A masonic lodge older than South Dakota's statehood is celebrating its 150th anniversary
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The Minnehaha Lodge No. 5 of Ancient, Free and Accepted Mason will mark its 150th anniversary this Saturday, and the public is invited to help celebrate the occasion.
Founded on July 15, 1873, with 11 Master Masons who met in the Libby Building on Main Street, the Lodge became the oldest philanthropic organization in Sioux Falls, current Master Jon Woods said.
He added masonry itself in South Dakota was in fact much older, with the first freemasons coming to the area a lot earlier.
“The original Masons would have been here as soon as people were settling in Sioux Falls,” Woods said. “Before Sioux Falls was even formally founded as a city, there would have been Masons living and working here along with the other early settlers.”
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The history of the area was later closely aligned with the history of the lodge, he continued. Woods mentioned, for example, that freemasons were instrumental in installing the first streetlights in Sioux Falls.
“Thomas Brown was the person who had originally conceived and helped get street lights put up in Sioux Falls,” Brian Pulling, the Junior Grand Warden of Masons in South Dakota, said referring to the first Master of the Lodge.
Pulling noted Brown was also instrumental in bringing the railroad to the city. Woods noted city mayors and city and state officials historically were represented in the lodge. Besides, Woods added, the lodge was not only a part of the history of Sioux Falls, but also of the history of the state.
“If you look at the history of South Dakota, (the) lodge predates South Dakota as a state,” said Woods. “When we first came into existence as a Grand Lodge, we were actually the Grand Lodge of Dakota, so of North and South Dakota.”
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When South Dakota and North Dakota became separate states later, the lodges also split. Now three lodges exist in Sioux Falls, and Minnehaha Lodge No. 5 counts 137 members and meets on the first and third Thursday of every month at the Masonic Center, located on the corner of 1st Street and 14th Ave, according to a press release from the group.
The focus of the lodge after the split, however, remained the same: making good men better through charitable work. Thus, Minnehaha Lodge No. 5 has remained regularly engaged in community service and volunteering for the less fortunate.
Woods said one of the recent examples of the lodge's charitable activities is a college scholarship of $1,000 that it gives out to a worthy high school student once a year. Senior Warden for the Lodge, Carlos Cobos, said the lodge also gives out to women and children’s organizations in need of donations.
For example, Cobos said, they managed to put together some laundry baskets recently with goods, such as toothpaste, hairbrushes, shampoo and laundry soap for the victims of domestic violence, who often escape from abuse only with what’s on them. The lodge also donated school lunches for children who could not afford it.
The lodge still admits new members, too. If a gentleman is interested in becoming a member of the Masonic Lodge, all they have to do is ask a member, Woods said.
“If they are worthy and well qualified and are willing to honor our commitments for charity, becoming better people and trying to make the world a better place, we'll admit them,” he said.
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Anniversary celebrations for the lodge will start with a rededication ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Sioux Falls Masonic Center, 520 South First Avenue, in remembrance of the original ceremony of the lodge dedication held 150 years ago, said Aaron Zahn, the Grand Master of Masons in South Dakota and head of the anniversary committee.
The ceremony will be followed by lunch at noon. Lunch is free, but donations are accepted. A historical anniversary presentation from the Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of South Dakota is scheduled for 1 p.m., followed by Root Beer Float Social.
Masonry, also known as “Freemasonry,” is the oldest and largest fraternal organization in the world. Its main purpose is to make good men better. Many of the nation’s founding fathers were Masons, including 13 signers of the Constitution and fourteen U.S. Presidents beginning with George Washington, according to the press release.
Despite it being a men's organization, the lodge welcomes everyone for its anniversary celebrations to mark their intent to continue to honor the same traditions of philanthropy, kindness, fraternity, benefiting those in need, helping and supporting the local community.
“We're looking just to continue to honor those old traditions as we carry forward into the future for the next 150 years and beyond,” Woods said.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls' oldest philanthropic organization marks 150th anniversary
