HISTORY
Ione City, and the surrounding area were settled in the late 1840's and early 1850's by pioneers who had either given up on the mines, 10 or more miles away, or who had decided that life as a merchant or farmer provided a more stable income. A flat area near to Sutter Creek proved suitable for the crude tents and buildings of early Main Street, and Jackson Valley contained some of the richest land for farming that many of these people had ever seen.
Ione Lodge was established under dispensation from the Grand Lodge of California on December 14, 1854. The nine charter members, all Master Masons from other jurisdictions, were: Abner E. Callaway (first Master), John T. Poe (SW), A. E. Benedicks (JW), I. B. Gregory (T), John C. Gear (S), John A. Eagon (SD), L. G. Lyon (JD), William Porter (Tiler), and A. D. Kibbee.
The first petitions were received from Lyman Haley and D. M. Newman at the Stated Meeting on December 30, 1854, and Newman was initiated on January 27, 1855, the first degree performed by the Lodge. The first member to be raised to the Third Degree in the Lodge was John W. Surface on April 28, 1855, followed the same evening by William Hermes. The first affiliation was by R. F. Stevens on June 14, 1856, and the first dimit was by William Porter on January 17, 1856. The first visit of a Grand Master (W.H. Howard) was on January 24, 1856, when he lectured on the third degree.
Concerns by the Grand Lodge for the financial well-being of the Lodge (for failing to collect the fees prior to conferring degrees) and the misplacement of the charter fee (by the Grand Lodge), caused a one-year delay in the issuance of the charter, which finally occurred on May 8, 1856. The first installation of officers was held on May 30th at the Methodist Episcopal Church with John C. Gear installed as Master.
MEETING PLACES
The first meeting place for Ione Lodge was in a house rented from Daniel Stewart in January 1855 for $30.00 per month. This house is thought to be the one located at 366 S. Church Street, and presently occupied by Mary Bonham. In the Fall of 1855, a committee of Lodge officers met with Ione school commissioners to discuss the joint construction of a school/lodge hall near the corner of Market and Arroyo Seco Streets on property owned by Robert Reed. The building was erected with the school on the first floor and the lodge room on the second floor, and was apparently completed in early1857. A report from the Board of Trustees of the Lodge, dated February 6, 1857, indicates that the total cost for the Lodge portion of the building was $1,082.41. On April 19, 1858, Reed sold the property to the school district for $1.00, with the understanding that the Lodge would continue to "occupy the upper story of the school house according to the terms of the contract made between the officers of said school district and the Masonic Lodge prior to the erection of said building." The school remained in this building until a two-story, brick school house was built immediately east of the old building. Ione Masonic Lodge assisted the Grand Lodge in laying the cornerstone of this building on July 4, 1882.
In 1868, Ione Lodge and Odd Fellow (I.O.O.F.) Lodge o. 51, jointly purchased a two story, brick building (known as the "Turner Building") on Main Street from J. Foot Turner (Master of Ione Lodge in 1860). His brother, Milo H. Turner, erected the building in 1861-62, prior to the erection of the adjacent building now used by the Native Sons. The Odd Fellows remained co-owners until 1977, when they merged with Jackson Lodge, and sold their half of the building to Ione Lodge for $7,500.00.
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