The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
1855 — present
The chapter came before the second lodge: Above the three craft degrees, South Bend built the York Rite early. South Bend Chapter No. 29, Royal Arch Masons, was instituted in 1855 — before South Bend Lodge, before Germania Lodge, when St. Joseph Lodge stood nearly alone — and met the second Monday of the month; Chapman prints Elmer Crockett as its High Priest in 1880. South Bend Commandery No. 13, Knights Templar, followed in 1866, meeting the first Tuesday in its Asylum at Masonic Hall, with W. A. Foote as Eminent Commander and, among its officers, C. G. Conn as Captain General — the Elkhart instrument maker holding office in a South Bend commandery, as the river-valley lodge world routinely crossed city lines. The Cryptic rite completed the set later: South Bend Council No. 82, Royal and Select Masters, is in the record by 1921, meeting the second Tuesday at 301 North Michigan, and it stands in the Grand Commandery's proceedings a century on, when Bolinger's sketch records his being "greeted as a Cryptic Mason in South Bend Council #82" and made a Knight Templar in South Bend Commandery #13 on 19 March of his Masonic course.
The appendant ring around the rite in 1921 also held Avalon Grotto No. 48 of the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, meeting the first Thursday in the temple, and the Telma Shrine Club — South Bend's Shriners belonged to a shrine seated elsewhere and kept a club at home, meeting at the Masonic Temple with W. G. Grabill as president in 1921. The Order of the Eastern Star, the order open to Masons and their women kin, had been in the city since 1871: Chapman records Eastern Star Lodge No. 2, instituted that year, meeting the fourth Wednesday — one of the oldest Eastern Star bodies in Indiana, carrying the low number of an early charter.
Sources:
- Chapman (1880), "Masonic" — Chapter No. 29 (1855), Commandery No. 13 (1866), Eastern Star Lodge No. 2 (1871), with officers.
- Polk (1921), "Masonic" — Council No. 82, Avalon Grotto No. 48, Telma Shrine Club (also listed under Clubs), officers and meeting places.
- Grand Commandery of Indiana, Proceedings (2015–2016) — the Bolinger sketch for the York Rite bodies in living use.