Question: I have found a card in your database Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Masons membership Cards, for my second great grandfather Ephraim Adelbert Maddocks. I have contacted the Mass lodges with the name Putnam and they did not exist when Ephraim joined. I looked into Maine where he was born and they also did not have anything with the name Putman. Connecticut is the only one left I can think of. Would you be able to tell me where the lodge is located?
Answer: According to The Massachusetts Grand Lodge Library the current lodge called – Moses Michael Hays and is located in Needham, Massachusetts. The Putnam Lodge existed until July 27, 1978 when it merged with Moses Michael Hays Lodge. A list of all other lodges that merged with Moses Michael Hays are listed below. The lodge was not named for a town but for a person. Putnam Lodge was chartered in East Cambridge, Mass. in 1855, and then shortly after moved to East Boston, Mass. 1856. The Lodge existed when your ancestor was a member, and was still active under that name until the merger in 1978.
Moses Michael Hays = Putnam, Temple, Brotherhood, Sharon, Freedom, Adelphi-Noddle’s Island