The Origins of Fellowship Lodge #345

In the latter part of 1869, James Bolen and some of the other members of the Carthage Lodge, having moved to Fidelity, Missouri, desired to have a lodge of their own. They had to first get recommendations from the Carthage Lodge and the District Deputy Grand Master. Having achieved that they then petitioned the Grand Master, M.W. Brother William D. Muir, for a dispensation.

Normally, the request for dispensation of a new lodge would have included its desired name. For example, the lodges in most other towns typically named their lodge after the town name. In that tradition the petitioners were inclined to name it “Fidelity Lodge.” But R.W. Brother J. C. Gaston induced them to leave, on the petition, the name blank, and instead to ask that the Grand Secretary, R.W. Brother Frank Gouley, give it some “good masonic name.” They did so, and when the dispensation of the Grand Master came out on January 1, 1870 it bore the name of “Fellowship Lodge #345.” The dispensation named:

The Grand Lodge of the State of Missouri granted a charter to Fellowship Lodge #345 on October 13, 1870. This charter bears the name of Most Worshipful Brother Thomas E. Garrett as Grand Master. On November 11, 1870, acting under the authority given by the Grand Master, Right Worshipful Brother J. C. Gaston, D.D.G.M., set the lodge to work under its charter. An election of officers was held and Brother Samuel H. Caldwell was elected Worshipful Master, Brother A. W. Gibson, Senior Warden, and Brother J. W. Halsell, Junior Warden.