MassachusettsLodge

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THE MASSACHUSETTS LODGE

Location: Boston

Chartered By: Joseph Warren

Charter Date: 05/11/1770 I-228

Precedence Date: 05/11/1770

Current Status: Active


NOTES

MEMBER LIST, 1902

From Vocal Companion and Masonic Register, Boston, 1802, Part II, Page 9:

  • R. W. Allen Crocker, M.
  • W. Job Drew, S. W.
  • W. Jonathan Whitney, J. W.
  • Joseph Laughton, Tr.
  • William Palfrey, Sec.
  • Ebenezer Adams, S. D.
  • Thomas Redman, J. D.
  • John Taylor, Steward.
  • Asa Page, Steward.
  • John Greene, Tiler.

No. of Members, 30.

  • Bryant P. Tilden
  • Gideon Snow
  • C. P. Sumner
  • John A. Parkman
  • Pliney Hartshorn
  • Michael Roulstone

PAST MASTERS

Need living PMs and complete list

  • Joseph Tyler, 1770, 1772, 1773
  • William Palfrey, 1771, 1779
  • John Jeffries, 1774-1778
  • James Jackson, 1780
  • Perez Morton, 1781
  • Stephen Bruce, 1782
  • Moses Michael Hays, 1783-1787
  • William Scollay, 1788-1791
  • Samuel Bradford, 1792
  • Jonathan Freeman, 1793, 1794
  • Joseph Laughton, 1795
  • Simon Eliot, 1796, 1797
  • Allen Crocker, 1798-1802
  • John Boyle, 1803
  • Job Drew, 1804-1806, 1810, 1815
  • Thomas Redman, 1807, 1808
  • John Chadwick, 1809
  • Matthew S. Parker, 1811, 1812
  • Jonathan Whitney, 1813, 1814
  • Eleazer G. House, 1816
  • Daniel Lewis Gibbons, 1817, 1818, 1826
  • Zachariah G. Whitman, 1819, 1820
  • M. Roulstone, 1821
  • Enoch Hobart, 1822, 1839-1841, 1846
  • Jedediah Tuttle, 1823
  • Abraham A. Dame, 1824, 1825, 1844, 1845
  • William Emerson, 1826
  • Henry H. Barton, 1827-1829; SN'
  • Nathaniel Cotton, 1830
  • Martin Wilder, 1831-1833, 1842, 1843
  • Francis R. Bigelow, 1834-1837
  • Henry Bowen, 1838
  • George G. Smith, 1847-1849
  • B. Franklin Baker, 1850, 1851
  • Peter S. Wheelock, 1852
  • Francis McDonald, 1853, 1854
  • Thomas G. Whytal, 1855, 1856, 1861
  • John K. Fellows, 1857, 1858
  • William Read, 1859, 1860
  • Martin Long, 1862
  • Alfred F. Chapman, 1863, 1864
  • Charles W. Slack, 1865, 1866
  • Charles O. Fox, 1867, 1868
  • George R. Emerson, 1869, 1870
  • Henry J. Parker, 1871, 1872
  • Samuel A. B. Bragg, 1873, 1874
  • Charles D. Annable, 1875, 1876
  • Samuel W. Creech, Jr., 1877, 1878
  • Edwin Wright, 1879, 1880, 1890
  • George P. Eustis, 1881, 1882
  • Cassius C. Powers, 1883, 1884
  • Herbert L. Burrell, 1885; Mem
  • W. G. Whitney, 1886, 1887
  • Charles D. Wright, 1888, 1889
  • John F. Neill, 1891, 1892
  • Henry H. Kendall, 1893, 1894
  • George E. Henry, 1895, 1896; SN
  • William H. Lott, 1897, 1898
  • Charles A. Neill, 1899, 1900
  • Charles Lewis, 1901, 1902
  • Charles A. Heney, 1903, 1904
  • Edward E. Reynolds, 1905, 1906
  • Edward N. West, 1907, 1908
  • John R. Griffin, 1909
  • William W. Chute, 1910, 1911
  • Ervin A. Eastman, 1912, 1913
  • James G. Brown, 1914, 1915
  • Arthur N. Dodge, 1916
  • Frank A. Rice, 1917
  • William A. Syer, 1918
  • Guy W. Jones, 1919, 1920
  • Henry F. Silsby, 1921
  • Orin E. Spooner, 1922
  • Wallace G. Page, 1923, 1924
  • Frederick O. Harrington, 1925, 1926
  • John Wentworth, 1927, 1928; N
  • Everett M. Studley, 1929, 1930
  • W. Alden Burrell, 1931, 1932
  • Percy E. Yeates, 1933, 1934
  • Asa F. Clark, 1935, 1936
  • Athole H. Edwards, 1937, 1938
  • Frank A. Moore, 1939, 1940
  • George E. O. Anderson, 1941, 1942
  • Henry L. Cross, 1943, 1944
  • Charles M. Merritt, 1945, 1946
  • Joseph Shilliday, 1947, 1948
  • Arthur D. Hamilton, 1949, 1950
  • Eugene H. Clapp, II, 1951, 1952, 1980
  • Walter H. Farello, 1953
  • Hale E. Roberts, 1954
  • Charles M. Hoyt, Jr., 1955, 1956
  • Thomas Bruce, Jr., 1957, 1958
  • S. Arthur Verenis, 1959, 1982-1984
  • Henry L. Rice, 1960, 1961
  • David G. Power, 1962, 1963
  • Charles H. Winchester, 1964, 1965
  • Robert Trajan, 1966, 1967
  • Richard A. Karibian, 1968, 1969
  • George J. Avis, 1970, 1971, 1979, 1981, 1985, 1986; PDDGM
  • John Walter Krey, 1972, 1973
  • Menelaos C. Dalaklis, 1974, 1975, 1978
  • John G. Cosmas, 1976, 1977
  • Steve John Gogolos, 1987, 1988; N
  • Nicholas Darris, 1989-1991
  • Argyrios A. Karalis, 1992, 1993
  • David F. Howard, 1994-1997; PDDGM
  • Gary P. Ahearn, 1998, 1999
  • Leon Halperin, 2000
  • William Antonopoulos, 2001
  • Joseph J. Touchette, 2002
  • Arthur M. Papas, 2003
  • Douglas C. Morgan, 2004
  • Paul S. Williams, 2005
  • Frank P. Fotis, 2006
  • Constantine P. Callintzis, 2007
  • Donald A. Haska, 2008
  • Stephen W. Foy, 2009
  • William H. Shaw, III, 2010
  • Charles E. Gould, 2011
  • Samir C. Bichara, 2012

NOTES

From New England Freemason, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1875, Page 185:

[At the Regular Meeting of Massachusetts Lodge, of Boston, held on the 19th inst., W. Brother Henry J. Parker, Past Master, read the following paper, embodying historical and biographical information of much interest:]

As one of the three lodges in this District whose Charters were issued previous to the Revolution, it has seemed proper that some formal notice should be taken of the fact that to-day completes the first centennial of an event which resulted in the ultimate independence of the United States; and the fact that the charter of the Massachusetts Lodge was signed by General Joseph Warren is a sufficient excuse, if any is necessary, to warrant us in recalling so important an event in our history.

One hundred years ago to-day the Massachusetts Lodge had been in existence nearly five years. It numbered among its members some of the most active and noted men of the town of Boston. The Lodge was small, comprising at that time thirty members, the membership Being limited by the By-Laws to fifty. From its formation until 1775, the Lodge had held seventy meetings, the regular place of meeting being at Concert Hall, on the corner of Court and Hanover streets. On the evening of December 5, 1774, it was "voted that the removal of this Lodge to the Bunch of Grapes Tavern be notified in the public prints." The meetings of January 2d and February 6th were all that were held there for three years.

At the meeting of February 6th, two candidates were crafted; it does not appear by the records that they were ever raised.

Concert Hall is said to have been the most elegant hall in the town; the architecture of the inside was imposing, and the walls were covered with mirrors. Within its walls our predecessors gathered for several years; the meetings were well attended, and the "symposia" were as regular as the meetings; "sherry" and "punch" were the standard liquids, and the frequent appropriations for "mason glasses," to be imported from London, prove their con. stant use. The records contain a list of the visiting Brethren, among whom appears the name of Paul Revere. The Most Worshipful Joseph Warren constituted the Lodge August 10, 1770, and visited the Lodge in ample form, as the record states, on the 1st of April, 1771, July 6, September 7, and December 7, 1772. "December 28th," the record reads, "being ye Festival of St. John the Evangelist, the Most Worshipful Grand Master, Joseph Warren, Esq., Deputy Grand Master Joseph Webb, and Grand Wardens Samuel Danforth and Samuel Barrett, visited the Lodge in due form." This proved to be the last visitation the Lodge was to receive from their illustrious Grand Master. The important events transpiring in their midst, soon to culminate in war, prevented the usual meetings; the gun fired at Concord was not only to usher in a revolution, but was destined to make discord through all strata of society; the time had come when friends and neighbors were to part, and among the Brethren of the Massachusetts Lodge there was to be a lifelong separation. The last meeting of the Lodge previous to the Revolution was held on the 6th of February, 1775. John Jeffries, then a noted surgeon, was Worshipful Master; Hawes Hatch, Junior Warden; William Codner, Treasurer; John Fenno, Secretary.

The names of Brethren of the Massachusetts Lodge appear prominently on both sides of the conflict—some fighting for the liberty of the colonies, others, equally conscientious, for the Mother country. William Palfrey (whose descendants for three generations have been honored members of our Lodge), Secretary of the Grand Lodge in 1769-70-71, the first Senior Warden of the Massachusetts Lodge, and W. M. in 1771 and 1779, was, during the war, Paymaster-General of the American forces. He was sent on special business to France by order of the Continental Congress; he sailed from Philadelphia in a public-armed vessel, which is supposed to have foundered at sea in the autumn of 1780.

Nathaniel Cudworth was the first Treasurer of the Lodge, serving in that capacity in 1770-1; was elected Secretary in 1772; at the meeting May 4, 1772, he resigned. As he was about to take up his residence in the country, the Lodge tendered him a vote of thanks and the hospitalities of the Lodge whenever he should be in town. He commanded the Sudbury company in the battle at Concord, and "near Hardy's Hill attacked the British troops, where there was a severe skirmish." At the battle of Bunker Hill, he was a Major in Jonathan Brewer's regiment, composed of Worcester and Middlesex troops, "and did excellent duty in the battle."

Joshua Loring was a loyalist, and held the office of Town Major under General Gage. At the evacuation of Boston in March, 1776, he left Boston, and is not known to have returned.

Dr. John Jeffries, Worshipful Master in 1775, was a surgeon of a ship-of-the-line lying in Boston harbor in 1771 to 1774. At the battle of Bunker Hill, he attended the wounded by order of the British Commander. He accompanied the British garrison to Halifax in 1776, where he was appointed Surgeon-General of the forces in Nova Scotia. He afterwards went to London, where he practised in 1790 ; he returned to his native city, where he died in 1819.

Hawes Hatch was a loyalist, and at the evacuation went to St. John, New Brunswick, where he settled, receiving a grant from the British government. He was elected Senior Deacon of the Lodge in 1774.


YEARS

1793 1803 1806 1844 1846 1847 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1877 1878 1880 1881 1882 1883 1885 1891 1892 1895 1896 1898 1899 1900 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1916 1917 1920 1923 1926 1927 1935 1937 1938 1942 1945 1949 1954 1963 1966 1970 1987 1988 1995 1997 2004 2006 2007 2008

BY-LAW CHANGES

2012


HISTORY

150TH ANNIVERSARY HISTORY, MAY 1920

From Proceedings, Page 1920-141:

By Edward Abbot Chase.

Many years ago a young law student of our country opened a correspondence with Thomas Carlyle, the vigorous English writer. In one of his letters Carlyle said to him: "In your reading you will have to choose by what of manfulness and faithfulness is in your own mind, the better and the good, from out of the boundless imbroglio of the trivial: and with your whole soul, to appropriate these, and elaborate them as you have faculty and opportunity. Read history and prophecy; whatsoever of truly interesting has been, is, and is about to be.

This same advice has been constantly in my mind as I have read the pages of these one hundred and fifty years of Massachusetts Lodge. Deeply realizing the significance of this hour, the constant effort has been to choose the better and the good from out of the trivial, because of its intrinsic value as history, yet more for its prophecy of the good to come as fruit from seed sown in faith. In so far as the limits of the hour permit, I offer you the results of this study.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were an epoch of political revolutions in the Anglo-Saxon world. The Pilgrim and Puritan movements reached their climax in the early years of the seventeenth century, and out of them came the beginnings of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, from which this Lodge derives its name. In the year of which this is the three hundredth in anniversary, the ship Mayflower sailed into the harbor of Provincetown after a taxing voyage of more than two months on the stormy Atlantic. Before its passengers came ashore, and occasioned partly by discontented and mutinous speeches that some of the strangers amongst them had let fall, namely "That when they came ashore they would use their own libertie; for none had power to command them, a compact was drawn up in the cabin of the Mayflower. It said: "In ye name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, having undertaken for ye glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith a voyage to plant ye first colony doe covenant-and-combine-ourselves-together, into a civil-body-politic, and by virtue hereof enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices from time to time, as shall be thought must mete for ye general good of ye Colonie; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience." This historic document we now recognize as the beginning of government in Massachusetts, the basis of our civic progress through these succeeding centuries.

One hundred and fifty years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth this Lodge, named after the State, was constituted. Its founders placed in the East a letter symbolizing the name of God; they lighted it up that it might be typical of the glory of the Great Artificer of the Universe; they placed upon the altar the text book of the Christian faith, the great light in Masonry; they framed just laws and constitutions, and created offices for the general good of the Craft; and they pledged themselves by the most binding of obligations to submission and obedience unto those laws and constitutions. The parallelism between the elements of the civic compact of the Mayflower and the foundations upon which the Lodge was built are marked with great significance, and the history of the Lodge is interwoven with that of the Commonwealth as warp with woof.

This Lodge came into existence at a critical hour in the life of the Massachusetts Colony. George the Third was king of England, and America was a British Colony. The king's ideas of policy were those of a parental government administered with a stern face, a heavy hand, and an un-spared rod. Acts of trade, laws oppressive and repressive had roused the colonists to the utmost of resentment. In consequence, a provisional government looking towards independence had been formed in Massachusetts, under a so-called "Committee of Safety." Its objective was to assert and maintain opposition to the oppressive measures of the crown. The head of this committee was Dr. Joseph Warren. He was also the Grand Master of the Masons in Massachusetts.

On the eleventh day of May, 1770, thirty-six days after the Boston Massacre, a petition was offered to the Grand Lodge, meeting at the Green Dragon Tavern — the trysting-place alike of the Masons and patriots of the day — praying that the eight men whose names were appended might be erected into a new Lodge under the name The Massachusetts Lodge." The next day, Saturday the twelfth, a Charter was made out by William Palfrey, who was one of the petitioners and also Secretary of the Grand Lodge. It was signed by Joseph Warren, Grand Master, and the Lodge was Constituted on Friday, August tenth, 1770, with Joseph Tyler as Master. Its Senior Warden was William Palfrey. This William Palfrey was Paymaster General of the American forces in the Revolution which was in the making when the Lodge was formed. This fact is typical of the life-story of Massachusetts Lodge. Its men have been makers in the commonwealth and in the city which is its capital. Not more so, perhaps, than those of some other Lodges; for it is our joy and pride that Masons have been the valiant leaders in our whole nation. Only for us today the significance of our celebration lies in the achievements of those who have been and are members of this particular body.

When later the union of states was in peril, and those liberties which the Revolution had dearly won were in jeopardy, our state was again in the vanguard of leadership; and when the Civil War actually came a Massachusetts Lodge man stepped early into prominence. One Robert Cowdin had come to Boston from Vermont as a merchant. He became deeply interested in the Volunteer Militia of this state, and was one of the first to offer his services to Governor Andrew. The Second Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, of which he was Colonel, was accepted by the Governor and became the first regiment of volunteers taken into the United States service for the Rebellion. During this war, an Army Lodge was established in the Forty-third Massachusetts Regiment, known as the Tigers. It was called McClellan Lodge. Its first Master was one Thomas G. Whytol who was Master of our Lodge in 1854, 1855, and 1860. There we see again how Masonry and public service were walking hand in hand.

In our last war, when the liberties of all the world were in the balance, Massachusetts men added themselves to the radiant host of defenders and victors. The Honor Roll records the names of many war officers and privates, not to mention the great number kept from military service by the limits of age who in civil life gave freely of their service and their money to the great cause.

"The soul of history," Carlyle said, "is the history of great men. The really great man is the living light-fountain. The light which has enlightened the darkness of the world; a flowing light fountain of native insight, of manhood, and heroic nobleness, in whose radiance all Souls feel that it is well with them." Recognizing the limitations of bringing within a half hour the story of one hundred and fifty years, and yet wishing to make bright some thread in the life fabric of the Lodge, I ask you to walk with certain of our great men as they have woven the continuing life both of Lodge, city, and commonwealth, ever bearing in mind the principles, already enunciated, which underly Massachusetts the State and Massachusetts the Lodge.

Izaak Walton in the Compleat Angler quotes from a certain Boteler about strawberries. He says, "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless he never did." Doubtless too he might have made a better man than a good Scotchman, but one doubts if he ever did. So here is William Scollay, who received his degrees in 1779. He was out of Scotch stock. The father, one John by name, was in Boston as early as 1692, for he appears in Drake's History as the man who for seven years leased the Winnisimmet Ferry. To one born as was the writer in Old Chelsea and nourished in the traditions of Rumney Marsh, Winnisimmet, and Powder Horn Hill, that leasing is really an interesting fact. At any rate the son, William, was important man enough to have his portrait painted by the great Copley and his merit lies largely in the vision he had of the possible development of Boston. He lived in a house on or near where the old Boston Museum stood, that orthodox theatre where the inheritor of the blue laws made his first conscientious venture into modern amusements under the joyous guidance of William Warren and Mrs. Vincent of blessed memory. With Charles Bulfinch and other prominent men Mr. Scollay undertook the improvement of Franklin Place, now Franklin Street. From this he passed to the development of South Boston, strenuously advocating the building of the Federal Street Bridge, and later he purchased for improvement the Dorchester Heights. We look to him also as the father of a young woman who married Col. Thomas Melville, one of the Boston Tea Party, an enterprise, by the way, wholly Masonic, brewed in the Green Dragon Tavern. When the Colonel returned home from this merry venture he emptied his shoes of some of the historic tea, which now rests in a sacred bottle in the Antiquarian Society at Worcester.

In this connection one is happy to mention Moses Michael Hays as a type of those who have done so much for the financial prosperity of the city and the state. He is worthy of notable Masonic mention as Master of our Lodge, also as Junior Grand Warden, and later Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts, and as a constant benefactor of this Lodge in its varied sufferings by fire. One does not forget either the later relations of Massachusetts to the present Shawmut Lodge, composed so largely of men kindred in race with Moses Michael Hays; a new and brilliant star in the canopy of Masonry, named, rather significantly, after the Boston peninsular of colonial days.

Boston has long been famous as a pioneer city in the furtherance of musical culture and education. One interesting element in it is that some of its significant patronage has been that of business men. We recall the Boston Opera House fostered by Mr. Jordan, and the Symphony Orchestra made possible by the generosity of Mr. Higginson. As early as 1779 one Matthew Stanley Parker opened his eyes at Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. He was the grandson of the Honorable William Parker of Portsmouth who, previous to 1765, for some years was the only Notary Public in the Province. Matthew held various offices in our Lodge during the Anti-Masonic assaults of 1826 to 1836, and was in his own personal character an able defense against this misunderstanding. He was the Cashier of the Suffolk Bank, and devoted something of his leisure and means to the origination and formation, in company with a few choice spirits, of the now historic Handel and Haydn Society, to whose fidelity we owe the yearly production of the great oratorios and which has been the progenitor of many choral organizations throughout the state.

Will you turn now to that which has made Massachusetts as a State the foremost in the Union; namely, popular education. From its elementary branches through the most advanced university training we have been leaders. The school and college owe their early fostering to the church. Harvard, Amherst, Williams, Smith, Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, found their origin and support in men and women trained to value the great light of Masonry, the Holy Scriptures. To them knowledge was light indispensable to morality and the formation of true character. Massachusetts Lodge recalls two notable men of the earlier day. There is the Rev. John Prince, LL. D. Born in the north part of our city, he was educated at the Boston Latin School and at Harvard College and was the strong minister of a Salem church for nearly fifty-eight years. This church overshadowed a house in which soma of the hours . of my childhood were passed, the home of my great-grandfather, also a Revolutionary general, and later this ho\ise was one of the underground stations of Civil War days, where refugee slaves were secreted by day and driven at night to the next station on their way to freedom. In addition to the study of theology Mr. Prince found time for scientific investigation and gave to the commonwealth and to the world some notable inventions.

Then there is one of traditionally famous name in the American educational world, the Rev. John Eliot, D. D., also a graduate of Harvard and for thirty-four years minister of the New North Church here in Boston. He stands with the Rev. J. Belknap, D. D., as founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and he assisted largely in forming its collection of valuable documents. In this connection one must not forget the Hon. John Lowell, educated at the Latin School, Phillips Academy, Andover, and Harvard College, who stands forth as one of the founders of the Boston Athenaeum, and also the Massachusetts General Hospital. With these men one associates the Hon. John Prescott Bigelow, also a graduate of Harvard, Mayor of Boston in 1849, 1850, and 1851. During the cholera epidemic in the city and as a reward for efficiency in its suppression the citizens proposed to present him with a silver vase of the value of one thousand dollars. In declining the gift, he suggested that the money be used as a nucleus for a subscription to found a free library. This was the origin of our present Public Library which stands in Copley Square with its literary and artistic treasures, memorial through Mr. Bigelow to Massachusetts Lodge.

Suggested by the founding of the Massachusetts General Hospital, we are reminded of the members of the Lodge who have made notable contribution to the medical life of our city and commonwealth. Joseph Warren, who signed our charter as the Grand Master, was a physician of great promise. John Warren, his brother, was a student under Joseph. John also became Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts June 24, 1783, and was present on the 5th of March, 1792, when the union between the Massachusetts and Saint John's Grand Lodge took place. During the Siege of Boston he was appointed surgeon by General Washington. Later he filled the chair of Surgery and Anatomy in Harvard College for thirty and more years; and was the distinguished president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Then there are Aaron Dexter and Isaac Rand, the former Erving Professor of Materia Medica at Harvard, also Grand Treasurer and Junior Grand Warden respectively of the Grand Lodge; the latter a physician of eminence in Boston and for six years president of the Massachusetts Medical Society and a member of the American Academy of Sciences.

Turning now to the development of our public life through the legislative and administrative branches of government we are in a field of significant service rendered by the members of Massachusetts Lodge. William Palfrey who signed the Charter as Secretary of the Grand Lodge, and who was also a charter member of this Lodge, served during the formative days of our Republic as Paymaster General of the American Revolutionary Forces. Later he was sent by the Continental Congress in an armed vessel on special government business to Prance. Unfortunately the ship, foundering at sea, cut short a usefulness of rare promise. He left, in succession, a noble helper in the person of Hon. Perez Morton. Morton was a graduate of the Latin School and of Harvard and a classmate of Dr. John Warren. He added to membership with us the office of Deputy Grand Master in the Grand Lodge, and also that of Senior Grand Warden for two years. A fellow member with Warren of the Committee of Safety, he became Speaker of the Massachusetts House, holding for five years. He was also a delegate to the convention for revising the State Constitution, and was Attorney General in Massachusetts for twenty-two years.

The Hon. Thomas Dawes held in succession office in the Supreme Judicial Court of the state, the Municipal Court of Boston, and the Probate Court for Suffolk County. He was also one of those who revised the State Constitution in 1820. William King finds distinction Masonically as the first Master of Solar Lodge of Bath, Maine, chartered by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and by his election as the first Grand Master of Masons in Maine, when that body became independent. A member of the Massachusetts Legislature for three years, and a Senator for an equal period, he was chosen President of the convention to form the constitution of Maine, and was elected the first Governor of that state, which office he resigned to become United States Commissioner under the Treaty with Spain.

Among these worthies of the older day stands out the Hon. Christopher Gore, lie was appointed by President Washington the first United States District Attorney for Massachusetts. This was followed by his election as one of the Commissioners to settle the claims of the United States upon Great Britain for "spoliation." Later he was made Governor of Massachusetts and subsequently served as United States Senator for three years. One other name deserves honorable mention, twice elected as Master of Massachusetts Lodge and Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, the Hon. Edwin Wright. Valedictorian of his class at Yale College, he became Master of the Eliot School of Boston. He then studied law, and after admission to the Suffolk Bar rose to the first rank in the department of Testamentary and Realty Law. He was twice a member of the State Legislature and in 1861 was appointed by Governor Andrew one of three Justices of the Municipal and Civil Court of Boston.

And what shall I say more ? For the time would fail me to tell of Dame and Dexter, of Oliver and Boyle, of Laughton and Jackson, all officers of distinction in the Grand Lodge. Of Captain Williams, Colonel Gardner, Major Henry, and Captain DeBaury, famous in battle. Of Calef, founder of our charity fund; of Haskel, the princely merchant, and Bowen, historian of old Boston; of Slack, the Masonic orator; of Rowsen, trumpeter in the Kings Guards, who changed his piping from "God Save the King" to "Merry Yankee-Doodle"; of the family of the Clapps, treasurers of the Lodge for decades. Surely it would be unbecoming to discriminate among the living, great as are their merits, and though the profit of such speaking would be deserved and very delightful. Something, however, must be left to the imagination and to memory. All along the line of the years the men are many who have contributed their money, their time, their loveful service to further the interests of this Lodge. Some have attained to high distinction in office not alone in the Massachusetts and the Grand Lodges but in other Masonic bodies. Some have given their lives in battle for the nation and the world; some have served in major and minor places the causes of state and nation. Many others, uncounted in the rank and file, have kept and interpreted the Masonic faith in the varied walks of civic, commercial, and religions life. Some have passed to the Celestial Lodge, many, greater and lesser, still abide, to carry forward the work, the beautiful Masonic work, and to translate its noble truths into the life of city and state and nation. If it shall please the Lodge so to do, a volume will be prepared supplementing those already in our archives, giving due place and honor to the whole membership, a thing manifestly impossible in the limits of this hour and this occasion.

A gifted writer, to whom with the increasing years I have owed more and more, says in one of his books:

Take the least of all mankind, as I,
Look at his head and heart, find how and why
He differs from his fellows,
And there is something to tell with a meaning."

"The unseen mysterious, ruling passion weaving the stuff of human nature into patterns wherein the soul is imaged and revealed." This is true of an institution as well as of a single life. Masonry has a soul, and the story of the years of an individual Lodge which has been true to historic Masonry as a whole, cannot have failed to image and reveal that soul. I hope you have felt this as you have walked with these men of the past. If you have, then surely you have realized that however much the outward forms of our existence change the vital soul goes steadily on its God-appointed way, transfusing the new conditions with its spirit, and not less but more as it gathers up all the wisdom of experience, and as it realizes the value of the tasks set before it by the enlarging opportunities of the new day. And it is a new day in the world. Life has gained tremendously in its extensive and intensive visions. The little Boston of 1770 has become a great city; the intellectual culture of Massachusetts has been a seed out of which a vast deal of our American education has grown, adding to classic learning the many branches incident to technical and scientific progress. The democracy hidden within the colonial government has been a leaven working world-wide; first upsetting and then reconstructing agelong dynasties. The light of religious and moral obligations set in its candlestick at Plymouth three hundred years ago has shined into the darkest places of the whole round world. Meanwhile the fellowships of Masonry have tied together men of every nation, race, and creed not alone through the American continent but eastward also among the forbidding peoples of the Orient. One wishes that Governor Bradford and Joseph Warren and other valiant men of the early days could stand again upon our earthly soil and see how their labors have been fulfilled. They would indeed rejoice and give praise to the God whose servants they were in Lodge and state.

Yet one must not forget that with the good there has come much, too much, of evil. The principles which underfound the state and the nation and the Lodge have been and are bitterly assailed by deluded and determined enemies. Yet if this study of Massachusetts Lodge means something definite, if the vision and vigor informing Masonry in our state means the light of knowledge and the force of good morals, then to every man must come the glorying vision of personal responsibility; an obligation conceived through the study of the "Word of God; given informing light through all Masonic teachings; and endued with adequate power through the bonds of brotherhood cumulative in the ninety thousand Masons in our commonwealth. If only the same spirit of adventure and the same high confidence in God can possess each man that characterized the founders of state and Lodge, if equal feelings of fidelity can make us steady, and if adequate determination in action shall master each separate Mason, then the days which lie before us must accomplish the glorious plans of God, drawn on a trestle board world-wide in its scope. For

"Instant to fore-shadowed need
The eternal balance swings:
That winged men the Fates may breed,
As soon as Fate hath wings.
These shall possess
Our littleness,
And in the imperial task, as worthy, lay
Up our lives, all to piece one giant day."

In the preface to a book of short stories, named The Ruling Passion, Henry Van Dyke says, under the heading A Writer's Request of His Master:

"Lord, give me an ideal that will stand the strain of weaving into human stuff on the loom of the real. Steady me to do my full stint of work as well as I can, and when that is done, stop me, pay what wages thou wilt, and help me to say, from a quiet heart a grateful Amen."

In this spirit I close this all too inadequate story of our Lodge and the one hundred and fifty years of its labors. The ideal in my own mind has been clearer perhaps than appears in the woven fabric. None the less the human stuff has been very real, and as I have lived with it now these many years, foreseeing this gracious day and hour, I have felt the glory of that composite life which has been making an historic sequence through the changing periods: a history both of men and of ideas, and of ideals, with a god's mind forming the pattern, and informing the worker, and the hand of the supreme Maker of the whole universe directing its outweaving. So too, for the privileges of this study and its message to you today I would fain say, "A grateful Amen.

175TH ANNIVERSARY HISTORY, MAY 1945

From Proceedings, Page 1945-135:

By Rt. Wor. John Wentworth.

ORIGIN AND CHARTER

Unlike the beginnings of Freemasonry, which are shrouded in the mystery of ages long past, the origin of The Massachusetts Lodge is largely a matter of record. In 1770, when our Lodge had its origin, two Grand Lodges existed in Massachusetts as well as in England. The earlier, known as Saint John's Grand Lodge, which corresponded with the so-called "Moderns" in England, had been organized in 1733 by Henry Price by virtue of a commission granted by the Grand Master of the Free and Accepted Masons of England, appointing Henry Price Provincial Grand Master of New England. The later Grand Lodge, known as Massachusetts Grand Lodge, corresponding to the so-called "Ancients," was organized on December 27, 1769. Its Grand Master was Most Worshipful Joseph Warren, who had been, appointed Grand Master in Boston and within one hundred miles circumjacent to the same by Patent from the Grand Master of Scotland.

Our Lodge was brought into being by virtue of a charter dated and signed by Joseph Warren, Grand Master, and his Grand Wardens. There are several respects in which the creation and constitution of this Lodge differed from present day practice. Nowadays, when a new Lodge is about to be formed, the Grand Master issues a dispensation authorizing certain Brethren named to organize and act as a Lodge. After a time, if the acts of the members and officers of the Lodge under dispensation are satisfactory, a charter is granted by vote of the Grand Lodge and the new Lodge is formally and ceremoniously constituted.

It was not thus that The Massachusetts Lodge was formed and constituted. There was no preliminary period during which oar Lodge acted under dispensation, nor was it constituted or chartered by the Grand Lodge. The creation, charter and constitution of our Lodge was the act solely of the Grand Master, Joseph Warren, and his Grand Wardens.

It appears that on Friday evening, May 11, 1770, at a meeting of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, a petition of Brothers Joseph Tyler, William Palfrey, James Jackson, John Hill, John Jeffries, Nathaniel Cudworth, Isaac Rand and Joshua Loring praying that they might be erected into a new Lodge to be held in Boston under the title of The Massachusetts Lodge, was read. At that meeting, the Grand Lodge took no action on the petition except to vote that the petition be deferred until the following Monday.

In the meantime, on the very next day, on Saturday, May 12, 1770, the charter of The Massachusetts Lodge was made out, dated and signed by the Grand Master, Joseph Warren, and the Grand Wardens. Prior to that date, no vote had been adopted by the Grand Lodge authorizing the charter or constitution of The Massachusetts Lodge. While the petition had been presented to the Grand Lodge the previous day, the only vote by the Grand Lodge touching the matter had been a vote to defer the petition.

On the following Monday, May 14, 1770, the Grand Lodge again met and the petition was again read, but before action thereon was taken, it was voted that the commission of the Grand Master be read, there apparently being some difference of opinion concerning the powers of the Grand Master. After debate, the question was put whether the prayer should be granted. Eight voted in favor and four against. The Grand Master permitted the vote to be taken, but did not himself vote, perhaps because by voting he might be considered as recognizing the right of the Grand Lodge to vote upon the question. The charter, however, was not changed nor was any certificate of the vote added thereto. In form and date the charter remained and still remains, not as the act of the Grand Lodge, but as the sole act of the Grand Master and his Grand Wardens, as it, in form, purports to be. It recites that the petition for the new Lodge had been presented to "us" (that is the Grand Master and Grand Wardens) and "We, the said Grand Master and Wardens, by virtue of the power and authority aforesaid (that is, the Patent from the Grand Master of Scotland) have constituted and appointed and by these Presents do constitute and appoint them (the Brethren named in the petition) a regular Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, under the name, title, and designation of The Massachusetts Lodge." No mention of the Grand Lodge appears in the charter except the obligation to attend the Grand Lodge and lay the record of their proceedings before the Grand Lodge when required, and the further statement that the seal of the Grand Lodge is affixed and the certificate of the Grand Secretary thereon that the charter has been recorded in the Book of the Grand Lodge.

The vote of the Grand Lodge on May 14, 1770, was undoubtedly a ratification of the charter, but our Lodge exists by virtue of the act of the Grand Master and the Grand Wardens on May 12, 1770.

This was not the only respect in which the creation of The Massachusetts Lodge differed from the creation of new Lodges at the present time. There was no period during which our Lodge acted under dispensation. There was no formal "constitution" of our Lodge in the sense in which that word is used today, and the installation of the officers of the Lodge, ^hich has sometimes been referred to as the "constitution," was hardly more than an installation of officers within the body of the Grand Lodge.

ORGANIZATION AND EARLY MEETINGS

The Lodge began to act under the charter almost immediately. According to the records of the Lodge, its first meeting was held on May 17, 1770, five days after the date of the charter. There were present: William Palfrey, Joseph Tyler, James Jackson, John Hill, Nathaniel Cudworth, Joshua Loring — six of the eight named in the charter. Choice was made of the following officers:

  • Joseph Tyler, Worshipful Master
  • William Palfrey, Senior Warden
  • James Jackson, Junior Warden
  • Nathaniel Cudworth, Treasurer
  • Joshua Loring, Secretary
  • John Hill, Senior Deacon
  • John Jeffries, Junior Deacon

Jeremiah Webb, who was not at that time a member, was appointed Steward, and Moses Pitcher, who was not a member, was appointed Tyler. The Lodge voted that James Jackson, who had been chosen Junior Warden, represent the Lodge as Senior Warden, and John Hill, who had been chosen Senior Deacon, represent the Lodge as Junior Warden at the Grand Lodge, perhaps because William Palfrey, the Senior Warden of the Lodge, was also the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge. A committee was chosen to draw By-Laws and it was voted to meet the first Monday in every month. The record does not state where this meeting was held, but it was probably held in the Green Dragon Tavern on what is now Union Street, a building then owned by The Lodge of Saint Andrew, of which all of our charter members, as well as the Grand Master, Joseph Warren, were members. The Lodge of Saint Andrew is truly our Mother Lodge, of which fact we can only be most proud.

The second meeting was held on Monday, June 4, 1770, also at the Green Dragon Tavern. It was voted that the thanks of the Lodge be given to Brother John Hill for his generous present of a "curious" apron for the Master of the Lodge and his successors.

The Lodge next met at Concert Hall on June 11, 1770, at which meeting Samuel Gardner and John Langdon, Jr., were proposed and made Masons and members of the Lodge, although they had not then received the second or third degrees, it apparently being the custom at that time and for a long time thereafter for Brethren to become members when or after they were made Masons without requiring them to wait until they had received the second and third degrees.

The Lodge met again on July 3, 1770, at Concert Hall, at which meeting Francis Shaw was proposed and made a Mason and a member.

The next meeting was on August 6, 1770, at Concert Hall. At this meeting it was voted that "the Installment of this Lodge be on next Fryday night Week" and a committee was chosen to prepare "necessarys" for the installation.

On August 10, 1770, the Lodge met at Concert Hall by order of the Master. Four Brethren were raised Masters. The record of this meeting contains no reference to the "Installment" of the Lodge, but on the same day, in the same Hall, a meeting of the Grand Lodge was held at which were present the Brethren of The Massachusetts Lodge. Brother Joseph Tyler was called out by the Grand Master, and after being unanimously appointed by the Brethren of the Massachusetts Lodge, was, in due form, installed by the Grand Master and proclaimed "Right Worshipful Bro. Joseph Tyler, Master of The Massachusetts Lodge," after which the other officers were nominated and installed.

From that time the Lodge, according to its records, proceeded in the usual way, holding meetings, accepting candidates, making, crafting and raising Masons, at times receiving the Grand Master, and making charitable contributions until and including February 6, 1775, when a meeting was held at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, John Jeffries being then the Master. Two Brethren were crafted and a committee was chosen to wait on those members who had forfeited their membership by omitting to pay their quarterages to enquire of them whether they desire to be considered any longer as members of the Lodge. The record of that date discloses no hint of suspending the meetings.

Apparently, however, no further meetings of the Lodge were held until December 9, 1778, a lapse of nearly four years. During that period the colonies were in the midst of the War of the Revolution. The distractions of the period suggest to they were in large measure the cause of no meetings of the Lodge being held. On February 6, 1775, John Jeffries was Master. In 1776 he accompanied the British Garrison to Halifax, went to England in 1779 and apparently did not return to Boston until 1790. His absence from Boston may well have been a contributing cause of the omission of meetings from February 6, 1775, to December 9, 1778.

On the latter date the Lodge held a meeting at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern. William Palfrey, who was the only Past Master of the Lodge present, apparently acted as Master. The record of that meeting makes no mention of the omission of meetings since February 6, 1775. A Brother was admitted as a member and a committee was appointed to revise the By-Laws and officers were chosen, William Palfrey being chosen Master. It was voted "that the Worshipful Master and Wardens be desired to wait on the Right Worshipful Grand Master and inform him that The Massachusetts Lodge No. 2 have met and made choice of their officers and that they are ready to attend the Grand Lodge whenever proper summons shall be issued for that purpose." The Lodge adjourned until the following Monday evening, at which time a meeting by adjournment was held and six candidates were proposed.

From that time on, for about seven years, regular meetings were held, business of the Lodge transacted, candidates accepted, made, crafted and raised.

At a meeting held November 5, 1782, Brother Moses Michael Hays (afterwards Grand Master) was present as a visitor and was proposed as a member, balloted for and accepted. At the next meeting held December 3, 1782, Brother Hays was elected Master and he was re-elected Master on December 2, 1783, and on December 7, 1784. From June 6, 1785, until June 12, 1788, no meetings of the Lodge were held. This was probably due in large measure to the condition of the country and the exhaustion of the people by the War of the Revolution. It seems, however, the more noteworthy because Right Worshipful Brother Hays, who during this period was Master, was noted for his zeal and attachment to Masonry, and during a part, if not all of this period, was active in the Grand Lodge, holding the office of Junior Grand Warden in 1786. On June 6, 1788, this remarkable man, while holding office of Master of The Massachusetts Lodge, was chosen Grand Master. Six days later, on June 12, 1788, a meeting of The Massachusetts Lodge was held by his order as Master. At this meeting he "acquainted the Brethren that so much time had elapsed by neglect of the Lodge's Meeting that complaints were made by the Grand Lodge & Demands were made for their dues to the Grand Lodge therefore the R.W. Master called on the Lodge for their serious consideration when the members Voted & Resolved To Support the Honor & Dignity of the Lodge and that from this evening should commence their Resolutions." The record of this meeting further states that "The R. W. being (at the late meeting of Grand Lodge) nominated G. Master elect, this Lodge therefore proposed an Election of Officers for the present year," and William Scollay was elected Master and other officers were chosen and" installed. Regular meetings were resumed and have continued until the present time.

SEAL

The seal of the Lodge was adopted in 1772, the Lodge having no seal previously. It is believed to have been cut by Paul Revere. Bunker Hill Monument.

On June 17, 1825, the Lodge met at Faneuil Hall at 8 a.m., and joined the procession to Charlestown under the direction of the Grand Lodge, where the corner stone of Bunker Hill Monument was laid by Most Worshipful John Abbott, Grand Master, assisted by General Lafayette and a number of officers of the Grand Encampment, Grand Royal Arch Chapter and Grand Lodges of neighboring states.

On May 30, 1845, the Lodge voted to accept an invitation from King Solomon's Lodge of Charlestown to join it on the 24th of June in dedicating the Model of the Old Monument erected by them in 1794 to the memory of General Joseph Warren and his associates, which had been placed within the present monument, and also of holding a general Masonic celebration of that anniversary.

ANTI-MASONIC AGITATION

In the latter part of 1826 an attack was made upon Freemasonry in the State of New York and anti-Masonic feeling soon spread over other parts of the country, including Massachusetts. It is not our purpose here or now to give an account of that anti-Masonic agitation. Suffice it to say that it continued for many years. It caused many members of our Lodges to absent themselves from Masonic meetings and to withdraw from their Lodges in such large numbers that many of our Lodges were induced to surrender their charters and go out of existence. »The Massachusetts Lodge, however, continued to hold meetings although at one time the number of their meetings was reduced to four per year. The Lodge continued its Masonic work though the number of members remaining active was greatly reduced. For a period of about twelve years, from 1829 to 1841, no additions to our membership were made, but the Lodge did not surrender its charter.

PLACES OF MEETING

The first two meetings of our Lodges were held in the Green Dragon Tavern. In June, 1770, the Lodge moved to Concert Hall, on Queen Street, now Court Street. From 1774 to early in 1775 and from December 9, 1778, to June 6, 1785, and from June 12, 1788, to September 14, 1789, the Lodge met in the Bunch of Grapes Tavern on King Street, now State Street. From October 12, 1789, to July 17, 1804, the Lodge met at Concert Hall, and from August 21, 1804, to July 16, 1805, and on December 29, 1806, at Vila's Hall near Concert Hall, and from July 29, 1805 (except on December 29, 1806) at Mason's Hall in a building opposite the north side of Faneuil Hall, and continued there until the summer of 1817.

On July 25, 1817, the Lodge met at the then New Masonic Hall, in the Exchange Coffee House, situated between Congress and Devonshire Streets near State Street. The Lodge continued there until the Exchange Coffee House was destroyed by fire on November 3, 1818. The record of the meeting of November 27, 1818, states that the meeting was held at "Mason's Hall." As the Exchange Coffee House was destroyed earlier in the same month, it is not clear from the record where the meeting of November 27, 1818, was held.

The next meeting was held on December 4,1818, at the Commercial Coffee House, at the corner of Milk and Batterymarch Streets. On December 25, 1818, the Lodge met at Masons' Hall on Ann Street.

On December 17, 1819, the Lodge held a special meeting at Concert Hall, but on December 31, 1819, meetings were resumed at Masons' Hall on Ann Street and apparently continued to be held there until 1821.

On October 27, 1820, a committee previously appointed to procure a place for the future meetings of the Lodge reported that they had agreed with the other Masonic Societies and had engaged to pay their proportion of the rent and repairs of the upper stories in the Old State House, the rent of the whole to be ?600 per year for the term of ten years.

The Lodge met on March 30, 1821, for the first time in Masons' Hall in the Old State House and on April 13, 1821, held a special meeting there for the purpose of introducing the ladies into the newly fitted Masonic Hall. The Lodge continued to meet there until and including April 30, 1830.

On July 30, 1830, the Lodge met at Masons' Hall on Washington Street opposite Franklin Street and apparently continued there until December 1831.

On December 30, 1831, the Lodge met at the Masonic Temple, a granite structure erected by the Grand Lodge on the corner of Tremont Street and Temple Place, adjoining St. Paul's Church.

In consequence of a sale of the Masonic Temple at the corner of Tremont Street and Temple Place, the Lodge in 1858 moved to the Masonic Apartments in Nassau Hall, on the corner of Washington and Common Streets, our first meeting there being on October 15, 1858. The Lodge remained there until January 16, 1860, when the Lodge held a meeting in Freemasons' Hall in the building known as the Winthrop House at the corner of Tremont and Boylston Streets. The Lodge continued to meet there until the building was destroyed by fire on April 5, 1864. Our Lodge, in common with other Lodges, suffered great loss by that fire. Our original charter, signed by the renowned Joseph Warren, was destroyed.

On April 9, 1864, our Lodge met at Freemasons' Hall, South Boston, and on April 18, 1864, at Odd Fellows Hall, and on April 26, 1864, at Freemasons' Hall in the Thorndike Building on Summer Street. The Lodge continued to meet in the Thorn-dike Building until the erection of the New Masonic Temple at the corner of Tremont and Boylston Streets.

On September 16, 1867, the Lodge met in the New Masonic Temple, and continued to meet there until the summer of 1895. A destructive fire there on September 7, 1895, necessitated our moving again.

The next meeting was held on September 16,1895, in Masonic Hall, Roxbury, where the Lodge continued to meet until January 20, 1896, when the Lodge met in Sutton Hall, Masonic Temple, the building having been repaired in part. On February 17, 1896, the Lodge met in the New Masonic Apartments in the Boylston Building, 18 Boylston Street. This continued to be the meeting place until September 18, 1899, when the Lodge held its first meeting in this building, where it has continued to meet until the present time.

ANNIVERSARIES

The Lodge celebrated its 94th anniversary by appropriate ceremonies in 1864, its 95th in 1865, its 100th in 1870, its 112th in 1882, its 125th in 1895, its 145th in 1915, its 150th in 1920, at most if not all of which celebrations the history of the lodge was summarized and in some cases elaborately and instructively narrated.

At the celebration of the 95th anniversary held on May 12, 1865, the copy of the charter which had been carefully prepared from the charter of The Tyrian Lodge of Gloucester, which had been chartered in 1770, shortly prior to the charter of our Lodge, was presented and examined by the Grand Master and others, who pronounced it well executed and hardly distinguishable from the original.

CENTENNIAL MEDAL

In 1870 a Centennial Medal was adopted and authorized by a Centenary Warrant from the Grand Master, to be worn by the members in all Masonic meetings. Unfortunately, the custom of wearing this medal has in recent times not been followed.

CHARITY AND BENEVOLENCE

One of the powers enumerated in the charter of The Massachusetts Lodge is "to receive and collect funds for the relief of poor and decayed Brethren, their Widows or children." The Lodge began the practice of charity early in its history, and has continued it till the present.

The first recorded reference to charity being disbursed by the Lodge occurs in the record of a meeting held February 4, 1771, when Brother James Connor, a visitor, presented a petition, and a committee was appointed to inquire into his circumstances and give him what they thought proper on account of the Lodge. At a meeting of the Lodge on March 4, 1771, the committee reported that on inquiry, they thought proper to give him eight dollars and it was voted that the same be paid by the Treasurer to Brother James Jackson, who advanced it. In the records of later meetings it frequently appears that various sums were donated to poor and distressed Brethren, usually visitors, sometimes from Lodge funds and sometimes from collections taken at the meetings.

On April 30, 1810, the propriety and utility of instituting a fund for charity being suggested by one of the members, a committee was chosen to take it into consideration and report a plan by which such a fund might be established with success. On July 30, 1810s, the committee reported a plan, which after some alterations, was adopted. The plan was to take for that purpose three hundred dollars from the four hundred and fifty dollars then on hand, and each member to pay into the fund one dollar, one dollar to be taken from the money received for each initiation, and each newly admitted member to pay into the fund five dollars and all donations to the Lodge to be put into the fund, the income to be given to those persons whom the Lodge thought most deserving of charity. The charity fund still exists, though many changes have been made in its management. The dispensing of relief to our poor and distressed members, their widows and orphans, has ever since been, and still is, an important function of our Lodge and now is being administered under the careful and efficient direction of our Senior Past Master, Worshipful John R. Griffin.

In addition to extending financial assistance to our poor and distressed members, their widows and orphans, the Lodge, beginning in December, 1927, has provided each year, to and including last December, a period of eighteen years, a Christmas Celebration at the Masonic Home in Charlton, and in recent years, at the Masonic Hospital in Shrewsbury, for the entertainment and pleasure of the residents of those Institutions.

RECENT TIMES

Since about 1929, the prosperity of the Lodge has diminished. Owing to the business depression and other causes, the Lodge has lost in membership and revenues have gone down. The members, however, have not given up hope that the future will be brighter. When we recall what hard times the Lodge has been through, yet still survives, we are not discouraged, but on the contrary, realize that if we will have even a small part of the faith, courage and enthusiasm of our members of former times, we may continue to practice our Masonic rites and to contribute to the good of mankind.

Many matters of importance and interest in the history of our Lodge have been passed over in this sketch, not only because of lack of time in securing the data, but in order that the patience of the listeners might not be unduly taxed.


EVENTS

INSTALLATION, JANUARY 1861

From Moore's Freemason's Monthly, Vol. XX, No. 4, February 1861, Page 115:

This is one of the three Lodges in this Commonwealth whose Charters bear the name of Gen. Joseph Warren as G. Master, it having been organized in 1770, and during the administration of that lamented Brother as the presiding officer of the "Massachusetts Grand Lodge," so called, in contradistinction to the "St. John's Grand Lodge." It has always maintained a highly respectable position among the Lodges in the Commonwealth, and its roll, past and present, bears the names of many of the most honored and substantial of our Brethren. Relying perhaps too much on its well-earned laurels, it has not always kept even-pace with the rapid progress of its more youthful associates. A new spirit, however, has within a few years past been infused into it, and now, with a membership numbering more than one hundred, including a fair proportion of young, talented and ambitious Brethren, it may be classed among the most active and promising of our Lodges, as it has always been among the most respected.

Having recently elected a new set of officers, and with a view of allowing the families and female friends of the members an opportunity to examine the elegant apartments now occupied by the Fraternity in the city, a public installation was decided on, and came off on the evening of the 21st January, ultimo. The large hall was literally crowded with spectators, there being at least six hundred present, many of whom were obliged to stand during the entire ceremonies. It was a jam, — which ought not to have been the case, — and the effect was to detract from the pleasure and enjoyment of many.

The ceremonies commenced with a voluntary on the Organ and prayer. Then followed the installation services, which were performed by R. W. Brother Wyzeman Marshall, D. D. G. Master for the 12th District, in an eloquent and impressive manner, and to the gratification of all present. The following, writ ten for the occasion, is worthy of a place in our pages, and will be acceptable to our readers:—

ODE, By Bro. Edward S. Rand, Jr.
Air—Fair Harvard.

Peal forth a loud chorus to honor this hour;
Let us give the warm grasp of the hand;
As opens in morning's bright sunbeams the flowers,
In love let our bosoms expand.
And all praise to the Giver who kindly has blessed
Our efforts in days that are past,
Who has borne with our follies whene'er we transgressed,
Who will still be our friend to the last.

Hail, Masonry hail! here as Brothers we meet,
In Faith at God's footstool we fall,
With an Hope an existence immortal to greet,
In Charity free towards all.
Thy influence blest o'er each Brother be shed,
In each act let thy teachings appear,
From our conduct of life, by the world be it said,
A blessing descends on us here.

As the minutes flee on and the years roll away,
Still may the blessings descend from above,
And our hearts beat as warmly in life's closing day,
'Neath the bright rays of friendship and love.
And when the last change o'er the mortal shall come,
When the death film is glazing the eye,
May Death be but the angel to summon us home,
To the Lodge of oar Master on high.

Glen Ridge, Jan., 1861.

The address of the evening was delivered by Rev. Bro. Wm. R. Alger, of this city, and like all the productions of that eloquent Brother, was a chaste and beautiful performance. It was delivered without notes, and we judge was chiefly extemporary. But however this may be, it was a finished and eloquent production, and very rarely indeed have we witnessed the attention of any public audience more intensely fixed on the words of the speaker.

At the conclusion of the address, the W. Master, Brother Thos. G. Wytal, extended an invitation to the ladies and all others present to examine the various apartments of the building. And thus ended one of the many pleasant reunions of the season.

95TH ANNIVERSARY, MAY 1864

From Moore's Freemason's Monthly, Vol. XXIII, No. 8, June, 1864, Page 245:

Ninety-four years ago, May 12th, 1770, and of Masonry 5770, Joseph Warren, Esq., Grand Master in Boston, and within one hundred miles circumjacent to the same, by Patent from George, Earl of Dalhousie, Grand Master of Masons in Scotland, duly authorized and appointed, did, on that date, sign the Charter whereby the precedence of Massachusetts Lodge was declared to date from these Presents, in the Grand Lodge, and elsewhere; and since that time this Lodge has been in possession of its Charter.

It has had periods of reverses, when no initiates have entered its portals for years, but has always had members attached to its ancient Charter, who, in preserving lhat, have preserved an unbroken history. It was therefore with no ordinary feelings of pleasure, that the members determined to celebrate the 95th anniversary in a manner to admit the ladies, as participants in the festivities of the occasion, and to witness the present prosperity of the Lodge.

The Exercises were as follows:— Music. Prayer. Ode. Address, by the W. M., Br. Alfred F. Chapman. Music. Reading of Charter of Lodge, by W. Br. A. A. Dame. Ode. Historical Address, by Br. C. W. Slack. Original Poem, by Rev. Br. W. S. Studley. Banquet.

Of the literary portion, it is enough to say, that the Hisiorical Address, by Br. Slack, was highly interesting and instructive. The Poem— Like the star that athwart gilds the sky, Its course to the latest was bright.

Among the guests were William Parkman, Esq., Grand Master, and lady; C. C. Dame, D. G. Master; J. McClellan, G. Treasurer, and lady; Solon Thornton, Grand High Priest, and lady, together with others, and a full attendance of the members of the Lodge, and their ladies.

Prominent among the members was Matthew S. Parker, Esq., admitted to membership in 1803; Enoch Hobart, in 1817; A. A. Dame, in 1818, and Wm. Palfrey, in 1819, whose son, recently admitted to membership, makes the fourth generation of this name to become members of the Lodge; and Henry Bowen, admitted in 1820.

At twenty minutes past ten o'clock, the W. Master, accompanied by the G. Master and members above named, preceded the procession to the large Hall, where was spread a sumptuous and bountiful table by the Superintendent, Br, L. L. Tarbell.

The exclamation of the Grand Master on entering the banqueting hall—"this is beautiful," will give the best impression of the same. It was a table of beautiful wares, laden with delicacies, and perfumed with the breath of flowers, gathered into twelve fragrant bouquets, which, later in the evening, were disposed of to as many ladies, who happened to hold a talisman given by chance on entering the hall.

Speeches were made by Grand Master Parkman, Rev. J. W. Dadmun, Rev. Dr. Walker, and Rev. Br. Studley, eloquent and humorous, and highly appropriate, if we may judge from the open and frequent expressions of pleasure too great to be repressed, for every now and then one and another would persist in declaring it ; so that in closing, the sociability and good wishes provoked by the occasion, had prepared all who could, to join in singing " Auld Lang Syne," with spirit and feeling, and inspired the "good night," that came from every lip, with, the spirit of peace on earth and good will to men, and God's blessing on Massachusetts Lodge and its members.

CENTENARY, MAY 1870

From Moore's Freemason's Monthly, Vol. XXIX, No. 8, June 1870, Page 228:

The occurrence of the Centennial Anniversary of a Masonic Lodge, wherever located, or under whatever circumstances, is an event eminently worthy of commemoration. The full rounding off of one one hundred years of continued existence, is a favor which few voluntary secular associations are permitted to realize. Bound together by no special ties of interest, such societies spring into life, play their allotted part, pass away, and are forgotten. To this general law of mutation, Masonic Lodges, though by no means wholly or even largely exempted, undoubtedly present more exceptions than are to be found in any other class of the community. This may, and probably is, in some measure, attributable to the fact that the Masonic Fraternity, as a secular institution, is more numerous, both in its membership and in its auxiliary aids, than any of the other social divisions. But the true reason is to be found in its peculiar conformation, and adaptation to the social needs and necessities of life. In this respect it is without an equal. Its members, whatever may have been their motive in joining it, soon learn to love it, not from selfish or eleemosynary considerations, but from the harmonizing and softening influences which it exercises over their lives, the sympathetic emotions it awakens in the heart, and the confidence it inspires in each other. And this is the secret of its success and endurance, that which has brought it down along the ages of the past, and will carry it forward in defiance of the prejudices, the opposition, and the persecutions of bigotry and intolerance, for ages to come.

The occurrence of a Centennial Anniversary forms an important epoch in the history of the Lodge. It presents a standpoint — an occasion suggestive of the past — of its pleasant memories, its lessons of wisdom, its guarantees for the future. If it be true that history is philosophy teaching by example, this is the time to read its lessons, and to profit by its instructions. We are, therefore, always rejoiced when we learn that such celebrations, in whatever branch of our Institution they may occur, are to be celebrated in a manner commensurate with their importance. Five such observances have, in our day, taken place in our own city, two of them by Grand Lodges — the first in 1833, the second in 1869 — and three of them by subordinate Lodges. The last was the celebration named at the head of this article, and took place at the New Masonic Temple, on the 12th of May, the particulars of which are given in the following concise report from one of the city papers of the following morning : —

Sutton or Corinthian Hall, where the afternoon exercises were held, was well filled by the members of the Lodge with their ladies and friends. A voluntary on the organ was the opening, after which the M.W. Grand Master and suite were received in Due Form. Music by the choir followed this ceremony, after which, W.M. George Emerson made an address, extending a cordial welcome to the company present, saying that the occasion was one from whicli they could look back with pride and satisfaction. "While the zeal of our ancestors is brought before our minds, a fresh impulse and a new zeal is obtained in the endeavor to discharge every duty which devolves upon us as members of this honorable Lodge."

Prayer was then offered by the Chaplain, Rev. Br. John P. Robinson; reading of the Charter by Rev. Br, John P. Robinson. The choir sang an original ode written for the occasion by W. Br. W. S. Adams. The W. Br. Charles W. Slack then made the Historical Address, of which the following is an abstract: —

In 1770, Boston was a town of 20,000 inhabitants; 4000 houses, mainly of wood. Hancock's house, finished in 1737, was the most elegant structure in town. Mr. Slack now recited various historical events that took place during the period prior to the Revolutionary War, in the midst of which the Lodge was chartered. May 12, 1770, Joseph Warren placed his name to the Charter for the institution of the Lodge; Joseph Tyler, James Jackson, Isaac Rand, William Palfrey, John Hill, Nathaniel Cudworth, Joshua Loring, and John Jeffries, with Joseph Warren as Grand Master, he being then twenty-nine years of age, constituted Massachusetts Lodge, May 12, 1770. In December, of the same year, he was installed Grand Master of Masonry in Boston, and within one hundred miles circumjacent of the same. Masonry was regularly introduced into Boston about one century after the settlement of the country. In 1764, the Masons' Hall was in the Green Dragon Tavern, on Union Street. In 1768, the Royal Arch Lodge of Masons was organized.

The first meeting of the Lodge was held in the old hostelry. The second meeting was held in the same place, when it was voted to hold future meetings at Concord Hall, on Queen, now Court Street. On the 3d of January, 1774, the M.W.G.M Joseph Warren visited the Lodge in Due Form, receiving the full honors of Masonry — his last official and personal visit. From October, 1774, to February, 1775, the Lodge met in the Bunch of Grapes Tavern. A suspension then occurred, the Lodge holding its next meeting on December 9, 1778. On the 7th of March, 1780, k made a movement for the union of all the Lodges in the country, and it culminated in the union of the Massachusetts and St. John's Lodges. During the years 1783-5, Moses M. Hays was the Grand Master. The announcement, on the evening of the 2d of November, that the Charter was missing, created great excitement; no trace of it could be found; but, on the 2d of December, it again hung in its accustomed place. On the 30th of April, 1810, the propriety and utility of instituting a fund for charity was suggested. A committee was appointed to consider and report a plan, which was adopted July 30. On the 16th of June, 1817, an act of incorporation was obtained from the Legislature of Massachusetts for the Grand Lodge. In 1817, the several Lodges procured a lease of apartments in the Exchange Coffee House. The premises were destroyed by fire, November 3, 1818, the Lodge losing much of its regalia. The present arrangements, respecting charity to strangers, were established in 1819. In the spring of 1821, the Lodge took apartments in the upper story of the Old State House, the hall possessing ample accommodations.

On the 29th of March, 1822, a portrait of Most Worshipful Joseph Warren was obtained. June 17, 1825, the Lodge participated in the ceremonies of laying the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monument. February 23, 1827, the Lodge took action on the subject of erecting a Masonic Temple. On the 30th of December, 1831, the Lodge met for the first time in the new Temple on Tremont Street. On the 24th of June, 1845, upon invitation of King Solomon's Lodge, of Charlestown, the Lodge joined in publicly dedicating the model of the old monument erected by them, in 1794, to the memory of General Joseph Warren. On the 11th of November, the Lodge participated in the dedication of the new Masonic Hall in the old Temple. On the 15th of November, 1858, the Lodge met in Nassau Hall, on Washington Street, and on the 10th oi January, 1860, in the Winthrop House. On the 5th of April, 1864, this was destroyed by fire, and the Lodge again lost its property, and took temporary quarters in Thorndike Hall. On the 14th of October, 1864, the corner-stone of the present Temple was laid, and the dedication took place on St. John's Day, June 24, 1867. The first meeting of the Lodge was held the 24th of September following, making the seventeenth place of communication it has known. On this its one hundredth anniversary, it stands the third oldest Lodge in the State, but second to none for its strict observance of those masonic virtues — Friendship, Morality, and Brotherly Love.

At the close of Br. Slack's address, an address was made by the M.W. Grand Master, William Sewall Gardner, and this closed the exercises of the afternoon. At half-past six a reception was held, when the Committee received their many prominent guests; at half-past seven the company passed up stairs to the banquet, which was served in the banquet-hall of the Temple. Floral decorations were abundant, giving the hall a beautiful appearance. Opposite the entrance and against the wall were suspended "G" and the square and compass, formed of red and white pinks, set in roses relieved by smilax. On one side of the hall was " 1870," and opposite, "1770." Large baskets of flowers hung from the arches of the Gothic windows and over the various arches which divide the hall. The tables were spread by William Tufts, caterer, and presented a tempting appearance, all that was necessary for such an occasion being provided in abundance. The Germania Band occupied the entry adjoining the hall, and discoursed those selections which have made the band so famous for receptions. When the banquet had been partaken of, the W. M. George B,. Emerson called the company to order, and introduced M.W. Grand Master William Sewall Gardner, who excused himself from making a speech, and called upon Charles Levi Woodbury, who interested the audience, in his humorous manner, by anticipating that Masonry in the future might be composed of women. Mayor Shurtleff was the next speaker, congratulating the Lodge on the success of their first centennial. Br. Slack closed with an address.

The company now passed to the Gothic Hall, where the Boston Commandery choir gave a musical entertainment. In the mean time the banquet-hall was cleared of its tables, and soon the feet were busy keeping time to the music of the Germania Band in a well-selected order of dances. This was continued until 12 o'clock, when the festivities of the day were ended.

The affair was a complete success in the full sense of the word. The Committee of Arrangements, Messrs. Henry J. Parker, Alexander K. Bryer, Edwin Wright, Charles W. Slack, Samuel W. Creech, jr., George R. Emerson, Samuel A. B. Bragg, have been indefatigable in their efforts to make it so, and were last night rewarded by feeling satisfied that the Centennial Anniversary had been observed in a manner which reflects credit upon the Lodge and the Fraternity.

GRAND LODGE OFFICERS

DISTRICTS

1803: District 1 (Boston)

1821: District 1

1834: District 1

1849: District 1

1867: District 1 (Boston)

1883: District 1 (Boston)

1911: District 1 (Boston)

1927: District 1 (Boston)

2003: District 1


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