Hiram and Lebanon Lodge No. 3
The endorsement on the 1875 Charter of King Hiram Lodge reads: “ This is to certify that with the consent of Grand Lodge, King Hiram Lodge # 3 Summerside and Mount Lebanon # 6 Summerside have this day become consolidated under the name and style of Hiram and Lebanon # 3. This endorsation is made in lieu of the issuing of a new Warrant.” The notation was signed by M.W.Bro. William J. Drake, Grand Master and M.W.Bro. Ernest Kemp, Grand Secretary, and is dated December 27, 1927. (The Original Charter and 1875 Charter of Mount Lebanon Lodge are both missing.)
The wishes of the consolidating Lodges in 1927 to have a single new Charter was fulfilled in June 2000 when M.W.Bro. Donald B. Judson, presented a new Charter to W.Bro. Larry Etherington, Worshipful Master of Hiram and Lebanon Lodge, at the Annual Communication of Grand Lodge in Charlottetown. The Grand Master recommended that the former Charters remain on display in the Lodge Room.
Possible traces of the missing Charters from the Minutes are vague. A Charter was loaned to the SummersideJournal in March 1959 to aid in reproducing a Charter for a Charlottetown Lodge lost in a fire. On December 27, 1967 M.W.Bro. W.S. Burns PGM stated that “the other Chart (sic) for Mount Lebanon Lodge had been found and the authority is on both Charters and should be put in a safe place for the future.” Perhaps the Mount Lebanon Charter(s) are still in that ‘safe place.’
In March 1928 a Chapter of the Order of The Eastern Star was instituted in Summerside. Princess Mary Chapter No. 4 received permission to hold its meetings in the Lodge Room free of charge until November 1, 1928 after which the rental fee was set at $3 per night. (Minutes, November 12, 1928) When Chartered the Chapter was called Emma P. Chadwick No. 4. Several Brethren in Hiram and Lebanon Lodge were members of the Chapter including M.W.Bro. A Stirling MacKay PGM who presided as Special Deputy Grand Patron at the Institution of the Chapter. Emma P. Chadwick Chapter surrendered its Charter in the early 1940’s.
The Lodge celebrated the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the King Hiram Lodge in 1933. Following the Installation of new Officers on December 27, the Brethren and ladies attended a banquet at the Clifton Hotel where the choice of main items on the menu was fresh haddock with egg sauce or roast turkey with cranberry sauce. The remainder of the Anniversary Program was held at a Special Communication on May 28, 1934. After an Entered Apprentice Degree was conferred for John C. Pillman the Brethren witnessed a re-enactment of the beginning of King Hiram Lodge on September 27, 1858. The one-act play, ‘In Double Harness’, was written by M.W.Bro. Reginald V. Harris PGM of the Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia. A cast of eight Brethren represented eight of the original members of the Lodge. (the script for the Play is in the Gordon File at the Provincial Archives.)