The Odd Fellows: An Overview

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.Nearly 300 years ago in England, people were facing a lot of challenges. Life was tough, often lawless and desperate. Medicine was still crude and in a primitive stage. Life expectancy was about 45 to 50. There were lots of sickness, orphaned kids, widowed mothers and many people cannot afford to pay a descent burial for the dead.
So, ordinary people from different trades and walks of life found it necessary to group together as brothers and contribute some of their hard-earned wages to a common fund which they could use for unfortunate times such as sickness, losing a job and even death. They would work together to help each other and the unfortunate families back on their feet, whether it was rebuilding a barn that had burned or putting in a new crop after a devastating season.
Such altruistic and friendly society came to be known as "Odd Fellows" probably because they consisted of people from different Odd trades and at that time, it was odd to find people organized for the purpose of giving aid to those in need and of pursuing projects for the benefit of all mankind. Odd Fellows are also known as "The Three Link Fraternity" which stands for Friendship, Love and Truth.

'Mystery of long-past ages enshrouds the origin of Odd Fellowship' and the exact date of its first founding is 'lost in the mist of antiquity'. Some historians trace its roots back to the Medieval Trade Guilds of the 12th and 13th centuries. Some esti­mated that it existed before 1650.
What is clear is that there were numerous Odd Fellows groups in England in the 1700's. The earliest surviving printed record is said to be the rules of Odd Fellows, Loyal Aristarchus Lodge no. 9, in England dated March 12, 1748. King George the IV of England, while Prince of Wales, was admitted to membership around 1780. In 1798, it was mentioned that the original "United Order of Odd Fellows" consisted of a total of 50 lodges in England and its environs. Many pubs in Britain are named 'The Oddfellows' or 'Oddfellows Arms'. Invariably these are past meeting places of Lodges.
For a time, Fraternal groups such as the Odd Fellows were suppressed in England, but by 1803, the Odd Fellows were revived by an organization called the "London Union Odd Fellows" which later became known as the "Grand Lodge of England" and assumed authority over all Odd Fellow lodges in that country.

RISE OF THE INDEPENDENT ORDER

In 1810, several lodges located in Manchester area declared them­selves as an 'Independent Or­der of Odd Fellows' with the title "Manchester Unity. In 1814, they elected officers and proceeded to standardize degree work of the lodges. With their improved sys­tem, they were able to persuade other Odd Fellow lodges to join their unity. They also chartered the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in North America years after.


While several Odd Fellows lodges had existed in New York City sometime in the period 1806 to 1818, the IN­DEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS is regarded as being organized on April 26, 1819 in Baltimore, Mary­land, U.S.A., by Thomas Wildey and four other mem­bers of the fraternity from England.

At that time, the city was suffering a yellow fever epi­demic and mass un-employment so the Independent Order of Odd Fellows dedicated themselves to "Visit the sick, relieve the distress, bury the dead and edu­cate the orphan."

On September 20, 1851, I.O.O.F became the first fraternity to accept both men and women when it formed the Daughters of Rebekah. Brother Schuyler Colfax, (Vice President of the United States from 1869 to 1873 under President Ulysses S. Grant), was the force behind the movement. Though the term sorority was not yet coined in this year, it may be considered that the Rebekah is the first and oldest sorority in the world.

Since then, the Odd Fellows had spread throughout the world where it current­ly have about 12,000 lodges and nearly 600,000 members in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Re­public, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, and Venezuela.