CHARLES PAINE THAYER, first Master, Aurora Lodge 100, AF&AM, Brainerd.

Aurora Lodge No. 100, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, was the first fraternal organization established in the City of Brainerd. The Masonic Lodge was established here less than a year after the founding of Brainerd on Sept. 25, 1871.

Charles Thayer, a surgeon for the railroad here, was a Master Mason in his home city of Burlington, Vt. Thayer managed to get the signatures of 23 Master Masons on a petition which only required seven signers, and a dispensation for a Masonic Lodge in Brainerd was issued by the Grand Master on Aug. 8,1872.

Thayer, founder of the lodge, was its first Worshipful Master, but never became a member in Brainerd. Along with Charles D. Wiley, one of the charter members of the Lodge according to records, Thayer kept his membership in his home lodge.

Twelve of the first 23 signers of the petition became charter members, however. They were: Benjamin L. Perry, junior warden; George H. Chipman. A. V. Canfield, George C. Dow, William N. Falconer, Horatio G. Coykendall, Fred Sweetman, W. H. Williams, H. J. Wetmore, John McGregor, M. H. Kellogg and Bradford Lufkin.

Other charter members, along with Thayer and Wiley, were: F. H. Harvey, secretary: W. H. Leland, John Mitchell, George Hartley, Seth Tennis and Thomas Shaw.

The charter was officially issued on Jan. 15, 1873, and the name Aurora Lodge No. 100, granted.

Meetings were held from 1872 to 1883 on the third floor of Bly's Mercantile store on Front and South Sixth Streets. The Sleeper Opera House on South Eighth became the meeting site from 1883 to 1894. The Lodge had quarters in the Columbia Block on South Sixth from 1894 until a fire in 1909 destroyed that building and Lodge records, and headquarters moved to the Gruenhagen Block on South Seventh, the Elks Lodge allowing the Masons to use its meeting rooms there for two years.

In 1911, the Masons established meeting rooms in the Iron Exchange building and met there until a fire destroyed those quarters this past year.

At the present time, Aurora Lodge uses the Masonic Temple in Crosby for its affairs until plans for a new building are completed here.

From 23 members in 1872, the Masonic lodge now has 496 members.

Officers for 1971 are: Jerome Melby, Worshipful Master; Victor Ferguson, Senior Warden; Norman Aune, Junior Warden; Walter Armstrong, Secretary; Lyle Mayo, Treasurer; Leonard Strobel, Senior Deacon; Charles Closson, Junior Deacon; Norris Stowell, Senior Steward; Kenneth Snell Junior Steward; Eugene Thompson, Chaplain; Del Junker, Marshal: John Mohler, Tyler.