The Odd-fellows' manual

Front matter

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THE m adfe

Preface

A few remarks will inform the reader why I prepared this book, and what were my supposed qualifications for the work.

I was initiated in Oneida Lodge, No. 70, at Utica, N. Y., September 8th, 1842. The nearest Lodge, on the one hand, was at Rochester — on the other, at Schenectady. Few of the members knew much more of the principles, usages, and workings of the Order at large than myself. Periodicals and other publications of the Order were almost unknown among us. The Lodge itself was a new one. As I had ever been everybody's clerk, I was often consulted in various difficulties, and called on for aid with my pen on matters quite beyond my depth. Often and sadly, as I passed onward through the degrees, and through the chairs, did I feel the need of such a Manual as that I now present to my brethren of the Order.

Twice I named the preparation of a Manual to my friend, Rev. E. H. Chapin, (then, or shortly after,) the G-rand Master of the R. "W. Gr. L. of Massachusetts. Other more pressing matters prevented his engaging in it. I named it afterward to other able brethren, but also without effect.

As years rolled over me, my station being among the work* ing men of the bodies to which I was attached, I gained experience and found able counsellors, and from time to time fur- 6

PREFACE.

nished such items as I deemed useful to the fraternity for publication in the " Golden Rule/ 7 the " Covenant," and the "Ark." As these were generally copied by other papers, sometimes with commendation, even when their author was unknown, I supposed them approved.

Thus gathering experience and materials, with no particular view to making a book, I was urged by several distinguished brethren to prepare a full and complete Manual for the Order. I have done what I could to gratify their wishes.

The First Part is for the general reader. Yet it may furnish needed information for not a few members of the Order.

The Second Part is for Odd-Fellows only. Yet those out of the Order may there learn what we are obligated to perform, and may, perhaps, read a page of duty to guide themselves.

The Third Part contains ceremonials for all public occasions of the Order, with suitable brief Addresses, Invocations, Prayers, Responses, &c, which may be interesting, perhaps even profitable, to all.

Appendix A and B contain Odes and Music for various occasions, and blank Forms prescribed by our Grand Bodies, besides others, which are. useful in the transaction of the business of our Order.

The whole is arranged so as to commence with the inquirer merely, and proceeds, in regular succession, to instruct and direct all in their duties as Odd-Fellows, and Committee-men, and Officers, from the initiate up to the highest degree and highest office in the Order.

In all this I have not wrought alone. Professor Patterson has so materially assisted me in the preparation of the vari*

« PREFACE.

cms ceremonials, that the credit of this portion of the work is in a measure due to him. He has, moreover, carefully examined and approved the entire work. To William Curtis, Esq., for many years the well-known, efficient Grand Secretary and Grand Scribe of the R. W. G-. L. and G-. E. of Pennsylvania, I am also indebted for judicious counsel and criticism in preparing the work. To several others I owe gratitude for kind suggestions; and I have freely copied not a few extracts from the essays of my colaborers in our periodicals. But the written as well as the unwritten work of the Order I have considered sacred from revelation. A few quotations it has made from prior sources, I have felt at liberty to use from the same fountains ; also a few phrases which, by frequent quotation in orations, &c. ; have become common property. But beyond this I have not advanced. Yet every doctrine, principle, and precept it enjoins will be found here in regular order, mingled with a few additional remarks of my own, where I deemed them peculiarly appropriate.

The Publishers, as will be seen, have spared no pains or expense to clothe and present the work in beauty and grace. Mr. Croome, the distinguished designer and engraver, has exceeded his former efforts in this line. And the results of all these combined cares and labours form this book. It is thus respectfully submitted to our noble, benevolent, and discriminating Fraternity, to test its value, and measure out to it the share of approval it merits.

A. B. GROSH,

Fort Plain, N. Y., June, 1852.

Part First. Matters External To The Order

PAGI

Chapter I. — History of the Order 13

Origin and uses of Secret Societies — Antiquity of our Order — Origin in Great Britain— Convivial Practices— The Independent Order — Origin in the United States— The Order under the Grand Lodge of the United States.

Cka pter II. — Objections and Inquiries Answered 52

Our Name — Obligations and Penalties — Regalia, Emblems, &c. — Expense of Regalia — Our Secrecy — Exclusiveness — Exclusion of the Poor, &c. — Our Benefactions are General — Interference with other Institutions.

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 secrets which they deemed it improper to disclose to the world. 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

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\\ THE ODD-FELLOW S MANUAL.

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, awakening from its leaden sleep, lit its thousand torches at the hardly preserved tapers, and 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 civili-

* Martineau's "Rationale of Religious Inquiry," Lecture II. p. 19 zation, humanity, and freedom, to its present fullflowing 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 secrecy 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 institution 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 an emblem from one of the Lodges there, representing Adam laying the foundation-stone, which emblem he presented to the Grand Lodge of the United States.

Another tradition declares the Order to date from an ancient society among the Jewish priesthood, founded

2* by Moses and Aaron. Another traces it up to Egypt, in the days of Abraham, safe among the shadows and marvels of that wonderful land. And another still, on the testimony of a Scotchman, in 1840, represents it as having originated among the Roman soldiers, during the reign of Nero, A. D. 55. Whether the witness was present, or what documents he possessed in proof, is not stated. "At that time," he gravely says, "they were called Fellow Citizens ; and the present name was given them by Titus Cesar, A. D. 79, from the singularity of their notions, and from their knowing each other by night and by day ; and for their fidelity to him and their country, he not only gave them the name of Odd-Fellows, but at the same time, as a pledge of friendship, presented them with a dispensation engraved on a plate of gold, bearing different emblems — such as the sun, moon and stars, the lamb, the lion, the dove, and other emblems of mortality !" It is a great pity that this golden charter was not preserved along with that emblem representing Adam laying the foundation-stone ! Some accounts represent this Roman Military Order as constituted of early Christians, notwithstanding the fact that the early disciples of Jesus preferred martyrdom to service in the legions of Rome.

Another tradition has crossed the Atlantic, that the Order originated, or at least was known, among the Goths, Huns, Scandinavians, Suevi, and Moors — that it was established in Spain in the fifth century ; in Portugal in the sixth century ; in France in the twelfth century ; whence it was carried to England by John De Neville and five knights of France, who formed a "Loyal Grand Lodge of Honor," which remained until the eighteenth century, when it changed its organization into a Union of Lodges of Odd-

Fellows, known as the Ancient or London Order — ■ from which came our present Orders. These gross, baseless, and contradictory fables, after repeated ineffectual 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.

James L. Ridgely, Esq., P. G. Master, and at present and for many years past the G. Corresponding and Recording Secretary of the Grand Lodge of the United States, in his Boston Oration, June 19th, 1845, after dwelling on the antiquity and divine origin of human fraternity, (our foundation-principle,) publicly declared : —

" 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 tbe

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." — Golden Rule for July 12, 1845, pp. 43, 44.

§ 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 ever since the days of Joseph, has not yet had its sources discovered by Europeans. In 1788, as we learn from the Biography of James Montgomery, the Poet, he wrote the song (which will be found in Appendix A) begining

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

for a society of London mechanics and laborers, bearing the motto of our Order, and presumed to be a Lodge of "Ancient and Honorable Loyal Odd-Fellows." All beyond that date is mere conjecture or proofless tradition. It is unknown whether our then recent revolutionary struggle for independence, or the more ancient teachings of the Bible, suggested the Fatherhood of God, and consequent equality and fraternity of man, as the foundation-stone of the Order. Nor can we trace the steps by which the measures of mutual relief in sickness and distress, and provision for burial of the dead, and care for the orphan and widow, grew up among them.

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. When 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 ! 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 sectarian and party strifes had estranged men from each other, and rendered them powerless and abject by such divisions,

* " In early times, as has been stated, brothers were helped by penny subscriptions gathered in the following manner, viz. : — Whenever a brother attended a Lodge, he handed a penny to the Secretary. No matter to what Lodge he belonged, the visitor and the member alike paid the penny contribution. This practice was invariably observed on entering a Lodge. Then, if the wants of a sick or needy brother required assistance, the Lodge by vote appropriated such a sum as the exigency of the case demanded. If out of employment, he was furnished with a card and sufficient funds to reach his nearest destination, [or the next Lodge.] If he was not successful there, the brothers in that place provided for his further progress, and thus they continued to travel until they found employment, and then they deposited the card in some Lodge in the same vicinity." — Odd-Fellow's Keepsake, p. 142.

"In the old country, another practice obtained, to wit: — When the wants of a sick or distressed brother went beyond the small amounts that the penny contributions furnished above the Lodge expenses, word was sent to other Lodges that a collection would be taken up, when usually a sufficient number of copper consolations were collected to relieve the immediate and pressing wants of the needy and sick. It was not unusual, in such cases, for a Lodge in a body to visit the Lodge calling for aid, and sometimes hundreds would go purposely to give their contributions, and continue to go until the exhausted funds of the Lodge calling for aid, were recruited. This act of generosity was reciprocated with a praiseworthy promptitude." — Ibid. p. 143.

This voluntary penny contribution was, it is believed, first superseded in this country, by the present more reliable and less objectionable system of stated weekly dues and stipulated benefits — making donations only on special occasions. The present system was commenced by the Lodges in Baltimore, about the year 1825. — A. B. G.

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." Meeting, 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

**Even so late as 1885, Rev. Heman Humphrey, D. D., President of Amherst College, Mass., gave a discouraging view of the habits of clergymen and church members generally in Great Britain. He 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.

Lodges were so greatly convivial clubs, but that they did not become merely such.*

* We give a specimen or two of the songs said to have been sung Id 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'll 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 may we regard it ; May discord ne'er our Lodge intrude,

Nor any thing retard it : 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 Lodgt meetings. No such penalties are needed now, for the General Law of the Order, that " no refreshments of any kind, except water, shall

The singularity of its name, and humility of 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 the partial reform they advocated could not be effected without an entire change of the Order.

§ 5. The Independent Order.

A Convention of friends of reform was accordingly held in Manchester, in 1813, when several Lodges seceded in due form from the Union Order, and constituted the « Independent Order of Odd-Fellows." Under the impulse of improved practices, this new Order advanced rapidly, and soon overshadowed the rival from whence it sprang forth. In 1825 it increased the efficiency of its government by instituting a Central

at any time be allowed in the Lodge-room, or in any of the apartments or passages thereto belonging," render 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 self-reform and

progress cannot be wanting in religious principle and moral power.

Standing Committee in Manchester, to govern the Order in the interim between the sessions of the Annual Movable Committee, as the Chief Lodge is termed.

But the unwieldy size of the Annual Movable Committee soon led to the assumption and abuse of power by the Central Committee, which, in turn, led to various attempts at reform, and revolutions and secessions on their failure. Hence in 1845, according to the Oration at Boston, by P. G. Master Ridgely, " there are many ramifications of Odd-Fellowship from the parent stock in England, all of which form distinct communities, holding no intercourse with each other, and each claiming to strive in the cause of human benefaction, under the banner of Friendship, Love, and Truth. Among the most prominent are the following : — The Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, Manchester Unity, (from which we derive our being,) numbering about 400,000 ; The Grand United Order of Odd-Fellows, Sheffield Unity ; Ancient Order of Odd-Fellows, Bolton Unity ; Imperial Order of Odd-Fellows, Nottingham Unity; United Order of Odd-Fellows, Leeds Unity ; Imperial Order of Odd-Fellows, Paddick Unity ; Independent Reformed Order of Odd-Fellows. The last, it is to be hoped, may prove what its name indicates, a Reformed Order of Odd-Fellows in England." — Crolden Rule for July 12, 1845.

We may as well close our notice of Odd-Fellowship in Britain, here, by stating, that after the aggressions of the Manchester Unity on our chartered rights and privileges, and their repeated departures from the ancient work of the Order, had compelled us to secede from them, and declare ourselves to be, by working and usage, the Independent Order, that Unity made efforts to establish Lodges in the United States, subject to her alone. She had, previously, established Lodges in Canada, and probably in some others of the British provinces in this country. But the attempt to establish Lodges in the States proved a failure, but two or three having been established, and of these none remain to the present time. The Grand United Order of the Sheffield Unity has established a few Lodges among our colored and foreign population, several in New York city, several in Philadelphia, one in Reading, Pa., one in Pottsville, Pa., and possibly a few in other places. It is believed that these have now established their independence of the Sheffield Unity, and have severed the connection between the white and colored Lodges.