The question of the week was inspired by several old Philadelphia post cards I bought yesterday in Berlin, Md. So I’ll be posting some of those post cards on here and doing a little research on each place I post. We start with The Home for Orphans of Odd Fellows of Pennsylvania. Here’s what I’ve been able to find out so far.
The Odd Fellows in question are a fraternal organization, one that in the 1890s had more members than the Masons. The following few sentences from a freemasons website helps explain the orphanage.
Although heavily influenced by Freemasonry’s rituals, symbols, and tenets, a large measure of the Odd Fellows success came from its dedication to serve its members. Its three secret ritual initiations taught the “three links” of fraternity as “Friendship, Love, and Truth” and commanded its brothers to “Visit the Sick, Relieve the Distressed, Bury the Dead, Care for the Widow, and Educate the Orphan.”
If there was only one Odd Fellows Orphanage in Philadelphia, then it was located somewhere on Ontario Street near Kensington. I have found a record of all of the children and staff at the establishment in 1900. See if you have a long lost ancestor there. Do we have any descendants of Otto Wirtenborg reading this blog?