Elbe IOOF

This isn’t the best shot of the Eble IOOF, (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) but it was taken when the building was fairly new. In fact, it looks a bit like a Hollywood set.

You don’t hear a lot about the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, but they still exist today. On their website they define and Odd Fellowship as:

• The strongest fraternal society on the continent.
• A great world-wide united brotherhood.
• A fraternity founded on the basis of universal brotherhood.
• Based on the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
• Founded on the North American continent in 1819.
• Based upon the purest principles of equality,
• Non-political and non-sectarian.
• A source of comfort in times of trouble and adversity.
• A world-wide force that stands for all that is noblest and highest.
• An everyday guide for conduct, a mantle that should be worn always.
• An organization that favors no person for their wealth and frowns on none for their poverty.
• An ideal that exists in the heart and mind of every genuine Odd Fellow or Rebekah.
• Fulfilling a mission in the world which no other institution has successfully attempted.
• A vitalizing, sympathetic, and actuating influence in the lives of all its real members.
• A ministering spirit succoring the needy, cheering the despondent and protecting the helpless.
• The handmaid of virtue and religion.
• Founded on the inspired word of God as revealed to man in the Holy Bible.

Photo courtesy of Pat Van Eaton.

Click on image to enlarge.