Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-02-28
ODD FELLOWSHIP.
An Essay read before the NeutOn Falls Lodge
No, 255, I. o. o. F., February Isl, 1866
By N. A. Barrett, Esq.

i've desire of the human heart. Mar
soon learns the lesson that "In Unior
there is strength" and in a multitude OF
counsellors, safety. Hence, from the ear
lest period of history down TO the pres
ent day, we find men banding together,
sometimes for this purpose, sometime:
fo- that-sometimes for good, and some
times for evil-yet ever exerting power
for veal or woe, Just as the hearts Of
, those who band together incline.
Secret Societies have overthrown kings
and overturned dynasties. Ranged on
the side of truth and justice, they have
defed the worlds oppressors again and
again as an instrument of oppression
in the hands of crafty men, they haYe
wrought misery to our race.
Looking at the evil they have wrought
and the evil they may do, if not rightly
directed, many have denounced and OBJ
posed them to the utmost of their power.
This is not reasonable norright. Thatuse-
full article, the axe, in the hands ofthe little
child sometimes destroys its life or mains
a limb or, in the hands of the maniac
or murderer it brings misery and voc to
many an innocent heart yet who would
say that the axe should be banished from
the use of man?
So with the water that turns the wheel
of yonder mill-rightly directed it con-
tributes to the happiness of man but if
it burst its bounds, the same power that
has produced comfort and happiness now
brings destruction and misery and death.
Illustrations innumerable might be
brought, but let these suffice. 1t is not
poDer, but the abuse of power that is at
fault.
Thus with secret societies-it is not
their use, but their abuse, of which the
world has to complain.
The origin of the Order of Odd Eel
lows, of which we have the honor of be-
ing members, is not clearly known. Some
have traced its origin to the days of Ad-
am, some to Noah, some to the days of
Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem, who
found such an organization among his
soldiers, and called the members Odd
Fellows, because they knew each other by
night as well as by day. Others, again,
have traced the origin of the order to
the days of chivalry, and to the knightly
orders of the middle ages.
But, to my mind, these are idle specu-
lations. Odd Fellowship, it seems to me,
sprung not from the great, the wealthy,
or the titled ones of earth. Like the
Christian religion, it had a far humber
earthly origin. To me it bears evidence
within itself of having originated among
the laboring classes of our race. No 9TH
er class would have made the great du-
ties of the order consist of relieving the
distressed, visiting the sick, burying the
dead, assisting the widow and educating
the orphan. No other class would have
so carefully provided for the support of
those disabled from following their daily
avocations. None other would have
made it a part of the duty to give the
dead an honorable burial, and to defray
the funeral expenses. The modest sums,
too, set apart for those purposes, show
that those for whose benefit they were
designed we're not those who spend their
lives in luxury and ease.
No! Odd Fellowship is purely and
truly the poor mans order, and it is to
his comfort and his happiness that the
teachings of the Order Enthusiastically
point.
Ineed not describe at any great length
the origin of the order in the United
States. To our lamented Past Grand
Sire, Thomas Wildey, belongs the honor
of establishing the first permanent Lodge
in our country. This was in the Spring
of 1919, in the city of Baltimore. From
this sprang other Lodges, and at length
a dispensation was obtained from the pa
rent Order in England. As time passed
on, the brethren in England, without the
advice or consent of the American
Lodges, and sgainst their earnest protest,
changed the ancient work of the order,
and a separation ensued. This, however,
has been no drawback to the prosperity
of the American Order. Il has gone on
extending itself and gaining strength
year by year, till this date, when its be-
nign influence is felt in every part of our
broad land.
Our country, from its physical nature
and the peculiar character of its people,
is very favorable to the growth of Odd
Fellowship. Anything calculated to re-
lieYe suffering and promote the public
good, finds among the American people
warm hearts to greet it and willing hands
to help it on.
Of the many secret organizations that
have made their appearance in our coun-
try, but two, Odd Fellowship and Mason
nv, have stood the test of time. Of Ma
sonry I know nothing, and if I did, this
is not the time nor here the place to tell
it but Odd Fellowship, as we all know,
is founded on principles that must en-
dure while the changing years of eterni-
ty roll by.
Odd Fellowship is genuine Republican
ism-not that it has any connection with
the party of that name, nor with any
party OF sect under high heaven; but its
laws and its government, and in the
equal share which all its members have
in its benefits and privileges, it aecords
fully and freely with the spirit o four po-
litical institutions. Nor is there the
slightest danger, as some have supposed,
that our Order may yet seek political
power, and thus become dangerous to
our country. By our laws, all political,
schismatic, or other improper debate, is
strictly prohibited at our meetings. The
political Of religious zealot finds no OPP
p~ortunity to seize the machinery of the
Order for the purpose Of furthering his
peculiar views.
The Initiate, while gaining admission
to our Order, passes no ordeal dishonora-
bic to his manhood or revolving to his
sense of shame. No soul-terrifying oaths
are laid upon him, no blood-curdling
bC6nc6 ldAO DCAOIO I'LL OllApll yet Tut
chilly, he is reminded of the bonds of sin
and ignorance that bind down so many
millions of our race, faithfully he is
warned of the folly of human aspirations
which reach not beyond the grave, and
the nobler, purer life to come pressed
home to his understanding. He is taught
to distrust appearances, that men are not
always what they seem, but that the
s%criptural rule, By their fruit shall We
shall know them" is the only safe guide
in associating with our fellows. As he
passes step by step in the degrees of the
Order, other duties are pressed home to
his conscience and other lessons laid up
on him. Yet in all the course, from the
initiation step to the final degree, there is
nothing that interferes with his duties to
his family, his country or his God; on the
contrary, no n can pass through and
take heed to the lessons of Odd Fellow
ship without becoming a better father, a
truer friend and a purer Christian man.
Let us. then, in the spirit of love, labor
tn discriminate more widelv The nura