The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-26

be regarded with Veneration by all
members Of the order as the founder
of American Odd Fellowship. He got
what education he had at a parish
school and became skilled black
smith. He joined the United States
! (mother) Order of Odd Fellows in Lon
! don and took an active interest in the
/ society. Shortly after his arrival in
Baltimore he. with John WEIGH,
brother Odd Fellow, published call
| for a meeting of such members Of the
| order as the notice might reach, and.
on April IS, 1919, John Duncan, John
Cheatham and Richard RuShWorth re-
sponded. On April 26, following, at the
! Seven Stars tavern, Second street,
Baltimore, the five English Odd Eel
! lows met again and. according TO an
cient usage" organized and constituted
! Washington lodge No. l, of Odd Eel
! lows, Thomas Wildey taking the obli-
/ cation in the presence OF the others
after which 'he administered the obi
cation to them" 1t is evident that
although the English Independent
order was then only six years old, it
appealed to the founders of American
Odd Fellowship more strongly than
the mother society. the United Order,
for the me-, American lodge was char
tered by Duke of York lodge, Preston,
England, a subordinate lodge of the
Manchester Unity. A grand lodge was
! formed here by English authority in
1921 and Thomas Widely became the
first grand MASTER Little progress
was made for several years By 1926
there were only four Grand lodges,
those of Maryland. Pennsylvania, New
York and Massa chusetts, and only nine
subordinate lodges with a grand total
membership of only about 800. The
| growth of the order was naturally de-
I 1ra1- \
tagonism excited against all secret So
cieties consequent on the anti-Masonic
agitation, yet 1T remains to be added
that the first Odd Fellows hall erected
and dedicated to the exclusive use of
the order was in Baltimore in 1881.
1t does not require an over-simulat-
ed imagination to read between the
lines in the statement that at the height
of the Anti-Masonic excitement "edu-
Gated men from every honorable pro-
fession and business sought admission
into the order. nor is one surprised to
learn that at that time conviviality
was practically eliminated from meet
ingS and that the moral and beneficial
features were strengthened. When it
| is added that IN 1885 the ritual was
revised and. in fact altered, particu-
larly that Of the EncamDmen: degrees.
the significance of the foregoing is in
creased to those in position TO under
stand.
/ In 1912 the break came between the
American branch (until that date) of
| the English Independent Order, the
Grand Lodge of the United States de-
! claring all intercourse at an end and
proclaiming the Grand Lodge of the
/ United States the sole authority. Since
lS43 the American organization has
/ been actually as we'll as nominally in
dependent. The cause of the rupture
has been subject of dispute. One YER
sion is that the English body "aban-
doned the ancient work and land
marks which recalls the English Ma
sonic schiSm in the middle of the last
century-and another is that the Amer
lean society wished to be relieved from
/ granting assistance to numerous needy
English Odd Fellow immigrants. A
! thlro eteged motive, perhaps as good
as any, was an eXcuSable desire to be
! independent in fact as well as in name.
The progress Of the order during
the 40s was rapid, and though hin
/ dered and inDeded in it's noble and
glorious growth during the war period.
development since that time has been
phenomenal In 1S43 American Odd
Fellowship invaded Canada, in 1916
the Sandwich Islands and in 1868 Aus
tralia. Englishmen have apparently
preferred some one of the numerous
/ English order of Odd Fellowship. for
While the American organization plant
ed a few lodges in the United
Kingdom, they did 1l~t survive
/ long. In 1870 the Sovereign Grand
! lodge of the United States formerly the
! grand lodge carried its banners into Ger
many, IN lS!2 into Belgium and Peru, in
1914 into Chilli and in 1876 into Denmark
! Within the past fifteen years Odd Eel
lows lodges chartered by the SOVEREIGN
grand lodges of the United States have
- tD4 d TCf1 n1.~.
! Mexico in 1882. Cuba in 1883, Japan in 1891.
France in 1892 and in New Foundland'
Holland and Italy in 1894. The society
abroad has progressed favorably, but the
/ total foreign membership is not more than
) per cent. of the total
me society owns more than $500 halls
! used by II for lodge meetings and other
/ purposes, their total value being more
than $4,000 600 1t also owns u homes
! asylums and orphanages which, with the
land are valued at 81 100000 1t publishes
~ papers and periodicals (43 in the United
| States) in half dozen langlIa ees and
! there are more than a dozen m11fra1 aid
insurance and accident societies in the
! country TO which Odd Fellows only are
eLslele; Iotal revenues of the Indepeno.
emf order of Odd Fellows United States
OF America, were IS, 427, 900 in 1895 and So
! Sz5'VVU was paid out in that year ia. re-
leve the sick and distressed, or to aid
total membership was 1907 10 which
must be added 1856 women members of
the Rebekah degree. In 1885 the total re-
neI pald was only $1,000. The one lodge
oL IeI G mas increased to nearly L, 900. and
| the 800 members of 1926 within 20 yaars
nave increased eighteen hundred +imes
II mas been difficult to gather infor.
! nauon respecting the long list of die
! ing ulshed citizens who have been or are
members OF the order, but from aroone
those recalled by Past Grand Sire las
e sanders, for forty years member
OF the Sovereign grand lodge, it is learned
| Lnat eX-PreSidents Grant HAYES Car
! leld ana Harrison, eX-vice-president Col
lax, Senator John Sherman. the late
9enator OliVer +. Morton, and Arson
Jones' second president of the republic
/ OF Texas, all received the degree Of Odd
Fellowship. u o-u
The supreme governing body of Ameri
can ODD Fellowship is the Sovereign
grand lodge, composed of presiding Of
heers and representatives of (stafe or
coloniaD grand lodges and encamDments
Whlch, IN turn are composed of presid-
| ing ofncerS and representatives of su-
bordinate lodges and encampments.
The original American Odd Fellows
tooge REFERRED three degrees, to which
| Two were added in 1920, but in 1880 the
ritual was revised and the work now
consists of the initiatory and three de-
grees. There are also three degrees con-
lerred IN encampments, which lodge
members may apply for and receive if
| elected TO receive that honor
Encampment degrees (two of tbem)
were acquired from floating material
during the period of 1926, but were
then conferred in lodges. The s'encamp-
ment as a separate body for confer
ring the superior degrees appeared in
1927 and in time the grand encampment.
BY 1870 the uniformed rank of the en-
campment was projected, the idea an
parently being an opportunity to gratifv
the very human desire to make a