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1880 — present
The Masonic family's open door: The Order of the Eastern Star, the Masonic auxiliary that admitted women alongside Masons, organized its first Fort Wayne chapter, Summit City Chapter No. 45, in 1880 — and surrendered its charter again in 1885. The second attempt held: Shiloh Chapter No. 141 was organized July 7, 1893, and the directories follow it for decades, meeting in the Masonic Temple in 1915 and in the Scottish Rite Cathedral in 1923. It is a small entry, but it belongs in the record: for most of the lodge era the Eastern Star was the one room in the fraternal city where women held office in their own right, and its chapters were the template for the women's auxiliaries — the Rebekahs, the Pythian Sisters, the Ladies of the Maccabees — that every other order in this section eventually built.
Sources:
- Fort Wayne News, "Eighty-Six Years of Lodge History" (1909) — Summit City Chapter No. 45 and Shiloh Chapter No. 141.
- R. L. Polk & Co., Fort Wayne city directories, 1915 and 1923 — Shiloh Chapter meeting places and officers.