LOWTHER MANOR LODGE CONSTITUTED
FEBRUARY 9th, 1957

   At a meeting of the officers and Past Masters of West Shore Lodge No. 681 on May 14, 1956, Ashby B. Paul, D.D.G.M., suggested that the Lodge, with membership approaching 800, might want to sponsor a new lodge.

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   Under the leadership of Harry L. Parson, then Worshipful Master, West Shore Lodge appointed a Survey Committee consisting of three Past Masters: Paul B. Dohner, Lester P. Reed and John D. Weaver to investigate the possibility.

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   Discussions followed with Masons living in the area who were not members of any local lodge. Sixty of these men met October 3 and indicated that they would like to join in the fellowship of a new lodge. Three weeks later they came together again at the West Shore Lodge Building, this time joined by Masons from local lodges that had expressed a desire to help form a new lodge. At this meeting the fifty Masons present made decisions which transformed the idea into actuality. Nine men were elected Warrant Officers and the name "Lowther Manor Lodge" was selected from those suggested. Formative Masons began the process of resigning from their former lodges and signing the petition for creation of the new lodge.

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   An important directive was that the new lodge be formed without soliciting membership away from lodges in the area. The Committee was successful, since only five men resigned from West Shore Lodge to join the new lodge. Of these, one resigned to become the Warrant Master, another to be the Junior Warden, another to be the Historian, a fourth was the son of the Warrant Junior Deacon and the fifth a son of one of the new Trustees.

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   At the annual Grand Communication of the Grand Lodge it was announced that the petition was approved and the constitution of Lowther Manor Lodge No. 781 was authorized effective on February 9, 1957.

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   "Bonum nomen, bonum omen" (Good name, good fortune) seemed an appropriate comment as the name and number authorized by the Grand Lodge was exactly 100 higher than that granted to Squire Henry Bowman, Warrant Master, and his fellow twenty-one charter members of West Shore Lodge No. 681, forty-two years before. Helping to establish the friendly link between the two Lodges was Squire Henry's grandson, Edward N. Cooper, Jr., who was to be found among the petitioners for Lowther Manor Lodge.

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CREDITS: Excerpted from “The First Fifty Years - A History” compiled by Bro. Donald J. Redlich, P.M. Original work is “Historical Sketch” by Bro. Rupert G. Crist, Ph.D. 1957.