“It isn’t unusual to find our ancestors as members of a group, such as churches, school alumni, veterans organizations, or fraternal societies. Have you found an ancestor who was as member of a group? Or maybe you’ve made a discovery by being a member of a genealogical or historical society.” prompt from Amy Johnson Crow for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.
My grandfather, John Robertson Kirkwood, was a member of the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows. I think he held every office available over the many years he was involved with this organization. The earliest I found in this scrapbook is dated 1913 and the oldest is 1962.
He went back and forth a couple of times from Scotland to the U.S., staying in the country after 1910. He wasn’t here long when he joined the IOOF.
This is the oldest receipt I could find. It is dated Jan 7th, 1913 to April 1st 1913. The fee was $1.30 for 3 months dues. The back of the receipt is interesting too.
It says, “This is the only legal receipt for dues and other charges and its use is required in all Lodges, Rebekah Lodges and Encampments. It is a proper credential for visiting in all Jurisdictions on the Continent of North America. Its use is limited to the date to which dues are shown to be paid. The holder shall prove identity and good standing in the manner prescribed by the Laws of the Order, and upon such proof, the presiding officer of the Lodge visited is authorized to communicate the A.T.P.W. If the visitor is a member in the Jurisdiction visited the presiding officer shall also communicate to him the Password of the current term. Payment of benefits or pecuniary aid is not authorized by this certificate. Official John B Goodman Grand Secretary”
I don’t know a great deal about the Oddfellows. I looked up what A.T.P.W. means, because I had no idea. It is Annual Traveling Password. That way they could go to meetings in other places. I found a little about the history of the I.O.O.F. in Boone in a book called History of Boone County Iowa, Vol 1 by Nathan Edward Goldthwait. You can view it for free on the Family Search site in their Books collections. It is a very interesting book for details about the history of Boone.
Lodge 79 began October 16, 1855, so it was fairly well established by the time my grandfather joined in 1913. My understanding is that it was a social and service organization, which is probably a very simplistic explanation. I kind of like all the mystery with passwords and I think they had uniforms and special award ribbons and sashes. I don’t know if anyone in our family has the sashes and ribbons tucked away somewhere. It would be fun to see pictures. I do vaguely remember someone saying Grandpa didn’t like all the fancy things, so maybe he didn’t get them?
Here is one of the first news articles I found about the Odd Fellows that mentioned my grandfather. This article says John Kirkwood was named secretary of Boonesboro Lodge No. 79. This one talks about one of their social events which was an annual picnic.
I don’t completely understand all the different levels of the Odd Fellows but I think the Lodge was the smallest local group. There were different degrees conferred on the Lodge members, Initiatory, Friendship, Brotherly Love and Truth. Each of these were associated with a color; white, pink, blue and scarlet. There were three Encampment degrees. Encampments were several Lodges who came together. The Encampment Degrees were Patriarchal (Faith), Golden Rule (Hope) and Royal Purple (Charity). The top degree was the Patriarchs Militant Degree, the Chevalier. I am guessing my grandfather had all of these different Degrees.
The Grand Order of the OddFellows began in England in 1730. The Independent Order of the OddFellows was the American Version. In 1842-43 there was a dispute as to whether or not American Lodges would be involved in decision making procedures. Some American Lodges split along racial lines and became an exclusively whites only membership and a separate governing system from the English Order. It was about ten years later the Lodge in Boone, Iowa began. The African American Lodges didn’t separate from England and remained part of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows headquartered in Philadelphia. I am not sure if the split remains today.
In 1851 the Independent Order of the OddFellows became the first Fraternal Organization to allow women. My grandmother was part of the Rebekahs, the female branch of the OddFellows. I don’t think she was quite as involved in the hierarchy of the organization as my grandfather was but she definitely did the charitable works.
You can google and find many articles about the OddFellows and Rebekahs and lots of their paraphenalia are for sale on the ebay. According to the article on Wikipedia these are their objectives:
- To improve and elevate the character of mankind by promoting the principles of friendship, love, truth, faith, hope, charity and universal justice.[28]
- To help make the world a better place to live by aiding each other in times of need and by organizing charitable projects and activities that would benefit the less fortunate, the youth, the elderly, the environment and the community in every way possible.
- To promote good will and harmony amongst peoples and nations through the principle of universal fraternity, holding the belief that all men and women regardless of race, nationality, religion, social status, gender, rank and station are brothers and sisters.
- To promote a wholesome fraternal experience without violence, vices and discrimination of every form.
Here are just a few of the certificates from grandpa’s scrapbook.
This site has photos and descriptions of many of the medals and awards.
There are many more certificates in this scrapbook. I tried to show a variety of them in this post. You can see this membership was very important to my grandfather. I wonder if initially it may have been memories of his homeland, or loneliness of moving to a new country that inspired him to join. I am glad he had this solid group to rely on during his life. He and my grandmother were also very involved in their church, they had a good solid community of friends.
My Tree in the Forest 