Washington Odd Fellows Lodge

Brother and Sisters, please remember these words.

We had our annual Memorial Day Service on May 23. We honored our fellow Odd Fellows buried at our cemetery, then we moved to our columbarium to read the 300 new cremains entombed in our facility, then we buried ashes of a local woman in our Wildey Cemetery. We are Odd Fellows.

We spruced up our lodge for the Memorial Day Service on May 23 at 9:00.

Pacific Lodge #86 of Washington proudly announces that it will conduct the annual Memorial Day weekend services at its Wildey Odd Fellows Cemetery, located off of Clay Street on Wildey Way, on Saturday, May 23 beginning at 9:00 a.m. Services at the cemetery gazebo will memorialize the deceased members of the Odd Fellows and Rebekah Lodges buried therein. Immediately following, services to remember the dead now resting in the columbarium for unclaimed Missourian’s cremains will be held at the columbarium located on the cemetery grounds. After that, an interment service will be held for one of our columbarium’s ‘residents’ who was recognized by a member of our Lodge. Her cremains will be buried in our cemetery. All of these services combined should last about one hour. We hope you will consider attending!

Historically, many Odd Fellow Lodges would use human skeletons purchased from medical schools in their initiatory ceremonies during which candidates are shown a funerary scene to illustrate, poignantly, the frailty of life and encourage them to do good deeds in this short span of life. Many Lodges still have, and use, such skeletons, but sadly, many skeletons have been relegated to abandonment, dumping and perhaps even worse fates. In recent years, our Lodge picked up severa...l skeletons from a Lodge that was moving to a new location and no longer had need for them. Our thought was to offer these human remains a decent, final resting place. Last autumn, we ceremoniously buried three skeletons in the Wildey Odd Fellows Cemetery. We are currently seeking donations to pay for an appropriate headstone for the single grave they were gently placed in. Donations may be sent to: Wildey Odd Fellows Cemetery P. O. Box 532 Washington, MO 63090

Dr. Alexander F. Werth died in 1911 in St. Louis and was cremated at the Missouri Crematory, which later was acquired by Valhalla. His ashes were stored unclaimed at Valhalla until 2019 when our lodge chose to claim him because he had been a practicing physician in Washington from about 1880 to 1900 and some of his family is buried in the Wildey Cemetery. A burial service was held last fall at which he received a Volley courtesy of local Civil War re-en actors.

IOOF, Pacific Lodge #86 of Washington, MO is trying to raise funds to purchase a headstone for one of our cremains in our columbarium that lay unclaimed. The cremains of Trena Skaggs will be buried during our Memorial Day service at the Wildey Cemetery. Please read the story below. Any donation is appreciated. In F.L.&T.

Thomas Wildey Day January 15, 2020 Celebrate Odd Fellowship!Thomas Wildey Day January 15, 2020 Celebrate Odd Fellowship!