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Posted 03-14-2006 One NEWS-Bit of Berks historical interest.... ====================== ================= ============= ====================== ================= ============= Skeletons in the closet? Make no bones about it! ----------------- ----------------- This News-Bit has been dispatched in response to numerous email queries received witin the last several days. ---------------- ------------------ In a Reading Eagle article of March 10, Mike Urban reported that an acution last Saturday at the Kempton Community Recreaton Center included three adult skeletons in 6-foot-long vintage coffins. PHOTO: The three skeletons sold at Kempton. Photo by Eagle photographer John A. Secoges. Auctioneer Rob't A. Arner of New Ringgold stated that the century-old specimens belonged to "a defunct chapter of an international fraternal organization that used them in its secret rituals." Bare bones attribution.... In all probability, the skeletons were a good deal older than a century, and the name of that elusive fraternal organization is the Odd Fellows. Other secret societies employed "relics" in their rituals, this at a time when most folks were overtly superstitious and fearful of the death spectre. The auctioneer reported to Mr. Urban that he sold three other skeletons in 2001. Your editor recalls that sale well but had forgotten that they brought between $750 and $900 each. Arner further noted that "selling human bones does not violate any state or federal laws." ------------------------------ In the days before radio, tv, sound movies, etc., many men joined fraternal organizations for somethng to do during the long winter evenings. Every town and village had one or more secret societies; many shared a common lodge hall--always on the top floor--to keep peering eyes from their ritual proceedings and subsequent conviviality. In Berks County, a number of organizations built their own lodge halls--often three stories in height--and rented out the first floor or two for a general store operation, to generate revenue. There was always a separate stairway leading to the hall, sometimes on the side or back of the building. PHOTO: The former lodge building of the Red Men at Yellow House has three front doors. Notice the one in the middle, with its own handrails. This doorway led up three flights of stairs to the large hall where meetings were held. Men often belonged to more than one society so that any night they had free they could "go to a meeting" to while away the evening. It should be noted that most of the societies included a small health and death benefit. A century ago, these societies and organizations throve in our county: Ancient F. and A. Masons, Brotherhood of the Union, Foresters of America, Grand Army of the Republic, granges, Harugari, Improved Order of Heptasophs, Knights of Friendship, Knights of the Golden Eagle, Knights of Pythias, Modern Woodmen of America, Odd Fellows, Order of United Americans, Patriotic Order Sons of America, Patriotic Order of Americans, Red Men, Senior Order United American Mechanics, etc., etc. Many more could be listed. For the record, some of the groups listed above had a parallel society for women. A small, very elderly group of Ladies of the Golden Eagle continued to meet in Blandon into the late 1970's, early '80's. They outlasted their male counterparts by decades. At the end, they met in a special room built onto the head Lady's residence. --------------------------------------------- One by one, the aforementioend "orders" became defunct as longtime members moved away, became too old to climb the steps to the top floor (!), and died off. With the coming of affordable automobiles, movies (often in the local fire company building), radio, etc., young men no longer needed to join "a secret society" for evening pasttime. In Reading, until around 20 years ago, several old-time societies (on different days) met on the 1st floor of a home off the corner of 3rd and Greenwich. Mohnton had the last functioning chapter in America of the the American Mechanics; it disbanded a number of years ago. ------------------------------------------------- An article published five years ago in the San Francisco Chronicle was headlined "Remnants of Secret Society Post a Mystery Across the U.S. Skeletons Found in Old Lodges of Odd Fellows." Warrenton, VA.: Paul Wallace was alone, repairing overloaded circuits in an old red-brick building when he discovered a tiny door to a dark recess between two walls. Inside was a black wooden box. Curious, Wallace tugged it from its dark resting place. A white shroud appeared. Then leathery ribs. Then white candles. The top of the skull was covered but you could see the rib cage and sinew. For a good 20 minutes, Wallace sat frozen. Finally, he returned the skeleton to its home between the walls of the Warrenton lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. When police learned of Wallace's macabre discovery, they rushed to get a search wannant and seized the remains. State medical examiners studied the bones; neighbors speculated the identity of the corpse and why it was there. (In the end, nothing came of the investigation and the skeleton was returned.) But perhaps the strangest things about the mini-drama is that strikingly similar mysteries have played out across the country. It turned out that skeletons like the one found at Warrenton reside in closets, drawers, attics, and crawl spaces in old-time Odd Fellows lodges nationwide. To members of the age-old fraternal order, the skeleton is a symbol of mortality, a treasured relic used in one of their most solemn and secret rituals: Initation. As with many fraternal orders that compete with today's fast-pace lifestyles, interest in the Odd Fellows--and similar organizations--has waned and many lodges have closed. Accordingly, more and more skeletons are emerging from their hiding places, often to the great surprise of the souls who come upon them. Wayne Colegrove, a longtime Odd Fellow from N.Y., recalled his initiation more than half a century ago. He guarded his words carefully but spoke of passwords and a skeleton that "wasn't to be seen by anybody until you take the degree. "The words you say are something like, 'You're here, and pretty soon you're gone, and there's a hereafter.' " Most often the skeletons were purchased from scientific or fraternal-supply companies. One catalog from the early 1900's advertised "a genuine, full-size selected speciment, set up and wired, fairly deodorized." There was a time Sears and Montgomery Ward sold such specimens in their "specialized catalogs," primarily for anatomical instruction. A follow-up piece in last Sunday's Eagle reported that the skeletons at Kempton were purchased by three different buyers for $740, $880, and $900. The three plan to display them in their homes, and all were first- time skeleton buyers! (Special thanks to Mike Urban.)

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