BS: Oddfellows

Subject: BS: Oddfellows
From: GUEST,steve benbows protege
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 07:00 AM

Are there any Fellow Oddfellow members here on the cat?

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 08:30 AM

Well, some of us seem pretty odd, mate... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: GUEST,Rapaire
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 11:12 AM

There is an IOOF lodge here in town and has been for over a century.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Melissa
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 12:14 PM

Are you an Oddfellow, protege?
If so, what's the deal with props?

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 12:30 PM

My granddad was a member, probably charter it was that far back. My grandma was a member of the Rebekahs, too. I don't see a Lodge listed in their town in Colorado anymore, but the symbol shows up on buildings all over in the part of the West in which I grew up.Good for you for keeping up the tradition!

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 12:32 PM

There is an Oddfellow's cemetery in Denton, TX. I've passed it many times, but I don't know what qualifications it takes to get buried there.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 12:39 PM

Being dead is probably one of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 12:56 PM

Yes, I suspect that is one qualification. But I wonder if they would open to ungulates if asked (Elks, Moose, etc.)?

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 01:39 PM

Can anybody tell us more about the history and lore of the Oddfellows? I've always wondered about their story and their interesting name, and the wonderful old buildings that serve as the Oddfellows Hall in so many little towns.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: pdq
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 01:57 PM

I believe the name Oddfellows was taken from an organisation in England called Odd Fellows. Don't think they are actually connected but don't know anything about them except that their name is on some neat old buildings.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Melissa
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 02:06 PM

were they 'odd' because they didn't fit into guilds?

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 03:11 PM

If you follow my link, Joe, there is a history, etc. They were considered "odd" because of their charitable ways back then.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 03:42 PM

My paternal Grandfather was one, but my dad wasn't.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Melissa
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 03:48 PM

they were Odd because they seemed peculiar?
does anybody know anything about props?

I thought their name probably came from being sort of Leftovers that didn't have an organization but wanted one..

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 04:23 PM

I seem to remember hearing that they always met on the second floor of their buildings? Or is this some mysterious and forgotten lore. . . (only this, and nothing more)

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 04:42 PM

Odd that you would ask .... maybe AMOS can provide some insight. :)

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: PoppaGator
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 04:52 PM

One of the three large cemeteries at Canal Blvd and City Park Avenue in New Orleans is named "Odd Fellows Rest," according to a sign over the entrance. I never heard of any current-day burials being held there; perhaps it's at capacity.

Our above-ground cemeteries are well-know tourist attractions, and there are quite a few of them around town. The oldest are, of course, in the older sections of the city, near the Mississippi. The big three out Canal Blvd (Greenwood, Metairie, and Odd Fellows) are not as ancient as, say, St. Louis #1 and #2, but they're huge and picturesque, and easily found at the terminus of the "Canal/Cemeteries" bus and streetcar lines.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Steve Benbows protege
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 06:28 PM

Yes, I am a new member. I am a member of the Manchester Unity Oddfellows formed 1812.

The English got rid of the compulsory ritual side just after the civil war and so the IOOF (Independent order of odd fellows) was formed. America set sail on her own in the original form of the Odd Fellows and personally I cant blame her.

The Oddfellows were trades people who didn't have a guild of their own and therefore Odd.

www.oddfellows.co.uk tells the story better than I could.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 07:36 PM

Oh, that's a bit different than what the US one says, but it seems you are a member of the original First(?) (I think I read somewhere that Manchester Unity was the first?) which the US ones were modelled after:

To improve and elevate the character of man.

In 17th century England, 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. Those who belonged to such an organization were called "Odd Fellows." Odd Fellows are also known as "The Three Link Fraternity" which stands for Friendship, Love and Truth.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows was founded on the North American Continent in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 26, 1819 when Thomas Wildey and four members of the Order from England instituted Washington Lodge No. 1. This lodge received its charter from Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows in England.

Odd Fellowship became the 1st national fraternity to include both men and women when it adopted the beautiful Rebekah Degree on September 20, 1851. This degree is based on the teachings found in the Holy Bible, and was written by the Honorable Schuyler Colfax who was Vice President of the United States during the period 1868-1873. Odd Fellows and Rebekahs were also the first fraternal organization to establish homes for our senior members and for orphaned children.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Jack Campin
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 08:16 PM

The outfit I was boggled by when I first arrived in Scotland was the Order of Ancient Free Gardeners. I imagined a secret society of very old guys in cardigans growing dope on their allotments.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 01:09 AM

*smile

I don't think of the Oddfellows all that much but there is/was a lodge in my hometown. At the time, I assumed that their name was a counterpoint to what everybody else does, as in 'common'.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 01:44 AM

"The most probable theory is that set forth in the Oddfellows' Magazine for September, 1888:-

"Those who have made it their study to dive into the hazy past incline to the belief that the Oddfellows are revivals of the old trade guilds, which flourished in the 16th century ..... but we will hazard a theory, based on nothing more than a consideration of the various facts which are known, viz., that while the Masonic Order maintained intact the traditions of the Masons' craft guild, the Oddfellows comprised a collection from all the others, which were not strong enough in themselves to carry on a distinctive club. Thus they were not mercers, nor dyers, nor smiths, nor girdlers, nor drapers, but an omnium gatherum, and hence Oddfellows. The similarity of ritual and ceremonial (with the Masonic Order) would by this theory be fully accounted for, as we may readily believe that the old guilds upon which such ruthless hands were laid, had many points in common with each other."


They don't know neither...

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 11:39 PM

How interesting, Ebiie, thanks for the link!

Oh, Jack, that does congure up such images! The actual thing sure looks Masonic-ish.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Steve Benbows protege
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 07:32 AM

Jack,

The Free Gardeners, the Foresters, The Oddfellows were much the same.

They claim to have been a benefit society for their members pre-curser the national health service. So stateside you pay for your health care. pre -1947ish (in England) the health service was set up these fraternal groups provided cheaper health insurance for the member and their families and you tended to garvitate to the one that represented your occupation. There still are the remnants of the friendly societies in the u.k.

Bevan used them to administer the N.H.S (National Health Service) after it was founded and also used teir rates to pay benefits...

Round where I live in West London the Foresters seem to have been the biggest Order, but the Masonic Lodge of Middlesex settled at Twickenham, not that far from where I live.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Oddfellows
From: Steve Benbows protege
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 07:39 AM

Interestingly enough they were all founded circa 1717, masons, oddfellows, free gardeners, buffs, the more you read up on it the more it jumps out at you. Although they all claim to date back to Ancient Egypt!!