SDMinnehaha5
MINNEHAHA LODGE #5
Location: Sioux Falls
Precedence Date: 07/15/1873
Charter Date: 06/03/1874
Dakota GL Charter Date: 06/22/1875
Chartering Grand Master: Grand Lodge of Iowa, as Minnehaha #328
Current Status: Active
NOTES
From "The First 100 Years of the Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of South Dakota, 1875-1975", Page 8:’'
On July 15. 1873, the Grand Lodge of Iowa issued still another dispensation for a lodge in Dakota Territory. This was m response to a petition signed by Brother Thomas Henderson Brown and seven other brethren for a lodge in Sioux Falls.
The lodge was organized on July 26, 1873, as requested under the designation of Minnehaha. The name being taken originally by the organizers of the lodge from the Indian name of the falls in the Sioux River. The first officers were Brother Thomas Henderson Brown, Worshipful Master; Robert C. Hawkins. Senior Warden; and Edwin Sharpe, Junior Warden.
The lodge had not worked for a full year under the dispensation, a requirement for a charter, by the time June, 1874, rolled around. The brethren decided to try for a charter, so they prepared the reql!ired report to be presented to the Grand Lodge of Iowa on June 2, the time of the Annual C mmunication. The Worshipful Master, Thomas H. Brown, was elected to journey to Iowa and represent the lodge. After a stormy session with the Committee on Lodges Under Dispensation and a friendly assist from the Grand Secretary, BrotherT. S. Parvin, a charter was issued on June 3, 1874. The number assigned to the new lodge was 328.
Brother Thomas H. Brown, Master of the new lodge, touched on an item of interest among the Masonic lodges in the Territory when he said "The Lodge commenced active Masonic work at once and was imbued with broad ideas of a Masonic Empire, for at the second communication after receiving their charter, June 3, 1874, action was taken looking to the organization of a Grand Lodge in the Territory of Dakota. A committee was appointed at this meeting with instructions to correspond with other lodges in the Territory as to the advisab1ltty of taking immediate steps for the formation of a Grand Lodge."
GRAND MASTERS
- Thomas H. Brown Raised in Wisconsin 1864; Charter Member 1873
- Samuel A. Brown Raised 1887
- Charles L. Brockway Raised 1890; demitted 1898
- Marshall R. Brown Raised 1892
