Mississippi Fraternal Lodges

About Fraternal Organizations in Mississippi

A deep look at the history, oldest lodges, membership process, and notable members of fraternal organizations across Mississippi.

History of Fraternal Organizations in Mississippi

Mississippi's fraternal history is woven into the courthouse squares, the cotton-trading towns along the river, and the small Catholic communities of the Gulf Coast. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows arrived in the antebellum period and quickly became the dominant fraternal society in towns like Natchez, Vicksburg, Holly Springs, and Columbus, where its three-link chain of friendship, love, and truth turned up over hardware stores and bank buildings. Masonry, the Odd Fellows, and the Knights of Pythias formed the trio of older orders that dotted nearly every county seat by 1880, and the cemeteries of small-town Mississippi still bear their distinct emblems on weather-worn limestone. After the Civil War, the order most associated with the state's commercial recovery was probably the Knights of Honor, but by 1900 the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks had begun building lodges in Jackson, Vicksburg, Meridian, and Greenville, and a parallel growth of Black fraternal life through the Prince Hall Masons, the United Order of True Reformers, and the Mosaic Templars produced an equally rich, if less photographed, network of mutual aid.

Catholic communities along the Gulf Coast and around Natchez took to the Knights of Columbus quickly after its arrival in the 1890s, and the order remains an essential pillar of parish life from Bay St. Louis through Pascagoula. Rural Mississippi was, and in many counties still is, served by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World, and a handful of regional benefit societies whose halls also functioned as the polling place, the funeral parlor's overflow, and the only meeting room in the township. fraternalfinder.com indexes those active lodges along with the Eagles, Moose, Lions, Rotary, and Kiwanis clubs that round out the modern Mississippi fraternal landscape, and below we walk through the major orders, their state numbers, and their long-standing community work.

Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in Mississippi

The Elks reached Mississippi in the 1890s, and Vicksburg Lodge No. 95 holds a particularly storied place in the state's BPOE story. Chartered in 1888, the lodge served the Mississippi River port whose history during the Civil War siege and subsequent commercial recovery had given the city a national profile. Jackson Lodge No.

416, chartered in 1898, became the central Elks lodge of the state capital, and its members included lawyers, journalists, and merchants who shaped early-twentieth-century Mississippi civic life. Meridian Lodge No. 309, Greenville Lodge No. 148, Natchez Lodge No.

116, and Hattiesburg Lodge No. 599 round out the state's older lodges, and several built substantial brick clubhouses in the 1910s and 1920s that still stand. The Mississippi State Elks Association maintains a strong commitment to the Elks Major Project, which in many southern states funds therapy and equipment for children with special needs, and Mississippi's lodges have been steady contributors to the Elks National Foundation scholarship program for high school seniors. Hoop Shoot competitions, drug-awareness contests in elementary schools, and the annual Veterans Day observances at VA medical centers in Jackson and Biloxi continue to anchor the order's calendar in the state.

The Mississippi State Elks have also been steady supporters of veterans' programs at VA medical centers in Jackson and Biloxi, and several lodges run annual youth fishing tournaments, summer baseball league sponsorships, and Christmas basket programs that knit them into the fabric of their communities. Lodges in Hattiesburg, Greenville, and Tupelo have grown notably in recent decades.

Loyal Order of Moose in Mississippi

The Loyal Order of Moose came to Mississippi in the early twentieth century, with active lodges established in Jackson, Meridian, Hattiesburg, Biloxi, Gulfport, and Tupelo. Although Mississippi never developed the dense Moose population of the upper Midwest, the order found a strong niche in working-class neighborhoods and Gulf Coast shipyard communities. Mississippi Moose lodges have been steady contributors to Mooseheart, the children's home in Illinois, and to Moosehaven, the retirement community in Florida. The Women of the Moose chapters in Hattiesburg and Gulfport are particularly active, and the lodges' social calendars feature seafood boils, country music nights, and bingo programs that have drawn members and the wider community alike.

Several Mississippi lodges have rebuilt twice in living memory after Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the resilience of those rebuildings is one of the unsung stories of the state's fraternal life. The Moose's Mississippi presence is concentrated along the Gulf Coast and in the Pine Belt, with Hattiesburg and Gulfport lodges among the more active. Annual seafood boils, country music dance nights, and youth scholarship fundraisers anchor the lodge calendar. The Mississippi Moose Association also coordinates with national Moose International disaster-relief efforts when hurricanes affect the Gulf Coast.

Eagles, Knights of Columbus & Other Fraternal Orders in Mississippi

The Fraternal Order of Eagles maintains a smaller but loyal presence in Mississippi, with aeries in the larger cities and along the Gulf Coast. The Eagles' national emphasis on disability rights, diabetes research, and children's health programs translates to Mississippi as steady fundraising for state hospitals and pediatric care. The Knights of Columbus, however, are the heavyweight Catholic fraternal presence in Mississippi. The first councils were chartered in the early 1900s in coastal parishes, and today the Mississippi State Council oversees roughly 80 councils with several thousand members across the state.

KC councils in Bay St. Louis, Pascagoula, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, and Long Beach are among the largest, and the order's relief work after Katrina, when councils across the country sent supplies and volunteers to the Gulf Coast, became part of the state's KC identity. The Mississippi KC also funds seminarian education, ultrasound machines for crisis pregnancy centers, and a broad range of parish-based youth programs. Mississippi Eagles aeries support local hospitals, youth sports, and the FOE's national charitable programs through bingo, raffles, and dance fundraisers.

Mississippi KC councils have been active in the state's pro-life movement, in supporting Catholic schools, and in major parish-level disaster recovery work. The state's KC also operates a substantial annual fundraising campaign for the Mississippi Knights of Columbus Charities, which directs funds to community groups across the state.

Mississippi Fraternal Lodges by the Numbers

Mississippi currently has roughly 25 active Elks lodges, around 15 Moose lodges, a smaller number of Eagles aeries concentrated near urban centers and the coast, and approximately 80 Knights of Columbus councils. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows retains a meaningful presence in the older Mississippi River and central Mississippi towns, with active lodges in Jackson, Vicksburg, Natchez, and Columbus among others. Lions Clubs are well distributed across the state through Multiple District 30, with more than 100 clubs and several thousand members. Rotary International, Kiwanis, and the Civitan clubs round out the civic-club picture, with strong representation in college towns like Oxford and Starkville.

Combined active membership in mainstream fraternal and civic orders in Mississippi likely sits in the 25,000 to 35,000 range, with the Knights of Columbus, Lions, and Elks the three largest contributors. Prince Hall Masonic lodges remain particularly significant in Mississippi's Black communities, with active lodges across the Delta and the central Mississippi region adding several thousand members to the state's overall fraternal participation.

How to Join a Fraternal Lodge in Mississippi

Becoming a member of a Mississippi lodge is a familiar process to anyone who has joined an Elks or Moose lodge elsewhere in the country. The BPOE requires candidates to be 21 or older, U.S. citizens, of good moral character, and to affirm a belief in God; sponsorship by a current member and approval by lodge ballot are standard. Initiation fees in Mississippi typically run from $50 to $150, with annual dues from $80 to $150.

Moose lodges welcome members 21 and over with a sponsor, dues generally in the $40 to $80 range, and a brief enrollment ceremony. Eagles aeries follow a similar pattern with separate men's and women's enrollment paths through the Grand Aerie and Grand Auxiliary. The Knights of Columbus admits practical Catholic men 18 and older; Mississippi's KC has embraced the Supreme Council's online enrollment system and many councils host an exemplification of the first three degrees in a single afternoon. Odd Fellows, Lions, Rotary, and Kiwanis all maintain open application processes, and visiting a meeting before joining is encouraged across the state.

Each order maintains its own state-specific paperwork and induction schedule. Many Mississippi lodges hold open houses around Memorial Day and Veterans Day weekends as a low-pressure way for prospective members to visit, meet current members, and learn about the lodge's charitable work before applying.

Notable Mississippi Fraternal Members in History

Mississippi has produced a long line of fraternal members in public life. Senator John C. Stennis of Kemper County, who served in the U.S. Senate for more than four decades, was a Mason and an Elk.

Governor and Senator James K. Vardaman, despite the controversial nature of much of his political record, moved through fraternal circles in Greenwood and Jackson early in his career. The civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who was assassinated in Jackson in 1963, was a member of the Prince Hall Masons; the Black fraternal tradition in Mississippi runs deep and parallels the white fraternal world chronicled in most older histories. William Faulkner of Oxford was an Odd Fellow's son and frequented the Lafayette County courthouse square that still bears the marks of fraternal life in his fiction.

Eudora Welty of Jackson grew up among Elks and Rotarians, her father an insurance executive deeply involved in Jackson civic life. In music, B.B. King and Charley Pride both came up through Mississippi communities where Black fraternal life and the church were the twin pillars of organization. Modern Mississippi politicians from both parties have continued the lodge tradition, often as Knights of Columbus, Masons, Lions, or Rotarians.

Civil rights pioneer Aaron Henry of Clarksdale was active in Prince Hall Masonic life, which provided much of the organizational infrastructure for the Mississippi civil rights movement.

Frequently Asked Questions: Mississippi Fraternal Lodges

Sources & Further Reading

• https://www.elks.org
• https://www.mooseintl.org
• https://www.foe.com
• https://www.kofc.org
• https://www.ioof.org
• https://www.lionsclubs.org
• https://www.rotary.org
• https://www.kiwanis.org
• https://mdah.ms.gov
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Columbus
• https://www.msstateelks.org