Odd Fellows in full: the two Mishawaka lodges, the South Bend lodges, and the Rebekahs

c. 1843–2001 · Mishawaka and South Bend (boundary)

Mishawaka. St. Joseph Lodge No. 27, I.O.O.F., was organized about 1843 — among its members Dr., afterwards Colonel, Norman Eddy, John Niles, Albert Cass, Harris E. Hurlbut, A. H. Long and James Easton — and "was afterwards discontinued." Monitor Lodge No. 286 was instituted 13 August 1867, its charter members A. H. Long, James Easton, Washington Gibson, Philip McElvain and Thomas S. Long, Thomas S. Long the first Noble Grand (Chapman). Its hall was destroyed in the great fire of 5 September 1872, with all its furniture, and replaced by a finer hall in the Phoenix building, where the Masons shared the third story. Chapman counts "over a hundred members" in 1880; Howard calls it "still in a flourishing condition" in 1907. Monitor's present standing was not confirmed from an open source: its last open waypoint is a 2001 South Bend Tribune item placing Monitor Lodge 286 meeting at 204 N. Main Street, Mishawaka, with a 55-year member — the lodge's current standing is a named gap, its settler the Grand Lodge of Indiana, I.O.O.F., current roster.

South Bend. South Bend Lodge No. 29, I.O.O.F., instituted 1846 by the 1883 directory, meeting Wednesday evenings at Odd Fellows Hall, 132 and 134 West Washington Street — the hall in which, the banked Health leg records, the St. Joseph County Medical Society organized on 11 June 1855. With it in Howard's 1907 roster: South Bend Encampment No. 9, Canton South Bend No. 9, Robert Blum Lodge No. 278 (instituted 1867, the German-named lodge), and a Grand United Order I.O.O.F. lodge whose name and number are cut off in the copy of Howard read here and are not supplied.

The Rebekahs, the women's degree, named. Schuyler Rebekah Lodge No. 29, South Bend — Howard credits the Rebekah degree's origin to Schuyler Colfax — and Helena Rebekah Lodge No. 72, South Bend; and in Mishawaka, Fidelity Rebekah Lodge No. 122, I.O.O.F., with Mrs. Vona Borden, Noble Grand, and Mrs. Marie Burkhart, secretary, in 1907. No Odd Fellows lodge and no Rebekah lodge is seated in Clay or Harris township in either history.

Sources:

1. Chapman (1880), pp. 796–797 (St. Joseph No. 27, c. 1843; Monitor No. 286, 13 August 1867, charter members, first Noble Grand Thomas S. Long, "over a hundred members") and Howard (1907), vol. 1, pp. 344–345 and pp. 460–463 (Mishawaka and South Bend I.O.O.F. rosters, Rebekah lodges, Encampment No. 9, Canton No. 9).
2. South Bend, Indiana, city directory, 1883 — South Bend Lodge No. 29, I.O.O.F., instituted 1846; Robert Blum Lodge No. 278, instituted 1867.
3. Banked Health & Care — St. Joseph County Medical Society organized 11 June 1855 "at the Odd Fellows hall" in South Bend.
4. South Bend Tribune, 2001 — Monitor Lodge 286 meeting at 204 N. Main Street, Mishawaka, 55-year member (last open waypoint for the lodge's standing).