The bodies around the lodge: a chapter with two numbers, a commandery across the river, the Star

In Howard's roster, 1907 · the numbers in conflict, printed whole

The Royal Arch chapter, and the conflict: Above the craft lodge stood the Royal Arch chapter, the next body of the York Rite. Howard's roster of 1907 prints it as Mishawaka Chapter No. 83, with Tabor Ham as High Priest and John W. Hutchinson — the lodge's recorder — as secretary. Against that stands Howard's own biographical volume, in the same history: its sketch of Wallace H. Dodge, the Dodge works' president, lists his Masonic memberships as "Mishawaka Lodge No. 130, F. and A. M., Mishawaka Chapter No. 19, R. A. M., South Bend Commandery No. 13, Knights Templar, and a member of the Mystic Shrine." One book, two chapter numbers — 83 in the societies roster, 19 in the Dodge sketch. The two are printed here as they stand, and neither is chosen: a chapter renumbered, a misprint in either place, or a sketch written from an older membership are all possible, and no record reached settles among them. The settling source is the Grand Chapter of Indiana's charter roll and proceedings, named here. What is not in conflict is the chapter itself — a chartered Royal Arch body in Mishawaka by 1907, officered from the same small circle as the lodge.

The Templar line runs through South Bend: Dodge's list carries the pattern of the whole Mishawaka York Rite in one man's memberships. The craft lodge and the chapter were Mishawaka's own; the commandery was not. No Knights Templar commandery and no Cryptic council of Mishawaka stands in Howard's roster, in the 1921 directory's Mishawaka columns, or in any record reached for this section — Mishawaka's Templars took that degree where Dodge took it, in South Bend Commandery No. 13, across the river, and his Shrine membership likewise belonged to a temple seated elsewhere. The absence is printed as an absence in the records named, at that strength; the Grand Commandery of Indiana's charter roll is the settling source if a Mishawaka commandery was ever chartered and lapsed unseen.

The Star, and the club beside the lodge: The Order of the Eastern Star — the order the Masonic family opens to Masons and their women kin — kept Mishawaka Chapter No. 26, with Amelia Henwood as Worthy Matron and Allie Michael as secretary in 1907. Its charter year has not been reached; the Grand Chapter of Indiana, Order of the Eastern Star, holds the roll, and the chapter is documented from Howard's roster. Beside these stood the Masonic Club of Mishawaka — H. A. Edris, president; Guy Richards, secretary — the lodge's social arm, a club of Masons rather than a body of the order; it stands at club size in the Private Clubs section, and its place here is its roster line only: the secret world's fellowship, incorporated as a club.

Sources:

1. Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Vol. I (1907) — the roster, p. 345 (Chapter No. 83; Eastern Star Chapter No. 26; the Masonic Club, with officers); the Wallace H. Dodge biographical sketch, Vol. I (Chapter No. 19; South Bend Commandery No. 13; the Mystic Shrine), read first-hand. The conflict is Howard's own, between his two passages.
2. R. L. Polk & Co., South Bend City Directory, 1921, Mishawaka societies columns — read whole for the commandery and council absence stated in the entry.