On December 9, 1869, Uriah Smith Stephens, a descendant of Quaker settlers and a former indentured servant, founds a secret order of tailors in Philadelphia called the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor (or KOL). It would become the first major national labor organization in the United States.

Earlier that decade, Stephens had tried to organize Philadelphia’s garment cutters, using work stoppages as leverage. When that failed to pressure employers into providing better pay and working conditions, he had an epiphany: Their strength would only come in numbers. In response, he launched the Knights of Labor as a national organization. Stephens served as its first grand master workman.  To foster solidarity and shield members from employer retaliation, the KOL fostered a culture of secrecy modeled partly on Masonic lodges, which had their origin in medieval craft guilds. KOL members swore oaths of silence, used entry passwords and followed initiation rituals. Organizers called meetings surreptitiously by chalking symbols onto sidewalks and the sides of buildings.

Over the 1870s, the Knights expanded nationwide, attracting skilled laborers such as blacksmiths and bricklayers. The organization gradually opened its doors to all wage laborers, while excluding professionals such as bankers, lawyers, doctors and alcohol manufacturers.

In 1879, when Stephens left the organization, leadership passed to Terence V. Powderly, an Irish Catholic machinist, who broadened the order’s reach by insisting that women be accepted as equal members—a radical decision for the era.

By the 1880s, the KOL had swelled to more than 700,000 members. In 1884, when the Union Pacific Railroad cut worker wages by 10 percent, the organization helped orchestrate a massive strike that halted rail service across the Midwest. Within days, the railroad restored its workers’ original pay.

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