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213 stories matching odd
- Two Hundred Odd Fellows Take Walla Walla — and an Old Man Cannot Speak
The state grand lodge opens three days of sessions at the Odd Fellows' Temple, elects its officers, and surprises an eighty-year-old past grand master with a veteran's jewel.
- Fraternity Stiffed by City and Chamber
Local Odd Fellows lodges footed the entire bill for entertaining the visiting Sovereign Grand Lodge after the city and Chamber of Commerce reneged on their promises to split the costs.
- The Ox-Yoke Judge Who Kept Olympia the Capital
O. C. Hewitt, Lincoln’s chief justice of Washington Territory and the father of Odd Fellowship in the state, died at 82 in East Tumwater after a frontier life that included burying massacre victims, winning a Supreme Court case, and saving Olympia’s capital status.
- The Unpredictable Life of Seattle’s 'Odd Job Man'
William D. Southworth, a local eccentric, attempted to organize a national guard, impersonated high-society figures, and left a trail of bafflement across 1880s Seattle before his final confinement.
- From Vera Cruz to Seattle: The Improbable Life of Levi F. Compton
A Mexican War veteran, gold rusher, bridge builder and Odd Fellows patriarch died at his Spring Street home, leaving a civic record that stretched from Virginia slavery to a Chehalis reform school.
- Fraternity on the Diamond: The Odd Fellows' Grand Celebration
When Seattle’s Odd Fellows hosted a massive multi-day anniversary celebration in 1892, they turned the local baseball park into a scene of chaotic amateur athletics, friendly rivalries, and unbridled civic enthusiasm.
- A Mountain of Coffins: Franklin Buries Its Miners
After a mine fire killed 37 men, the coal town of Franklin held a day of funerals—five graves at Black Diamond, three Italian miners on a hillside, and widows whose grief doctors feared would kill them.
- Railroad Giant Eyes Tribal Land
A local capitalist claims the Northern Pacific railroad holds legal rights to odd-numbered land sections within the Puyallup Indian Reservation.
- The Railroad’s Big Heist: Northern Pacific Claims Indian Land It Doesn’t Own
As the Puyallup Reservation faces a legal siege from the Northern Pacific Railway, federal officials warn that a treaty-protected land grab could strip thousands of acres from Native families for pennies on the dollar.
- When Tacoma Protestants Told the Pope to Stay Out of Their Lodges
A 2,500-person rally in Tacoma’s Armory Hall denounces a papal edict against secret societies, blending fraternal pride with fierce anti-Catholic nativism.
- The Great Odd Fellows Sleep-In: A Night of Fractured Rituals in Seattle
When the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows convened in June 1909, a bizarre mix of procedural delays and social distractions turned a solemn ceremony into a chaotic spectacle that spilled onto the dance floor.
- The Odd Fellows' Tug-of-War Over Permanence
Members of the Odd Fellows gather in Tacoma to debate moving their Grand Lodge headquarters to Seattle, highlighting a long-standing regional rivalry.
- The Odd Fellows' Grand Display
Despite a drenching rain, a thousand Odd Fellows marched through downtown Tacoma to celebrate the 90th anniversary of their order.
- The Great Land Grab of 1886
A legal dispute over Northern Pacific Railroad land grants highlights the struggle between territorial settlers and the encroaching influence of transcontinental rail monopolies.
- A Section Foreman's Death at Gilman, and the $100 He Sent Home to Ireland
J. G. Caroian, a Lake Shore road foreman, was killed switching cars at Gilman. His Odd Fellows lodge will bury him at Marysville; his aged mother in Ireland will get no more Christmas money.
- The 'Odd Fellow' and the Suspicious Wife
A Seattle man's secret late-night meetings with his fraternal order spark a domestic showdown over 'goat riding,' moral uprightness, and marital suspicion.
- The Strange Impostor of the Secret Societies
A concerned member of a legitimate Victoria-based lodge warns Seattle that a grifter is posing as an I.O.O.F. organizer to swindle local recruits.
- A Grand Fraternal Celebration on the Skagit
When the Odd Fellows gathered to dedicate their new hall in 1885, they saw their organization as the ultimate bulwark against the cruelty of the world.
- A Frontier Farewell in Richland
Community ties bind residents together before a migration to Montana.
- The Rebekah Lodge Rises in Bothell
A festive delegation of Seattle Odd Fellows journeys to Bothell by steamer to establish a new chapter.
- Tragedy on the Sound: Two Edmonds Men Lost at Sea
A supply mission for an Odd Fellows dance turns into a frantic search as two prominent citizens vanish during a gale.
- A Meat Delivery Ends Beneath a Freight Train in Old Town
John Flynn, a 51-year-old sailor working odd jobs, was carrying beef to a barkentine when a Northern Pacific train backed over him at the foot of McCarver Street.
- Seattle’s Wild Reaction to the Corbett-Sullivan Fight
Thousands filled the streets and saloons as the underdog James J. Corbett defeated John L. Sullivan in twenty-one rounds.
- The Land Grab That Built Seattle’s West Side
In 1890, a powerful syndicate led by George M. Van Doren bought up the entire Verier Addition in Kent and began aggressively marketing West Seattle lots to speculators, setting the stage for the city's explosive real estate boom.
- The Open Sewer at the Center of Town
A pedestrian’s fall into an unguarded sewer trench in front of the Odd Fellows Hall sparks a legal battle over municipal negligence in Seattle.
Also about this, in other words
- The Clerk’s Odd Sales Pitch
A farmer learns a strange and aggressive new way to test if his wife is 'sound' while shopping in 1877 Seattle.
- A Parade, a Brass Band, and Dancing Until Four
North Yakima's Odd Fellows mark the order's 72nd anniversary with a march down the business streets, an address at the opera house, and a ball that outlasted the refreshments at the Hotel Yakima.
- A Library for North Seattle
How the local lodge of Odd Fellows stepped up to provide education and public gathering space to a growing community.
- Seven Hundred Odd Fellows Parade in Tacoma
Seattle and state lodges celebrate the order's 74th anniversary with a massive parade and theater exercises.
- The Odd Fellows' Missing $144.15: A Treasurer's Fall From Grace
Henry A. Swift, a Fremont mill worker and lodge treasurer, is charged with embezzling $144.15 after a shutdown left his family in need.
- The Strange Order from the North
A local merchant is tasked with sourcing a custom gravestone for an Alaska Native man who is very much alive.
- The Eccentric Professor: A Man of Culture Lost in the Streets
An itinerant lecturer with 'peculiarities' captivates Seattle crowds, leaving locals to wonder if he is a genius or just mad.
- The Absurdist Board of Trade of Puyallup
A satirical account of a local civic meeting where the town's ambitions far outpaced its resources.