Donald E. Lavender, 33°

Edwin T. Meredith Sr., SGIG in Iowa, 1923-28, founded such successful magazines as Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies Home Journal.

Like many successful businessmen of his time, Ill. Edwin T. Meredith Sr. (1876-1928) began his education in a one-room schoolhouse in 1881. By the age of 16, he attended Highland Park College in Des Moines, Iowa, but his college education lasted only one year. Then Meredith’s grandfather, publisher of a small newspaper called the Farmer’s Tribune, recruited him to handle the paper’s advertising and correspondence. The young man had an affinity for publication, and, when he got married at the age of 19, his grandfather gave him the newspaper as a wedding gift.

Meredith expanded the circulation to include the entire state of Iowa despite an income limited by his refusal to advertise liquor or tobacco. By age 24, Meredith established the Successful Farming magazine, and two years later, after selling the Farmer’s Tribune, he expanded his publishing business with a new magazine called Fruit, Garden and Home, the forerunner of today’s Better Homes and Gardens.

Bro. Meredith (left), raised a Master Mason in Capitol Lodge #110, Des Moines, in 1907, received the Scottish Degrees in the Valley of Des Moines the same year. He was invested with the KCCH in 1911 and was coroneted as a 33° in 1917. Appointed as a Deputy of the Supreme Council in 1921, he was elected SGIG in Iowa on October 20, 1923. His civic offices included Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Director of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank and Iowa Trust & Saving Bank, and Trustee of Drake University in Des Moines.

The publishing business that he developed flourishes today. In addition to Better Homes and Gardens, with a circulation of 7.6 million, and Ladies Home Journal, with a circulation of 4.1 million, the Meredith Corporation currently publishes seven other mainstream American magazines with significant circulations.

Publication entrepreneur, financial leader, public servant, and significant Scottish Rite Mason, Ill. Edwin T. Meredith, Sr., was an outstanding Brother of the Hawkeye State and a notable American whose life’s work continues to influence us today.

Donald E. Lavender is a former Secretary Registrar (1974–1979) of the Des Moines Scottish Rite Bodies and is now retired from the City of Des Moines Engineering Department. Contact: 2913 49th St. Des Moines, Iowa 50310. E-mail: donlav@juno.com