SECRET
ORGANIZATIONS
Transcribed from the book
"Counties of Cumberland, Jasper and Richland"
Originally published 1884
by F.A. Battey & Co. Chicago, Ill.
The great benevolent societies have representative lodges in all of the
principal villages of the county. At Neoga, the Masonic Order is
represented by Neoga Lodge, No. 279, with seventy members. This
lodge meets in a pleasant hall once a month, and is in a flourishing
financial condition. The Independent Order of Odd-Fellows has a
representative in Neoga Lodge, No. 347, of about forty members. The
insurance organizations, Knights of Honor and American Le.gion of
Honor, have each a flourishing lodge here. At Toledo, the Order of Free
and Accepfrd Masons has a Lodge, organized October, 1868. It is
known as Prairie City Lodge, No. 578, and has some forty or fifty
members. There is also a Chapter of the Eastern Star, Prairie City
Lodge, No. 179. The Toledo Lodge, No. 355, Independent Order of
Odd-Fellows, also finds a home here. It was organized in 1868, and now
has forty members. This Order is in a flourishing condition, and owns
the hall it meets in, valued at some $500. At Greenup are lodges of
both the great fraternities. Greenup Lodge, No. 125, of Free and
Accepted Masons, was chartered October 3, 1833, with THOMAS
COULSON, CHARLES NISEWANGER and S. W. HUFFCUT. The lodge has
increased to twenty-two members. The lodgeroom is in the old
building on the west end of Main Street, where the first meetings were
held thirty years ago. Some twelve years ago, the lodge occupied a more
modem building, but being burned out, it returned to the old building.
A lodge of the Eastern Star was chartered here November 13, 1873, with
LUCY P. NISEWANGER, ANN M. QUINN, ELIZABETH JONES, SARAH EWART,
ESTHER B. TUTEWILER, ISABELLA H. MONOHON, SARAH J.
SHULL, MARTHA J. MARKWELL, MARTHA E. STARBUCK, NANCY JONES,
MARY J. LEE and others, as charter members. Atalanta Lodge,
No. 116, of the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, was chartered here
October 14, 1853. The charter members were JAMES EWART, PHILIP
WOLCHEIMER, WARREN X. COVELL, S. M. SMITH, B. C. TALBOTT and A. N.
WARD.
The lodge meets in the same building with the Masonic Lodge, and own it
in company with that fraternity. The lodge is in a flourishing
condition, and has forty-four members