Lodges were originally formed by workingmen for social purposes, and for assisting with employment when out of work. Fraternal and Friendly Societies like the Odd Fellows were the predecessors of modern-day trade unions. The brethren were slow to learn that “in union there is strength.”

King George the IV of England, while still Prince of Wales, was admitted to membership around 1780. The oldest surviving revised initiation ritual dates back March 12, 1797 under the “Order of Patriotic Odd Fellows”.

While several Odd Fellow lodges had existed in New York City sometime in 1806 to 1818, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was officially organized on April 26, 1819 in Baltimore, Maryland, by Thomas Wildey and four other members of the fraternity from England.

Odd Fellowship began in California in San Francisco in 1847, was interrupted by the Gold Rush, but resumed throughout the state in 1853. Our Lodge was fairly early, formed in Alvarado in 1859 and Irvington in 1863. We played a role in several 19th c. social reform movements like anti-slavery, women’s suffrage, and temperance.

In 1850, Schuyler Colfax was tasked to write a Degree for women. The Rebekah Lodges were founded on 20 September 1851, when, after considerable debate, the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows voted to adopt the Rebekah Degree, largely due to the efforts of an Odd Fellow named Schuyler Colfax, U.S. Vice President from 1869 to 1873.  In 1868 the Rebekahs were given their own Lodge system.

Today Odd Fellows and Rebekahs are both locally active lodges in the Fremont and Contra Costa areas. We have close fraternal relations in our district with IOOF Livermore, Hayward, and Alameda. Sharing fraternity with us in Santa Clara Valley is True Fellowship Lodge in the College Park neighborhood near Santa Clara. At our IOOF Mission Peak Building we have a small museum upstairs and have contributed substantially to the California Grand Lodge Museum in San Jose. The Irvington district of Fremont has been much shaped by Odd Fellowship charity.