Equity

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EQUITY LODGE

Location: South Hadley

Dispensation may have been presented to Grand Master Weld sometime in 1894.

Current Status: dispensation declined, but there is no documentation on it.


SOUTH HADLEY, 1894

An undated document from some time in late 1893 or early 1894 reads as follows: "We the undersigned are desireous {sic} of having a Lodge of F. & A. M. formed in South Hadley so that we may have an oportunity {sic} to join with them." It bears nineteen signatures: W. A. Thayer, E. L. Smith, Benj. F. DeWitt, C. S. Dickinson, J. A. Bennett, A. L. Smail, Thomas White, Frank Stacy, E. O. Hopkins, C. T. Snow, E. A. Thayer, Waldo Burnett, William Lyman, J. Estabrook, E. W. Proctor, S. G. Preston, A. S. Graus, C. A. Gridley, G. W. Kellogg.

A note dated January 5, 1894, and addressed to Bro. Hollis E. DeWitt (whose name is not among the nineteen signatures above), reads: "Your petition came duly to hand, was presented at our regular meeting held last night. Permission was granted you to apply for a dispensation and when you have your application properly drawn, the Lodge will sign it and put on its seal." It was signed by the Master and Secretary of Mount Holyoke Lodge of South Hadley Falls, the community closest to the petitioners.

There is a letter addressed to Rt. Wor. Bro. Edward P. Chapin, District Deputy Grand Master of the 16th Masonic District. The writer indicates that "our territory as set off to us by Mount Holyoke Lodge . . . is about one half of the town of South Hadley but not one half of the inhabitants, for it is much more thickly settled at South Hadley Falls than here. . . Four of the petitioners to the Grand Lodge . . . reside in Granby and we shall expect large additions from there; it is three miles from South Hadley to Granby and seven from there to Belchertown." Further, he noted, there were several members of the Grange in Hadley who would be interested, choosing a new lodge in South Hadley in preference to Jerusalem Lodge "as the Connecticut River lies between them and Jerusalem Lodge and they must go around by the bridge to get to Northampton. . . there had been no crossing the river this winter." Finally, he notes, "A list of 19 names has just been handed to me by a man who says he could get 20 more if he could take the time to go to them." It was evidently sufficiently compelling for Bro. Chapin to countersign the petition sent to the Grand Lodge, which was also endorsed by Mount Holyoke Lodge; it bore the names: Newton Jones, Samuel N. Miller (as Secretary), Hollis B. DeWitt, Homer S. Bell, O. L. Davis, John W. Walker, H. S. Dunklee, Harvey Judd, J. C. Mellen, Moses P. Blanchard, and William Smith. It also noted that "By vote of the Lodge they have adopted the name of Equity."

The only other extant correspondence is a letter from Recording Grand Secretary Sereno Nickerson, addressed to Samuel Miller. He wrote indicating that the proposed lodge would need to set the same rate for the conferral of degrees as other lodges in the same town; Mount Holyoke's charge was $35, and Equity would need to establish the same rate. "As soon as I receive due notice that this condition is accepted, I will forward the Dispensation."

The movement seems to have died there; no mention of a dispensation appears in any of the Grand Lodge Communications during 1894. It is worth noting, however, that among the known participants in the petition of Equity Lodge, many demitted or otherwise left the Fraternity, suggesting that the enterprise might not have met with much success if the going had gotten rough.

PETITIONERS

  • HOMER S. BELL
    • Physician; cannot find card
  • MOSES P. BLANCHARD
    • cannot find card
  • ORAMEL LESTER DAVIS 1842-1921
  • HOLLIS B. DeWITT 1829-1914
    • Farmer in South Hadley
    • MM 1869, Mount Holyoke; demitted 1888
    • Affiliated with Roswell Lee, 1907; suspended 1911
  • H. S. DUNKLEE
    • cannot find card; though there is a PM of Mount Holyoke named Dunklee
  • NEWTON JONES
    • cannot find card
  • HARVEY JUDD 1822-1901
    • Farmer in South Hadley
    • MM 1871, Mount Holyoke; demitted 1887
  • J. C. MELLEN
    • cannot find card
  • SAMUEL N. MILLER 1820-1908
    • Sheriff in Northampton
    • MM 1863, Jerusalem; demitted 1870
    • Affiliated Mount Holyoke 1870; demitted 1878
  • WILLIAM SMITH 1830-1911
    • Stage driver in South Hadley
    • MM 1871, Mount Holyoke; demitted 1890
  • JOHN W. WALKER 1837-1918
    • Farmer in Granby
    • MM 1877, Belcher; demitted 1895

LINKS

Grand Master Weld

Massachusetts Lodges