by Mike McGraw, Lodge Historian

Hanging in our building, probably unnoticed by many is the institution of our lodge dated October 2nd,
1945.

Listed you will find 3 names. These were active Elks of other lodges that were our original sponsors and
submitted an application for our charter.

John A. Nixon was from Decatur Georgia lodge 1602. It’s unknown if he was residing near here in 1945 or
what exactly brought him to our community. It is speculated that he was in the Fayetteville area and joined
the other two sponsors.

M Lazarus and B.S. Simpson were from neighboring Fayetteville NC lodge 1081. That lodge would become our primary sponsor.

My intention was to elaborate more on these three men, however at this time the Fayetteville Lodge is
temporarily closed and I have not been able to reach out to search their records.

Hopefully we will be able to uncover more as other lodges reopen.

Other notable contributors to our institution were John Prescot from Raleigh who was our NC Elks Vice
President and Edward Davis who was our NC Elks Secretary. The ceremonial team for our first 30 members was from the Durham Lodge 568.

Present was our NC State President Thad Eure who also served as the Secretary of State to North Carolina.

FROM OUR LODGE CAME GROWTH

Just after our institution, it was our turn to contribute to the growth of Elks in North Carolina.

Just down the road in Southern Pines, we sponsored a group of men that would become the Southern Pines Elks Lodge # 1692

That lodge became the largest in the state of North Carolina. At their peak they had an 18 and 9 hole golf courses, pool, pro shop, soccer field, and large elegant lodge building with a premier ball room.

Sadly over the years it had declined, and today that grand building is being torn down and the golf course is under contract to be sold to private interest.

However, the Southern Pines lodge lives on. They are still active and began planning to construct their new lodge building on their old soccer field.