The Odd Fellows

Documented in full at 1907

The oldest fraternal building: Howard's census gives the Odd Fellows their hall before their lodges: the bodies "meet in Odd Fellows hall, corner of Main and Washington streets, the oldest fraternal building in the city." In it sat South Bend Lodge No. 29, I. O. O. F.; the South Bend Encampment No. 9; and Canton South Bend No. 9. Beside them stood the women's house, Schuyler Rebekah Lodge No. 29 — Howard pausing on it: the Rebekah Lodge "owes its origin to Schuyler Colfax, who was almost as distinguished as an Odd Fellow as he was as a statesman." Two more bodies complete his list: Robert Blum Lodge No. 278, and Helena Rebekah Lodge No. 72.

The list's last line: Howard's Odd Fellows roll closes with the Grand United Order of the I. O. O. F. — the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, the order founded by African American men, printed in the county history's own list of the city's lodges in 1907 without remark. Its South Bend lodge's number, hall, and course were not reached beyond that line, and the entry carries the line at its size; the parallel-orders entry above sets it in the city's record.

Sources:

1. Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Vol. I (1907), pp. 460–461 — Odd Fellows Hall, "the oldest fraternal building in the city"; Lodges No. 29 and No. 278; Encampment and Canton No. 9; the Rebekah lodges and the Colfax line; the Grand United Order in the list.
2. Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation & Archaeology, fraternal-organizations survey article (2023) — the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows as an order founded by African American men.