Records of the Wisconsin Lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars include bound financial and membership records and unbound material consisting of ten boxes of letters received by H. A. Larson of Waupaca, 1894-1902, while he was secretary of the organization, two boxes of miscellaneous correspondence, and eight boxes of “institution returns” which were applications for charters, showing date of organization, membership, and officers, dated 1868-1903.
The correspondence consists of letters from organizers throughout the state, lodge executives in other states, and local, district, and state officers of the Good Templars. Many of the letters deal with queries and complaints; those from organizers show an excellent picture of the development of the movement; there is some correspondence with the Prohibition Party, particularly during election years, some letters concerning the management of the quarterly Camp Cleghorn Assembly Herald and the Epworthian, for both of which Larson served as editor, and many details of arrangements for the annual summer encampment of the Good Templars at Camp Cleghorn, near Waupaca. The 45 volumes, no series of which is complete, show elaborate and minute records of financial accounts with juvenile, subordinate, and district lodges, as well as membership returns of these lodges from 1856 to 1901.
