About Us

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The Odd Fellows is one of the oldest world-wide fraternal orders.  Some books actually claim to trace Odd Fellowship back to Roman times when members of the Roman Legions in England were called “Fellow Citizens”, but that sort of claim is speculation, at best.  What is said to be the earliest printed record of an Odd Fellows Lodge appears in a reference to a Lodge meeting at a Globe Tavern in England in 1748.  The Lodge number was nine, so apparently there were at least nine associated Odd Fellows Lodges at that time.

How did “Odd Fellows” get its name?  The generally accepted belief is that it stemmed from 18th Century England where lodges and fraternal orders were founded to foster and advance a particular profession, and it was “odd” to find people of various professions organized for the purpose of giving aid to those in need and pursuing projects for the benefit of 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 (F. L. & T. ).

Odd Fellowship started in England and it is still active there.  Odd Fellows came to the United States through the work of an Englishman who came to this country.  Thomas Wildey, founder of Odd Fellowship in North America, was a man of immense vitality, humor, and warmth.  He was born in London, England, in 1772.  He was left an orphan five years later—and the Odd Fellow pledge to “Educate the Orphan” sprang from his personal childhood experiences.  At the age of 14, Wildey went to live with an uncle.  After he had 9 years of schooling, he became an apprentice to a maker of coach springs.  He joined the Odd Fellows in England in 1804.  Restlessness brought Thomas Wildey to America in 1817.  The British, however, were still unpopular in the States because of the War of 1812.  In 1817, Baltimore, where Wildey settled, was suffering both a yellow fever epidemic and mass unemployment. Wildey missed companionship so he advertised in the newspaper to determine if there were any other Odd Fellows in Baltimore.  He requested that they meet him at the Seven Stars Inn.  On April 26, 1819, Wildey and the four men who responded to the advertisement met and began a process that would lead to the formation of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in North America, dedicating the Order to achieve philanthropic goals.  Other Englishmen who were Odd Fellows had grouped in the States along the Eastern Seaboard, and Wildey gathered them all into the newly formed fraternity.  He traveled widely to set up Lodges in the most recently settled parts of the country.  At the time of his death in 1861, there were more than 200,000 members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows all across North America.
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The Odd Fellows were the first organization that organized Lodges for women through the Rebekah Order way back in 1851.  Schuyler Colfax, Vice President of the United States under Ulysses S. Grant, was the force behind the movement.  Odd Fellows were also the first group to form Homes for their aged members and the first such home was in Pennsylvania.  Odd Fellows also have Lodges for boys and girls, Junior Odd Fellows and Theta Rho, as well as youth camps—including summer camps in various parts of the country.  

  The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a religiously and politically independent fraternal order of Odd Fellows founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It was originally chartered by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Manchester Unity but has been independent since 1842. The order is also known as the Triple Link Fraternity, referring to the order's "Triple Links" symbol, alluding to its motto "Friendship, Love and Truth" or F. L. & T.