Odd Fellows Museum, Clinton, IL

When I couldn’t find the Odd Fellows Museum, I stopped to ask directions at a day care center nearby. Locked tight and ringing the bell for several minutes with no answer made me suspicious of what it really was. As luck would have it, as I was looking for another place to ask direction, I found it. A squat brick building with a garden-variety statue of Rebecca, who through her generosity became Isaac’s wife. Spelled differently, the Rebekahs are the women of the Odd Fellows Masonic service organization. Inside were several office desks with only one person in the whole place. She welcomed me and showed me to the back room where the museum is located. Sadly, for such a wonderful museum, when I signed in, I noticed that I was the only visitor that week. The museum is full of wonderful Masonic regalia and hundreds of artifacts and objects, some old, some new, but all beautifully crafted and overflowing with mystic symbols.