The Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis is a Rosicrucian Society based in the United States. Its history begins with the formation of a Grand High Council on April 21, 1880. Its official consecration occurred on September 21, 1880, by three Colleges chartered by the Societas Rosicruciana In Scotia. High Grade senior Christian Freemasons in the United States in search of the Classical Rosicrucian Society for Masons in the United Kingdom became interested in organizing a similar body in the United States. They did so under Scotland's authority (Societas Rosicruciana In Scotia) with the help of Most Worthy Charles Matier of the SRIS, as early as 1873. This effort died out two years later under the care of R.W. Frater George S. Blackie VIII and was then re-chartered by the SRIS later again in 1878. Dr. Jonathon J. French was a IX grade head of the Rosicrucian Society of the United States and opened the Matier Royal Provincial College with a charter from Lord Inverurie, Earl of Kintore and Supreme Magus of the SRIS. The college was named after Charles Fitzgerald Matier, the first Supreme Magus of SRIS who served in 1876. Harold Van Buren Voorhis insists that the Illinois College under Dr. French was never truly active, and it certainly was short-lived as Dr. French died an untimely death in 1879. Harold Voorhis also insisted that Frater Stodart Blackie's early charter in New York had been nothing more than an unsubstantiated rumor. It has since been established as historical fact.