Information Sheet

 

 

R         Daughters of Rebekah.  Cuba Lodge No. 739 (Cuba, Mo.).

968                  Records, 1888-1984.

                                    Twenty-four volumes and seven folders.

THIS COLLECTION IS IN OFF-SITE STORAGE. AT LEAST TWO DAYS' NOTICE IS REQUIRED FOR ITS RESEARCH USE.

 

 

These are the record books and miscellaneous papers of the Rebekah lodge in Cuba, Craw­ford County, Missouri.  The Cuba Lodge’s collection includes earlier records of Martha Lodge No. 19 at St. James in Phelps County, which consolidated with the lodge at Cuba in 1978.

 

The records for both the St. James and Cuba lodges consist of minutes of meetings, atten­dance rolls of officers, membership records, guest registers, annual reports to the Grand Lodge of Missouri, and miscellaneous papers.  The records span the lives of both lodges, but in neither case are the collections entirely complete.  The records for both lodges are most complete regarding membership matters, but there are gaps in the minutes of meetings.

 

Martha Lodge No. 19 was the earlier of the two neighboring Daughters of Rebekah organi­zations.  Nine charter members organized the lodge in St. James on 26 July 1888.   The earliest volume contains the names of charter and subsequent members, rolls of officers, records of re­ceipts and disbursements, and names of visitors through 1925.  The remaining volumes consist of a membership register showing the names, date and method of admission, ages, and occupations of lodge members (1936-1976), a roll book showing attendance of officers (1969-1976), registers of visitors to the lodge (1916-1978), and a minute book (1976-1978).  There are no minutes of meetings from 1926 through 1975.  There is also a folder containing annual reports for 1931-1933, and membership lists for 1976-1983.

 

By the late 1970s, Martha Lodge mustered only four or five active members, and it consoli­dated with the Rebekah lodge at Cuba in neighboring Crawford County.  Volume 6 contains re­cords the last meeting of Martha Lodge on 19 June 1978, after which the minutes continue in the same record book as Cuba Lodge No. 739.

 

Cuba Lodge No. 739 was organized in February 1921.  There were forty-one charter mem­bers; Alice Braughton was the first presiding officer (i.e., “Noble Grand”).  Membership reached its peak in 1930 (sixty-seven members), and its lowest ebb in 1942 (twenty-one members).  The lodge carried thirty members on its rolls before its dissolution, but only a few were active.  Cuba Lodge No. 739 held its last meeting on 9 November 1984, after which it consolidated with Dama­ris Lodge No. 20 at Rolla (See WHMC-Rolla Collection R969.).

 

There are no minutes of meetings of Cuba Lodge prior to 1944, but membership records and rolls of officers are complete for the life of the lodge.  There is also a nearly complete set of annual reports to the state lodge, 1921-1983.  The annual reports include a financial statement, summary of membership, and names of officers for each calendar year

 

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