This memorial gravestone was made in tribute to the man considered to be the founder of the Odd Fellows fraternity in the United States. Thomas Wildey was born in London in 1782. He apprenticed as a coach maker and was initiated into Odd Fellows Lodge No. 17 as a young man. In 1817 he immigrated to the United States, landing in Baltimore, where he was able to find work as a coach maker. In 1819 Wildey organized Washington Lodge No. 1 with Odd Fellow John Welch (1792–1851) by self-institution. Other American lodges are known to have been established at earlier dates, but this lodge was the first to be formally recognized, and received a charter from England in 1820. 

When Wildey died in 1861, “everywhere the Order sorrowed . . . yet in gratitude that he had been spared so long . . . to accomplish so much for humanity.” The Odd Fellows erected a monument to Wildey’s memory in Baltimore in 1865. This gravestone was probably constructed by members of a lodge for the same reasons: to remember a cherished leader and appreciate his contributions.