Part 1

Freemasonry is a very old institution. A distinguished Masonic scholar and author M.W. Bro. James W.S. Mitchell, whose signature appears on the Beacon Lodge’s Charter in his capacity as Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Missouri at the time of our founding, says that: “We must fix its origin at the erection of King Solomon’s Temple, because all Masonic traditions go to, and not beyond that period of time.” 

We read of Freemasons being employed in the erection of many great religious and other edifices throughout Europe during the Renaissance. These masons were the builders of places, cathedrals, walled towns and highways. They were the so-called “operative” brethren who gradually developed the lodge system. On St. John’s Day on June 24, 1717, in the city of London, a group of these lodges met to form what was probably the first Grand Lodge, which was called “The Assembly of Free and Accepted Masons,” and which by 1723 claimed jurisdiction over some 30 lodges. Through a consolidation of this and other groups of lodges, “United Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of England” was chartered in 1813. 

Two of these original lodges, among this early group that met in 1717, are still operating in London today. They are “Lodge of Antiquity No. 2” and “Royal Somerset House and Inverness Lodge No. 4.” 

Freemasonry was introduced into the United States, then the Colonies, when in 1733, St. John’s Lodge was opened in Boston under Charter from the Grand Lodge of England. Other early lodges in the Colonies were thus chartered, one of them being Solomon’s Lodge at Charleston, South Carolina, organized on October 28, 1736. Benjamin Franklin was raised in St. John’s Lodge in Philadelphia, another early American Lodge. It is said that when in Paris representing the cause of American Colonies, he was assisted in his efforts to obtain the support of France for the American Revolution through the esteem in which he was associated in Lodge No. 4, at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on November 4, 1752, and later became the first Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22 at Alexandria, Virginia, in 1788. 

Freemasonry had its start in Missouri with the formation of Louisiana Lodge No. 109 at Ste. Genevieve in 1807. This lodge received its charter from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania: and was the first lodge of Freemasons established West of the Mississippi River. It passed out of existence in 1817. The first lodge in St. Louis. St. Louis No. 111 also obtained its Charter from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania on September 15, 1808. Its first Worshipful Master was Meriwether Lewis of the celebrated Lewis and Clark expedition, who also served as governor of the Territory of Louisiana. Its Senior Warden was Thomas F. Riddick, who later became the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Missouri at its formation in 1821.

To Be Continued Next Month