This is a collection of Photographs were taken at the IOOF Home in Checotah. Most of the individuals are unidentified.
Thanks to Pat Kirven Sawyer <patkirven@copper.net> for submitting the photographs!!!!

Checotah IOOF Home 
The following information is based on an article published in a special
Real-estate and Recreation section of the Feb. 24, 2000 issue of the Indian Journal

The home is located on the northern edge of Checotah on land previously owned by pioneer W.E. Gentry.  Gentry and his wife, Sallie offered the 160 acre farm and $5,000 to the IOOF in 1902 for the purpose of establishing a home for the care of orphans and aged.  A three story brick structure was dedicated on April 14, 1093 and was furnished by the local Rebekahs.  The surrounding farm and the home comprised a self-sufficient setting where young people owned and cared for individual stock.  Before free public schools were in existence, children here attended classes conducted within the complex. Additional rooms were added in 1922 and an infirmary was added in 1962.  In its first seventy years of operation the home served a total of 325 adults and 448 orphans..

Today the farm land is leased for pasture except for a portion that is leased to Little League as a complex baseball and soccer fields 

The local Independent Order of Odd Fellows lodge which was chartered in 1895 lost its three-story building in downtown Checotah in a fire that destroyed an entire city block in 1992.  The Rebekahs now meet in the living room of the IOOF Home and the Odd Fellows meet in a new structure dedicated in 1996 on the grounds.

The Home is still in operation, caring for approximately 20 adults.  At present there are no children housed there although facilities are available.

This home has been closed and the land sold.