Editor's note: Over a period of 12 years beginning in 1983, local historian Ken Munford wrote 561 columns for the Gazette-Times. As part of the city's 150th anniversary, the newspaper will publish a selection of these columns each Saturday. This one was originally printed Sept. 23, 1985.

Fraternal orders helped shape the youthful character of Corvallis.

In his "History of Benton County," D.D. Fagan wrote these words more than a century ago: "The orders of Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, United Workmen and Good Templars keep alive and inculcate the teachings of the Great Master in labor, benevolence and sobriety."

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows started its lodge in 1858. Dr. James R. Bayley and Elisha Vineyard, for whom the hill north of Crescent Valley is named, were charter members. By 1885 the lodge had 64 members, including Judge W.S. McFadden, merchant L.G. Kline and college professor Joseph Emery.

The IOOF lodge took charge of the Witham family burial plots on what used to be known as Cemetery Hill Road (now Witham Hill Road). They planted rows of small Douglas firs, which now have become towering giants.

The local lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen was formed in 1879. By 1885 it had 35 members, including two of the Cauthorn brothers (J.A. and Frank) who were longtime supporters of the local college; Sol King, the sheriff for whom Kings Boulevard is named; Judge McFadden, B.J. Hawthorne, and doctors J.B. Lee and G.R. Farra.

The Independent Order of Good Templars had a long presence in Benton County as dedicated advocates of temperance.

In the 1860s, editor W.B. Carter made the Corvallis Gazette the state organ for the Good Templars. Except for a brief period in 1870 (when Samuel L. Simpson, who rejected temperance, was editor), the Gazette was the strident voice of the anti-saloon forces.

In 1885, the Good Templars had 169 members. Their unique feature: About half were women.

The Knights of Pythias lodge was organized in 1882. By 1885 it had 37 members, including land developer C.D. Rayburn, publisher and banker Robert Johnson and Corvallis Times founder B.F. Irvine.

Meanwhile, the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons had established two lodges - this in a town with only 1,500 inhabitants. The first was started the same year the city was incorporated, 1857. Charter members included three of the six men who incorporated Corvallis College the next year: J.C. Avery, Bushrod W. Wilson and John B. Congle. Another member was George P. Wren, energetic organizer of firefighting companies and first settler at the village of Wren west of Philomath.

He lost his life fighting a fire in Corvallis in 1882.

Another charter member was Dr. James Riley Bayley. In the centennial history of local lodges, Edward B. Beaty wrote, "The amount of work Brother Bayley did for Masonry is unbelievable."

Bayley was 34 when he came west by covered wagon in 1853. He had graduated from Ohio Medical College and practiced for 11 years. He settled in Polk County and soon became master of the Lafayette Masonic lodge, one of the three oldest in Oregon.

He moved to Corvallis in 1855 to practice medicine and operate a pharmacy. He also helped found the Corvallis Masonic lodge in 1857.

After a while, all did not go well. "There was something in the lodge," Beaty says, "that did not satisfy all the Brethern." Bayley and others withdrew and formed the Rockey Lodge, with Bayley as its first master. The difficulty was ironed out, and after 13 years, the lodges consolidated.

Bayley was active elsewhere. He helped found the Newport lodge and aided the one in Albany, which started a year after the one in Corvallis. A later Albany lodge was named for him.

He had his finger in numerous pies. He served Corvallis College in many ways. He backed construction of a wagon road and railroad to the coast. He practiced in Newport as well as Corvallis and saw patients at his summer home on Yaquina Bay.

He died there at 82 in 1901, and was interred in the Crystal Lake Cemetery, which the Masons had acquired in 1860. They have since expanded it from its original 5.31 acres.

The Grand Army of the Republic, formed in 1882, must also be mentioned. In 1885, the Corvallis post had as members 36 veterans of the Civil War. They took part in local events and in the annual Encampment of the 60 posts in Oregon. Membership dwindled as the aging veterans died. The last Encampment was held in 1939.

All the early fraternal orders, and those that came later, performed many good deeds for the area.