Thomas Wildey,  the founder of Odd Fellowship in North America, was a man of intense vitality, humor and warmth. Born in London, England in 1782 he was left orphaned at five years of age.  The Odd Fellow Pledge to "Educate the Orphan" sprang from his personal experiences as a child.

Odd Fellowship in America began in 1819 , when Wildey ( who had imigrated to America in 1817) found himself  missing the companionship that he once had in England placed an advertisement a local Baltimore newspaper inquiring if there were any other Odd Fellows in Baltimore, requesting them to meet him at the Seven Stars Inn.

On April 26, 1819, Thomas Wildey and the four men who  answered the advertisement met at the appointed place and began the process for what would become the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in America.


For more information please go the The Sovereign Grand Website