Colfax Masonic Lodge #378

HISTORY OF COLFAX LODGE

At a regular meeting of Lake Lodge, No. 157 on November 29, 1865, a motion was made and carried to permit Lowell to establish a lodge when the request was presented in proper form. This was done and the Colfax Lodge was organized. A dispensation was granted June 5, 1866, and the charter was issued May 27, 1868. The charter was destroyed by fire and a duplicate issued October 31, 1898. The lodge met on the third floor of a building that stood on the corner of Commercial Avenue and Clark Street, were now is the Fremond McCarty barber shop. A general store and Ed Pixley occupied the first floor. H.V. Weaver Undertaking Equipment was on the second floor. In these early days membership was small and the dues very low and undoubtedly the early officers carried the large part of the expense themselves. In the first nine years, 58 new members were added.

In 1898 a fire burned the north side of Commercial Avenue, from the building where Lodge was held, west to Mill Street. On Octoer 12, 1898, Lake Lodge offered use of their lodge room for meetings until a suitable place was arranged, The first meeting was held in the George Clark home as soon as a duplicate charter was issued. The building now occupied was built the same year, and Colfax Lodge occupied the second floor.

On October 20, 1914, Colfax Lodge purchased the Geo. W. Lawrence Hotel property on Mill Street for a meeting place, but never used it. It was finally sold in September 1921, and the proceeds used to buy carpet and furniture for the present building.

The 1898 fire destroyed the minutes of meetings for the period from 1868 to 1895 and information about the founding of the lodge had to be obtained from the Grand Lodge records.

Pages 20-26 lists the past masters of the lodge:

NAME	Master for These Years
Joseph A. Clark	1868, 69, 70, 73, 88, 89, 91. 92, 96
James N. Moore	1871, 72, 75, 78, 82, 85, 90, 93, 95
E.P. Ames	1874, 79, 80, 81
George Palmer	1876
George S. Clark	1883, 84, 86, 97, 98
J.B. Wilkinson	1887
Edward H. Crook	1894
Reuben C. Wood	1899, 1901, 1902
Albert Foster	1900
Harry M. Johnson	1903
Lewis D. Belshaw	1904
Philip McNay	1905
J. Will Belshaw	1906
William T. Dickinson	1907
William M. Sheets	1908, 09, 10
Carl N. Gragg	1911, 16
Samuel H. Petrie	1912
Charles R. Sherard	1913, 1920
Earle C. Pulver	1914-15, 1919
Frank W. Strickland	1917-18
George W. Dickey	1920
Richard Carter	1921
Orin H. Eskridge	1922
Robert M. Cable	1923
Floyd J. Strickland	1924
Harry W. Petrie	1925
Edward H. Peterson	1925
Thomas Black	1926
Clark Brownell	1927
Franklin Petrie	1928
Delbert Hayden	1929, 1931
Frank H. Patz	1930
William H. Tatman	1932
George S. Clark	1933, 1936
Harold W. Brownell	1934
Arnold J. Schreiber	1935
Edwin E. Belshaw	1937
John B. Nichols	1938
John A. Eskridge	1939
Leslie H. Meyers	1940
William A. McLellan	1941
Earle L. Tanner	1942, 43
Wellington A. Clark	1944
Wilhelm F. Kramer	1945
Arthur W. Larson	1946
Harold L. Strickland	1947
John S. Amey	1948, 53
Fred L. Hutton	1949
Ed Benson, Jr.	1950
Fred Now	1951
Lynn Crawford	1952
William Whiters	1954
Robert Grant	1955
Harold Mikels	1956
Fritz Beining	1957
Charles A. Bailey	1958
Robert T. Arnold	1959
Marion Faverty, Jr.	1960
John C. Gray	1961, 62
Charles F. Guthrie	1963
Leigh A. Ellis	1964, 65
Chism, Dorsey	1966
Harold Lindemer	1967