Information Sheet

 

 

R         Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  Mount Vernon Lodge No. 151

689                                    (Mount Vernon, Mo.).

Records, 1865-1974 (bulk 1865-1957).

            Twenty-four volumes and ten folders.

 

MICROFILM

 

 

 

These are the records of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 151 in Mount Vernon, Lawrence County, Missouri.  The records consist of minutes of meetings, rolls of officers, reports to the Grand Lodge of Missouri, membership records, and miscellaneous papers.

 

Mount Vernon Lodge No. 151 was organized on 16 August 1865 by a team from the Odd Fellows lodge at Springfield.  Eighteen members made application for membership, and another nine transferred their memberships to the new lodge.  B. L. Kendrick and H. Waller were elected the first “Noble Grand” and “Vice Grand.”  Membership of the lodge grew steadily through the first decade and reached a peak of about fifty members.  There was a precipitous drop in member­ship during the 1880s, and the records show no meetings from February 1885 to June 1890.  The lodge was reorganized in 1890 and experienced a strong resurgence in membership during the 1890s.  The lodge maintained about sixty members on the rolls through the 1920s, when member­ship began a steady decline.  The lodge seems to have been largely defunct by the end of 1973.  Minutes for the last meeting on 13 December 1973 noted only that no quorum was present, and that the balance in the lodge treasury was $2.38.  There is a single item in the collection from 1974.

 

The records of the Mount Vernon Lodge consist generally of minutes of meetings, reports to the Grand Lodge of Missouri, membership records, and miscellaneous papers.  The earliest re­c­ords begin with the organization of the Mount Vernon Lodge in 1865.  Combined, the minute books and membership record books cover the period from 1865 to about 1957.  The minutes of meetings generally concern the admittance, transfer, and suspensions of members, election of offi­cers, payment of sick benefits, and operation of the lodge hall and Odd Fellows’ Cemetery in Mount Vernon.  The minutes are complete through 27 February 1954.  There are no subsequent minutes save those for 1973, the final year of the lodge.  Reports to the Grand Lodge, 1865-1919, show the relative strength of the lodge for that period.  Membership records often contain notes on residence and occupation of members or applicants, progress through the various degrees of mem­bership, and dates of death or transfer.

 

Folders 1-6 contain various types of certificates pertaining to individual memberships.  They are arranged in alphabetical order by surname.  Folders 7-10 consist of miscellaneous papers, ar­ranged chronologically.  Included are the by-laws of the Mount Vernon Lodge in Folder 7, the last extant minutes (for 1973) in Folder 8, miscellaneous correspondence from the Grand Lodge of Missouri in Folder 9, and miscellaneous receipts and financial papers in Folder 10.

 

 

 

 

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