The Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization originating in England in the 1700s that spread to America in the early 1800s, represented trades not covered by other groups like the Masons. The Hopkinsville chapter, established in 1848, was once the wealthiest lodge in Kentucky. The Odd Fellows focused on community support, including visiting the sick, burying the dead, and educating orphans, before formal welfare systems existed.
The Museum of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County, in partnership with Hopkinsville Brewing Company, hosts a monthly event called “History on Tap,” which invites the community to patronize the brewery and hear a presentation on history with a local connection.
Learning Coordinator of the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County Brett Pritchett said their local chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was located in an old building in downtown Hopkinsville that has some odd initials on the outside of it.
“We have a really cool old building on the corner of Ninth and Virginia Street. And a lot of people make comments about it because it has the initials I, O, O, F, some dates, and then a three link chain with the letters F, L and T on it. And people have no idea what that is,” said Pritchett. “And it’s actually the old lodge house of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows chapter here in Hopkinsville.”
The Odd Fellows were not odd as in strange, but odd meaning outside the traditional trades that would have a lodge, similar to carpenters and masons. This would instead be for the nontraditional or those who had no other home.
“The Odd Fellows were a fraternal organization that started back in England in the 1700s and they eventually came to America in the early 1800s. The first chapter was in Baltimore, and then eventually opened chapter houses in all the states at the time. And they were a fraternal organization like the Masons, but they weren’t odd because they were strange. They were odd because they represented trades that were not represented by those other fraternal groups. For example, it could be anything from being a merchant at a store to any kind of trade that might not be represented in your specific community.”
Pritchett said that if a mill opened up and a brick mason did not have an organization that supported mill workers, then they could join the Odd Fellows and have a support unit.
After the order began in Baltimore, Maryland, it spread all over the country, with the Hopkinsville lodge opening in 1848 and lasting until a little over a decade ago.
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“The chapter in Hopkinsville actually was established in 1848, so it gives you a time frame. That’s before the Civil War. And then it operated and was kind of in high operation all through the late 1800s into the early 1900s,” said Pritchett.
“The lodge in Hopkinsville actually didn’t close until 2011, but it was nowhere near as active as it had been in those early years. And there was a movement around the U.S., where fraternal membership and organizations like that were at their height at the end of the 1800s into the early 1900s. People that had joined those kinds of groups had started moving to other kinds of community organizations, civic style groups like Rotary or Kiwanis,” said Pritchett.
“In Meacham’s history of Christian County, Meacham mentions in his book that at one point the Hopkinsville chapter, which was called the Green River Lodge Number 54, mentioned that at one point, the lodge here was the wealthiest lodge in Kentucky. I don’t have an exact membership roster to know how many people were there, but to reach that status, you’d have to have quite a few people that were represented.”
Pritchett said there’s a lot of symbolism in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, namely the iconography and initials outside the lodge entrance. He said the order was created to help people in need and their fellow citizens.
“When the Fellows were established, it was very much driven to help in the community. So for instance, they were kind of a benevolent group, and this was long before any official agencies were established, like labor unions or welfare programs or national health services,” he said.
“And specifically, their mission was to, and this is a direct quote from their order, to ‘visit the sick or leave the distressed, bury the dead and educate the orphan.’ And so you get a sense there that they really were trying to step in and help people that maybe didn’t have help within their communities.”
He also pointed out that the initials F, L, and T, he thought, perfectly epitomized their values as a body.
“The three links on their chain, the letters F, L and T, stood for friendship, love and truth, and so those were kind of the ideas that you should embody those qualities as a member, in how you interacted with people in your community.”
The local history program History on Tap at Hopkinsville Brewing Co., in partnership with the Museum of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County, aims to promote local history and awareness. It is held monthly on the last Thursday at 6:30 p.m., with free admission and optional beverage purchases.
(This story first ran on WKMS, the public radio station at Murray State University.)
Daniel Hurt is a Livingston County native and has been a political consultant for more than a decade. He hosts the local talk show, “River City Presents”, produced by Paducah2, which features live musical performances, academic discussion, and community spotlights. Hurt resides in Grand Rivers, Kentucky. He enjoys collecting records, watching movies, working on his TV show, and playing trivia.
