History
Three Links Care Center, originally known as the Minnesota Odd Fellows Home, has a long history of caring for the young and old in Northfield. The concept began in the early 1800s, when the Odd Fellows committee selected the 120 acres known as the Nutting Farm to establish a home for widows and orphans. Northfield seemed a perfect place for them to realize their visions, as it had two colleges, a respected school system and was on a rail line. The Home for the widows and orphans of the Odd Fellows Fraternal Lodge members opened in 1899. Today, over one hundred years later, the mission has expanded to care for all residents seeking the services of Three Links Care Center.
Heritage
History of the Odd Fellowship
The Odd Fellowship traces its origins to England in the 1700s. Authoritative history gives the following explanation for the name: “That common laboring men should associate themselves together and form a fraternity for social unity and fellowship and for mutual help.” This was such a marked violation of the trends of the times that the members became known as “peculiar” or “odd,” and hence they were derided as “Odd Fellows.” The earliest printed record of an Odd Fellows Lodge appears in a reference to a lodge meeting at a Globe Tavern in England in 1748. This lodge was numbered nine, so apparently there were at least nine associated Odd Fellows lodges at that time. By 1796, Odd Fellows organizations were numerous in England, and each was independent from the others. Fraternal groups such as the Odd Fellows were suppressed in England for a time, but by 1803 the Odd Fellows were revived by an organization called “London Union Odd Fellows,” which later became known as the “Grand Lodge of England,” and assumed authority over all Odd Fellows Lodges in England.
Odd Fellowship in North America
The first records of the Order in America is that of five Brothers of the English Order who met in New York City in 1806, and formed Shakespeare Lodge No. 1. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows as we know it today began in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 26, 1819 with the founding of the Washington Lodge No. 1. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows in North America (United States and Canada) became independent from the Order in England in 1834. In the 1840s the Odd Fellowship began expanding westward.
Motto of the Order of Odd Fellows: Friendship, Love and Truth
This is a copy of a postcard mailed by a Dundas, Minnesota, resident to a friend in 1907. At that time, part of the building at the left housed children, the center had a library, offices and rooms for employees, and the hidden part housed the elderly. The Annex at the right served as Northfield’s Hospital from 1900-1910, and was later used for elderly.
Traditional Duties of an Odd Fellow Are:
- To visit the sick
- To relieve the distressed
- To bury the dead
- To educate the orphan