In the early 1900s, members of the Woodbridge Lodge No. 131 pose for a photograph after a Masonic ceremony held in the lodge on August Street in Woodbridge. (Photograph courtesy of Ralph Lea)

Woodbridge Masonic Lodge marks 150 years

The Woodbridge Lodge No. 131 of Free and Accepted Masons recently marked its 150th year. The stately lodge building, across from the Woodbridge Post Office, is one of the area's oldest buildings and still stands as a solid symbol of an organization born in the community's pioneer days.

In 1858, the settlement called Woods Ferry along the Mokelumne River was the largest community between Stockton and Sacramento.

Jeremiah H. Woods was among the first men to settle in the fertile region filled with wild brush and oak trees along the river. In the summer of 1852, Woods brought his wife and sons and built a cabin on the bank of the Mokelumne. Soon he built a ferry at the river crossing and charged fees to wagons, buggies and horseback riders traveling the trail between Stockton and Sacramento. The road was declared an official county road and called, as it is today, Lower Sacramento Road.

A few businesses were established along the road leading to the ferry, and each year, more farmers and merchants built homes and businesses. By 1858, as the presidential election debates between Lincoln and Douglas raged over the slavery issue back east, the fertile land around Woods Ferry had developed into a small, lively community.

But it was not a very controlled society, and men didn't know whom they could trust. A number of the men belonged to Masonic lodges back in the east and south, and they remembered the safe sense of brotherhood among members who helped each other just because they were Masons. And so the men of Woods Ferry banded together to form their own Masonic lodge.

The men organized themselves and named their lodge the Carpenter Lodge after their first master, Cornelius Carpenter. The first lodge hall, or temple, was a two-story wood structure built, likely by donations or subscriptions, about 100 yards south of the river crossing and set back from the main street near the Woods' home. The official date of the lodge's formation was August 5, 1858.

In addition to Carpenter, other original members of the lodge included Thomas Henderson, father of the Henderson brothers, who later started the hardware store in Lodi; E. A. Humphrey, Jeremiah Woods and J. N. Woods who were presumably brothers; and 15 other charter members.

The first meeting of the lodge was on Aug. 14, 1858, according to Robert G. Williams' written history presented to the lodge in 1949. Williams wrote that the meeting dates were established then. They decided to meet on the Saturday after the full moon of each calendar month. "This was necessary to give moonlight in which to drive horses after nightfall," Williams wrote.

Later in 1858, Jeremiah Woods abandoned his ferryboat and built a toll bridge across the Mokelumne River at the same point where Lower Sacramento Road crossed. Once the bridge was in use, the settlement's name switched naturally from Woods Ferry to Woodbridge.

The Carpenter Lodge members then petitioned to have their name changed to Woodbridge Lodge. The official charter was issued May 14, 1859 to Woodbridge Lodge No. 131, F. and A. M. (Free and Accepted Masons).

In its first years, the Woodbridge Lodge membership of men who had formerly lived in the East and South was tested with the advent of the Civil War in the early 1860s. The membership remained true to the Mason sense of brotherhood, according to a written history of the lodge in a 1958 booklet.

"During the first years of its life, the lodge saw unfold the tragic events of the Civil War, yet we are informed that although the background of its members was varied, animosity did not occur among them, but to the contrary, acts of kindness, thoughtfulness and unselfishness seemed to be uppermost in their minds," the booklet states.

The first temple building was well used. Other fraternal organizations, including the Grange, the International Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and the Good Templars, held meetings upstairs. The downstairs was used first as a school and later as a church. By 1880, members were discussing plans to build another Masonic temple further away from the threat of flood from the river.

In 1882, the building lot on Augusta Street was purchased for $200 and construction apparently began about Oct. 1, 1882 and was completed in March 1883. The exact date of their first meeting in the temple is not known, but meetings have been regularly held in the building since the early spring of 1883.

The lodge meetings took place in the second floor hall, and the downstairs was rented out. A general mercantile store used the space from about 1884 to 1886. Later, around 1888 it was used to store barley. Some members, according to the lodge's written history, believe that the weight of the barley may have weakened the foundation. In 1907, the Mokelumne River flooded. During that time of high water, the lodge was in session when the walls began to crack. The lodge was closed at once. An inspection showed the foundation had settled in the softened ground. Iron rods, which supposedly can still be seen, were inserted in the walls to hold the building together.

In the early 1900s, the ground floor was used again as retail space. But this did not last long, and the downstairs then was made into a banquet hall.

On Sept. 1, 1917, the bylaws were rewritten to change the meeting dates. Rather than following the moon's cycle, the Masons decided to regularly meet on the first Saturday of each calendar month at 8 p.m. With the advent of electric streetlights and automobiles, the men no longer depended on moonlight for nighttime travel.

The Woodbridge Lodge was active in helping other nearby lodges get established. The railroad came and bypassed Woodbridge in 1869, and the new town eventually known as Lodi developed a few miles away. Settlers there desired their own lodge. The Woodbridge Lodge, however, had to give its permission because it had jurisdiction or control over the area. Woodbridge did allow it, and the Lodi Lodge No. 256 was formed in 1879. Within a few years, a similar request was granted to Galt, and the Galt Lodge was formed in 1882.

After 150 years, the Woodbridge Masonic Lodge is still an active organization. In honor of its anniversary, the lodge gave $1,000 donations each to Lodi Memorial Hospital, Woodbridge Grange No. 482, Lodi Historical Society, Woodbridge Fireman's Association and the Future Farmers of America, Lodi Chapter.

The lodge building on Augusta Street, built in 1883 and one of the county's oldest buildings, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Vintage Lodi is a local history column that appears the first and third Saturday of each month.