Thomas Wildey and the four expatriate Odd…
April 1819 CE
Thomas Wildey and the four expatriate Odd Fellows who had responded to his advertisement—John Welch, John Duncan, John Cheatam, and Richard Rushworth—form the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in North America on April 26, 1819, dedicating the Order to achieve philanthropic goals.
It will affiliate with the Manchester Unity in 1820.
Other Englishmen who are Odd Fellows had grouped in the states along the Eastern Seaboard, and Wildey will gather them all into the newly formed fraternity traveling widely to set up lodges in the most recently settled parts of the country.
The IOOF pledge to "Educate the Orphan" springs from his personal childhood experiences.
Born in London, England, in 1782, Wildey had been left an orphan at five.
He had gone to live with an uncle at the age of fourteen, and, after nine years of schooling, became an apprentice to a maker of coach springs.
In 1804, he had joined the Oddfellows, a British friendly society with origins in the eighteenth century.
Because of the War of 1812, the British were still unpopular in the United States when Wildey emigrated to America in 1817.
In that year, Baltimore was suffering both a yellow fever epidemic and mass unemployment.
An outgoing personality, Wildey missed companionship and had advertised in the newspaper to determine if there were any other Odd Fellows in Baltimore; he requested them to meet him at the Seven Stars Inn.