Aconcagua

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ACONCAGUA LODGE (CHILE)

Location: Valparaiso, Chile

Chartered By: William Sewall Gardner

Charter Date: 03/08/1871 1871-29

Precedence Date: 08/03/1869

Current Status: charter surrendered 1901.


NOTES

REPORT AT GRAND LODGE, MARCH 1871

From Moore's Freemason's Monthly, Vol. XXX, No. 9, July 1871, Page 257:

The following Report was adopted by the Grand Lodge of this State, at its Quarterly Communication in March last, and may be regarded as the complement to the Report on the same subject adopted by that Body in September 1869, and published in this Magazine in the following October. They together clearly and fully indicate our foreign policy and the principles which authorize and control it: —

In Grand Lodge, March 8th, 1871.

The Committee to whom was referred the petition of Gilbert E. Jones and twenty-one others, praying for a Charter for Aconcagua Lodge, respectfully report:

That said Lodge, located at Valparaiso, in the Republic of Chili, South America, has been successfully working under a Dispensation from this Grand Lodge since the 26th day of October 1869; and now, in obedience to the requirements of our Constitutions, makes its returns; including a transcript of its proceedings and a copy of its By-Laws; and prays that a Charter may be issued for its permanent organization. Its proceedings appear to have been conducted with propriety and in accordance with the usages of this Grand Lodge. Its records are carefully and intelligibly entered, and its By-Laws meet with the approval of your Committee. It has during the past year initiated eleven candidates, of which the proper returns have been made, and the dues paid to the Grand Treasurer. There would seem therefore, on the face of this statement, to be no valid reason why the prayer of the petitioners should not be granted. But your Committee have also had referred to them a communication signed J. deD. Arlequi, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Chili, in which the writer takes exception to the establishment of a new Lodge within what he claims to be his jurisdiction, and says that if so established his Grand Lodge cannot recognize it.

Of the, present status of this "Grand Lodge of Chili" your Committee are not fully informed. But this is not essential. It will be recollected that in September 1862, the organization of such a Body at Valparaiso, was announced to this Grand Lodge by the R. W. George H. Kendall, our Deputy for the District of Chili, and also that, accompanying said announcement, a communication was received from Bro. Wm. A. Martin, Master of one of the Lodges located at Valparaiso under the Grand Orient of France, protesting against "the recognition of this new Grand Lodge, on the ground that it had been irregularly and unlawfully formed — one of the three Lodges assisting in its establishment having no lawful existence. The subject was referred by this Grand Lodge to a committee, who made their report in December following.

After a careful consideration of the matter this Committee, relying mainly on the assurance of our Deputy for the District, that the condition of Masonry in Chili would be greatly benefitted by the establishment of a Grand Lodge of the French or Scottish Rite there, and that a freer and more intimate association of the Brethren of that Rite, with those of our own Lodges in the Republic, working in the York Rite, would be of mutual benefit, and conducive to the best interests of all, recommended that, "until otherwise directed by this Grand Lodge, he (the Deputy) be authorized and requested to recognize the (new) Grand Lodge of Chili as a body regularly constituted and organized."

The recommendation of the Deputy, and on which the Committee mainly relied in making their report, was in the following words: "Everything considered, I believe that! the Order in Chili would be much benefitted by it. Something of the kind was required, and if it may seem well to the M. W. Grand Lodge, I would recommend the recognition" of it. This recommendation was adopted by the Grand Lodge; and here the matter has rested -until the present time. The Lodges and Brethren of both Rites at Valparaiso, while surrendering nothing of their distinctive peculiarities; and usages, have continued working together in harmony, and cultivating those sentiments of fraternal sympathy and friendship on which the welfare and prosperity of both so much depend.

The recognition, so authorized, was a qualified and limited one, and left the subject open to future modification or revocation, as more full and complete information should determine. It was however sufficient to answer the purpose for which it was asked, and to authorize a mutual interchange of fraternal courtesies with the new Grand Lodge, as the head of a co-ordinate independent Masonic power of the Scottish Rite. But it did not authorize any such inference as that this Grand Lodge intended to surrender any of its rights in the jurisdiction to the new Body, nor that it was disposed to turn its own Lodges, long previously established in the Republic, over to a Masonic power of a foreign Rite, with the esoteric formula of which they were comparatively unacquainted, and of the laws and usages and obligations of which they had no certain knowledge. This Grand Lodge was willing to recognize the new Body, for the time being, and for the purposes intimated, as a co-ordinate Masonic power, and to concede to it, within the District, the entire and exclusive control over the Rite of Masonry in which it was established, and which alone it professed to cultivate; hut it was not willing, nor did it intend, nor does it now intend, to disown and cast off the children of its own household, to gratify the ambition, or desire for supremacy, of any foreign Masonic power whatever. When its own Lodges in Chili shall ask to be relieved of their allegiance to their parent, and to be allowed to enroll themselves under the authority of a Body, emanating from, and imbued with, the peculiar characteristics of the Grand Orient of France, or any other foreign Orient, and thus, unwisely, as your Committee think, to subject themselves to the annoyances of partisan or priestly influences to which they are now strangers, and against which they are amply protected, it may then be proper for this Grand Lodge to take the matter into its serious consideration. Until that time shall arrive, your Committee believe the case may be safely left as it stands, and that this Grand Lodge will find ample justification for so leaving it, in the organic laws of the Scottish Rite of Masonry, as promulgated by its constituted authorities, which declares "that different rites naturally produce different powers which govern them, that each rite is independent of all the others; and that the action of the power of a rite, whether dogmatic or administrative, cannot legally extend except to Masons of that rite, obedient to the jurisdiction of that Body" — [Declaration of the Powers of the Scottish Rite, Paris, 1834].

In evidence that in accepting this definition of the powers and prerogatives of the different Masonic Rites (as given from a French standpoint), this Grand Lodge is not assuming to itself any unusual course of proceeding, or the exercise of rights or powers which have not long been claimed and exercised by her sister Grand Lodges elsewhere your Committee cite, as an authoritative precedent, the Grand Lodge of England, which for many years has maintained a Provincial Grand Lodge at Buenos Ayres, within the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of the Argentine Republic — an arrangement entered into, as in our own case in Valparaiso, for the convenience of resident English and American Brethren, who prefer to practice Masonry in accordance with the usages of the Order in their own countries, where a knowledge of the Scottish or any other foreign Rite would be of little service to them. It may be mentioned further, that the Grand Lodge of Scotland has a Provincial Grand Master residing within the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Venezuela. It has also Lodges at Callao and Lima, in the Peruvian Republic. The Grand Lodge of Ireland likewise, has its Provincial Grand Lodge at Lisbon, within the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Portugal. These three Grand Lodges, like our own, were originally organized under what are generally called the Ancient Constitutions of Masonry, and maintain an approximate uniformity in their ceremonies, usages and laws. In most, if not in all these respects, they differ widely from their sister Grand Lodges of the European and ill Southern American Continents, and hence their Lodges demand a correspondingly different mode of treatment, to enable them to maintain the identity and integrity of their origin. Without this, they would sooner or later be merged in the ruling power, or cease to exist.

In conclusion, your Committee recommend that the prayer of the petitioners be granted, and that a Charter be issued for the permanent organization of Aconcagua Lodge at Valparaiso.

And, in evidence of the continuance of our fraternal sentiments towards the Grand Lodge of Chili, and of our sincere wishes for its future prosperity, and desire to maintain, in the future as in the past, social and brotherly relations with it, your Committee recommend a renewal of the Order of this Grand Lodge, passed in 1862, that until otherwise instructed, our Deputy and Lodges in the District of Chili be directed to recognize, reciprocally, the present Grand Lodge of that Republic, as the supreme head of the Scottish Rite of Masonry, within its proper jurisdiction.

Chas. W. Moore,
Chas. Levi Woodbury
Lucius R. Paige.

PAST MASTERS

  • Gilbert E. Jones, 1869-1871
  • unknown 1872-1880?
  • F. J. Price, 1881-1883
  • W. S. Shugley, 1884
  • James Hardie, 1885
  • Thomas Bell, 1886
  • John Trumbull, 1887-1890
  • Robert Russell, 1891, 1892
  • Robert McKinley, 1893-1901

REFERENCES IN GRAND LODGE PROCEEDINGS

  • Petition for Dispensation: 1869
  • Petition for Charter: 1871
  • Surrender of Charter: 1901

BY-LAW CHANGES

1884

HISTORY

  • 1953 (Historical excerpt, 1953-273; see below)

FROM CENTENARY HISTORY OF BETHESDA LODGE, VALPARAISO, SEPTEMBER 1953

From Proceedings, Page 1953-273:

On January 11, 1869, a petition, signed by fourteen Master Masons, was put before the Lodge asking Bethesda to recommend that the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts grant a Charter for a new Lodge to be called Aconcagua, to meet in Valparaiso. This was put forward and Aconcagua Lodge was started in February, 1870, and worked regularly until September, 1897, after which date it seems to have fallen off, as on September 11, 1901, the following was recorded in Grand Lodge: "The Recording Grand Secretary announced that Aconcagua Lodge of Chile had long been in a disorganized condition, and for the past two years, had not held any regular meetings. After considerable trouble the newly appointed and very efficient District Deputy Grand Master of the Chile District, R. W. and Rev. Brother Frank Thompson, had recovered the Charter of the Lodge, which was now presented. On motion of the Recording Grand Secretary, the surrender was accepted."

OTHER

  • 1876 (Granting of a replacement charter for one destroyed by fire, 1876-5)

DISTRICTS


LINKS


GRAND LODGE OFFICERS

OTHER BROTHERS

DISTRICTS

1869: Chile District

1883: Chile District


LINKS

Massachusetts Lodges