TREASURES IN THE BASEMENT By Peter Brusoe, Worshipful Master The Eagle Lodge No. 1893
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ach year for Thanksgiving, Christmas/ Chanukkah, and Easter/Passover, the surviving spouses of William R. SingletonHope-Lebanon Lodge No. 7 are sent a gift, generally flowers. No one knew how long we have been doing this for, but it’s as much of our lodge tradition as the famous crab feast, the festive board, or our community engagement. We can now say at least back to the 1890s. MWB Villarreal and I were going through the Singleton basement to determine what belonged to our Eastern Star Chapter, Friendship Lodge No. 17, and what belonged to other organizations. (It is usually pretty easy to identify Eastern Star, if there are women’s names in the book, chances are it’s an Eastern Star Chapter.) We came across a book that at first we thought was Eastern Star. It contained names of women, it listed children and details such as “Christmas Card” or “Visited on” with the date. Then, we came across three other books, when we opened the second of which, we realized that these were not Eastern Star Rosters, rather they were “widow books” belonging to Lebanon Lodge No. 7. In looking through these books, Lebanon Lodge No. 7, the precursor to today’s William R. Singleton-Hope-Lebanon Lodge No. 7, had a very robust widows and orphans care program. Each widow of a member had her own page, her birthday, the birthday of her children, and her husband’s death. Notes were made each time a brother visited the widow, or flowers sent, and eventually when she died. There were also notes about the children including needs they may have, what they are doing now, or in some cases when they passed on.
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A total of four books were recovered and will be digitized in the near future. At first glance at least one of the widows was
receiving visits, cards, and flowers as early as 1890, though we suspect when it is fully digitized it may go further back than that.
