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Odd Fellows disband
The initials “I.O.O.F” carved in stone atop the current Hobby Shoppe building on Main Street will stand testimony to an organization that has now come to an end, at least in Pipestone.
The remaining six members of the Hope Lodge International Order of Odd Fellows have decided to disband due to a steadily dwindled membership that ended up with Jack Carstensen, Paul Nelson, George Carstensen, Jr., Duane Larson (of Flandreau), Chet Nesvold and Gorden Hubner as the remaining members.
“We were down to so few members that we didn’t meet that often and we had to have five people to have a quorum and we had six,” Carstensen said. “It’s seen its time. There is so much other stuff going on.”
Carstensen, 73, is not the youngest member but he is one of the newest. That was 40 years ago when he joined and at the time, there were about 30 members.
“We held that for quite a few years,” he said. “The last 20-to-30 years we haven’t taken any new members. The new ones made their degrees and we weren’t active enough for them and they quit.”
When the local Order was active, it gave money to the Food Shelf and the Ministerial Association and helped a lot of families over the years who were beset or financially troubled due to hardships, such as accidents.
But the fundraisers had long ended and the money that was disbursed came mostly from property disposal, Carstensen said. First, the Hope Lodge sold in 1974 the building currently housing the Hobby Shoppe on Main Street. Its next Lodge, the building that currently houses Curves and the appliance store, was sold in 2003.
“The money had to go to the Grand Lodge, but we got all the interest,” Carstensen said. The Grand Lodge of Minnesota is located in Hutchinson.
Without a lodge, the Pipestone Odd Fellows began meeting in homes. But even those meetings dwindled to maybe once or twice per year. And now that they’ve dissolved the Hope Lodge, the remaining treasury was disbursed to the Hospice House ($5,000), the Food Shelf ($5,000), the Pipestone Student Scholarship Fund ($3,000) and the Flandreau Wholeness Center, which cares for battered women ($1,000).
At one time, membership went down the lines from father to son and over the years, neighboring lodges from Lake Benton, Holland and Trosky joined the Pipestone Lodge. Since its inception in 1882, a total of 928 men have belonged to Hope Lodge.
But interest has waned over the years.
“It just didn’t appeal to anybody,” Carstensen said. “We didn’t do enough. It was set up so we had no alcohol in the lodge hall. It seemed like all the other organizations had alcohol; that hurt us. But we believed — it was like not drinking in church.”
Odd Fellows also provided socialization for its members. The Pipestone Chapter, for example, held dances and every Thursday evening, the male members played pinochle, Carstensen said.
The Odd Fellows began in 18th Century England, when it was deemed odd to find people organized for the purpose of giving aid to those in need without recognition, according to the IOOF’s Web site. In the United States, Odd Fellows began in 1819 to achieve philanthropic goals prior to insurance, welfare or trade unions: they helped the poor, the sick, the unemployed and established homes for seniors and for orphans.
They still do. And friendship, love and truth continue to be their guiding principals, with most of their teachings based upon the Old Testament, Carstensen said. However, the fraternal organization is nondenominational, insisting only that its members believe in a Supreme Being and exhibit good moral character.
The Odd Fellows provide social and financial assistance through an organizational structure that includes passwords, signs and secrets that members pledge to take with them to the grave. Those secrets were the source of animosity for churches, which Carstensen said were “dead-set against” the Odd Fellows.
“They always talked about the secrets,” Carstensen said. “That was a lot of misconception. The only thing that was really secret was how we communicate with each other that we’re Odd Fellows.”
The local chapter’s dissolve seems a growing trend within the Order. The September/October 2009 newsletter generated from IOOF’s Sovereign Grand Lodge in Winston-Salem, N.C. focuses its goals on how to retain and attract members for the preservation of the Order. No membership numbers are listed on the site, but Carstensen said he thinks the Minnesota Order, for example, is down to 300 members.
Though the Order in Pipestone is now gone, Carstensen pledged to maintain its secrets for life — and though he was asked, he simply laughed and didn’t give up any during this interview.
“You hate to be there when it closes,” Carstensen said. “It’s just time to be done.
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