554 THL

Inventory created by Archives Staff 04/1986. Last revised 11/2020.

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: Collection is open to all researchers.

USE RESTRICTIONS: Restrictions may apply concerning the use, duplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult a member of the archives staff for information concerning these restrictions. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright.

EXTENT: 1 folder

DATE: 1890-1914

SCOPE AND CONTENT: This collection contains three deeds concerning property held by the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows #1461. The first deed shows the acquisition of land in 1890, the second is a lien on the property in 1891, and the last concerns the sale of the property in 1914. The collection also contains news articles concerning the Order. 

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL: The Grand United Order of Odd Fellows was a fraternal organization comprised principally of African Americans. It began establishing orders in the United States in the 1840s, although the Order’s origins were in England in the late 1700s. The Household of Ruth was the Order’s female counterpart, not integrated into the Order but a separate organization. 

The organization provided numerous social benefits to its members and also helped by providing monetary assistance by defraying the costs of burial, sickness, disability, and widowhood. Members of the order took an oath to remain sober, honest, industrious and benevolent, a good husband, a kind father, and a loyal and virtuous citizen. 

In 1890, the Grand United Odd Fellows Lodge #1461 purchased property at 112 East Clifford Street in Winchester, VA. Members built a meeting hall the following year. The Winchester Directory for 1898-1899 lists Household of Ruth and the Sisters of Love and Charity at the same address. The organizations  moved to a new Winchester location at 37 East Boscawen Street in 1914 and are listed at this address from the late 1900s to the early 2000s. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Directory of Winchester, Virginia 1898-1899. Winchester, VA: The Enterprise Printing Company, 1899; Mjagkij, Nina, ed. Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations. Ukraine: Taylor & Francis, 2003.

CITE AS: United Odd Fellows Lodge #1461 Records, 554 THL, Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA, USA.

ACQUISITION INFORMATION: Gift of Friends of the Handley Library

ORGANIZATION:

Filed MMF - Grand United Odd Fellows Lodge #1461

News Articles – unnumbered , printed (photocopy)

Deed - lot on Clifford Street, part of Lot 157, United Odd Fellows Lodge #1461, Trustees of Tabernacle #84 Star of the South Brothers and Sisters of Love and Charity Association, November 22, 1890, Winchester Deed Book 21, page 57, 2 leaves, manuscript (photocopy)

Deed - lien on lot fronting on Clifford Street for $1100 to build building, Trustees of the Grand Accepted Order of Brothers and Sisters of Love and Charity and Grand United Order of Odd Fellows Lodge #1461, November 2, 1891, Winchester Deed Book 21, page 193, 2 leaves, manuscript (photocopy)

Deed - selling lot on Clifford Street, Brothers and Sisters of Love and Charity Star of the South Tabernacle #84 and The Grand United Order of Odd Fellows Morning Star of the West #1461, March 23, 1914, Winchester Deed Book 30, page 348, 2 leaves, manuscript (photocopy)

***NOTE: all three deeds are for lodge #1461, but there are some minor differences in the wording of the Order’s title.