Monroe Lodge #22 F&AM

Freemasonryi made its first formal appearence in the frontier settlement of Bloomington less than five years after the founding of the town and four years after the organization of the Grand Lodge of Indiana. On June 25, 1822, Grand Master John Sheets issued a dispensation for Bloomington Lodge, U.D., designating as Worshipful Master, Charles I. Hand, later Master of Centre Lodge No. 23 in Indianapolis in 1827. The Senior Warden was the young Bloomington lawyer, James Whitcomb, later Governor of Indiana. John Robinson was Junior Warden. The charter was issued in Grand Lodge on October 7, 1823, and on the next day Brother Hand was installed as Worshipful Master and elected Junior Grand Deacon. William Hardin was the first Secretary. The Lodge began with nine members and had eighteen by 1825. In 1826 the famous "Morgan Incident" occurred in New York and a wave of anti-Masonry swept the country. The Bloomington area was not exempt and for several years the Lodge met in secret. The last attendance of a representative of Bloomington Lodge No. 22 at Grand Lodge was in 1829 and thereafter their Grand Lodge dues fell into arrears. At the Grand Lodge it was reported unofficially that no meetings had been held in Bloomington for three years and the charter was arrested with the understanding that the members would apply for a dispensation for a new Lodge when they deemed the moment propitious.

On November 23, 1839, a petition for a new charter was presented to Grand Lodge and the number 22 was restored to the representatives of Masonry in the Bloomington community. Under Grand Master Philip Mason, Monroe Lodge was constituted on December 5, 1839, with nine members. Brother George W. Harden was installed as Worshipful Master. The first regular meeting of the new Lodge was held in February 1840. In the first two years membership grew to eighteen but difficulties were encountered and for some years no new members were raised and the active membership decreased to six in 1845 to 1847 and seven in 1848 and 1849. Yet the little Lodge continued to exist. One of the first members raised in the new Lodge, the Reverend Brother Eli P. Farmer, a Baptist preacher, served the Grand Lodge as Grand Chaplain for four years. Another Brother, Morton C. Hunter, was Worshipful Master eight different times before distinguishing himself as a General in the Civil War, and indeed was Master again in both 1866 and 1867.

Both internal and external problems continued to operate to keep the membership of Monroe Lodge No. 22 from any very substantial growth for several decades in the immediate post-Civil War era. At some time in the late 1860's a small hall was built to replace the rented quarters. In 1875 efforts were initiated to form a second Lodge in the town but although a dispensation was granted it was never chartered. During the years 1875 to 1890 the Lodge lost more by deaths, demits, suspensions, and expulsions than it gained by initiations, affiliations, or reinstatements. Yet encouraging signs were not absent. The Reverend Cyrus Nutt, President of Indiana University from 1860 to 1875, was Worshipful Master in 1868, 1871, and 1874, and was Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Indiana in 1873. Another prominent figure was Colonel Richard Owen, son of Richard Dale Owen, Commandant of Camp Morton during the Civil War, Professor at Indiana University, who was Master in 1872.

Past Master Milton Borden in an historical sketch of early years of Monroe Lodge credits a renewal of vigor in the Lodge in the late 1880's and the 1890's to a new group of leaders which began with John Anderson, Robert C. Greeves and Arthur A. Orr and was carried on by men like Laurence Van Buskirk, John Edmundson, Robert G. Miller, Louis A. Rutherford, Robert J. Aley and others. By the early 1890's the membership had risen to fifty and by 1902 the increase in membership led the Fraternity to secure rooms on the upper floor of the Buskirk Building (over Kahn's Clothing Store) on the south side of the square. Here the Lodge was located until 1925. In 1917 continued growth brought the formation of a Building Committee consisting of William Showers, Fred Matthews, U. S. Hanna, T. J. Sare, Stacy O. Harrell, Allen V. Buskirk, and Milton L. Borden. The committee held its first meeting only a few days before the United States entered World War I and as a result the project was held in abeyance until 1923. Revived at that time with the same committee except for Ed Showers replacing his deceased father, the committee proceded with the building of the Masonic Temple at Seventh Street and College Avenue. It was located on a site on which early Masonic meetings in Bloomington had been held which had been procured for the Lodge by a committee consisting of Brothers Milton L. Borden, Allen V. Buskirk, and John Gilmore. The building was erected and furnished at a cost of about $283,000.00. It was occupied and dedicated in 1925 by the Grand Lodge under Grand Master A. W. Funkhouser, while Brother Hugh Baker was Worshipful Master.

When the depression of 1929 deepend into the 1930's, the holding company which had issued the bonds to finace the building was forced into receivership. A new corporation was formed which was successful in buying the property at a receiver's sale. The remaining debt on the Temple was finally retired and the mortgage burned on December 27, 1954.

The decade of the 1970's brought a period of change in Monroe 22. This period of an aging membership, declining income, and an aging Temple were some of the events that set the stage for the sale of the 1925 structure on July 1, 1985. Our present Lodge -- located on five acres at 4160 South Walnut Street Pike -- was accomplished by remodeling a large home, adding an attached Lodge Room and kitchen to the existing structure. Modern in every detail, this new building offers us beauty, comfort, and economy. In our new facility Monroe Lodge No. 22 looks to the future with a bright and certain outlook that Masonry in Bloomington, Indiana, will continue to grow and prosper in the coming decades.

There have been too many prominent members of the Bloomington community and leaders of the Fraternity to make an attempt to name them all here. Some very worthy Brothers would be sure to be inadvertently omitted. Several of its members have served the Grand Lodge as Grand Chaplains, Grand Marshal, Grand Stewardi and Tyler, Junior Grand Warden, and Senior Grand Warden. The first member of Monroe Lodge No. 22 to serve as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge was Joseph A. Batchelor, Worshipful Master in 1949, who was Grand Master in 1955-1956. Following him was Richard E. Hickam, Worshipful Master in 1963, who served as Grand Master in 1970-1971. Following him was William E. Hepley, Worshipful Master in 1957, and who served as Grand Master in 1978-1979.