Eden1
Contents
EDEN LODGE
Location: Ware
Chartered By: John Abbot
Charter Date: 09/08/1824 III-506
Precedence Date: 09/08/1824
Current Status: unknown; dormant from 11/1827 through 01/1848; ceased work in 11/1848.
PAST MASTERS
- Anthony Olney, 1824, 1825
REFERENCES IN GRAND LODGE PROCEEDINGS
- Petition for Charter: 1824
VISITS BY GRAND MASTER
none
HISTORY
- 1938 (Notes on this lodge in 75th Anniversary History of Eden Lodge, 1938-425; see below)
- 1964 (Notes on this lodge in Centenary History of Eden Lodge, 1964-186)
NOTES IN 75TH ANNIVERSARY HISTORY OF EDEN LODGE, NOVEMBER 1938
. . . That Lodge had its beginnings in 1824, and its first meeting was held in the "school house in Ware Factory Village." The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Massachusetts issued a Charter to the then Eden Lodge on September 20, 1824. The first Master of that Lodge was Anthony Olney. During the first four years of its active existence, as many as 60 joined the Lodge and signed its By-Laws. The meetings were continued in the same school house, and then a year later the members met in the "hall of Samuel Newhall's Building."
The Lodge ran into financial difficulties, so that in January 1826, it had a sizable debt amounting to $250. After strenuous efforts, the members raised the money and paid the debt in full. But after November 1827, for reasons not available, the Lodge ceased to function.
There was then a lapse of twenty-one years. On January 18, 1848, Eden Lodge convened once more, holding its first meeting in Odd Fellow's Hall. Unable to continue its meetings there, the members secured the "Attic" of a building called "The Arcade" which they furnished as a Lodge-room, and for which they paid an annual rental of $25. There were about fifteen members in this newly revived Lodge. Within a year, however, fire destroyed the building where they were meeting. And so, in November 1848, two months after the fire, the Brethren met sadly, reviewed the situation, assessed the members three dollars each to discharge the debts of the Lodge, and apparently the Lodge ceased to function.
OTHER
- 1825 (constitution of lodge; officiated by Rt. Wor. Joseph Thayer, District Deputy Grand Master; III-581)
- 1828 (delinquency in Grand Lodge assessments; IV-147)
- 1829 (delinquency in Grand Lodge assessments; IV-170)
