New Orleans, when white, creole, and black by the hundreds were dying every day, A. L. Saunders continued publication of the Delta, and filled it with wit and humor so as to divert the minds from the sad visitation. And when that failed he sent his own pilot-boat over to Mobile and brought John Forsyth, editor of the Mobile Register, to New Orleans, and the two originated the I. O. S. M.—Independent Order of the Sons of Malta. Even at that early date all the South was inoculated with the idea of filibustering...Mr. Saunders has often told me that in a house on Canal street where he and Forsyth wrote the ritual for the Sons of Malta, there were then five yellow-fever corpses. Having perfected the ritual, which was as prettily written as anything could be, having for its object "the wresting from the dominion of Spain the Gem of the Antilles and setting it in the diadem of Southern chivalry," a call was published for volunteers to go to Cuba. Under this excitement of war the lower classes forgot their griefs and became joyous and happy...That was the beginning of the ill-fated Lopez expeditions..."

In assessing Howard's report of Saunders' claims, the following should be taken into account:

Ultimately, the extent of A. L. Saunders' involvement, if any, in both the Order of the Lone Star and the Sons of Malta is unclear.

It was definitely believed, however, at least after the Sons of Malta's decline, that there was a connection between the two organizations: