A Walk Through History-Independant Order Of Odd Fellows Hall

A stop on the "A Walk Through History" tour.

[@matthewg9638]

Redding was a growing economic center when this building was constructed. The town was a distribution point because it was on the California and Oregon railroad lines with many people and a lot of commerce passing through. People from all over came to the area for work in the northern California goldmines. It's of no surprise that many of those people were white, younger, working-class, men. That was the demographic base of the Odd Fellows and it was also quite common for the members to have a family to support. Working the mines was obviously dangerous and there was no Social Security, life insurance, or AFLAC for those guys. Fraternal orders such as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (3 E's in Independent btw) offered their members such securities. Also, Redding was a still a relatively new town in 1888. Many people weren't known by their family's reputation or land. Being a member of a fraternal lodge was one way that a guy could establish social currency, a way for him to be recognized by the community as a trustworthy and honest sort. Membership was also important because it helped facilitate business transactions. Through "the secret stuff" Odd Fellows could recognize each other as guys that they'd be able to do business with, or even just lend a helping hand, and not get taken advantage of. There's strong reason to believe that the construction of the building was jointly funded by Odd Fellows and the Masons. That might be something worth further exploration. It was quite common for fraternal halls across North America to serve both of these orders, especially when it came to establishing lodges in new towns. If you're looking for more information about the history of Odd Fellowship in California you should check out this book: The Three Links Fraternity - Odd Fellowship in California: An Introduction to The Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Rebekahs by Don. R. Smith and Wayne Roberts Linden Press 1993. A quick websearch will turn up some excerpts from the book and that's certainly worth checking out. Lastly, when this building was new, it was common for both men and women, white and black, to belong to a fraternal order, sometimes more than one at a time. In the last 19th and early 20th centuries there were millions of members and some scholarship indicates that near the peak 40% of people belonged. Times have changed and so have the fraternal orders. It's rare to meet an Odd Fellow in 2016 and too many lodges are closing down due to a lack of members. If you want to learn more about the progressive and dynamic Odd Fellows in California there's this excellent website: caioof.org If you want to connect with the Odd Fellows in Redding that information is listed on the caioof.org site.

[@chaseboshtell1777]

Awesome!

[@junicohen7918]

You can be both ,just saying