FARMINGTON – Paul Washburn was only 34 when he first joined the fraternal Oddfellows society in the 1950s.
Now 85, he’s spent over half his life as a member.
He’s made friends, gained high offices, helped raise and donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity, initiated new members.
And now, he’s watching quietly as the organization dies.
Larry Wilbur, who says at 83 he’s still just a kid, remembers that in the late 1940s when he joined there were 40 or 50 people per chapter. There was a chapter in most towns. Now there are less than 20 members in the Williamson Lodge 20 – which combined with the Livermore Falls lodge years ago.
Used to be, Wilbur said, that if your grandfather joined, then your father joined. And if your father joined, you joined.
It was fun, with parties and get-togethers, and auxiliaries where the wives could do the same.
The lofty principals espoused by the order and honored by the eldest members – kindness, generosity, care for the widowed, the orphaned, the sick and the poor – were dwarfed by the fun.
“That was the social life, years ago,” Washburn said.
“But now we’re down to a very few, and everybody’s old,” Wilbur chimed in. “It’s hard to get new members. We’ve got nothing to offer.”
So they’re giving their money away.
Friday they donated $200,000 to Franklin Memorial Hospital’s library. After nearly 200 years of members in Franklin and Androscoggin counties buying up property, making investments, and saving, there’s a good chunk of change in the Oddfellow’s purse, Washburn said.
The $200,000 donation that went Friday to Franklin Memorial Hospital is only one in a long list of big and small gifts they’ll be giving. They are trying to get rid of their account, Washburn said.
They’re old enough that if they don’t give it away now, they’ll never get the pleasure of seeing their money go to good use.
“The reason we’re getting rid of it now,” said Wilbur, “is it isn’t going to be long before (the Oddfellows) are done. If we don’t dispose of what money we have,” he trailed off. It makes them proud to give. It’s fun. They want to enjoy it, he said.
The local lodge will only keep enough to pay for dinners and social events for the members, Washburn said. The rest they hope to give away, as their membership dwindles.
“It’s a sign of the times,” Washburn said. When he joined, there were 17 other guys joining on the same day.
“Now, we go 10-20 years without a new candidate. The last one was Ben – and that was 25 years ago now,” he said.
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