By John W. Miller, Past Master of Collins-Spring Valley Lodge

BALDWIN, WI – On June 10, 2024, the Collins-Spring Valley Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons (F. & A. M.) of Wisconsin in Baldwin celebrated its 150^th year since receiving its Charter from the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin; and to celebrate this event, the Lodge will be hosting a free pancake breakfast to anyone who stops by the Baldwin American Legion Post at 410 Maple Street between 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM on Sunday, September 29, 2024.

Free Masonry is an organization that a lot of people know very little about. In fact, there are probably a number of Baldwin residents who didn’t know that a Free Mason Lodge existed right in downtown Baldwin for the last 150 years. This is probably in part due to most Lodges doing a poor job of letting their fellow citizens know of their very presence.

On December 4, 1874, the Village of Baldwin was incorporated by the Wisconsin State Legislature, but there was a problem. Part of the Village line to the West was outside the town of Baldwin’s property line. This line was marked by the town line road. So, the land west of the road was considered in the town of Hammond. Therefore, taxes on that property had to be paid to the treasurer of Hammond and not Baldwin. Once again, D. R. Bailey rose to the occasion and worked on negotiating the annexation of that land to the West. It wasn’t until February 1876 that Bailey succeeded with the State Legislature to have 40 acres released by Hammond and annexed to the Village of Balwin. Unfortunately, the people of Hammond were not very pleased with this move by Mr. Bailey.

So, the Village of Baldwin and the Free Masons of Collins-Spring Valley Lodge No. 192 have been explicitly linked since our beginnings over 150 years ago.

In 1884, Bailey Lodge moved from the D. R. Bailey Building to the second floor of the Security State Bank Building, which was on the North side of Front Street on the Northeast corner of Front Street (Main St.) and 3^rd Street (8^th St.). This is the current building that Collins-Spring Valley Lodge No. 192, F. & A. M. owns today.

On June 10, 1884, the Lodge submitted a resolution to change its name from Bailey Lodge to Collins Lodge in honor Past Grand Master Charles F. G. Collins, who was the Grand Master of Wisconsin in 1878 and 1879. Grand Master Collins was elected Grand Secretary in 1883, but only served briefly, because he died in a fire in December of that year while he tried to save his property from total destruction.

The area of Spring Valley, Wisconsin was established as a logging community in 1857 when Logging crews followed the Eau Galle River upstream from the sawmill in Eau Galle and a number of small establishments followed to meet the loggers’ needs. In 1861, Spring Valley saw its first family settle in the area and a schoolhouse was built in 1867. A post office later opened in the Village in 1870, and a watermill was built in 1874.

Iron ore was then discovered in 1876, but the mining wasn’t started until 1891, or 1892, when the Eagle Iron and then the Spring Valley Iron and Ore Companies began smelting the iron into pig iron. This brought a larger influx of people to the area and the Village of Spring Valley sprang up almost overnight. As the population of Spring Valley grew, a number of workmen moving to the area were miners, smelters, and businessmen. Many of these men brought their families along. Also, a number of these men were Freemasons.

These Spring Valley Masons soon discovered a number of masonic lodges within a day’s ride of their village, and they tried to visit these lodges when time permitted. It was around 1893 that the Masonic Lodges of Durand Lodge No. 149, Collins Lodge No. 192 in Baldwin, Maiden Rock Lodge No. 196 and Hancock Lodge No. 229 in Ellsworth advised their brethren in Spring Valley to consider forming a new lodge in their village. So, the Masons of Spring Valley petitioned the Masonic Grand Lodge of Wisconsin and received a dispensation to form a new lodge on December 27, 1893. Then in June 1894, Spring Valley Lodge No. 262, F. & A. M. received its Charter from the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin. It was said that the first Master of the new lodge, Charles Haun, had actually walked 250 miles to see his family in Dodge County and to collect the new Charter of the Spring Valley Lodge. It was later, in 1895, that the Village of Spring Valley received its incorporation from the Wisconsin State Legislature.

Baldwin and Spring Valley would cement their commonality when Collins Lodge No. 192 and Spring Valley Lodge No. 262 voted to merge their two Lodges due to declining enrollment and waning interest in Spring Valley. So, the merger was authorized by the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin and on May 14, 2004, the two Lodges change their name to Collins-Spring Valley Lodge No. 192, F. & A. M. in Baldwin. This name change has confused some people who thought that the Lodge was located in Spring Valley, but the Lodge has remained in Baldwin and there are no plans to move, because the Lodge building in Spring Valley had been sold.  However, there has been recent talk amongst the Lodge members to consider another name change that would more readily reflect the Lodge’s location. For now, however, the name will remain, and we’ll see what the future has in store for the Free Masons of Baldwin and Spring Valley, Wisconsin.

The Collins-Spring Valley Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons (F. & A. M.) of Wisconsin in Baldwin celebrated its 150^th year since receiving its Charter from the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin; and to celebrate this event, the Lodge will be hosting a free pancake breakfast to anyone who stops by the Baldwin American Legion Post at 410 Maple Street between 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM on Sunday, September 29, 2024. The community is invited to help us celebrate this milestone in our Mason history in the area and we hope you can join us for this free meal together!

By John W. Miller, Past Master of Collins-Spring Valley Lodge

BALDWIN, WI – On June 10, 2024, the Collins-Spring Valley Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons (F. & A. M.) of Wisconsin in Baldwin celebrated its 150^th year since receiving its Charter from the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin; and to celebrate this event, the Lodge will be hosting a free pancake breakfast to anyone who stops by the Baldwin American Legion Post at 410 Maple Street between 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM on Sunday, September 29, 2024.

Free Masonry is an organization that a lot of people know very little about. In fact, there are probably a number of Baldwin residents who didn’t know that a Free Mason Lodge existed right in downtown Baldwin for the last 150 years. This is probably in part due to most Lodges doing a poor job of letting their fellow citizens know of their very presence.

So, who are these Free Masons and what do they do? Many men make their first contact with a masonic lodge to answer these questions and others. Some men may have had a grandfather, an uncle, or a distant relative or family friend who was a Mason and now they want to see for themselves what Masonry is about. Others may have seen the Shriners in their little cars in our local parades and have just found out that these guys were Masons, too.

Free Masonry is the oldest and largest fraternal organization in the world. It can trace its roots to the great cathedral builders of the Renaissance period and even earlier. Masonry teaches the virtues of morality, prudence, tolerance, honesty, integrity, truthfulness, the values of friendship and the love of all humankind, without regard to a person’s color, creed, social status, disability, politics or ethnic origins. Masonry judges no one by their outward appearance but by their inner qualities.

Many believe that Masonry is a religion and that it requires its members to follow certain religious beliefs. This is totally and unequivocally untrue. Masonry is a worldwide organization, and it does not require its members to have a belief in any specific religion. However, Masons do recognize that there is supreme divine being, a Creator of all and that there is something bigger than just ourselves. But Masonry also believes that every person should have the right and freedom to worship as they so please.

Today, Free Masonry is one of the largest philanthropies in the world. Through its local Blue Lodges, it focuses on its community service and assistance. It makes contributions to medical and mental health facilities, supports medical research and development, it supports law enforcement, first responders, fire departments, schools, food shelves, and programs that assist the needy. Masons are taught to be good citizens, to respect the rights of others, to live moral and ethical lives and to be of good character. Masonry brings together men from all over the world to support one another, to build international relationships of camaraderie and fellowship; and it stresses the importance of family, community and every individual. Free Masonry cuts across just about every country, every culture, every social stratum, and every belief system. Its focus is on making good men better.

It is unfortunate that there are still those who have come to believe much of the hate, lies and calls for violence which are expounded by the unscrupulous, the devious and the corrupted groups and individuals who use the Internet and chat sites to proliferate their warped ideologies. Masonry is against all those who spread malicious lies and falsehoods about others and about our organization.

Masonry has been within the State of Wisconsin’s current borders since the early 1820s. There were probably Masons here even before that time. However, Masonry reached our location in Baldwin in the 1870s, and possibly there were individual Masons here even earlier, but there are no exact records of those times. We do know that Masonry was involved with the Village of Baldwin in 1872 when the Town of Baldwin was established. It was on October 18, 1873, that the Baldwin Bulletin printed its first paper, but prior to that date, a group of local Masons got together and petitioned the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin for a dispensation to form a Lodge and hold regular meetings in Baldwin. That dispensation was granted on August 27, 1873.

Earlier in 1873, one of Baldwin’s founding fathers, D. R. Bailey, was building a new building on the South side of Front Street, which would be later named Main Street. This building would become known as the D. R. Bailey Building, or The Bailey Building. The building was three stories tall, and it was completed in 1873. The Free Masons decided to name their new Lodge “Bailey Lodge” after their benefactor D. R. Bailey, who designated the third story of his new structure to “be appropriately finished off for the exclusive use of Bailey Lodge” which was under dispensation” by Wisconsin’s “Free and Accepted Masons.” On June 10, 1874, the Masonic Lodge in Baldwin received its formal Charter from The Grand Lodge of Wisconsin in Madison and Bailey Lodge No. 192, Free and Accepted Masons of Wisconsin, became a reality.

In these newspapers next week will be the conclusion of “Masonry and a brief history of Baldwin and Spring Valley – Part II.”