Odd Fellow and Rebekah Children's Home
Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1885 the Grand Lodge of Texas, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, founded the I. O. O. F. Widows and Orphans Home, one of the first fraternal orphanages in the state. Corsicana Lodge No. 63 and other local citizens gave 200 acres as a site for the facility. On April 26, 1886, the cornerstone for the first permanent building was laid. Only one child was residing here in 1891, but enrollment and financial support soon increased. The home became a self-contained community with its own independent school district, farm and dairy, power plant, and water supply. Abel Rice Auditorium, built in 1911 when enrollment was over 300, contained a swimming pool and gym, and housed the fine arts department sponsored by the Rebekah lodges. This institution also served as a home for the aged from 1905 until a separate facility opened in Ennis in 1928. After peaking at nearly 400 in the 1920s, enrollment dropped sharply in the 1930s and 1940s. The school closed in 1943, and students began attending Corsicana public schools. Campus buildings were modernized in a 1945 "reconversion program." Renamed in 1948, the Odd Fellow and Rebekah Children's Home has provided care for over 5500 persons.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1885 the Grand Lodge of Texas, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, founded this home as one of the state's first fraternal orphanages, on 200 acres given by the Corsicana lodge and local citizens. It grew into a self-contained community with its own school district, farm and dairy, power plant, and even a gym and swimming pool, peaking near 400 residents in the 1920s. It also sheltered the aged until 1928, closed its school in 1943, and, renamed in 1948, has cared for more than 5,500 people over its life.
Why it matters
Before public welfare, fraternal orders like the Odd Fellows built the safety net for orphaned and elderly Americans, and this home is a rare surviving monument to that era of private charity.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the late nineteenth century, Texas had almost no public safety net. If a father died in a farm accident, a war, or an epidemic, his widow and children could be left with nothing. Counties offered little, and state help for orphans was limited. Into that gap stepped churches and, more and more, fraternal orders.
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows was among the largest of these brotherhoods. It came to the United States in the early 1800s and spread quickly. Its members pledged to visit the sick, bury the dead, and care for the widow and the orphan, and they meant it literally. Dues paid by working men in thousands of small lodges added up to real money for real institutions.
Corsicana in the 1880s was a growing railroad and cotton town on the blackland prairie. A town like that had the community spirit, the land, and the lodge membership to host something ambitious. When the Grand Lodge of Texas went looking for a site, the Corsicana lodge and local citizens offered 200 acres.
The decades that followed brought great changes in how America cared for children. In the early twentieth century, reformers argued over whether orphans did better in big institutions or in families. By the 1930s, the New Deal began building a public safety net that would, over time, change who needed a home like this one.
People & events
The home began in 1885, when the Grand Lodge of Texas, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, founded the I.O.O.F. Widows and Orphans Home. It was one of the first fraternal orphanages in the state. Corsicana Lodge No. 63 and its neighbors donated the land. On April 26, 1886, the cornerstone for the first permanent building was laid. That kind of ceremony usually drew lodge members in full regalia and a crowd of townspeople.
The start was slow. In 1891 only one child lived here. But word spread, lodges across Texas sent support, and enrollment grew. The home became a world of its own. It had its own independent school district, a farm and dairy, a power plant, and its own water supply. The children did not just live here; they went to school, worked, and grew up here.
In 1911, with more than 300 enrolled, the home built Abel Rice Auditorium. It held a swimming pool and gym, which few small-town Texas children could have dreamed of. It also housed a fine arts department sponsored by the Rebekah lodges, the women's branch of the Odd Fellows. The Rebekahs made sure these children had music and art, not just food and shelter.
The home cared for the elderly too. From 1905 it served as a home for the aged, until a separate facility opened in Ennis in 1928. Enrollment peaked at nearly 400 in the 1920s, then fell sharply through the 1930s and 1940s. The home's own school closed in 1943, and its students joined Corsicana's public schools. A 1945 'reconversion program' modernized the campus. In 1948 it took the name it carries today, the Odd Fellow and Rebekah Children's Home. Over its life it has cared for more than 5,500 people.
Its place in the American story
Before Social Security, foster-care systems, and federal aid to families, much of the American safety net was built by private groups. Fraternal orders like the Odd Fellows, Masons, and many others ran orphanages, old-age homes, and burial funds across the country. They were funded by the small, steady dues of ordinary members. The Corsicana home is a Texas example of that once-enormous movement.
The home's story follows the national arc of child welfare closely. It grew through the late 1800s and early 1900s, peaked in the 1920s, and then shrank as the nation changed. From the 1930s on, public programs expanded and attitudes about raising children in institutions shifted. Many historians tie the decline of large orphanages to both of those changes. The exact mix of causes varied from place to place, and the marker records the drop without explaining it.
The home was also a complete little town, with its own school district, power, and water. That says something about the ambition of these institutions. They weren't just shelters. They tried to give children a full upbringing, including schooling, work, recreation, and the arts.
The home's women's branch matters too. The Rebekah lodges' sponsorship of fine arts shows the large, often overlooked role women played in American fraternal charity. Women did much of that work, even in organizations whose public face was male.
If you visit
This is a campus with a long history and, according to the marker, a continuing mission of care. Visit respectfully. Read the marker and take in the setting from public areas, and keep in mind that it may still be home to residents. Don't wander onto grounds or into buildings unless you have permission.
As you look around, imagine the place at its peak in the 1920s. Nearly 400 young people lived here, with fields and a dairy to tend, classes to attend, and an auditorium with a swimming pool waiting after chores. Try to picture how the campus once ran almost entirely on its own.
Corsicana makes an easy stop along Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston. It's a good place to stretch your legs and explore a historic downtown. The town is also known for its oil history, since an oil strike here in the 1890s was one of the first significant ones in Texas. So you can easily build a half-day around the area's past.
For families, this marker is a good conversation starter. Ask your kids who would have looked after children in 1885 if their parents were gone. The answer here is ordinary neighbors, organized into lodges, who decided they would.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Themes & tags
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