Leesburg Odd Fellows and Rebekahs Lodge No.58/52

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows Grand Lodge of Florida August 2023 newsletter.

We will be entertaining the Grand Master at 5:30 PM at the Old Time Diner located at 1350 W. N. Blvd. Leesburg, Fl. on Feb. 9th, 2023. If you are able to attend, please let me know so I can make reservations for us. I don't have everyone's e-mail address, so please notify any of your members about this event.

Thank you.

Ginny Elliott, Sec.

Leesburg. Lodge #58

Are you a visual learner? Many fraternal groups employ charts and tracing boards—large paintings of symbols—to educate initiates and teach moral and philosophical lessons. On this Independent Order of Odd Fellows tracing board, over twenty symbols used to teach the degrees in Odd Fellowship are depicted in arresting color and detail. This work, which is currently on display in the Van Gorden-Williams Library, was created between 1880 and 1890 in Philadelphia; the artist who created it signed it simply “Curtis.”

Learn more about this one, and explore other fraternal charts and tracing boards at our Flickr album at https://bit.ly/3uYqYO2

Invitation for Encampment and Patriarch. Will be held at the IOOF #58 Lodge Sat April 2nd at 11:00. Lunch will be served and the meeting starts at 1PM. If you're interested please be there and respond to Ginny, [email protected], or phone 352-603-0640

Attention members:

We need 2-3 volunteers to help complete some cleaning around the lodge hall. Brother Art is suggesting to start this Saturday at 9am. Please contact Art at his email before Friday, if you are interested in volunteering a couple of hours of your time.

Is your lodge doing anything special for the Thomas Wildey Day Proclamation that honors the founder's birthday?

Happy Birthday to the Rebekahs, more especially to our own Rebekah Lodge #52!

Happy 170th Anniversary to The Rebekahs, also known as the International Association of Rebekah Assemblies (IARA), and originally the Daughters of Rebekah is an international service-oriented organization and a branch of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. It was initially designed as the female auxiliary of the IOOF, but now allows both female and male members.

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. The first Rebekah Degrees were honorary awards only, conferred on wives and daughters of Odd Fellows at special Lodge meetings, and recipients were known as “Daughters of Rebekah”. The name is taken from the Biblical character of Rebekah.

These early Daughters of Rebekah had no lodge system of their own, and operated in an informal and local manner. On September 25, 1868, the IOOF voted to establish Degree Lodges of the Daughters of Rebekah, mirroring the existing arrangements for their male counterparts. The Daughters were given the right to elect their own officers, charge for initiation fees, collect dues and undertake charitable and benevolent activities. The name was changed to “Degree of Rebekah” in 1874.

Important COVID update and dispensation from SGM Lusk.

Please contact your Grand Body if your Lodge chooses to go dark.

Happy Armed Services Day from Leesburg Oddfellows Lodge and Rebekahs Lodge!

Leesburg is home to Rebekah Lodge No. 52.

The first fraternal rituals for American women were the Odd Fellows' Rebekah degree and the Masonic degrees of the Eastern Star, which were both created in the early 1850s. They were considered "honorary" degrees when they first started, but later changed to more than honorary organizations.

This photo is of Laura Rebekah Lodge No. 19 members taken on June 18, 1899. From left to right, starting in the back, are Louise Doddard, Nellie Enright, Anna Tryberg and Nellie Russle. In the the front are Mr. Doddard, Walter Shanley, W.W. Newton, Frank Fryberg and Jas Wedum. The organization started in February 1895. [From Valley County Historical Society] Also, check out that dog! 🐕

Copied from the Hoosier Odd Fellow Booster March 2021