LOCAL

A time when clubs and fraternal organizations dominated the Dover landscape

Tony McManus
Foresters of America was a Catholic fraternal benefit association which offered members reasonably priced life insurance and other financial incentives. [Courtesy]

It may be hard to believe, but there was a time when there were no iPads, no video games, movies, TVs or even radios. (The first commercial radio broadcast was in 1920). What did people do for entertainment and to fill their time at the start of the 20th century?

In Dover, and almost every other community throughout the country, they joined clubs and fraternal organizations. Small groups gathering together, some public, some private — many "secret" societies with individual rituals, but all with regular meetings — and often people belonged to more than one.

We do that now, you say, with Rotary and Elks, Knights of Columbus and such, but consider this — and remember the population of Dover was less than 13,000 — there were dozens of such organizations, seemingly far more than are available today.

There were five separate groups of Masons, the first — the Strafford Lodge — was founded in 1817, the last — the Moses Paul Lodge — in 1890. All met at the Masonic Temple Building which by that time was permanently located on Washington Street.

Membership is down, but these two groups remain active to some degree, the Moses Paul Lodge is now located in its own building on Pearl Street.

Moses Paul was a superintendent of the Cochecho Mills and very active in local Masonry. He lived in the home at 114 Locust St., constructed in 1843, occupied in the past century by the Hughes — later the McCooey — Funeral Home, now the offices of The Leddy Group, Atty. John Hinsman, and others.

In addition to the Moses Paul House and the Moses Paul Lodge, there is a street named for him — Paul Street, off of Henry Law Avenue.

The Strafford Lodge is still alive and well and meets in the building at 610 Sixth St.

There were five separate sections of Odd Fellows — two Lodges, two Encampments, and the Canton Parker No. 3 Patriarchs Militant, the officers of the latter with distinctly military titles. A Charles Canney was the head official of one of each group. They met in their hall, a wooden building located at what is now the eastern end of the Aubuchon parking lot on Washington Street — a victim of Dover's Urban Renewal in 1976-77. Both the Masons and the Odd Fellows provided for retail and office space on the lower floors, with a large open area on the top floor for meetings and ritual ceremonies. There was a women's adjunct to the Odd Fellows — the Purity Rebekah Lodge — founded in 1872.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians had three divisions. The first, which met in space in Sherry's Block (then at 319-321 Central Ave.) had as its president one Patrick J. McManus, my grandfather, who for a time owned a saloon several doors away at 341 Central Ave.

There were two "tribes" — Kankamagus and Wanalanset — of what today would be considered a totally politically incorrect organization, The Improved Order of Red Men, and a women's auxiliary, the Weetamoo Council No. 2, Degree of Pocahontas. There is reference to a "wigwam" at 464 Central Ave. (likely above the present day estate jewelry shop), but there was also a Wanalanset Hall at 37 Locust St., which was used by the Red Men and other organizations, space that by mid-century had become the Esquire Club (dinner, music, and Saturday night dances).

There was the Foresters of America, with officers named McCarty, Dennis, Mahoney, Grimes, etc., which was a Catholic fraternal benefit association which offered members reasonably priced life insurance and other financial incentives. (The parent company is still located in Braintree, Massachusetts). There was a corresponding organization for French speaking Catholics — St. Charles Borrome.

Two sections of the Knights of Pythias, one meeting at Castle Hall, a space located within the Morrill Block on Franklin (now Upper) Square, while the other met at the Pythian Hall, which is the unused second story of the building on Central Avenue above Moe's Sandwich Shop.

Even though (or maybe because) there were well over 30 local saloons available to respond to Dover's thirst, temperance organizations were a hot item. You would have had your choice of the Dover Reform Club, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the Loyal Temperance Legion, The Father Mathew Catholic Total Abstinence Society, and the Royal Templars of Temperance. Although the particular target of the latter was to close the saloons on Sunday, similar to the Foresters membership, it included a program of low cost life insurance.

There was a separate organization, an offshoot of the Red Men, known as the Order of Haymakers. Possibly not an entirely serious group, it was led by the Chief Haymaker; the secretary was known as the Keeper of Straws; new members were overseen by a Boss Driver; another important official was the Keeper of the Barn Door.

The United Order of the Golden Cross was another national "benefit" group that was founded to provide affordable life insurance. In some areas of the country members pledged to abstain from alcohol, but the group was notable early on for not limiting its membership by gender. All of the groups mentioned previously were strictly male unless there was a separate "auxiliary" organization.

And, there was the Daughters of Liberty, The Elks, the Knights of the Golden Eagle — Couer de Lion Castle, a Woman's Club, a Loomfixers Association, The Bellamy Club, an Historical Society (our old friend Charles F. Sawyer, President), and on and on, and many more. (At the state level was the NH Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and a separate NH Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. But Dover had its own combined Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Children (in that order), with Daniel Hall and Charles Cartland, two prominent Dover leaders, as principal officers).

Many of these groups were national organizations, and in some parts of the country some took an active position against other groups — Catholics and Jews, for example — or were vocal opponents of immigration. (For a time the Ku Klux Klan was a political force in the State of Maine with a scattering of clubs in parts of New Hampshire). Although there might have been some local rivalries — the Hibernians were Irish, the Masons were not — the intent of the Dover organizations seems to have been mostly local concerns, offering a time and a place for people to gather together, offer moral and sometimes financial support to members and families, and support for the local community.

Thankfully, that hasn't changed.

— Tony McManus is a Dover native. He is a former trustee of the Woodman Institute and an amateur student of Dover’s past. He can be reached at mcaidan73@gmail.com