Grand Lodge of the Ladies Society of the Former Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen Records
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Scope and Contents
Inclusive dates: 1884-1972
Bulk dates: 1903-1971
Records included in the collection document the organizing, founding, and daily business of the Ladies' Society of the BLF and E, as well as some biographical information and photographs of grand presidents and co-founders. Various editions of the constitutions and general laws of the Ladies' Society from 1904 to 1968 are found in this collection as well as the Journal of Proceedings of the First Biennial Convention of the Ladies' Society held in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1892. A Report of Receipts and Disbursements for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1903, sent from the office of the Board of Grand Trustees to all member lodges documents the Ladies' Society's finances, number of lodges, and payments made to members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers. Finally, two bound ledgers record the dates, locations, and circumstances of the organizing and disbanding of various lodges. These ledgers also contain additional information about the Ladies' Society and its membership.
Additional records found in this collection document the institutional history of the Ladies' Society. A typed manuscript, written in 1934 by Agnes G. Strong (Grand President, 1925-1947), gives a historical review of the Ladies' Society, prepared for the Society's Golden Jubilee; other histories of the Ladies' Society, by unknown authors, are also included. There are also programs from the memorial service for the founder of the Ladies' Society, Georgia M. Sargent, and from the Golden Anniversary of Lodge 56 in Tucson, Arizona, where the Society was founded. Photographs of all former Grand Lodge presidents and two founding members, which include Joshua A. Leach (founder of the BLF and E) and his wife Sarah (Grand President, 1895-1898), as well as Georgia M. Sargent (Grand President, 1899-1912) and her husband Frank (Counselor-Brother, 1898), are found in this collection, in additional to a photograph of an ambulance donated by the Ladies' Society.
Dates
- 1884- 1972
Language of Materials
Collection material in English
Conditions Governing Access
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.
Biographical / Historical
The Ladies' Society of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (BLF and E) was organized in April 1884 in Tucson, Arizona by the wife of a railroad fireman, Georgia M. Sargent. The first meeting of the Ladies' Society was held at the "little adobe home" of Frank and Georgia Sargent. The constitution and by-laws were published in the May 1884 issue of the Firemen's Magazine. This lodge had to disband, because the terminal of the railroad changed. A second lodge, using the already established constitution and by-laws, was organized in August 1884, in Stratford, Ontario. For the following six years, the Ladies' Society ran itself and established twelve lodges for its members. The Ladies' Society was formally recognized as an auxiliary of the Brotherhood at its second biennial convention in San Francisco in 1890.
The Ladies' Society was organized "for the purpose of rendering assistance, encouraging the Brotherhood ... in its good work, extending the hand of Charity, helping each other in time of need, and elevating our social and intellectual standing. It is also the aim of the Society to cultivate a spirit of harmony, to promote sociability, and to draw into friendly and affectionate relationship the lady members of the families of the Brotherhood." In addition to the social features, the Ladies' Society offered insurance to its members "considered the best of its kind [and] is a guarantee to the members' participating therein that their loved ones shall receive, without unnecessary delay, the protection it affords" ("History of the Ladies' Society," Box 2, Folder 1).
Extent
1 cubic feet
Abstract
This collection is comprised of records and photographs documenting the institutional history of the Grand Lodge of the Ladies' Society of the Former Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (BLF and E).
Quantity:
1 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Manuscripts for publication, photographs .
General
- Contact Information:
- Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives Martin P. Catherwood Library 227 Ives Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3183> kheel_center@cornell.edu http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/kheel-center
- Compiled by:
- E. Parker, September 23, 2016
- EAD encoding:
- Kheel Staff, March 08, 2017
- Title
- Grand Lodge of the Ladies Society of the Former Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen Records
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Compiled by E. Parker
- Date
- March 08, 2017
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Sponsor
- This collection was processed with the help of generous funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).
Revision Statements
- 02/23/2024: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
Repository Details
Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853