The bodies around the lodge: Royal Arch, commandery, Eastern Star — and the chapter number that prints two ways

1855–2014 · Mishawaka and South Bend (boundary)

The Royal Arch chapter — a conflict, printed whole. Howard's own Mishawaka societies list (1907, p. 345) gives the Royal Arch body as "Mishawaka Chapter No. 83," with Tabor Ham, H.P., and John W. Hutchinson, secretary. A second Howard-internal attestation agrees: the biography of W. B. Hosford in Howard calls him a member of "Chapter No. 83, R.A.M., Commandery of Mishawaka No. 51." And the Grand Chapter of Indiana's own newsletter of August 2014 still calls the body "Mishawaka-Osceola No. 83." Against those three stands one: the biography of Wallace H. Dodge in Howard (part 76) calls him a member of "Mishawaka Chapter No. 19, R.A.M., South Bend Commandery No. 13." No. 19 is unsupported anywhere else in the record reached — no second source, no Grand Chapter attestation, no roster entry — and is printed here as it stands, not normalized: the weight of the evidence is No. 83, the Dodge biography's No. 19 is the outlier, and the settling source is the Grand Chapter of Indiana's proceedings. The body's modern name, Mishawaka-Osceola No. 83, records a later consolidation with Osceola; the date of that consolidation was not found in the open sources searched.

The commandery. Mishawaka's own commandery rests on the Hosford biography alone: "Commandery of Mishawaka No. 51" — it does not appear in Howard's own Mishawaka societies list, and it is printed at exactly that strength, one biography's word. The commandery that does sit in the roster, across the river in South Bend, is South Bend Commandery No. 13, K.T., in Howard's South Bend list and in Dodge's biography, and still carried at 427 North Main Street, South Bend, IN 46601, in the Knights Templar tax and affiliate record. The row's phrase — "when it sits across the river in the neighbouring city" — is that South Bend Commandery No. 13: the township Mason's York Rite road ran to South Bend.

The Eastern Star. Three chapters in the 1907 roster: Order of Eastern Star, Mishawaka Chapter No. 26 (Amelia Henwood, W.M.; Allie Michael, secretary); South Bend's Eastern Star Chapter No. 2 — instituted 1871, by the 1883 directory, meeting fourth Wednesdays at Masonic Hall, 118 and 120 South Michigan Street; and Odessa Chapter No. 28, O.E.S., among South Bend's "remaining" bodies. No Eastern Star chapter is seated in either township.

Sources:

1. Howard (1907), vol. 1, pp. 344–345 (Mishawaka Chapter No. 83, R.A.M., officers; Eastern Star Chapter No. 26, officers) and pp. 460–463 (South Bend Chapter No. 29, R.A.M.; South Bend Commandery No. 13, K.T.; Eastern Star Chapter No. 2; Odessa Chapter No. 28, O.E.S.).
2. Howard, vol. 2 biographies — W. B. Hosford ("Chapter No. 83, R.A.M., Commandery of Mishawaka No. 51") and Wallace H. Dodge ("Mishawaka Chapter No. 19, R.A.M., South Bend Commandery No. 13"), the conflict printed whole above.
3. Grand Chapter of Indiana newsletter, August 2014 — "Mishawaka-Osceola No. 83"; Knights Templar affiliate record for South Bend Commandery No. 13, 427 North Main Street, South Bend, IN 46601.
4. South Bend, Indiana, city directory, 1883 — South Bend Chapter No. 29, R.A.M., instituted 1855; Eastern Star Lodge No. 2, instituted 1871.