Bodie Masonic Lodge No.252

SOLOMON G. STEBBINS- Died 20 October 1881, Aged 56 years. Buried in Bodie Masonic Cemetery

Masonic Cemetery

The Bodie Masonic Lodge No. 252 was  chartered October 16, 1879.  The Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, a worldwide Fraternal Order, originated in the Middle Ages ,when Stone Mason and Cathedral Builders formed “brotherhoods.”

The Bodie Masonic Lodge No. 252 built a “meeting hall” for meetings and community events and acquired land for burials. 

Bodie, California U. S. Federal Census- 2,712 residence, with 350 Chinese immigrants living in Bodie.

By 1880, according to the Bodie Daily Standard newspaper, “the Bodie Cemetery contained 160 graves: 109 in Wards Cemetery, 43 in Miners’ Union Cemetery, and eight in the Masonic Cemetery section.”

The Bodie Fraternal Burial Association was organized June 13, 1898. It chose pioneer resident M. J. Cody, as its first President. The B.F.B.A. provided “burial services for the the Fraternal organizations,” and handled “indigent burials” paid for by Mono County. 

(A contract was signed for “undertaking services” with Mr. Arrild. )

In 1898, the Bodie Masonic Lodge No. 252 joined the BODIE FRATERNAL BURIAL ASSOCIATION, which took over the care of the Masonic-section of the Bodie Cemetery.

The Bodie Masonic Lodge No. 252 was active, until consolidation with the Winnedumah Lodge No. 281 of Bishop, California in 1918.