Part 3 (to view previous articles go to the ARCHIVES page.)

Beacon started as a lodge with eleven members; dues were $3.00 per annum; the fees for the degrees amounted to $12.00 for the first; $6.00 for the second; and $10.00 for the third; a total of $28.00 (today cost for all degrees is $25.00). Our rent was $50.00 per year, payable semi-annually. Our first Bible cost the lodge $9.35. Regalia and aprons for the officers cost us $6.95; and a set of satin collars to which the officers attached their jewels of office cost us $2.00. The fuel bill for the year, representing wood consumed in a large heating stove in the lodge room, amounted to $7.47, and the janitor was paid fifty cents each meeting to start the fire in this stove and to keep the hall in a tidy condition. Bro. Sexton, being an expert mechanic, made and donated the Altar. 

In 1849, our Charter Year, the city of St. Louis had a population of 63,000 souls. The first Water Works had just been started at the foot of Benton Street, a short distance from our first meeting place. This was the year of the great fire, when on the evening of May 17, 1849, at 10 o’clock P.M. the river steamer white cloud went up in flames, the conflagration rapidly spreading until most of the buildings in the business district along the levee were destroyed at a loss of five million dollars. This fire was one of the major catastrophes in the history of our City. The cholera epidemic took place in this year and over 4500 citizens perished. There was also a financial panic and a high river flood. Gold had just been discovered in California and Henry Shaw, Bryan Mullanphy, and other St. Louis merchants were doing a thriving business in outfitting wagon trains leaving for the West. There were, as yet, no telephones and the telegraph had gotten as far West as what is now the site of East St. Louis. The Western City limits extended to eleventh Street. A Committee of prominent citizens was trying to perfect plans to start a railroad. The newspapers were getting ready to put out a Sunday edition. Our police force was made up of forty-two officers who patrolled the City only at night. 

Our first worshipful Master, Bro. Hugh P. Sexton, arrived in St. Louis from Wheeling West Virginia in 1844. He was a building contractor, and was associated in that business with his three brothers, two of whom also belonged to Beacon Lodge, Bros. Hy. Clay Sexton and John Sexton. One of their last building projects was the erection of the Henry Ames Public School at Thirteenth and Hebert Streets. Bro. John Sexton entered politics and served ten years in our City council, and early predecessor of our present Board of Alderman. He later served in the State Legislature and in 1861 voted against the bill to take Missouri out of the Union.

To Be Continued Next Month