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 |
Go to Colfax Lodge ( #378), "Pioneer History Index," for further information.
Return to Lowell History.