Odd'-Fellows

(INDEPENDENT ORDER OF,) an important secret charitable society, which exists chiefly in Great Britain and the United States, bears in its organization a general resemblance to that of the Freemasons, and is said to have sprung from certain lodges or societies of mechanics and laborers existing in London in the latter part of the 18th cent., who styled themselves the Ancient and Honorable Loyal Odd-Fellows. The first lodge of O -F. in the U. States was founded at Baltimore in 1819. In this country the order numbers now about 7,000 lodges and 475,000 members. [s. 659]