Masonic lodge observes 125th year in Hillsboro

   

By NEIL O. NELSON

Don Foss has often been told how the Masonic Lodge in Hillsboro, in another time, was crowded on meeting nights.

He has no reason to doubt the statement.

He only has to glance down the south wall of the Hillsboro lodge, which is lined with framed photographs of former Master Masons; the black and white and sepia-toned pictures could easily  be mistaken for a Who’s Who in Hillsboro business and agriculture over the last 125 years. 

Don Foss recognizes all the names, many of the men pictured he knew personally. Some of the Master Masons he continues to meet with regularly.

But, for the first winter in the proud history of the Hillsboro Masonic Lodge, the Masons are meeting outside the lodge.

Considering today’s heating costs, keeping the lodge open for the handful of active Masons still meeting regularly was hardly prudent or practical or made good business sense.

Make no mistake, the Masons are prudent, practical and good businessmen.

Today, in the winter of 2007-2008, the Hillsboro Masons meet at the PaddleWheel or the Vets Club.

There are around 30 men who continue to pay their dues, according to Don Foss. But only a handful are able to gather for the twice-a-month meetings.

The Hillsboro lodge celebrated its 125th anniversary in September 2007.

Foss is admittedly concerned with the lodge’s future.

“I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to hang on.” Lodge numbers in the state’s smaller communities are diminishing; Hillsboro is no different.

In May of 1882, a year after Hillsboro was officially established as a city, 10 Master Masons living in and around Hillsboro petitioned the Grand Lodge of Dakota to form a lodge.

When the Dakota Territory became divided into North and South Dakota in 1889, a charter was re-issued to Hillsboro Lodge No. 10.

The first Master of the lodge was John F. Selby, who in 1889 was a member of the Constitutional Convention of North Dakota. Another notable early member of the Hillsboro Masons was Elmore Y. Sarles, the first secretary of the lodge who later became Governor of North Dakota.

The first meeting place in 1882 was a one-story warehouse with planks resting on packing boxes for seats. Fires would destroy two different lodge buildings in the next 57 years.

The Masons of Hillsboro, with all volunteer labor, built their present day lodge in 1951. In the 1950s and 1960s more than 100 Hillsboro Masons regularly attended the twice-monthly meetings.

The Hillsboro lodge has weathered all storms, including two disastrous fires, and in 1957 remains a “growing and enthusiastic membership,” according to lodge historians Leonard Beal, Neil MacFarlane and Roy Johnston 50 years ago.

“While not — by any means — the largest Masonic Lodge, it is one of the outstanding lodges in the state.”

Meeting last September to accept the lodge’s quasquicentennial designation from the state’s Grand Master, Ed Samuelson, of Rolla, were Lorrie Jerde, Don Foss, Tom Reid, Bob Woods, Frank Harrington, Neil MacFarlane, Blake Humphry, Ralph Engel, Roland MacFarlane and Orville Thoreson.

The original Hillsboro Masons, in additon to John F. Selby, were: Asa H. Morgan, Jos. P. Clark, Henry C. Sherman, Wm. DeArgeant, Elmore Y. Sarles, Henry S. Easton, Edgar Kneeland, Jas. Cook and Wm. Barclay.