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Photo by Bob Pennell Doug Davis of Jacksonville, an Odd Fellow for 40 years, stands at the podium of the noble grand, a position he has held five times. The Jacksonville lodge is embroiled in a dispute with the Odd Fellows' state organization. Crisis splits Odd Fellows Financial dispute in Jacksonville prompts closure of historic lodge by state leaders By CHRIS BRISTOL and JIM DAVIS JACKSONVILLE -- For more than 139 years the Odd Fellows in this town have met without interruption in the order's most historic lodge in Oregon. Now it's all over. A dispute that started over nothing more serious than a leaky roof degenerated into a family feud among the Jacksonville chapter's members, many of them friends for more than 40 years. Now the state organization has ordered the closure today of the historic hall. "I never thought it would come to this," said Doug Davis, who is the noble grand, the top position of the chapter. "It's all politics." Already the Independent Order of Odd Fellows top state officials have seized the local lodge bank account and changed the post office box. Today they are expected to change the locks and take the seal back to Portland. Alex Smith, secretary for the Odd Fellows, said he was called by members of the state organization on Tuesday and ordered to turn over the chapter's seal by 11 a.m. today. "It's the sorriest thing that ever happened to the city of Jacksonville or for the lodge brothers throughout the whole United States," he said. The local membership can file an appeal with the national chapter, but the appeal must be submitted within the next seven days, Smith added. How could this happen? Members of the Jacksonville lodge blame fellow brother Kindred Thomas for the mess. They say the trouble started in 1995 when Thomas -- who was the secretary at the time -- paid his son John Thomas more than $15,000 to reroof the lodge, one of the oldest buildings in one of the oldest and best-preserved towns in the West. The Odd Fellows have designated the lodge a historic shrine since 1954. Many of the furnishings had been shipped around the Horn and packed by mule train from Crescent City. When the new roof began to leak, members were dismayed to learn that John Thomas was not a registered contractor. Worse yet, he was not bonded, as required by law. Thomas was fined $2,500 by the state Construction Contractors Board last year for the incident. By the time a new contractor fixed the problem, the total cost of the project had doubled to about $26,000. Soon the fingerpointing began. Some members talked about a lawsuit. Lodge meetings became tense affairs. "You can't blame them for not kissing up to (Thomas), and that's how they got into trouble," said Ileane Davis, wife of Doug Davis and herself a 40-year member of the sister Rebekah Lodge. Doug and Ileane Davis say Kindred Thomas is a top official in the Odd Fellows statewide hierarchy, which, they say, explains the closure of the lodge. "The Grand Lodge only listened to Kindred," Ileane Davis said. "They only want to hear his side of the story." Thomas, who has been a member for 50 years, declined to talk about the lodge's imminent closure. "I'm not at liberty to talk about that," he said. A man who answered the phone at the the Grand Lodge of Oregon in Portland said the state organization sent each Jacksonville member a letter about "conduct unbecoming an Odd Fellow." But the man declined to identify himself or elaborate on the problem that is leading to the hall's closure. Jim Witt, who has been a member for three years and holds the Jacksonville position of vice grand, complained that he and his fellow brothers were treated by the state organization with a "heavy hand." "The thing that's upsetting is a lot of these guys have 35 or 40 years in that lodge," Witt said. "To be treated like this by the state (organization) is unfair." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA