40 Fun Facts About Order of the Eastern Star

Which author of beloved pioneer novels led her Order of the Eastern Star chapter in Mansfield, Missouri, in 1902?

Laura Ingalls Wilder joined the Mansfield chapter in 1897, some 35 years before her first Little House book appeared. She had first asked to join a chapter back in 1893.

Which Freemason, a lawyer and teacher, created the Order of the Eastern Star in 1850 so women could share in Masonry?

Rob Morris had been a Freemason for only four years when he drew up the order. He believed the lodge's benefits should reach a member's wife, daughters, sisters and mother as well.

The Order of the Eastern Star keeps its international headquarters in a 1909 mansion in which city?

Washington, D.C. is home to the International Temple, a mansion the order bought in 1935. When it was new, people said it made the White House look tiny.

What title does the presiding officer of an Order of the Eastern Star chapter hold, an office open only to women?

Worthy Matron is the top office in a chapter, usually reached by moving up through the junior offices one year at a time. A man who is a Freemason serves beside her.

The Eastern Star's founder was crowned Poet Laureate of Freemasonry in 1884 as successor to which Scottish poet?

Robert Burns was, by lodge tradition, made poet laureate of an Edinburgh lodge in 1787. The founder earned his crown with hundreds of poems about Masonry and the order he created.

Martha, one of the five heroines of the Eastern Star, saw which brother raised from the dead in the Gospel of John?

Lazarus had been in the tomb four days when he was called out alive at Bethany. In the order, his sister teaches faith and trust that hold up under trial.

Both a man joining the Order of the Eastern Star and a woman's qualifying relative must hold which rank of the lodge?

Master Mason standing has to be proved: a man's petition must come with evidence that his lodge dues are paid. A woman with no such relative can join if two members sponsor her.

Which five-letter word, its meaning told only to members, rings the central pentagon of the Eastern Star emblem?

FATAL sits at the heart of a star whose five points each carry the color and symbol of a different heroine.

Which cause is the Order of the Eastern Star's primary and identifying charity, helping people live independently?

Service dogs are the order's signature cause: it gives money to qualified programs that train them. Members also raise funds for Alzheimer's research, cancer research and scholarships.

Which emblem stands for Esther, the heroine honored on the white point of the Eastern Star?

Crown and scepter mark Esther as the queen of Persia who pleaded with the king for her people. In the order she teaches loyalty to family and friends.

Which of the five heroines of the Order of the Eastern Star is represented by the color red and a chalice?

Electa takes her name from the "elect lady" to whom the Second Epistle of John is addressed. She teaches charity and hospitality, and stands for holding firm under persecution.

Ruth, the widow honored by the Order of the Eastern Star, refused to abandon which mother-in-law after her husband died?

Naomi urged her to go back to her own people in Moab, but Ruth followed her to Bethlehem instead. Ruth went on to become the great-grandmother of King David.

The story of Esther, a heroine of the Order of the Eastern Star, is the traditional basis for which Jewish holiday?

Purim marks the day the Jews of Persia escaped a massacre plotted by Haman, the king's chief minister. Esther stopped it by exposing the plot to her husband, the king.

The Order of the Eastern Star draws its lessons from the Bible, yet an applicant need only believe in what?

A Supreme Being is the only belief the order asks for, so it is open to people of every faith. Applicants must also be of good moral character.

The Eastern Star's founder died in La Grange, where his home is kept as a shrine, in which state?

Kentucky was already his home: he had led its Grand Lodge before a Masonic college post drew him to La Grange in 1860. The state's Eastern Star members keep his house there as a museum.

The founder drew up the Order of the Eastern Star in 1850 while teaching at a Masonic college in which Southern state?

Mississippi preserves the two-story brick building, which stands in rural Holmes County. The order restored it and counts it as its birthplace.

Which branch of Freemasonry, founded in Boston in 1784, has its own largely African-American Order of the Eastern Star?

Prince Hall Freemasonry opened its first Eastern Star chapter in 1874, when the original order did not admit Black members. The chapter was named for Queen Esther.

How often does the General Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star, formed in 1876, hold its international assembly?

Every three years the delegates gather for what the order calls a Triennial Assembly. The body was set up by a convention of independent Grand Chapters in November 1876.

Which officer of an Order of the Eastern Star chapter sits outside the door to check that those entering are members?

Sentinel is the post outside the chapter room. A second officer, the Warder, guards the same door from the inside.

Which color represents Adah, the heroine of the Order of the Eastern Star whose emblems are a sword and a veil?

Blue belongs to Adah, the name the order gives to Jephthah's daughter, whom the Bible itself never names. Her lesson is obedience to duty.

Which way does the white point of the Order of the Eastern Star's emblem face, said to be toward the manger?

Downward is the direction of the white point, which gives the star its upside-down look. Inside a chapter room, that same point is laid out facing west.

Which emblem stands for Ruth, the widow honored on the yellow point of the Order of the Eastern Star?

Sheaf of barley recalls the grain Ruth gathered behind the reapers in a kinsman's field to keep her household fed. Her lesson in the order is honor and justice.

Adah, a heroine of the Order of the Eastern Star, is identified with Jephthah's daughter from which Old Testament book?

Judges tells how Jephthah vowed to sacrifice whatever first came out of his house if he won a battle, and his only child came out to greet him.

Which New York publisher took over the Order of the Eastern Star from its founder and organized its system of chapters?

Robert Macoy gave the order its chapter form and published a manual for it in 1866. He never joined the General Grand Chapter that followed, and opposed it instead.

Eureka Masonic College, birthplace of the Order of the Eastern Star, is affectionately known by which nickname?

Little Red Schoolhouse is the members' name for the brick building. After the Civil War it spent decades as a segregated public school for Black children.

The founder handed the Order of the Eastern Star to a successor because he planned a long journey to where?

The Holy Land journey came in 1868. It led to a lodge at Jerusalem, of which he was first Master, and to his book Freemasonry in the Holy Land.

Eastern Star youth projects back Rainbow for Girls, Job's Daughters and which young men's order founded in Kansas City?

DeMolay is named for Jacques de Molay, the last head of the medieval Knights Templar. The Eastern Star backs all three groups as a source of future members.

Which Eastern Star officer leads visitors and initiations, a post commonly held two years before the top office?

Conductress is the second rung of a four-year ladder to the chapter's top chair. Her assistant, on the first rung, prepares candidates and handles the ballot box.

Eastern Star members built the Peace Chapel that straddles the border of North Dakota and which Canadian province?

Manitoba limestone forms the walls of the chapel, which stands in the International Peace Garden. It was dedicated in 1970 and is inscribed with words of peace from statesmen around the world.

The Order of the Eastern Star's headquarters is a mansion built in 1909 for which former congressman and diplomat?

Perry Belmont sold the house to the order in 1935 for $100,000, a small fraction of what it had cost to build. His condition was that one of its officers live there.

Martha, the heroine of the green point of the Order of the Eastern Star, is represented by which architectural emblem?

Broken column marks Martha, whose lesson is trust in everlasting life. In the Gospel story she is the sister who hurried out to meet Jesus while the other waited at home.

The Order of the Eastern Star runs a scholarship fund, managed state by state, for students training in which field?

Religious leadership is the aim of the awards, known as ESTARL, which go to people studying for work in the church. The order also helps students of theology and sacred music.

Which group, modeled on a society created by Queen Christina of Sweden, required Eastern Star membership until 1921?

Order of the Amaranth was planned as the top degree of a new rite in which the Eastern Star was only the first step. The publisher who built the Star's chapter system organized it in 1873.

Which state, like New York, keeps its Eastern Star Grand Chapter outside the General Grand Chapter, with its own ritual?

New Jersey and its neighbor each follow a slightly different ritual and their own set of laws. Both stay on friendly terms with the General Grand Chapter and trade representatives with it.

Rainbow for Girls began in 1922 after a minister addressed an Eastern Star chapter in McAlester, a city in which state?

Oklahoma saw the first class of 171 girls initiated that April, in McAlester's Scottish Rite Temple. The minister had studied a new order for boys and proposed one like it for girls.

The General Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star was formed in November 1876 in which Midwestern state capital?

Indianapolis hosted the delegates of the independent Grand Chapters who created the body. Its committees then shaped the ritual into more or less the form used ever since.

The first Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star was organized in 1867 in which Great Lakes state?

Michigan set up its statewide body nine years before the General Grand Chapter was formed. Grand Chapters like it later sent the delegates who created that body.

What title did the founder give the book of Eastern Star lectures, odes and emblems that he published in 1865?

The Rosary of the Eastern Star was printed in Chicago, fifteen years after he first worked out the degrees. His successor later used it as the guide for a new ritual.

Achoth, a sorority founded in 1910 for Eastern Star members, took its name from the word for sister in which language?

Hebrew letters also named its chapters: Aleph at the University of Nebraska, where it began, then Beth in Iowa. In the 1920s it took the Greek-letter name Phi Omega Pi.

The founder conceived the Order of the Eastern Star while holding which post at Eureka Masonic College?

Principal was his job after the Freemasons of Holmes County hired him away from another academy to head their new college.