Less than a month after this removal, on the 7th of April, the lodge, by resolution, granted permission to its German members to withdraw and organize a new lodge, and shortly thereafter Schiller Lodge was duly organized.
The two lodges met, for five years, in the hall on Second street. But in 1873, another change occurred. A large and beautiful room in the building on the corner of Commercial and Sixth streets, was leased for a term of years, elegantly fitted up, and dedicated, with appropriate ceremonies.
Ten years later, in 1883, the building of the present Odd Fellows’ Temple was commenced, and on the 20th of November, 1884, it was formally dedicated. It is an enduring monument to the enterprise and public spirit of the Odd Fellows of Atchison. It is worth fully twenty-five thousand dollars, and the debt contracted in building it has been, in less than three years, almost extinguished. The lodge has one hundred and forty-four members in good standing, and its future prosperity is assured.
One of the charter members of Friendship Lodge, and its first Noble Grand, Dr. C. A. Logan, attained the highest position known in Odd-Fellowship, that of Grand Sire of the United States and Canada; and afterwards represented this country, with distinguished usefulness, as Minister Plenipotentiary to Chili. Others of its members have filled many official positions of dignity and importance. Two of its members, John M. Price and Charles H. Krebs, have been Grand Masters of the Order in Kansas; two, Samuel H. Kelsey and your speaker, have been Grand Patriarchs of the Grand Encampment; and two, John M. Price and S. H. Kelsey, have frequently been elected delegates to the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the World. Eleven of the eighteen Mayors of this city have been members of Friendship Lodge, and its rolls have always included a very large number of our most prominent and public-spirited citizens, engaged in all branches of business. The whole history of Friendship Lodge has been creditable to the Order and its principles, and it is to-day one of the most prosperous lodges in the West.
I have neither the time nor the disposition to discuss the principles, influence, and aims of Odd-Fellowship. The Order needs neither defense nor eulogy. I have never believed that initiation in any secret society, no matter what its principles or purposes might be, would make a good man out of a person who is inherently mean, vicious, or depraved. But the vast majority of men are not naturally bad, and a very large proportion of those whose lives are hopelessly wrecked, fall because of their surroundings. Pliant and weak, they are insensibly but irresistibly swept into wrong-doing and vice by the force of example and associations. Upon this class of men, I do sincerely believe, such societies as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows exert a restraining, reforming, and always wholesome influence. The lessons taught in the ritual, the principles on which the Order is based, the virtues that are constantly exalted in every ceremony of Odd-Fellowship, and, above all, the strengthening and inspiring associations of the lodge-room—all these wholesome influences must exert, upon the minds and hearts of Odd Fellows, and especially upon the younger members, a strong and helpful control. Every lesson and precept of Odd-Fellowship exalts the homely virtues of industry, frugality, truth, benevolence, kindliness to others, fidelity to duty, respect for law, and consideration for the rights of all men. True Odd-Fellowship exalts manhood, enjoins sobriety, demands charity, inspires patriotism, and teaches the universal Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of man. No man can be a good Odd Fellow who is not a good citizen, a true husband, father, son, and brother, a helpful friend, and a truthful, sober, kindly, honest, and industrious man.
I do not assert that all these virtues can be said to distinguish all Odd Fellows. Members of the order are only human. They have the same passions and self-control, the same strength and weaknesses, the same virtues and frailties, that are common to the whole human race. But I do assert that membership in the Order—its teachings, its principles, the noble examples it is constantly exalting, and the virtues it holds up as the best and highest qualities of humanity—cannot fail to exert a beneficent influence upon the lives and conduct of its members. I believe Friendship Lodge has exerted such an influence upon many men. It has aided them to see the right, and influenced them to do right, often, perhaps, when they did not themselves realize the subtle but powerful control of its teachings. It has been a useful organization in this community, and such, I fervently hope and trust, it will ever be. Its old members, I am sure, have only pleasant memories of its past; its younger members will, I believe, find equal enjoyment and profit in its future growth and usefulness.
MODEST KANSAS.
Address delivered at the Kansas City Exposition, October 31st, 1887.
Mr. President: When the managers of this Exposition invited me to visit it on “Kansas Day,” I said that I would be very glad to do so if I could be permitted to come to see, and not to talk. Less than two days after this covenant was made, I read, in the veracious and enterprising journals of this city, the announcement that I was to make “an address.”
Perhaps that may be the Kansas City way of doing things. I hope, however, it is not. Because, on our side of the line, there are very few such orators as Warner is. So if you make a practice of inviting Kansans to visit you to see something you have to show, and then call on them to talk, you may not be able to catch them again. Kansans are not accustomed to blowing their own horns. You never heard a Kansan exalting the wealth and prosperity of his State, did you? Or telling any one that Kansas was the center, the glory, the bright particular star of the Universe? Or declaring that its soil was the richest and deepest, its atmosphere the purest, its people the most intelligent, enterprising, and energetic, and its women the most beautiful in the known world? Or asserting that the development of Kansas was without parallel in the history of American States? Or affirming that there were more railroads to the square mile, and more corn and wheat to the acre, and more prosperous and growing cities per county, and greater wealth per capita, in Kansas, than in any other section of the civilized globe? These facts are told in histories, census reports, geographies, and other official records, but you never hear a Kansan boasting about them! We are a modest people, and are not puffed up, even if we have the best and greatest State in the Union.