Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1909-12-16
His father, Mr..

Dewitt Vought. Others who have
gone away from here. are Lester II.
Hayt, +. A. WINS, J c. Bright. Geo.
{. Taylor, +. II. Marsh and Fred c.
Rohland. These and probably other
such officers in their time. did a great
deal TO make the lodge what it is to-
day.
The orders first permanent rooms
were where the present G.. A. r.
hall now is. They were afterwards
moved To what is now the Alma
Realty block The apartments here
were shared with the l. O. Q. +.
lodge. but when the new Pollasky
block was built the Pythians secured
4 lease with their oldest member.
Michael Pollasky These lodge rooms
which they have kept for years back
was built especially for them and has
never been controlled by any lodge
except them.
Some years ago they saw the need
of ladies' organization and largely
through the influence OF Mrs. Nellie
Scattergood. her husband being a
member of ;he order. the Pythian
Sisters were organized. known as the
Royal Temple, No. l6
As our village became larger and
our lodge grew and as the St. Louis
lodge was not successful in keeping
up their uniform division, through
the push and knowledge OF some of
the Knights Of the Alma lodge, the
uniform rank Of this district which
had been at St. Louis was transferred
to Alma, and is now known as Edel-
weiss Commandery. No I.
among other late improvements is
the billiard and pool room. In the
early spring Of 1909 this was added
to the orders rooms. with a cigar
stand that runs itself on the honor
of the members in connection
In this year also the order organ
ized band which was the towns
first and only for that year.
The lodge has many members Of
the order at the present time who
are scattered over the west The last
we heard OF T J. Mcdonald he was
somewhere in Alaska George G.
Taylor is at Elma. Washington. Chas
b. Mason. formerly connected with
the Alma Manufacturing plant, and
who brought more members into the
order at one time than any one man
ever did, was at Grants Pass, Oregon.
the last we heard from him. and has
been transferred from our lodge
Lester II. Hayt is at Pasadena, Cal,
Frank A. Gaskell at Rock River,
and ID. Jessurun at Sugar
City, Colorado. We have several
members in the neighboring towns,
cities and states. bur the majority OF
those who leave us for good follow
Horace Greeley's advice and 'go
west.
On July first. last. the lodge reach
ed the even hundred list of members
and have been prospecting since then
and will undoubtedly never go back
OF that number The order having
about twenty thousand members in
the state and something over seven
thousand in the world and
coming into existence about the time
al the break out of the Civil war
The Pythian Sisters of Alma lodge
have something over fifty members.
and they have in the state over three
thousand sister members and over
eighty lodges: the Knights having
about two hundred lodges in the
state
The spring OF 1909 and carly
were not as a rule considered
prosperous. but the Knights took in
over $500 in money during the first
six months Of the year.
In the writer's opinion, fIie success
Of the order turned upon. our manu-
featuring establishments spn the east
side OF our city, when the men NOV.
ed into Alma and started to work in
our plants, they immediately took