I haven't seen this thread until now. Roger and I had many interesting conversations several years ago about Freemasonry in Cornwall and its popularity in overseas mining camps, as my work on migration and social networks had obvious parallels with his interest in masonic networks.
Cornish Lodges had a wide occupational membership that facilitated dialogue between the working and middle classes, and also provided invaluable access to social security benefits long before the emergence of state provision in the twentieth century. These egalitarian business networks were perfect vehicles for socially remitted information flows that nurtured migration: fraternal networks reduced uncertainty, limited overall transaction costs, fostered social capital by encouraging solidarity between members, promoted civic management and maximised efficient resource allocation. Close-knit and built upon localised mutuality, they provided external economies for business activity in webs of affiliation that by the twentieth century spanned the globe.
Connections between Lodges encouraged new migrants to follow established transnational routes, while secure and welcoming relationships helped individuals find work or investment opportunities and enabled families to integrate not just within their own ethnic group, but a wide spectrum of the new host society.
My work on Freemasonry in Latin America indicated that for Cornish mineworkers, being part of a Lodge with men from all over Britain and elsewhere, engendered a common cultural heritage, a feeling of 'Britishness' and strong links to Empire.
Before a member of one Lodge could be received into another, either as a guest or a potential member, he needed to obtain his Grand Lodge Certificate that confirmed he had passed through the three degrees of initiation and attained the status of Master Mason. Miners were advised to become masons before departing, with Sid Blake of the Cornish Arms Hotel in New York emploring men to do so back in the early C20th. The Secretary of Cornish Lodges sometimes had to write to the Grand Lodge urging that the certificates of new members who had completed their three degrees of initiation be sent urgently as they intended going abroad.
All over North America Freemasonry was strong and this can be glimpsed in the cemeteries (Masonic insignia is common on the headstones) and in the built environment. Roger and I visited Butte, Montana, in 2001. The size of the Masonic Hall there was staggering. We also went to a ghost town called Elkhorn where the miners' cabins and wooden builkdings along the main street were crumbling away. The largest buildings were the Masonic Hall and the dance hall, demonstrating that these two buildings were the obvious focal points for the C19th community.
Freemasonry has its roots in Scotland and England from at least the C16th. It was exported to the British Colonies in North America by the 1730s and after the American Revolution independent U.S. Grand Lodges formed themselves within each State. There are a number of other fraternal societies, most notably the Oddfellows which grew out of the Guilds in the middle ages and which became quite powerful in the big cities. But in many of the smaller settlements there were not enough Fellows from the same trade to set up a local Guild which resulted in the formation of the 'Odd Fellows': those from a number of trades who banded together to form a local Guild. The Oddfellows became more regularised in the mid-C18th setting up Lodges like the Freemasons. The Oddfellows spread to America and was officially founded in 1819 in Baltimore. In the 1830s the American Oddfellows set up as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows which is still in existence.
As to Carnkie's question as to whether migrating Cornish mineworkers (and indeed those from other parts of Britain) helped to spread Fremasonry to overseas mining camps, I think the answer is undoubtedly yes. There were already Fraternal societies in operation in the US so it wouldn't have been out of the ordinary for such societies to flourish in new mining communities. Again, fraternal organisations helped immigrant communities to gel together as men from all over Europe and from across a broad social spectrum socialised together and provided mutal assistance and solidarity in a way perhaps Methodism could not, with its various and separate denominations (Lutheran, Baptist, Wesleyan, Calvinist, Primitive Methodist etc.).
Roger has published a great paper on Freemasonry:
Freemasonry and Business Networking During the Victorian Period, Economic History Review, Vol. 56, pp. 657-688, November 2003.