The Washington herald., 1907-08-26


character Of man. enlighten the mind,
widen the sphere of the affections, and
teach the virtues of industry and iru-
gality
It Is much to undertake, but success
has gloriously- crowned their efforts so
far. proving the merit Of the ambition.
and the courage Of the men and women
who are bringing such hopes to realiza-
ton. Last year nearly Ieo0 widowed fam
lilies received help, 1Soo00 brothers in dis
tress were given material aid, hundreds
of orphans we've gathered in the homes
and schools that the order provides for
them, and in all a sum of money aggre-
eating something like S500G000 was eX-
pended in the laudable effort to anne
lioratc adverse conditions of life. The
field OF labor is as wide as the globe it,
self. vet with the triple links of Friend
ship, Love, and Truth. peoples Of widely
differing tongues and cTeeds have been
bound together ia a unity of work and
singleuess of purpose.
Ask when and where the odd Fellows
had their beginning. and legend and
flict Back 10 the very beginning of
things legend viii go. one lodge in Eng
land has an emblem depicting Adam lay
ing the foundation stone Of the order.
with the suppozition that his wife and
sons are candidates for admission. The
Jews Ia captivity in Babylon are said
10 have practiced the rites of the order
y Roman Emperor early in the Christian
era, is said 20 have addressed some of his
Christian subjects as odd Fellows" so
recognizing the existence OF such term.
It is declared that Titus gave the jews
the first Odd Fellows charter written on
tablets of gold. In S. q. ID. the doctrines
they taught and the rites they prac-
tlceG are believed 10 have been taken
into England. Legend, then eonuadictins
herself, SAYS that the Goths the Huns
the Scandlnavians, the Sueyi, and even
the Moors knew the work Of Odd Eel
lowship and that by them it was carried
into France and Spain. and then into
England, whence il came into America.
History sweeps all this aside and goes
back only TO the hrst half Of the cigh-
teenth century. where records can prove
her assertions. Daniel Defoe mentions
the existence Of odd Fellows in his time
The Gentlemans Magazine. OF the year
Jas, chronicles some social gatherings
of jolly Odd Fellows. and forty-three
years later there is a record that the
poet James Montgomery, was employed
10 write a song for them. II is known
that the first recorded organization was
that Of some laboring men and mechanics
of the neighborhood of Manchester, Eng
land, who met for social enjoyment, and
later made the spirit Of helpfulness to-
I'D +ra- fal 1
their existence. They helped secure po-
sitiOns for members out Of work, and
gave money TO INDECENT ones. The oldest
name that has reached as is that of the
Loyal Aristarchus Lodge. No. 9 which
met in the Borough of Southwark
tt is claimed by the historiographers of
Odd Fellowship that il has generally
drawn its members from the great mid
die class. the people VINO have always
supplied the bone and sinew for the build
ing Of the nations. and that because of
this their stability is greater and their
membership stronger than that Of any
other secret order in the world The
membership in the United States alone is
now 1,23427S, and when the eighty-third
annual communication of the Sovereign
Grand Lodge is held I'm ST Paul next
week, many hundred more VIII be re-
ported. The reports will also show that
from the little Manchester organization s
first contribution OF a penny from each
member, this years contribution for
benevolent and educa tional purposes viii
have climbed far into the millions
The first lodge in this country was
founded in New York in 1906 by Solomon
Chambers, his TWO sons and TWO friends,
all Of whom were Odd Fellows and mem
bers of English lodges. They organized
on the self-institution principle, called
themselves the Shakespeare Lodge" and
met in q convenient tavern until the War
OF 1Si2 scattered the members. In ISIS
the members were reinstated. and the
lodge lasted until 1871. then fell away.
As this was not permanent. the history
OF Odd Fellowship in the United States
begins with q Maryland lodge. This one
was founded in Baltimore by five English
men, recently moved there. Thomas
Wildey and John Welch, seeing the need
Of such work as the order might effect.
advertised in a Leading paper for mem
bers. and in response there came three
others, Richard RushwOrth, John Duncan.
and John Cheatham. They met in the
tavern Of The Seven Stars, and there.
on April %, 1913, they established the first
permanent lodge in America, The Wash
ington Lodge.
A charter was secured from the Man
chester Unity of England and two years
later there was instituted the Grand
Lodge of Maryland and the United
States in order to separate the operative
and legislative bodies. Meanwhile in 1870
James 3. Barnes and four other Odd
Fellows in Boston had instituted Nassa-
ChUsetts Lodge No. I. not having heard
of the Baltimore organisation. AS soon
as they learned of this. however. CORE
spondence sprang up between the two.
and as the Maryland organization was
now vested with superior powers. the
Massachusetts one readily recognized it.
II lS26 the title grand sire" first appears
in use for the presiding officer of the
Sovereign Grand Lodge IN 1872 the lodges
of the United States severed connection
With the Manchester Union. and Canadian
lodges have been instituted under dis
pensation from the Sovereign Grand
Lodge Of the United States In Septena-
Der, 1880, the Sovereign Grand Lodge met
IN Toronto, this being the first Instance
Of its meeting outside the United States.
The growth Of the order is phenomenal
It has kept pace with history. and il is
interesting to note that Kentuckys first
lodge was Boone" Georgia's "Ogie-
thorpe. Wisconsin's Lafayette" and Il
nnois' Western Star" Arkansas. reek-
oned a frontier State in 1910. chose TO
name Ter first lodge Far West" while
to-day there are many thousands of odd
Fellows in the newer States over bevond
her western borders. Kansas, with
90
nipiac. preserved Indian names in their
first lodges The District of C,ol77r7l,fa