The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-25
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L. A. Kiefer, of Corinthian, has returned from
Florida
Meridian Lodge received petition for mem
bershir on Wednesday night
The grand instructor went to Whitestown on
Friday TO revive the lodge located there.
Fidelity Lodge, d of B., meets tomorrow
night. The degree will be conferred on num-
Der of candidates.
Those desiring to attend the celebration at
Wabash tomorrow should leave on the o'clock
A. NJ. or Hos A. N. train via Anderson.
The lodges of New Albany will hold an ami.
versary meeting to morrow night Grand Rep
resentative Reineke. of kentucky, will deliver
the address
archial degree upon four candidates on Monday
night. The Golden Rule will be conferred at
the next meeting on six candidates
Mr. Mundhenk, having completed the bust of
Colfax. cast mold from it Tuesday, and
will finish bust to be placed in the Grand
Lodge hall. The likeness is very striking.
The meeting at KnigAtstown tomorrow prom
be meetings at Connersvilie and Sheloyyille, and
on Tuesday at Logansport. A Sunday service
will be held at New Harmony.
The programme for the reception to be given
to General Underwood at Richmond, on
Wednesday, will consist OF an exempliication Of
LIE iuliIdnC Qogf0e III the afternoon, PUBIC aO-
dress at night, and reception and banquet imme-
diatelv thereafter General Underwood has
gone to the East. but will return in ample time.
In reviewing the progress of the order for the
past sixty seven years it is found that there are
now one Sovereign Grand Lodge, two Independ-
emit Grand Lodges Germany and Australia,
forty-hve Grand Encampmeuts, sixty-fiye Grand
Lodges, l.943 Subordinate Encampments. 8,057
subordinate lodges 81 $50 ercam pment members,
532, 467 lodge members. 1,200 Rebekah Degree
lodges with 5000 members and 1888 caLtons
with II, GIG members.
To morrow will be the sixty-seyenth anniver-
sary OF the institution of Odd fellowship on this
continent, and the event will be celebrated by
Odd-fellows throughout the continent in a more
or less imposing manner. At Wabash, although
OF local character, the meeting will partake of
the features of State affair. The feature will
be the prize drill and parade during the after
noon and the public meeting and a reception at
night. 1t will be made special occasion by the
commander of the department for display Of
patriarchs militant. and a number of cantons will
be present.
On the 18th day of April. 1912 the first lodge
was organized in the city Of Baltimore. The men
who composed it. Ave in number. were all En-
glish workincmeh, who had been initiated in
England. and emigrating to this country, desired
to continue their connection with the order in
their own country, and they came together
through an advertisement published in the Bati-
more American, and informally and without au-
thority constituted the lodge The city
selected for the introduction of this
new English order, by Englishmen.
was very unfortunate, for the war with
Great Britain closed but few years prior, and
the prejudices always engendered by war were,
perhaps more intense in Baltimore than any
where else. The destruction of the Capitol at
Washington and the attack upon Baltimore by
the British forces, repulsed at North Point,
| caused these rreiudices to linger with the people
for many years thereafter, and had it
not been that a number of American
born men, among them James L. Ridgeiy,
connected themselves with the order it is
very questionable whether it could have
obtained foothold. Thomas Wildey, an En-
lish coach spring maker. was the moving spirit
in the organization and for years after. But he
was an illterate man, with none of the Influences
of wealth to back him. yet withal man of in
dominable energy and push, and seemed to have
| the faculty of drawing men to him. and sue
ceeded in inducing some of the most intelligent
men in the community to assist him in his
work. He lived to see the order a mighty army,
and died in 1861 at the age of seventy nine.