The annual address of Grand Master McCord,
delivered before the eighth grand communication,
which convened at Fort Madison on Tuesday,
June 3, 1851, has the following paragraph, which
brings us at once to the immediate subject of our
labors. It reads :
"On the twenty-third of November last I granted
a dispensation to Brother George Greene and seven
others. Master Masons, authorizing them to open
Cedar Rapids Lodge, in Linn County. Their petition
was recommended by Marion Lodge No. 6."
At this session S. D. Carpenter, as proxy for
Junior Warden, represented the lodge. In the
first returns Brother Carpenter was the only Master
Mason who had no official position. He was
initiated, passed and raised upon the evening of
institution. In the report of Committee on Lodges
Under Dispensation the only remaric anent this new
lodge is "By-laws and work correct."
