Shawsheen Lodge No. 64, I.O.O.F.

Shawsheen Lodge, No. 64, was the Billerica lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the fraternal order founded by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore in 1819, whose members are charged to "visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead and educate the orphan." For most of a century the lodge and its sister lodge of women, Winning Rebekah Lodge, No. 108, met in Billerica Centre, first in the hall at the corner of River Street and Boston Road and from 1950 in the old Holden barn at 30 Pond Street, known as the Dutton Barn. The town reports and deeds also spell the name Shawshene and Shawsheene. A second Odd Fellows lodge of a separate order, Loyal Asa Pollard Lodge of the Manchester Unity, met at North Billerica.

The sources disagree on when the lodge began. The magazine Billerica, in its 1912 list of the town's societies arranged by date of organization, gives "1845, Feb. 7" for Shawsheen Lodge, I. O. O. F., No. 64, while the Lowell Suburban Directory of 1919, like the directories before it, says the lodge was "organized 1878." No source found explains the difference, and Hazen's History of Billerica (1883) does not mention the lodge.

In 1912 the magazine listed Dr. Maurice A. Buck as Noble Grand and F. A. D. Singhi as Vice Grand, with Elmer Colby as secretary, C. L. Burton as financial secretary and Josiah Wright as treasurer; the lodge had 125 members and met on Saturdays at 8 P.M. in the I. O. O. F. Hall. Josiah Wright, a builder and selectman, was its treasurer for many years. On October 12, 1912, his seventieth birthday, the lodge served a banquet to which Winning Rebekah Lodge was invited and presented him with "Odd Fellow veteran's jewel and beautiful clock." The merchant Frederic A. Morey belonged to the lodge, according to the MACRIS form for his store, and the lawyer Forrest F. Collier was a member of the Odd Fellows, according to his obituary.

The lodge's hall was Gardner Parker Hall, the old Centre schoolhouse on River Street that the Billerica Building Association bought in 1892 and made over into a public hall, and which by the twentieth century was usually called the Odd Fellows Hall. The town paid Shawsheen Lodge for the "use of hall" in the accounts printed in 1895 and 1896, and paid Samuel Tucker for the "use of Odd Fellows Hall" and C. W. Parker as "janitor Odd Fellows Hall." Warrants for town meetings in 1895 were posted "at Odd Fellows Hall," at the post offices and at the churches. In 1903 the Abbot Singing Fund paid the lodge for the use of its hall, and in 1909 a town meeting motion to build a sidewalk "on northerly side of River Street from Odd Fellows' Hall to F. A. Casey's residence" failed.

The hall was the meeting place of much of the town's society. In 1912 and 1913 the Thomas Talbot Lodge of Masons, Talbot Lodge No. 41 of the New England Order of Protection, the Billerica Grange and the Ladies of the G. A. R. all met in the I. O. O. F. Hall, and the 1932 directory still lists the Masons' lodge, Shawsheen Lodge and Winning Rebekah Lodge at the "I O O F Hall." The MACRIS form for the Billerica Masonic Temple adds the 1900 Club, the Eastern Star and the Garden Club. At the Welcome Home Celebration for the town's soldiers and sailors of the World War on July 4, 1919, Shawsheen Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Loyal Asa Pollard Lodge, I. O. O. F. M. U., each had a float in the parade.

Winning Rebekah Lodge, No. 108, was the lodge's auxiliary for women. According to a sketch printed in the magazine Billerica in February 1913, the effort to form it began in the winter of 1890 and 1891, when "marked activity" in Shawsheen Lodge had the women of the town preparing a fair for the lodge, and its success was due to the work of Mrs. Clara E. Sexton, then a member of the Evening Star Lodge of Rebekahs in Lowell. Enough signatures for a charter were secured by February 1892, and on April 5, 1892 the Board of Grand Officers instituted the lodge at Billerica with sixteen charter members, the one hundred and eighth Rebekah lodge in Massachusetts, and named it "Winning." The Lowell lodge presented a set of officers' jewels and a pair of gavels. In 1912 Mrs. Annie Baisley was Noble Grand and Mrs. Clara Bartlett treasurer, and the lodge met on the second and fourth Mondays at the I. O. O. F. Hall; in April 1913 its Sewing Circle met at the hall for an afternoon of work and a supper before the lodge meeting.

On the night of February 26, 1940 the Odd Fellows Hall burned to the ground (see Gardner Parker Hall Fire of 1940); the fire chief listed it first among the year's mutual aid calls, "February 26 -- Odd Fellows Hall, Lowell." The hall was not rebuilt, and later that year the Building Association sold the lot to Dr. A. Warren Stearns. According to the Billerica Center walking tour, the Odd Fellows then met upstairs in the building at 432 Boston Road across from the Common (the James Abbott House).

On January 4, 1950 Forrest F. Collier conveyed the old Holden barn on Pond Street, on a lot of 20,000 square feet, to five trustees of the Shawsheene Building Association, a trust whose units were sold to members of the Shawsheene Lodge and its Rebekah lodge; the trust certificate names the property "Odd Fellows Hall Building and land on Pond St., Billerica." The National Register nomination for the neighboring Dutton - Holden Homestead says the barn served as the local Odd Fellows Hall for many years. The trust was renewed on September 22, 1975 for "Shawsheene Lodge, No. 64," and Winning Rebekah Lodge, and on August 12, 1977 its trustees sold the hall for $12,000 to the Community of Christ Lutheran Church, whose congregation had voted to buy the property "commonly known as the Odd Fellows Hall."

Loyal Asa Pollard Lodge, No. 7741, belonged to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Manchester Unity, the English order from which the American lodges had separated in 1842. It was organized in June 1902 and met on the first and third Thursdays of each month at Union Hall in North Billerica; in 1912 I. Norris Millbury was Noble Grand, Roger Barrington treasurer and William J. Hayward secretary. The town took in $82.50 from the lodge for the use of Union Hall in the year reported in 1904, and the selectmen reported in 1914 a fire "in a room occupied by the Manchester Unity Order of Odd Fellows" at Union Hall, the damage covered by insurance. The lodge was still listed at Union Hall in the 1932 directory.

No record has been found of when Shawsheen Lodge or Winning Rebekah Lodge closed. The sale of the Pond Street hall in 1977 is the last record of them found, and the present directory of Odd Fellows lodges in Massachusetts lists no lodge in Billerica.

References

1. Billerica magazine, 1912, societies and clubs by date of organization: Shawsheen Lodge, I.O.O.F., No. 64, 1845, Feb. 7; N.G. Maurice A. Buck
2. Billerica magazine, 1912, societies (cont.): Shawsheen Lodge officers, 125 members, meets Saturdays in I.O.O.F. Hall; Winning Rebekah Lodge No. 108 officers; Masons meet in I.O.O.F. Hall
3. Billerica magazine, Day-Book, October 1912: Shawsheen Lodge banquet; veteran's jewel and clock presented to Josiah Wright on his seventieth birthday
4. Billerica magazine, February 1913: Historical Sketch of Winning Rebekah Lodge, No. 108 (instituted April 5, 1892, sixteen charter members, Clara E. Sexton)
5. Billerica magazine, Day-Book, 1913: meetings of the Ladies of the G.A.R. and the N.E.O.P. in the I.O.O.F. Hall
6. Billerica magazine, Day-Book, 1913: meeting of Billerica Grange, No. 223, in I.O.O.F. Hall
7. Billerica magazine, May 1913, special correspondence: Winning Rebekah Lodge Sewing Circle meets in the I.O.O.F. Hall, April 14
8. Billerica Town Report 1895, fire department: Shawshene Lodge, Odd Fellows, use of hall, $18.00
9. Billerica Town Report 1895, miscellaneous: Samuel Tucker, use of Odd Fellows Hall, $12.00; Shawsheene Lodge, Odd Fellows, $34.50
10. Billerica Town Report 1895, town meeting warrant posted at Odd Fellows Hall, the post offices and the churches
11. Billerica Town Report 1896, incidentals: Shawsheen Lodge, use of hall and rent; C. W. Parker, janitor Odd Fellows Hall
12. Billerica Town Report 1903, Abbot Singing Fund: Shawsheen Lodge, I.O.O.F., use of hall, Jan. 15, 1903, $12.00
13. Billerica Town Report 1904, treasurer, maintenance of halls: Asa Pollard Lodge, use of hall, $82.50
14. Billerica Town Report 1909, town meeting: motion for a sidewalk on River Street from Odd Fellows' Hall to F. A. Casey's residence, not voted
15. Billerica Town Report 1914, public buildings: fire at Union Hall in a room occupied by the Manchester Unity Order of Odd Fellows
16. Billerica Town Report 1919, Welcome Home Celebration, July 4, 1919: floats of Shawsheen Lodge, I.O.O.F., and Loyal Asa Pollard Lodge, I.O.O.F.M.U.
17. Billerica Town Report 1940, fire department mutual aid calls: February 26, Odd Fellows Hall, Lowell
18. Lowell Suburban Directory 1919, Billerica societies: Shawsheen Lodge I O O F organized 1878; Winning Rebekah Lodge; Asa Pollard Lodge I O O F M U No 7741, June 1902, Union Hall
19. Lowell Suburban Directory 1932-33, Billerica lodges: Shawsheen Lodge, Winning Rebekah Lodge and Thomas Talbot Lodge at I O O F Hall; Asa Pollard Lodge at Union Hall
20. MACRIS BIL.4, Billerica Masonic Temple: Frederic Morey a member of the Odd Fellows; Gardner Parker Hall as meeting place of the Odd Fellows and other societies
21. National Register nomination 01000307 (2001), Dutton-Holden Homestead: barn lot sold 1950 to the Shawsheen Building Association, long the Odd Fellows Hall
22. Billerica Center Historical Walking Tour (2011), stop 7, 432 Boston Road: the Odd Fellows met upstairs after their hall burned
23. Forrest Foster Collier (1875-1970), Find a Grave, quoting his Boston Globe obituary: a Mason and a member of the Odd Fellows and the Grange
24. Wikipedia: Independent Order of Odd Fellows (founded 1819 in Baltimore by Thomas Wildey; its command; 1842 separation from the Manchester Unity)
25. IOOF Lodge Directory, Massachusetts listings (52 lodges and units, consulted 2026): none in Billerica

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.