San Luis Obispo County History

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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Source:
A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Santa Barbara,
San Luis Obispo, and Ventura, California
by Yda Addis Storke
Published in 1891 in Chicago by the Lewis Publishing Co.


FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS. 

The pioneer secret society in San Luis was San Luis Obispo Lodge, No. 148, F. & A. M., 
which was organized May 16, 1861, by charter from the Grand Lodge of California. 
The members were Dr. Joseph M. Havens (who was county Judge, also Past Master in 
Masonry), Michael Henderson (who was a '49er, and one of the oldest Masons in the 
State, his initiation dating from Tuolumne County, in 1850j; Thompson D. Sackett, 
Abraham Blockman, Walter Murray, James McElrath, David F. Newsom, Joseph Riley, 
Joseph See, and James White. During the year, Governor Romualdo Pacheco and seven 
or eight others joined this lodge. The famine years, 1863-�64, caused such changes in 
the population that but few of the old members remained here, and this lodge 
surrendered its charter. Some of the members joined other lodges, but San Luis Obispo 
County was without a Masonic organization until early in 1869, when San Simeon Lodge, 
No. 196, was founded under dispensation, and in October under charter, at Cambria. 

The need for the Cambria Lodge to visit the town of San Luis to bury a prominent 
Mason led to the organization of King David's Lodge, No. 209, June 21, 1870, under 
dispensation, and November 1, under charter. This lodge in 1875 constructed a fine 
Masonic hall in San Luis Obispo. 

San Luis Obispo Chapter, No. 62, R. A. M., was constituted on April 28, 1883. 

In March, 1870, the Odd Fellows of San Luis Obispo organized Chorro Lodge, No. 
168, and the order has instituted a number of imposing anniversary celebrations. 

On September 28, 1870, Hesperian Lodge, No. 181, I. O. O. F., was organized at 
Cambria, with seven charter members. 

The first Rebekah Degree Lodge was Morse Rebekah Degree Lodge, No. 25, 
instituted at Cambria, June 10, 1877. Immediately following was Friendship Rebekah 
Degree Lodge, No. 36, organized at San Luis Obispo, July 12, 1877, with twenty-eight 
charter members. 

Park Lodge, No. 40, Knights of Pythias, the first of the order in the county, was or- 
ganized December 20, 1876, at San Luis Obispo, with seven charter members, by 
district officers from Santa Barbara. 

On April 18, 1878, was instituted Section No. 147, Endowment Rank, K. of P. 

In June, 1873, was founded at Cambria the Cambria Grange, No. 25, of California 
Patrons of Husbandry; in September, 1873, the grange at Arroyo Grande, and in 1874, 
five granges in this county reported to the State Grange. 

San Luis Obispo Lodge, No. 122, I. O. G. T., was organized in February, 1878; Corral 
de Piedra Lodge, I. O. G. T., in February, 1883; Obispo Council, A. L. of H., on May 
9, 1881; San Luis Obispo Division Independent Order of Missourians, on March 8, 
1879; Society of Pioneers, on June 14, 1879; the Temperance and Life Insurance Society; 
on May 9, 1870; the San Luis Obispo Agricultural Society, on March 25, 1875; the 
Order of Chosen Friends, on March 30, 1883, and the Irish Land League, May 13, 1883.