When members of Alexandrina Lodge, No. 1026 of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows gathered at their Court Street, Hamilton Lodge Sunday for their Annual Peter Odgen Day Celebrations and to mark the lodge’s 160th anniversary, their first order was first to pay homage to three Grand United Oddfellows who were most conspicuous by their absence.The Noble Grand (NG or Presiding Officer) Leo Mills named the three stalwarts whom he said had “passed to the grand lodge above” for their heavenly rewards as: Sis Evelyn Smith, who was in her 105th year when she recently died; Sis Irene Seaton, 90 and Bro Kenneth Minors, in his late 60s. Bro Mills said it was noteworthy to single out Mrs. Smith’s daughter, Roddell Smith Matthew, who faithfully escorted her mother to the lodge celebrations over the years, had chosen to continue her mother’s traditions.A moment of silence was observed, followed by singing of the famous Odd Fellows Ode, “Bless Be The tie that binds” the last words of which are, ”And we asunder part, it gives us inward pain; but we shall be joined in heart and hope to meet again.”The Odgen Service Thanksgiving Service followed, with a spirited sermon preached by Pastor O’Brien Cartwright. He was introduced by Bro Stanford Hart, the lodge’s Vice Grand Master, and thanked by its secretary, Dr. Burton Butterfield.Peter Odgen was the man who has a special place in the evolution of black people, most especially Oddfellows, since their emancipation from slavery in 1834. He established the Grand United Order of Oddfellows in America (GUO of OF) in 1843, in New York.With his own slavery background and grit as a self-educated widely travelled merchant seaman, Odgen did not take lightly the rebuff he got when he sought to join an Oddfellows lodge in New York, which proved to be a “white only’ lodge”. His hope and expectation in seeking to join, was to receive some of the benefits such lodges promised men of character seeking to protect themselves and families in times of sickness and adversity.The late Bermudian scholar, Dr. Kenneth in his book Heritage noted that when the Peter Odgen story reached Bermuda, it so fired the imagination of a group of black men they decided to go to the USA and became members of the New York lodge there. Upon their return home they made known their highly favoured impressions about Oddfellowship which resulted in the first of that Order, Somers Pride of India Lodge being formed under a Pride of India tree in St George’s in 1848.Four years later, two more lodges were formed in Bermuda. They were Alexandrina No 1026, in Court Street, Hamilton, in 1852 and shortly thereafter Albert Lodge, No 1027 in Somerset. Alexandrina is that impressive blue building south of the HSBC Drive-in Bank.While the American-based Grand United Odd fellowship flourished here, it was not until 1879 that the Manchester, England-based Independent Order of Oddfellows took root in Bermuda. It stemmed from the fraternisation of British military personnel based in the Island with black Bermudians.The walls of Alexandrina Lodge hall are lined with photographs of historic events and the leading black men who impacted on the business, fraternal and political affairs of Bermuda over the past 150 or more years.