SDSilverStar4
LODGE NAME
Location: Canton
Precedence Date: 02/06/1875
Charter Date: 06/03/1875
Dakota GL Charter Date: 06/22/1875
Chartering Grand Master: Grand Lodge of Iowa, as Silver Star #345
Current Status: Active
NOTES
From "The First 100 Years of the Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of South Dakota, 1875-1975", Page 7:’'
Time had moved on to 1874 before a group of brothers headed by Mark W. Bailey, an attorney, called a meeting to organize a lodge in Canton, Dakota Territory. Ten Brothers responded and signed a petition asking for a dispensation to open a lodge. Action was favorable by the Grand Lodge of Iowa and a dispensation was issued on February 6, 1875. The first officers were Brother Wm. H. Miller, Worshipful Master; Brother Mark W. Bailey, Senior Warden; and Brother S. H. Stafford, Junior Warden. A charter was issued on June 3, 1875. The lodge was assigned number 345 and designated as Silver Star.
The charter had hardly been received by the lodge when in the minutes of June 16, 1875, we find, "A communication was received from Brother Henry H. Blair, Worshipful Master of Elk Point Lodge No. 288, with an invitation to attend a convention for the formation of a Grand Lodge of Dakota. On motion the communication was received and the Master, Wm. H. Miller; the Senior Warden, Mark W. Bailey; and the Junior Warden, S. H. Stafford, Jr., were elected to attend the meeting at Elk Point on June 22, 1875."
GRAND MASTERS
- Oscar S. Gifford Raised 1877
- James Lewis Raised 1881
