Conductor and guide

Front matter

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Chapter I.— History of the Order 13

Origin and Uses of Secret Societies— Antiquity of our Order ; probably began in Rome— Origin in Great Britain— Convivial Practices— Tbe Independent Order— Origin in the United States— Biographic Sketch of Thomas Wildey; his co-laborers Entwisle, Mathiot, Welch, Boyd, Marley, Ridgely> et al— Wildey's Monument— The Order under the Grand Lodge of the United States.

Chapter VI. — Of the Degree of Bebekah, and Bebelcah Degree Lodges 158

Prefatory— History— Honorary in Subordinates— Who are Eligible- Good Standing— Lodge Duties and Officers— Directions to Candidates —Lessons of the Degree— (Note) Ledyard's Tribute to Woman— Regalia and Jewels— Colors— Emblems'— Pass- Words— Care in Using Them—" Friendship, Love and Truth," by the late Mrs. Manley.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS. Xi

PACK

Chapter VII.— Of the Subordinate Lodge 177

How Commenced— The Petition— Preparations for Institution— First Business Meeting— Increase of Members— Opening Lodge— Working, with Order of Business— Closing Lodge— Work out of Lodge.

Chapter Till. — Duties and Deportment of Odd-Fellows... 193

Lodge Attendance— Payment of Dues— Conduct in Debate— Gentlemanly Deportment— Correctness in Working— Voting and Balloting— Duties to Self, Family, and Others.

Part Third. Rationale Of Odd-fellowship

Introduction, 348— Origin in Human Wants, 350— Self-Love and Philanthropy, 353 —Providential Developments, 355 — British and American Orders, 359— Religious Foundation, 361— Not Sectarian, 363— Devotional Forms, 368— Extent of Fellowship, 371 — Complete as a System, 374 — Odd- Fellowship an Educator, 378 — Organization Needed, 381— Uses of Secrecy in Teaching, 383— Divine Secret Teachings, 386 — Teaching by Practice, 389— Progressive Character, 392— Beyond the Order, 395.

APPENDIX A.

ODES FOR VARIOUS OCCASIONS, WITH MUSIC. Two Dedication Odes, by A. B. Grosh— Dec? ication Ode, by Rev. A. C. Thomas* —Ode for Laying a Corner-Stone, by Mrs. F. W. Gillette *— Do. by Rev. D. K. Lee, D. D.*— Another, Author Unknown— Hymn, Dedication of a Cemetery, by A. B. Grosh *— Funeral Ode. by Rev. J. G. Forman— Do. by Rev. D. K. Lee, D. D.*— Do. by Rev. A. C. Thomas *—Rebekah at the Well, by Rev. A. C. Thomas *— Daughters of Rebekah, by Rev. D. K. Lee. D. D*— The Rainbow, by Mrs. S. J. Hale — Dismission, by A. B. Grosh— Friendship, Love, and Truth, by James Montgomery 397-410

APPENDIX B.

Formulary, containing Various Blank Forms in Frequent Use 411-417

* Written for the Improved Manual.

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THE

ODD-FELLOW'S IMPROVED MANUAL,

PART FIHST.

Chapter I. History Of Odd-fellowship

§ 1. Origin and Uses of Secret Societies.

The earliest records of human history furnish proofs of the existence of secret associations among nearly all the nations of the earth. They have everywhere accompanied, if they have not advanced civilization, and been the conservators, if not the promoters of religious, scientific, and political truth.

Picture-writing and, afterward, hieroglyphics or abbreviated symbols, were at first the only means men possessed of recording doctrines or events, or discoveries in science and the arts. And as nearly all learning was confined to the priesthood and royal family of each nation, these hieroglyphics readily suggested, if they did not constitute an exclusive art by which they communicated with each other, and handed down to their successors those doctrines, discoveries, and state secrete which they deemed it improper to disclose to the world, 2 13

Hence in nearly every nation — in Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Germany, and Britain — religious mysteries were the foundation-doctrines, and the priesthood were the founders of secret societies. Even the rites of religious worship were, in most cases, but acted symbols — speaking of common religious ideas to the multitude, but conveying deeper meanings to the initiated eye.

That these early societies were often perverted and grossly abused, is readily admitted. But that furnishes no argument against their proper use. All associations have been corrupted or perverted. Written language is abused every day — the tongue itself is an unruly member, breathing not only prayers to God, but curses on our fellow-man — yet no one, for that alone, would doom society to solitude and silence, or abolish pen and press forever.

On the contrary, the vast utility of ancient secret associations of priests, philosophers, and patriots, in advancing religion, conserving literature, art, and science, and in ameliorating the condition of states and communities, has commended them to the imitation of the wise and good in all subsequent ages of the world. Christianity availed itself of the principle in its early progress. When the iron heel of the bigot and tyrant was raised to crush the springing germ into the dust, it was removed into privacy and was nurtured in secret until the storm was overblown, or its strength was increased to endure the tempest. Says one, whose opposition to Romanism is undoubted : " No instructed man can deny that the Roman Catholic Church presents one of the most solemn and majestic spectacles in history. The very arguments which are employed against its rites, remind us of the mighty part which it has played on the theatre of the world. For when we say that the ceremonies of its worship, the decorations of its altars, and the evolutions of its priests, are conceived in the spirit of Heathenism, how can we forget that it was once the witness of ancient Paganism, the victor of its decrepit superstitions, the rival, yet imitator of its mythology? When we ask the use of the lights that burn during the mass, how can we fail to think of the secret worship of the early Christians, assembled at dead of night in some vault, beyond the eye of observation ? When we wonder at the pantomimic character of its services, its long passages of gesticulation, are we not carried back to the time when the quick ear of the informer and persecutor lurked near, and devotion, finding words an unsafe vehicle of thought, invented the symbolical language which could be read only by the initiated eye?"* That which has proved so beneficial, though now it has ceased to be appropriate, or been corrupted, may well be imitated, and superseded by that wherein is life and purity.

The Albigenses, Waldenses, Cathari and other early Reformers, during the long persecutions of the Papacy, prior to the Reformation, also found in secret association, remote from the eye of the persecutor, safety in worshiping God. And all through the dark night of feudal ages, the various mechanic crafts and guilds, and other secret associations, kept the feeble light of knowledge, virtue, and freedom, glimmering amid the surrounding gloom of semi-heathen darkness, until the world at large, awaking from its leaden sleep, lit its thousand torches at the hardly preserved tapers, and

* Martineau's "Rationale of Religious Inquiry," Lecture 11. p. 19, threw the blaze of a general revival of religion, letters, arts, and sciences, once more over our benighted race.

And since that revival, similar associations have aided no less in speeding onward the flood-tide of civilization, humanity, and freedom, to its present full-flowing progress. The reform that has swept away doctrines and institutions of Error and of Wrong, grown hoary with ages of general acknowledgment and reverence, replacing them with the True and the Right, has oft been nourished in the silent secresy of a few chosen souls, until it gained strength to go forth boldly and grapple successfully with the monster errors and giant vices of the age. And the revolution that, in a few days, overturned thrones and banished tyrants, replacing the one with better institutions, and giving the abused powers of the other into rightful hands, frequently gathered its earthquake-power in the privacy of isolated circles, which met to pray and deliberate for their country's welfare, and separated to spread abroad the light and strength which Heaven gave the few, to direct the minds and nerve the arms of the many.

We may be told, however, that error, vice, and diplomatic despotism have also had their secret organizations — even a " Holy Alliance ! " True; so also have they had their public meetings and national congresses. Shall we reject the latter also, because bold, bad men have used openness and publicity for evil purposes?

Among so-called secret societies of modern times, we know of none that has excelled the beneficent influence of Odd-Fellowship, within its own pale, in relieving the sick and distressed, and especially in preventing suffering and poverty in the families of its members. Nor is there one whose measures of relief and benevolence have been more generally copied than those of this "friendly Order;" and seldom, if ever, (astonishing as it is in this age of improvement,) with any important addition enhancing their efficiency.

An institution manifesting so much influence, performing so much good, preventing so much evil, and increasing so rapidly and widely its numbers and its power, may well attract public attention, and excite a laudable desire to know its origin, progress, principles, resources and measures, its aims and objects.

§ 2. Antiquity of the Order.

A love of mystery and blind veneration for antiquity has induced most associations to claim an origin traceable to the remotest ages of the world. There have not been wanting well-meaning Odd-Fellows to render that doubtful service for our Order. Confounding principles with the institutions embodying them, they have claimed equal antiquity for both. And similarities, which can easily be found between the modes of initiation and other ceremonials of ancient associations and those of our own Order, have been triumphantly appealed to, in proof of the unwarranted assumption. And even where such likeness could not be found, it was easy to draw upon imagination for facts, and cover modern inventions with a seeming rust of ages.

A brief enumeration of some of these fabulous histories of our Order may serve to guard the unwary against further imposition. The greatest exertion of tradition was to make our great forefather, Adam, the founder of our Order. Prying Mother Eve was probably excluded, and all her daughters with her! Grand Sire Wildey, during his visit to England, in 1826, procured 2* B from one of the lodges there, an emblem representing Adam laying the foundation-stone of the Order, which emblem he presented to the Grand Lodge of the United States.

Another tradition declares that the Order was founded among the Jewish priesthood, by Moses and Aaron. James Spry, C. S., in his " History of Odd-Fellowship " in Great Britain, mentions such an Order among the Jews while captives in Babylon, to enable them to circumvent their oppressors and maintain fidelity to their religion ; and which was kept up until after their subjugation by the Romans. Some members being organized as a Roman legion in A. D. 79, and proving faithful, the Emperor named them Fellow Citizens, and Odd Fellows, and gave them a "Dispensation engraven on a golden plate," with emblems of mixed Jewish and Roman ideas. (Another tradition makes this a Christian legion ! The tradition that our Order was introduced into Britain by the Romans, A. d. 98, will be shown, further on, to relate, possibly, to Burial Societies — not to organized Odd-Fellowship, as such.

Other fables have ascribed our origin to the Goths, Huns, Scandinavians, Suevi, Moors — down through Spain, Portugal, France — thence to England as a "Loyal Grand Lodge of Honor" in the 18th century, when it became the " London Order of Odd-Fellows!" All these and other baseless and silly stories, after repeated calls for testimony, have been utterly discarded as proofless and absurd, by the Grand Lodge of the United States. — See Journal, Vol. L, pp. 336, 337.

Accordingly P. G. M. Ridgely, Grand Secretary of our National Lodge, publicly declared in his Oration, in Boston, June 19, 1845, after dwelling on the antiquity and divine origin of our foundation-principle, human fraternity: —

" I know that it has been not unusual, on occasions like the present, to claim for Odd-Fellowship affinity with secret institutions which had their origin in periods of time when the passions of men were fiercest, and the midnight of idolatry overshadowed and blighted the promptings of the human heart. I am here to repudiate such associations."

" Although we may discover a similitude in the fact of initiation, in rites, ceremonies, and in gradations of degrees, between those institutions and Odd-Fellowship, we will find no traces of the principles of fraternity,

which distinguish eminently our affiliation."

" Odd-Fellowship invokes not the aid or sanction of such ages to consecrate its principles ; and if, in truth, these could be summoned to attest its antiquity, they would rather awaken just indignation against its character, than serve to commend its merits to an enlightened public opinion. Dismissing therefore, and I hope for ever, the Oracles of Egyptian or Grecian philosophy, and the still more absurd pretences which would discover the sources of Odd-Fellowship in the Roman Camps; and assuming that its benign principles have been drawn from the image reflected upon man in his creation, let us turn to a truthful narrative of the origin of Odd-Fellowship, and its capacity to compass the brotherhood of man."

§ 3. Origin in Great Britain.

The origin of Odd-Fellowship as an institution is involved in obscurity. When the small stream first issues into the light of history, it is very humble also.

The Nile, though known long before the days of Joseph, has only lately had its sources discovered by Europeans. Mr. Spry, in his "History of Odd-Fellowship," says, that " in the early part of the last century, the writer Daniel De Foe mentions the Society of Odd Fellows; and The Gentleman's Magazine for 1745, speaks of the Odd Fellows' Lodge as a place where very comfortable and recreative evenings may be spent." In 1788, as we learn from his Biography, James Montgomery, the poet, wrote the song given in Appendix A, beginning

"When Friendship, Love, and Truth abound Among a band of brothers, "

for a society in London, bearing the motto of our Order, and presumed to be a lodge of "Ancient and Honorable Loyal Odd Fellows." All beyond these dates is mere conjecture. But some of these conjectures, though destitute of visible connection with historic facts, are so plausible as to seem probable, and so interesting (by their connection with the secret assemblies of the early Christians in Rome) as to merit mention and invite to further researches.

History, and ancient memorials and inscriptions now in the Vatican Museum in Rome, show that the heathen Romans organized funeral societies, to secure to their deceased members decent burning of the body and inurning of the ashes, and the celebration of other funeral rites, including a funeral feast and a proper celebration of anniversary observances afterwards. These feasts were private — or, as they would now be called, secret — and were held under the auspices of one or more of the gods. And as their privacy was likely to excite the jealousy of emperors and priests, and the envy of " lewd fellows of the baser sort," the Roman Senate passed a law regulating the titles to their cemeteries, their mode of legal organization before a magistrate, and to secure their funeral rites, feasts, and other observances, together with their monthly meetings for business, from intrusion. All this, in addition to laws against sacrilege. These burial societies (Funeraticia Collegia, as they were termed) were generally formed of persons of the same trade or pursuit (like the " guilds " of the middle ages), and sometimes of the same nationality. They required initiation fees and monthly dues; in return for which members were entitled to decent cremation (for that was the most respectable mode of disposing of the dead), inurning the ashes in a suitable place, and to have the death annually celebrated by a feast — all at the expense of the Collegium, or, as we would say, the Corporation or Association.*

When the persecutions of the Christians in Rome drove them to assemble for worship " in dens and caves of the earth " — especially in the Catacombs

* Dr. Kenrick ; in his " Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions," gives in full the By-Laws of such a Collegium, copied from a stone slab, now in the Vatican Museum, by which it appears that in that society the initiation fee was 100 sesterces (about $4.42) and an amphora (about 6 gallons) of good wine. The monthly due was 5 ases (about 32 cents). Three hundred sesterces (about $13.28) were expended on the funeral ; fifty of which were expended in burning the body, or, if the corpse could not be got, in burning an 'effigy representing it. There were also provisions for the members to feast together on anniversary and other occasions. Dr. Withrow, in his " Catacombs of Rome," gives a summary of the same regulations, under the city and its vicinity — they, too, for a time, found in this protective law for incorporating funeral or burial societies, a security against the intrusion of mobs or even official visitations. Rev. Dr. Withrow says : " There is abundant monumental and other evidence of the existence in Rome, in the time of the later Republic and of the Empire, of certain funeral confraternities — Collegia, as they were called — much like the modern burial clubs." Marriott says — in the u Testimony of the Catacombs " — " True it is, that in the first three centuries, Christian communities took advantage of the Roman law giving facilities for the purchase of land by Collegia Funeraticia ; and were enabled thus to obtain land of their own for the purposes of Christian burial." And Hemans, in his " History of Ancient Christianity and Sacred Art in Italy," says : u An ingenious suggestion in the ' Roma Cristiani ' is that originally, perhaps, it was under color of associations for mutual aid and charitable interment that the Christians obtained the conceded tolerance gradually extended to their places of worship, as well as those of sepulture." And this " suggestion " is confirmed by the names of such " Collegia " as have come down to us, supposed to be Christian : " Church of the Brethren," " Worshippers of the Word," " Fraternity of Table Companions accustomed to feast together " (at Love Feast and Eucharist), and " The Collegium in the House of Sergia Paulina," — like the Church " in the house of Priscilla and Aquila," mentioned in Rom. xvi. 5 and 3.

While the ceremonials and other observances of these churches, in their private or secret assemblies, bore the names used for the observances of the heathen Collegia, the spirit and intent, as well as the acts themselves, were as different as burial was from cremation, and the worship of the true God, our Father, from that of the gods of paganism. Tertullian, in the second century, thus describes the uses of their initiation fees, monthly dues, and good-will offerings — poor and persecuted as were our church members at that period. " Every one offers a small contribution on a certain day of the month (or when he chooses and is able — for no one is compelled); it is a voluntary offering. This is our common fund for piety ; for it is not expended in feasting and drinking, and in wanton excesses" [as in the heathen Collegia Funeratieia], " but in feeding and burying the poor, in supporting orphans, aged persons, and such as are shipwrecked, or such as languish in mines, in exile, and in prison."

Here, then, we have Christian churches organized as Roman burial societies, meeting privately (or secretly) to bury their dead, to celebrate their Love Feasts and Communion (in memory of their dead and risen Saviour), and to worship on Sunday — their Sabbath, the day of Christ's resurrection — all consistent with the privileges secured by Roman law to Collegia. But they raised the associations and their objects to a higher, more humane, and sacred plane. Not in feasting and riot were their monthly collections expended ; but to relieve the poor and distressed, to support the widow and the orphan, and to bury the dead — similar to the operations of Odd- Fellowship at the present time. But the connecting links between those early Christian Collegia and our Lodges, as their legitimate successors, is not evident. Conjectures only take their place. But, as we have said, those conjectures have plausibility.

We are informed, in a Chambers' Encyclopedia," on the authority of Sharon Turner, the great English historian, that the Collegia Funeraticia of the Romans were probably introduced among our Anglo- Saxon ancestors, by their Roman conquerors, under Julius Csesar. He further states that records, and other traces of such " Burial Clubs " and " Friendly Societies," are found at various periods in English history, extending back many centuries, and showing continuous existence down to our own times. Now, the conjecture is not greatly strained which connects these 44 Friendly Societies" and 44 Burial Clubs " with those early Collegia and Christian Churches, and which supposes those monthly meetings to have shortened into weekly meetings, under social impulses, and to have added the Christian charities to the burial of the dead. And it was natural that love of mystery and of symbols should have added secret signs and passwords, and emblems and forms of initiation, and thus grown into Lodges of Odd- Fellows. It is a possible (a plausible, if not a probable) solution of a long unsolved and puzzling question — the origin of Odd-Fellowship 1 But, as we have already said, it is merely conjecture — a proofless theory. It would explain how the great doctrine of God's Fatherhood and Human Brotherhood came into our Order direct from the benevolent secret societies of the early Christians, and whence came our measures of fraternal sympathy, relief of distress, and care of the widow and orphan.

But, coming into the domain of fact and of accredited history, we only know that our Order is, and is based on the great truth that God is our Father, and that all men are brethren. Nor can we trace the precise steps by which our peculiar measures of mutual relief in sickness and distress, and provision for the burial of the dead, and care for the widow and orphan, grew up among our predecessors. But knowing that it was an institution originated by common circumstances of want and providence, and cemented by social feelings frequently indulged until they warmed into a fraternal glow, we can readily imagine how great principles would be suggested, and measures for carrying them out be successively improved.

They were toiling laborers, in a land and under a government where hard-handed industry is less esteemed than here; where distinctions of rank and wealth are greater than we have ever known. Their daily labor barely sufficed to procure them daily bread. When sickness came, gaunt and terrible want was not far off. When calculating wealth refused them the privilege to toil for bread, they lacked means to seek employment elsewhere, and support their families meanwhile. When on the bed of disease or death, none could spare time to smooth the creased pillow, or moisten the fevered lips, or speak calmness to the delirious mind. W hen they looked forward to the close of this " fitful, feverish " life, beyond it was only a pauper's coffin to be pressed into, a pauper's grave into which to be huddled out of sight, without a breathed prayer over the dead, or a whispered text of hope and consolation for the living. And for the surviving partner and bereaved children no future was presented, but trundling them from parish to parish until they were thrust into the vice and infamy of the almshouse ; or, perhaps, thrusting them into the streets, to grow up beggars or criminals, if they did not earlier perish in the gutter I Such were, most probably, the circumstances and prospects of not a few who commenced our Order, devised its first crude measures of relief and burial of the dead, and based the whole structure on the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man.

Feeling that Rank and "Wealth would degrade them if they could, they resolved to support and aid each other, and to contribute weekly a portion of their scanty earnings for that purpose.* Feeling also how

* The "Odd-Fellow's Keepsake" states, that the early English lodges were supported, and their members relieved, by each member and visitor paying a penny to the secretary on entering a lodge. If a brother needed aid, a sufficient sum was voted him. If out of work, he was furnished with a card and funds to re;ich the next lodge. If unsuccessful there, that lodge provided for his further progress, and thus he went on until he found employment, when he deposited his card in the nearest lodge. When a lodge's funds ran out, it sent word to other lodges, and visitors were sent to swell the penny collections. It was common for a whole lodge thus to visit a needy lodge, and hundreds of Odd-Fellows went, week after week, until the exhausted treasury was replenished.

This contribution system was superseded by our more reliable sectarian and party strifes estrange men from each other, and render them powerless and abject by such divisions, they excluded all such topics and distinctions from their meetings, and resolved only to know, to labor for, and to love each other as men —

as BRETHREN.

§ 4. Convivial Practices.

At that period (and is it not too much the case at this ?) convivial practices were common everywhere, among nearly all associations and gatherings of men. But especially in Great Britain, all social and moral societies, even vestry, presbyterial, and other church meetings for business, were stimulated freely with intoxicating drinks and the fumes of tobacco.*

We need not wonder, therefore, that Odd-Fellows, at that early day, were addicted to practices which greater light and a purer morality now declare to be " inconsistent with our laudable profession." Meetsystem of stated benefits, based on regular weekly or quarterly dues — making donations on special occasions only.

But weekly dues were collected weekly up to 1835. The warden with his axe, heart in hand uppermost, went to each member, received his weekly due, and announced the payer's name to the Secretary. After 1835 larger amounts began' to be paid, and regular quarterly accounts kept, as at present.

"Even so late as 1835, Rev. Heman Humphrey, D.D., President of An*herst College, Mass., gave a discouraging view of the habits of clergymen and church members generally in Great Britain. Ho says, quoting from another, "In some presbyteries, (in Scotland.) the presbyterial dinner is furnished with liquor by fines imposed on various occasions," and paid by the clergy ! — See Foreign Tour. Vol. 2, pp. 5-32.

ing, as they did, in public houses of not the most select character, the only places open to men of their humble pretensions and limited means, the beer-mug, the pipe, and the toast circulated freely, as the song and jest excited their mirth and hilarity ; until, by frequent repetition, calling for increased indulgence, it is no wonder that the noble objects of their meetings were too frequently made but secondary to mere sensual gratifications. The wonder is, not that those early Lodges were so greatly convivial clubs, but that they did not become merely such.*

The singularity of its name, and humility of

* We give a specimen or two of the songs said to have been sung in those early lodge meetings, that the reader may see the moral progress of the Order, by comparing them with the Odes and Songs in use at the present day, as given in Appendix A.

The following is said to be a chorus : —

" Then let us be social, be generous, be kind, And let each take his glass and be mellow ; Then we'll join heart and hand, leave dissension behind, And we '11 each prove a hearty Odd-Fellow,"

And the following is said to have been a long-standing favorite : —

" Oh, what pleasure for to meet

With friends so blithe and jolly, Who all delight for to dispel

The gloom of melancholy !

Then let us throw all care aside

Let's merry be and mellow; May Friendship, Love, and Truth abide

With every true Odd-Fellow,

" True Friendship is a treasure great, As such we may regard it ; May discord ne'er our Lodge intrude, Nor any thing retard it ;

its origin, needed not these convivial practices to bring the institution into suspicion and disrepute, nor a defective organization to involve it in trouble and internal dissension. On the extension of the Order to Liverpool, the lodges united in a more general system, under the title of " The Union Order of Odd-Fellows," having London as its seat of government. This arrangement continued until about 1809, when, after the institution of Victory Lodge in Manchester, some intelligent men perceived the •necessity of reforming the convivial practices of the brotherhood, and making mutual relief and charity the main objects of their meetings. But after agitating the subject for years, they found that even

But let the song and toast go round,

And every heart be mellow ; And may our motto still be found

In every true Odd-Fellow."

A contrast no less gratifying can also be made between the General Rules and Regulations of that and a later period, and the state of the Order at this time, and especially on this continent. Fines were common then, for going to sleep, for getting drunk, for noisy demonstrations, and for introducing improper toasts or songs, during lodge meetings. No such penalties are needed now, for the General Law of the Order, that "no refreshments of any kind, except water, shall at any time be allowed in the Lodge-room, or in any of the apartments or passages thereto belonging," renders them unnecessary.

If those early Rules were "behind the age" to which they belonged, (which we much doubt,) the present General Law in this country was, when framed, in advance of not a few of the associations of that period. Surely an institution capable of such selfreform and progress cannot be wanting in religious principle and moral power. 8* the partial reform they advocated could not he effected without an entire change of the Order.