Red Rose Lodge # 16 Fraternal Order of Police turned 100 years old on March 16th, 2019. Our lodge has a very significant honor, which very few lodges within the entire Fraternal Order of Police organization enjoy. Our lodge charter, was signed on March 16, 1919, as Red Rose Lodge # 16 Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by the two original creators of this great organization, Martin O’Toole, and Delbert Nagle, who at the time, were President and Secretary of the organization who created the FOP in Pittsburgh, PA only four years earlier in 1915.
In 1922 our members were told to drop out of the F.O.P. membership roles or be terminated. As a result, the lodge disbanded in that year. In 1928, Red Rose Lodge 16 was reinstated. The lodge has quite a bit of documented history. Some highlights of our history can be accessed through links on “Lodge 16 news from the past” page. Our lodge was home to members from all agencies in Lancaster County including PA State Police. PSP members of Lodge 16 were given permission to form their own lodge in 1952 and did so, forming Conestoga Lodge #66. Lodge 66 changed its name to Robert D. Lapp Lodge following the line of Duty Death of Trooper Lapp in 1972.
Red Rose Lodge 16 held annual elections until 1951. Elections ever since then have been two year terms, held every other year on odd numbered years.
Finding records of past leadership of our lodge proved challenging, however if records were available we have documented them below:
Digging deep into newspaper archives, we were able to locate and post some historical events from Red Rose Lodge 16’s past. We hope you will find the below clippings an interesting part of our lodge history.
LODGE 16 MAKES THE NEWS
17 MARCH 1919 – LANCASTER NEW ERA
CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO VIEW NEWSPAPER ARTICLE CONTENT
1919_New_member_Columbia_chief
1920_First_Anniversary_Celebration
1937_lodge_16_and_Garden_Spot_Lodge_go_to_conference
1939_Garden_Spot_disbanded_by_State_FOP
1939_Garden_spot_Lodge_falls_1
1939_Garden_spot_Lodge_falls_2
1943_Past_President_Deisley_retires
1946_FOP_Supports_Commissioner_Carlson
1946_FOP_Supports_Commissioner_Carlson_2
1947_Retirement_gift_Lt__Labeziius
1952 Conestoga FOP Lodge formed
1952_Sale_of_Ironville_property
1959_McCartney_hailed_and_7_new_members
1959_No_Teamsters_in_Lancaster
1959_Witmer_cogley_promoted_to_capt_1
1959_Witmer_cogley_promoted_to_capt_2
1961_FOP_Opposes_end_of_Death_Penalty
1963_FOP_endorses_safe_driving
1964_Schreder_letter_to_editor_1
1964_Schreder_letter_to_editor_2
1964_Schreder_presents_Mearing_with_hon_membership
1966_Glasser_and_Rhineer_honored
1967_Coroner_cited_lifetime_member
1968_Act_111_lag_by_officials_1
1968_Act_111_lag_by_officials_2
1968_Act_111_lag_by_officials_3
1968_Schreder_send_certified_letter_under_111_1
1968_Schreder_send_certified_letter_under_111_2
1968_Schreder_send_certified_letter_under_111_3
1969_FOP_Building_moved_on_truck
1969_lodge_hires_Mike_Perezous
1970_McMullin_and_Greenawalt_cited