In
1804, seven brethren from the Kaskaskia area petitioned the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
for a dispensation. A dispensation was issued Sept.24, 1805 to James Edgar a Past Master,
wherein officers were appointed and the name of "Western Star Lodge" was chosen.
A charter was issued June 2, 1806, making Western Star Lodge No.107 the first authorized
lodge in what was then known as the "Indiana Territory", and later became the
State of Illinois.
Shadrach Bond, the first Governor of Illinois, was a member of Temple Lodge No. 26 in
Reisterstown, Maryland. He petitioned Western Star Lodge for membership and was elected on
Dec. 27, 1806. He served as Worshipful Master in 1815 and 1818.
Western Star Lodge No.107 furnished our State with not only its first Governor, but one
U.S Senator, two Supreme Court Justices, four State Senators, twelve national
representatives, and several other state and federal officers.
Other lodges began to appear in Illinois. The Grand Lodges of Kentucky, Tennessee,
Missouri, and Indiana instituted lodges throughout Illinois from 1815 thru 1819.
The first Grand Lodge of Illinois was formed in December of 1822, and issued more
charters throughout the state. Even though this new Grand Jurisdiction initially did quite
well financially and with membership, it inexplicably vanished after its final Grand
Communication in January of 1827. Some of the lodges continued to meet for two more years.
Union Lodge No.14 was the last to close. On June 11, 1829, it voted to return its charter,
and apply to the Grand Lodge of Missouri for a dispensation.
This time-frame coincided with the period of anti-masonic movements taking place
throughout our country. The "William Morgan Scandal" may have caused many of our
Illinois brethren to give up their memberships or to revert to the "Secret
Society" that Masonry had descended from before the forming of the Grand Lodge of
England in 1717. The anti-masonic phenomenom subdued a few years later, and Freemasonry in
Illinois appeared again.
In 1834, seventeen brothers from Quincy petitioned the Grand Lodge of Kentucky for a
dispensation to organize a lodge. On August 30, 1836 a charter was issued to these men as
Bodley Lodge No.97.
By 1839, freemasonry was again on the upswing as many new lodges were formed and Harmony
Lodge #24, of Jacksonville, invited the Illinois lodges to meet for the purpose of forming
another Grand Lodge. A meeting convened at the Masonic Hall in Jacksonville on April 6,
1840, and the present Illinois Grand Lodge was organized.
The new Grand Lodge of Illinois was represented by Bodley Lodge #97, Equality Lodge #102,
Harmony Lodge #24 of Jacksonville, Springfield Lodge #26, Far West Lodge #29 of Galena and
Columbus Lodge #20 of Columbus, who all had representatives present. Abraham Jonas was
elected Grand Master. The Grand Secretary- William B. Warren was authorized to issue
charters to Bodley Lodge No.1, Equality Lodge No.2, Harmony Lodge No.3, Springfield Lodge
No.4, Far West Lodge No.5, and Columbus Lodge No.6. The first four of these distinguished
lodges are still in existence today.
The first charter issued in Chicago was issued to LaFayette No.18 in 1843, and the oldest
surviving lodge in Chicago is Oriental Lodge No.33 who also has a Home Page on the World
Wide Web. The six lodges that organized the Grand Lodge of Illinois in 1840, had a total
membership of 127. Illinois now has 649 lodges with a membership of approximately 100,000.
Much of the data for this article was supplied by our Grand Secretary-Robert Kalb, from
his article on Early Freemasonry in Illinois, which appeared in the fall 1996 issue of
"Illinois Freemasonry". Other submissions are welcome. If you know of
interesting trivia concerning Illinois Freemasonry, please feel free to e-mail us with
your material.
|
