Bethel Masonic Lodge (Enfield, Mass.)
Bethel Masonic Lodge Records, 1858-19381 box (0.5 linear feet).
The Bethel Lodge of Masons, organized in 1825, is the oldest recorded social or fraternal group in Enfield, Massachusetts. Records include a membership list, financial records, by-laws, burial service manual, directories, insurance policies, meeting cards, and a one-hundredth anniversary booklet.
The Bethel Lodge of Masons, organized in 1825, is the oldest recorded social or fraternal group in Enfield, Massachusetts. Although it was a flourishing organization, the Lodge suspended and surrendered its charter in late 1829 in response to anti-Masonic pressures of the period. The charter was restored in 1858 to petitioners Aaron Woods, Henry Fobes, Nathan Weeks, J.B. Woods, John Crosby, Ichabod Pope, and Daniel Ford.
The Masonic Building, erected in 1926, was located in the central business district of Enfield. When the town was flooded for the Quabbin Reservoir, the Bethel Lodge folded, in 1939; most of its former members merged with Eden Lodge of Ware.
Enfield was among the Western Massachusetts towns abolished in 1938 to allow the Swift River Valley to be flooded, thereby creating the Quabbin Reservoir to provide Boston with water.
The collection consists of material only from the period following the reinstatement of the charter. Records include a membership list (1861), financial records (1858-1898), by-laws (1882, 1937), burial service manual (1909), directories (1898, 1929-1938), insurance policies (1873-1898), meeting cards (1880-1926), and a one-hundredth anniversary booklet (1925).
The collection is open for research.
Cite as: Bethel Lodge, F. and A.M., Records (MS 12). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Acquired from Donald Howe, 1960
Processed by Ken Fones-Wolf and Linda Seidman, February and September 1985.
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Annual Return of Membership
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1861
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Box :1
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Bills and Accounts
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1858-1898
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Box :2-6
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Burial Service manual
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1909
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Box :7
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By-Laws
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1882, 1937
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Box :8
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Directories
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1898, 1929-1938
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Box :9
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Insurance Policies
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1873-1898
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Box :10
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Meeting Cards
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1880-1926
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Box :11
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One-Hundredth Anniversary booklet
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1925
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Box :12
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- Enfield (Mass.)--History.
- Freemasons--Massachusetts.
- Men--Societies and clubs--Massachusetts.
- Quabbin Reservoir Region (Mass.)--History.
- Bethel Lodge, F. & A.M. (Enfield, Mass.).
