PREEMPTION ORANGEMEN.

Preemption Loyal Orange Lodge No. 132, was organized July 3, 1876, by Matthew Mayne, of Chicago, with the following charter mem­bers James Connelly, W.M.; Thomas Doonan, Deputy W.M. ; Wm. Holden, Secretary ; John Holden, Treasurer ; Wm. Wilson, Chap­lain ; Thomas Wilson, Tyler ; and Thomas J. Armstrong, James Gawley, James F. Johnston, Robert Wadsworth, George Wadsworth, John Wadsworth, James R. Doonan, James Allwell, John H. Johns­ ton : in all fifteen. There is now a membership of forty.

The first year they held their meetings in the school-house of district No. 2, after which they built a hall on the farm of Joseph B. Johnston, about two miles west of the Tillage of Preemption. D. W. Little is the present secretary. Their established holiday is on the twelfth of July, when they meet, as is to them a time honored custom, and with singing, speaking and martial music commemorate the day when protestantism gained the ascendancy in Ireland at the battle of the Boyne in 1690.

 

History of Mercer and Henderson County

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