04/04/2026
• The Odd Fellows began as part of the Friendly Societies movement, where workers pooled resources for mutual aid (sickness, burial, support).
• Historians note that the group more likely arose during the Middle Ages. While specific groups of trades — for example the silversmiths, blacksmiths and so on — could band together to form a larger guild with more trade leverage, the smaller, more unusual merchants and craftsmen might be left out. These odd leftovers may have banded together for mutual benefit, thus forming the first association of “odd” fellows.
• Self-instituted friendly societies existed as far as the year 1500’s but the earliest known mention of Odd Fellows lodges dates to around 1730 in London.
• The modern structure comes from 1819, when Thomas Wildey founded the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) in Baltimore, USA.
👉 Origin: About 296 years old as of 2026.
👉 I.O.O.F.: 207 years old.
