Published: November 20, 2009 04:54 pm      

Honoring 75 years of lodge service

PLAINFIELD — Members of the Naomi Rebecca Lodge 115 in Plainfield had a milestone to celebrate this week — honoring 75-year member Marie Hopkins.

“This is just wonderful,” Hopkins said. “I’ve been in the Rebeccas for 75 years. I started in 1934 when we met on North Center Street.”

She said she joined the lodge because her mother and father had been members.

“My mom and dad were 65-year members in the Naomi Rebecca Lodge and Odd Fellows,” Hopkins said. “They started back in 1919.”

She said the lodge formed in 1874 in Plainfield, 10 years after the Odd Fellows incorporated in 1865.

“The Odd Fellows was a good fraternal organization,” she said.

During her years with the lodge, Hopkins was a cook and served many dinners.

“We used to meet on the third floor of that building,” she said. “We would cook and then carry it up to the third floor to serve. We did a lot of Thanksgiving dinners there.

“The men would go and hunt for rabbit for the Thanksgiving meal. Then we decided that wasn’t such a good idea any more so we did chicken dinners. It wasn’t until later on that we got started cooking turkey.”

In 1959, the lodge built its current building at 408 Stafford Road.

“The building was built by a Mr. Edwards,” Hopkins said. “But it was built just for the lodge.”

She served as the district deputy three separate times during her years in the lodge.

“In my 75 years I was district deputy in 1971, 1981, and 1987,” she said. “We would go to lodges all over in different towns like Pittsboro, Ladoga, Paragon, Fillmore, and Greencastle. Back then we had a lodge in Danville.”

Hopkins, 94, said the lodge was a place to make good friends and become involved in the community.

“You see, back then you had the lodge and church,” she said. “That’s where you would meet people. We didn’t have all these TV shows and other things to do.”

Besides her parents, her two brothers were members of the lodge as well. Albert Chandler, 95, Hopkin’s only living brother, was in attendance at the reception in her honor and presented her with a jeweled pin on behalf of the lodge.

Hopkins attended the Plainfield Baptist Church on North Vine Street until she was married in 1947. She then changed her membership to the Plainfield Friends Meeting where her husband attended. Her husband died in 1986.

“I just lacked six months of being married for 40 years,” she said.

During a special reception, lodge members entertained the crowd and served refreshments. They also took the opportunity to celebrate Hopkins’ birthday which is in December.

The Order of Odd Fellows and the Naomi Rebecca Lodge is a family fraternal organization.



brenda.holmes@flyergroup.com