On November 21, 1889, the first minutes of our Lodge record that six members paid their dues ($5) eight men paid degree fees ($5 for the initiatory degree, and $6 for the three degrees) and $50 was transferred from a bank account. The $161 received is worth $5,672.14 in today’s (2026) money.

To give you some idea of the purchasing power, our $5 annual dues in 1889 could have been used to:

• Mail 100 letters via the USPS
• Lease 20 acres of land for one year

In fact, the entire sum of $161 represented roughly 5 to 8 months of income for a working-class individual at the time. From this income, the lodge had to remit $74.70 (approx. $2,631.50 in 2026) for their lodge charter, spent $6 on furniture, $5.75 on locks and bills, $2.60 on merchandise and $20 for labor.