Anchor Hilyard Lodge #2

                                Minneapolis, Minnesota

Prior to the formation of a Grand Lodge in Minnesota, the Grand Lodges of Missouri, Illinois and Iowa had chartered several lodges in the State.  In his account of these early times, Past Grand Master John R. Lawrence reconstructs the brief encounter of some of those Masonic Jurisdictions in the State of Minnesota.  Specifically, his reference is about Freemasonry among men of color in Minnesota, which in his opinion traces the beginning of those lodges directly to African Lodge No. 459 of Boston, Massachusetts.

Five years after Pioneer Lodge was founded, a second lodge was organized among Minnesota men of color in Minneapolis on Tuesday, September 5, 1871.  Brother Alexander Clark of Muscatine, Iowa, Grand Master of Missouri, granted the dispensation.  Brother Clark officially visited Pioneer Lodge on Thursday September 7, 1871 and at the time of his visit; he instituted J. K. Hilyard Lodge U.D.  Its Charter was granted Tuesday, July 2, 1872 and the number assigned was 38.  Officers were B.C. Yancey, W.M.; D.H. Lewis, S.W.; R.S. Settles, J.W.

Monday, August 16, 1886, African Grand Lodge of Iowa granted a Dispensation to Anchor Lodge of Minneapolis, but it was not until the union of the two Iowa Grand Lodges that a Warrant was issued to Anchor Lodge on Friday, July 15, 1887, and the No. 14 was assigned.  The officers on record in 1886 and 1887 were A.H. Myrich, W.M.; Charles F. Davis, S.W.; and George W. Bolden, J.W.

On May 12, 1901, Hilyard Lodge and Anchor Lodge consolidated taking the name “Anchor-Hilyard.’  The Grand Master of the then organized Minnesota Grand Lodge was a member of this new Lodge himself.  The Warrant was issued on Tuesday, August 20, 1901 and the number assigned was 2