''All at once I was startled by the howling of members and rattling of ponderous chains ... he grasped me with Herculean strength and shook me violently, dragging me up and down the room ... the funniest appearance was their grotesque and ludicrous dresses, and all wore burlesque masks" a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows recalled of his initiation in 1832.
Apparently chains, dresses, and masks were not the only props that Odd Fellows used in their initiation ceremonies, as The Sunday Oregonian reported in 2001:
Paul Wallace was alone, repairing overloaded circuits in the old redbrick building, when he discovered a tiny door to a dark recess between two walls. Inside was a black wooden box ... A white shroud appeared. Then white candles. "It was like a Dracula movie," Wallace said. "The top of the skull was covered, but you could see the rib cage and the sinew.”...It turns out that skeletons similar to 'Jane Doe Odd Fellow' reside in closets, drawers, attics, and crawl spaces in Odd Fellow Lodges nationwide.
Fortunately, employees and members of the Cumberland County Historical Society have not found any skeletons in the attic of the old Odd Fellows' building at 31 High Street in Carlisle. However, the rooms where the members of the Odd Fellows Lodge Number 91 held their meetings during the first half of the twentieth century are certainly in a decrepit and almost creepy condition today. Dust and bird droppings cover what's left of the worn furniture. In one of the rooms the ceiling has started to cave in, and the cooing and fluttering of the pigeons up near the roof is unnerving. Although the stained glass windows and the large murals are beautiful, it is puzzling to figure out what the symbols represent. Looking at the ornate peepholes on the doors to every room, one imagines grown men in robes whispering secret passwords and performing secret handshakes in order to be admitted to ritual ceremonies held at midnight.
It is a shame that a once thriving fraternal organization is thought of in this way. At the very beginning of the nineteenth century fraternal organizations were not very popular, with only a few thousand Americans belonging to secret societies, including about 3,000 Freemasons, six hundred members of Tammany, and a few Phi Beta Kappas. However, between 1800 and 1900 about 600 more secret societies were founded in the United States. The main purpose of these fraternal organizations was to help fellow members find employment when they were out of work. While fraternal organizations are not an important part of many people's lives in the twenty-first century, in the nineteenth century they were an integral part of many men's lives. Fraternal organizations provided a type of insurance for many members and their families and also provided entertainment for many men, and later women and children. In particular, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was an integral part of the lives of many in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for more than a century.
Known as the Three Link Fraternity with the guiding principles of friendship, love, and truth, the Odd Fellows did more than come up with secret code words and howl during initiation ceremonies. They were dedicated to helping members and their families, and as one book from 1927 stated, no Odd Fellow or his dependents would ever become a public charge. Their motto was: "Visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead, and educate the orphan." The members would pass the hat to help a fellow in distress and would provide an out-of-work member with a card that entitled him to accommodation at other lodges until he found work. Odd Fellows visited the sick even though there was a very real possibility the visitors would contract the illness or disease themselves. They also took burying the dead very seriously, and most lodges purchased land and established cemeteries as one of their first activities in a new town or city. In many areas all phases of burial were provided by Odd Fellows.
Further, the Odd Fellows also provided for orphans and the elderly. Education for orphans was considered very important, and orphans of Odd Fellows could expect to receive at least a high school education through the lodge. The Odd Fellows were the first fraternal organization to establish homes for orphaned children and for senior members. In 1929 Pennsylvania lodges led the U.S. with 184,307 members and the relief paid out in 1929 was $6,484,605. The Pennsylvania Odd Fellows in 1937 maintained eight homes for the elderly and also provided money for private nurses. Since the order was founded in 1819, financial assistance has been given to more than eight million members, including 600,000 widowed families. In an age of no insurance, the security of belonging to an organization, which would help members and their dependents in times of sickness, distress, or death was important, particularly as family funds became depleted. Also, the moral uplift that brothers got from helping one another in times of need was important.
Transcriptions of newspaper articles by Mark W Podvia and Joan McBride. On April 7, 1893, the Evening Sentinel reported that Frederick Douglass was making his first visit to Carlisle when he addressed the students at the Carlisle Indian School. His presence at the school was also subsequently reported in the school's publication, The Indian Helper, on April14, 1893 and April21, 1893.