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.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On Sunday morning, a delegation of Odd Fellows from Seattle boarded the steamer Glide to travel to Mount Vernon for the dedication of their new hall. Upon arrival, they were joined by delegations from Snohomish City and elsewhere. The new Odd Fellow Hall was a fine structure, quite large for the then-small town of Mount Vernon. The hall was packed to its utmost capacity by an attentive audience. The dedication ceremonies were impressive and passed without incident. Following the ceremony, the visitors repaired to the parlors of the hotel where the time until 9 o'clock was spent in music, singing, and pleasant converse. The dedication address, delivered by Captain G. D. Hill, spoke of the order's mission: to visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead, and educate the orphan. Hill declared that the order’s principles of Friendship, Love, and Truth were immutable as the rocks of the firmament, acting as a global safeguard for the widow and the vulnerable.
“Can mighty rifle, cannon or steel armored ships of war; can rocky forts or great standing armies; can patriotism stronger than life itself give stronger bond of peace... than the tie which binds together all nations in Friendship, Love and Truth?”
This 1885 dispatch highlights the central role fraternal lodges once played in providing a social safety net in Washington's frontier towns. Today, as Seattle faces a housing and social service crisis, this story reminds us of a time when private organizations—rather than the state—were the primary providers for the distressed and the bereaved.
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