Justus H. Rathbone

Who was Justus H. Rathbone?

Justus Henry Rathbone was the founder of the international fraternal order of the Knights of Pythias. He graduated from Colgate University and attended Carlisle Seminary. He was a music composer and actor. In 1863 he moved to Washington D.C. as a government clerk in the United States Treasury Department, where he founded the Knights of Pythias on February 19, 1864. Rathbone wrote the ritual for the Knights of Pythias which is based on the mythological friendship of Damon and Pythias, while he was a school teacher at the Eagle Harbor Schoolhouse, in Eagle Harbor, Michigan.