Odd Fellows renewal sought in Shenandoah
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Justin Bailey, a member of the Shenandoah Odd Fellows lodge, shows the lodge hall in Shenandoah Heights during a recent interview.
SHENANDOAH HEIGHTS – In Shenandoah’s heyday, fraternal organizations like the Odd Fellows, Elks, Eagles, Moose, and more were part of the bedrock of the community.
Justin Bailey, one of the few members remaining in the Shenandoah chapter of the Odd Fellows and speaking of the organizations, said “we helped build the communities.”
“This is what made the communities what they were,” Bailey said. “When the lodges started dwindling, so did the towns.”
“By the time it was reduced to nothing, everybody goes, what happened,” Bailey said. “It’s these fraternal organizations, not just the Odd Fellows, they gave you a reason to be proud and active in your community.”
Today, around 10 members make up the Shenandoah lodge, about half of which are associate members from the Tamaqua lodge — including Bailey — and half have since moved away from Shenandoah.
Officially the Shenandoah Lodge #591 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the organization primarily takes care of its namesake cemetery in Shenandoah Heights, one of the largest of the Heights cemeteries, as well as another in Frackville. They regularly meet at the home on the property.
The lodge is one of the last fraternal organizations in Shenandoah, following the closure of the Elks, Masons, Eagles, Moose, and more decades ago.
At one time, Bailey said, Shenandoah had three Odd Fellows lodges and Schuylkill County had, and still has, the most lodges of any county in the state.
“Mahanoy City had two, Ringtown had one, Girardville, Gilberton, they all had lodges,” Bailey said. At one time, the lodge had a headquarters downtown on North White Street which has since been demolished.
This year, he said, marks the 200th year for the organization in Pennsylvania.
In the town’s formative years, the lodge served almost as an insurance policy for miners, and the lodge has been around as long as the borough.
“You had to be better by the next day or you were getting kicked out of your house, and God forbid if you got killed, your family had 24 hours to vacate,” Bailey said.
Bailey said the core missions of the Odd Fellows were to “visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead and educate the orphan.”
“Because of that, we had orphanages, we had cemeteries, and we had insurance,” Bailey said. “If you got injured and you couldn’t work, we scrounged up enough money between all of us to keep the coal bosses happy or to get you food for the week.”
If miners were killed, the Odd Fellows operated an orphanage between Snydertown and Sunbury in Northumberland County, which kept children out of the state orphanage system.
In Shenandoah, the cemetery also served as the burial ground for “all walks of life” and was often the burial ground for Catholics who, for one reason or another, weren’t permitted to be buried in a Catholic cemetery.
With the societal shift away from orphanages and the prevalence of insurance, the pressing need for organizations like the Odd Fellows began to dwindle.
Today, he said the lodge continues to do what it can to support the community, along with maintaining the cemetery, but they need locals involved to truly understand what is needed.
“We need some people from the community to step up and join the lodge,” Bailey said. “This gives you twice a month to be able to come out and socialize with people for the common good.”
“We don’t know the needs of Shenandoah too well because we’re not from here,” Bailey added. “The old guys [from town] — Bob Beddall, Ron and Jack Bernhard, Ed Baskefield — they were the four I was working with. They all passed away from old age.”
Bailey said that anyone who wishes to join can contact him via email at [email protected] or phone 570-449-5617.
“I’d like to see it continue, and I’d like to see us be a little more Shenandoah community minded, but we need people from Shenandoah to get active in it,” Bailey said. “We meet twice a month, on the 2nd and 4th Monday at 7:30pm, but you don’t have to make every meeting to be a member.”
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