Jefferson Bee, May 13, 1914
New Hall for Rippey I. O. O. F.
Rippey Booster:
“By the time this issue of the Booster gets to our readers, the old Odd Fellows building that has stood on main street for over a quarter of a century, will have disappeared. The building was sold some time ago to M. Feith, owner of the Buckeye Coal Mines, and he has a force of men at work wrecking the building, and hauling the material out to his farm south of town, where it will be used in building a barn.
The OddFellows Lodge in Rippey was organized June 28, 1883, with the following charter members: Jesse Bullock R. B. Cook E. Harmon G. N. Phillips, Q. Free, E. L. Frizelle, P. Law G. J. Griffith.
The order was flourishing from the start and soon had a large membership. For the first three years they met in the room over the building now used by Geo. Naylor for a plumbing shop.
But in; 1886 the membership was large enough so that they concluded to erect a building of their own and the proposition was financed by the members taking shares of stock in the building.
According to the data at our disposal there are only two older buildings on main street, the old drug store building belonging to B. F. Osborn and occupied as a millinery store, and the building owned and occupied by Geo. Naylor as a plumbing shop.”
Jefferson Bee, December 9, 1014
Rippey Items
On last Thursday occurred the dedication of the new I. 0. O. F. hall at this place. For the past few years there has been a feeling among the Odd Fellows that their old hall was inadequate for the purpose for which it was designed. Last spring the question of building was taken up and it was decided to build a new hall.
The present plan was finally decided upon, an architect employed and the contract let. The building was designed by John Clarence Woodward of Council Bluffs, and constructed by Jacobson and Stombach of Perry. The structure is 90 feet long and 30 feet wide and 27 feet high. The front is matte faced brick and the sides of building brick, both reinforced with hollow tile. The basement of the building which extends five feet above the ground is divided into three compartments. The front room is occupied by J. A. Duitman’s printing office while the middle one is taken up by the furnace and fuel room. The rear is used by the Burk and Morse Implement Co. as a store room for machinery.
The second floor is wholly taken up by the I. 0. O. F. and Rebekah lodges. As you enter the building, the stairway leads directly into the reception room finished in oak. The anteroom is large and spacious and has a cloak room besides two rooms fitted with lockers for the safe keeping
of the regalia of the two lodges. The lodge room proper is 30 feet by 50 feet, which furnishes ample room for team work and drills. The dining room and kitchen afford a nice auxiliary to any lodge, and occupy the rear of the building. The windows are of Florentine glass. The building is lighted by the Rippey Gas Co. and is heated with a hot air furnace and has all modern conveniences.
At 2:30 o’clock on Thursday the dedicating exercises began, an altar was erected with proper ceremonies and no one was present who was not impressed both by the manner in which the parts were rendered but also by the principles upon which Odd Fellowship is founded. A literary program followed the dedication ceremony; addresses were given by Hon. Judge Church of Jefferson, Grand Secretary R. L. Tilton of Des Moines, R. G. Martin of Dana and J. H. Van Scoy, interspersed with music by a mixed quartet and a reading by Mrs. W. J. Roberts.
At 6:30 p. m. the banquet hall was opened where the Rebekah ladies displayed their culinary skill in serving a fine four-course dinner. Present at the banquet hall were representatives not only of Greene but also Guthrie, Dallas and Boone counties. After the banquet the Perry team put on work in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd degrees and it is certainly putting it modest when we say that they deserve much praise and credit for the manner in which they brought out the fraternal teachings of the order At 11.30 the work being completed a lunch was served by the ladies. After the lunch about three hundred men went to their various homes feeling proud not only that they were Odd Fellows, but that they had taken this opportunity to visit Rippey lodge and help them dedicate their new home.
E. A. Shaw had his display window fixed up so as to represent a reading room in a modern home which made a very effective display with the three I. O. O. F. links in the background. The other windows of the stores mentioned with either the links or the letters I. O. O. F.
Quite a number of the business men had their windows decorated on Thursday of last week. Those we noticed were C. W. Derry, J. H. Shoemaker, E. A. Shaw, B. F. Osborn, First National Bank and the Rippey Savings Bank. The National Bank’s display consisted of the letters I. O. O. F. made out of paper money of various denominations with gold pieces for periods. At each end of the letters were the three links of the latest revenue stamps.