USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Woodbury > History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut : from the first Indian dead in 1659 to 1872, Vol. II > Part 16
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"The general spirit of conviviality, which at one time disgraced even ministers' meetings, ordinations and funerals, was also felt in the lodges at their meetings. Many lodges had decanters and glasses in their ante-rooms, and the members sometimes partook too freely at the 'hour of refreshment.' The anti-masonic storm which swept over New York, and a portion of the New England States, though it checked the progress of Masonry, and at one time bid fair to overthrow the institution, had one good result. The M. W. Grand Lodge of Connecticut recommended the sub- ordinate lodges to discontinue the use of ardent spirits at lodge meetings, and King Solomon's Lodge, in a resolution offered by our late Bro. Charles B. Phelps, was one of the first to banish tippling from the lodge-100m.
For several years prior to 1841, the lodge had enjoyed great and continued prosperity. From that time to 1846, from re- movals and various causes, it rapidly declined in numbers and efficiency, and having failed to make its returns to the Grand Lodge for three years, the charter was vacated and surrendered to the grand officers in October of the latter year. The inter- regnum was but of short duration. In December of the same year, a dispensation was applied for and granted, empowering the brethren to resume their labors as a lodge, and on the 6th of Jan- uary the charter was returned, officers elected, and a new era begun. The craft are now (1865) in possession of a fine lodge edifice, unincumbered by debt, and have in their treasury the
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' wherewith ' to relieve 'poor distressed master masons, their widows and orphans.'
" A few extracts from the records may not be inappropriate to the time and occasion.
"Aug. Ist, 1780, it was voted that 'the treasurer send to Bro. David Wooster, 200 continental dollars out of the Box.'
"Feb. 4th, 1800, 'Bros. J. Clark and Wm. Moseley were appointed to confer with the Committee of Arrangements for the 22d inst., and to procure the aprons trimmed with black,' as a token of respect for the memory of their illustrious Brother George Washington.
" I have thus, Worshipful Master and Brethren, endeavored to trace, in an imperfect manner, the history of King Solomon's Lodge. "Tis a solemn thought that here, in these few volumes, lie the records of a hundred years ! How 'swifter than a weav- er's shuttle' is the flight of time ! ' We spend our years as a tale that is told !' This day should ' furnish food for serious reflection ' to us all. 1765-1865-1965 ! Who, of all this company, will be present at the second centennial of King Solomon's Lodge ?
"Eight years ago, I enrolled my name as a member of the Woodbury fraternity. As I cast my eye over these seats, I see many new faces, but, alas! not all of the old ones! I miss the genial face and portly form of one who twice filled the Oriental Chair, dispensing light and knowledge to the craft. He was made a mason in 1812, and, at the time of his decease, had been for nearly fifty years a valued and respected member of this lodge. But a few weeks before his death he was present at an installa- tion service, and delivered an address appropriate to the occasion. In two short months you stood around his open grave, and with streaming eyes, dropped your sprigs of acacia upon his coffin, sighing in tremulous accents, 'Alas ! my brother !'
" Any eulogium upon his character, to those who knew him, would be to 'gild refined gold, or paint the lily !' Those who knew him best, loved him most. For more than two years the speaker was most confidentially and intimately associated with him, and he has no hesitation in affirming that "he was a man, take him all in all, we shall not look upon his like again !' Born soon after the revolution, and familiarly acquainted with many of the actors in that great drama; educated in the celebrated Litch_ field Law School of Judge Reeve, with such men as John M Clayton, and John C. Calhoun for fellow students, he was a con.
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necting link between the generation of '76 and the present. In his tastes and habits, a 'gentleman of the old school;' with a high-toned sense of honor that is too rarely found in these modern times ; his mind unnsually well stored with that knowledge which only habits of observation can acquire; a never-failing flow of wit, and anecdote, and keenest irony and sarcasm, if the occasion demanded ; of great power as a public speaker and an advocate ;' full of ' wise saws and modern instances,' and quaint sayings and comparisons, which convulsed the listener with merriment; a kind and unselfish neighbor; an ever faithful and sympathizing friend ; strong in his likes and dislikes; a man who read character at a glance ; hospitable, charitable, and generous to a fault,
"' As many a beggar and impostor knew ;'
though a lawyer, a peace-maker; (his proudest boast being that he 'had settled more eases than he had tried') ; to those who knew him, in the sanctity of his home, (whatever he may have seemed to the world), a man of deep religions feelings and yearn- ings ; in the language of another,
" ' Not, like too many, worser than he seemed, But always better than himself had deemed :' 1
Charles B. Phelps, 'the Old Judge,' as we loved to call him, will never be forgotten, so long as there is one who knew him left to cherish his memory !
"' The upright judge, the wit, the mind intent, With the large heart, that always with it went : Passing his years among us, softened, sage, Almost the feature of another age ;- In one dread moment sent to that far shore Where praise, nor blame, shall ever reach him more.'2
There is another brother, whose hoary head and Christian character deserves a passing notice. The oldest member of the fraternity, initiated into Masonry in 1813., fifty-two years ago, he still lingers among us, at the good old age of three score and ten, and eighteen years. Though he has come to realize by sad expe-
1 Rev. Wm. Thompson Bacon, in his Woodbury Centennial Poem, July 4, 1859.
Ibid.
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rience the infirmities of age, 'when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened; and the doors are shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low; when fears are in the way, and the almond tree flourishes and desire fails :'-though all this is come upon him, he still retains his first love for the Insti- tution, before whose altar his youthful knees bowed in fealty and prayer. Need I say that I refer to our venerable Brother James Moody ?
"It may seem invidious to speak of the living, where so many are worthy of praise. When the anti-masonic tempest of 1828 had well-nigh extinguished our 'three lesser lights ;' when 'the love of many waxed cold,' and to acknowledge one's self a Mason required more courage than to storm a battery ; when mobs pro- scribed, and churches excommunicated the known or suspected Mason ; prominent among a faithful few, a brother who sits before me, was untiring in his efforts to keep the masonic flame a-light upon the altar of King Solomon's Lodge. Unlike too many, he never 'renounced Free Masonry' at the bidding of party or sect. Filling, as necessity required, every office, from the chair in the East to the Tyler's station ' without the door ;' for many years the faithful and efficient Treasurer ; twice elected Worshipful Master ; present at nearly every meeting of the lodge since his affiliation, more than forty-four years ago; King Solomon's Lodge is in- debted for its present existence, to no brother, living or dead, more than to Brother Benjamin Doolittle ! 1
"My task is done! My communings with the past, though tinged with sadness, have been pleasing and profitable to myself ; I trust the result, even if somewhat tedious, has not been without interest and instruction to my hearers.
"Finally, BRETHREN OF KING SOLOMON'S LODGE, let us strive to grow wiser and better for our masonic associations. Let us never confound Masonry with Religion, nor Religion with Masonry. Let us ever remember that Masonry, though not religion, is her handmaid : and that he who would be a true Mason must also aspire to that higher name, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, at the last, when the grim tyrant Death shall alarm for us
1 Bro. Doolittle passed to the Lodge on high about three years ago, at the age of 70, and this eulogy is not overdrawn.
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' the inner door' of the lodge-we may welcome him as a kind messenger, sent to translate us from this imperfect to that all- perfect, glorious, and celestial lodge above, where the Supreme Grand Master of the universe presides !"
The address was succeeded by a very eloquent and instructive serthon, by Rev. C. Trowdridge Woodruff, of Ridgefield, for- merly rector of St. Paul's Church, Woodbury. From this sermon we make a few brief extracts :-
SERMON.
I. KINGS VI. 7.
" AND THE HOUSE, WHEN IT WAS BUILDING, WAS BUILT OF STONE, MADE READY BEFORE IT WAS BROUGHT THITHER ; SO THAT TIIERE WAS NEITHER HAMMER, NOR AXE, NOR TOOL OF IRON, HEARD IN THE HOUSE WHILE IT WAS BUILDING."
" Wonderful record ! record, made of no other building in the history of our world; record, worthy of Him who planned the building, and of him who sought the " understanding heart," that he might work out the woundrous design; record, significant of the mighty Past, whose history it was to embody, and of the Fu- ture, whose prophetie analogies were to cluster around it! The work then going on, the massive stones then rising into walls, in- dicating no ordinary work, nor yet the usual architecture of the time. No ! in the centuries by-gone, upon the rugged and scarred brow of awful Sinai, amid lightnings and thunders, with the huge mountain shaking beneath the overshadowing presence of the great Jehovah, Moses was showed the pattern of that majestic Temple, which, with all its sacred rites, afterwards stood, the joy of the whole earth, on Mount Moriah's stately brow. The Tab- ernacle, set up in the wilderness, and carried along with the Israel- ites as they journeyed to the Promised Land, was but the finished model of the vast and magnificent edifice, whose foundation stones of costly worth, reached down as deep as Kedron's shadowed glen, and whose pinnacles towered to heights too dazzling for the sight.
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For many years had the pious David been carefully gathering the varied materials for the sacred house, and now his illustrious son, Solomon, with all the aid of native and foreign artists, was consummating the grand design. The forests resounded to the stroke of the woodman's axe; the quarries of Zeradathah echoed to the ring of the hammer and maul; the smitheries glowed ; carpenters, and carvers, and cunning workmen went in and out, intent upon their mighty work, and, day by day, the ponderous beams, the perfect ashlers, the polished cedar, and the olive, and the golden plates, came by the hands of the seventy thousand Apprentices, from the eighty thousand Fellow-Crafts, till the co- ping was finished, pilaster and column were set, the burnished roof thrown over all, and the great Temple, from foundation to dome, stood the fairest and the noblest structure that greeted the sun in his daily course.
"So stands the Temple to the view of every true and enlighten- ed Mason ; at once, the first and highest type of the Masonic art in operative Masonry, and the sacred historical symbol of all that is dignified and ennobling, and purifying in speculative Masonry. It embodies the great principles of our order ;- charity and unity ; -around it cluster the emblems, and from it are derived the cer- emonies and the working tools of the craft.
" It is a singular fact, and, aside from the belief of its high ori- gin, an inexplainable fact, that, while thrones of earth have crum- bled, while orders and systems of men have passed away,-des- potic, patriotic, benevolent, and religious,-while opposition has fiercely assailed, backed by influence, wealth and power ; while persecution has flamed, and driven into the wilderness; while po- litical fanatics have denounced and religionists have anathema- tized, and false friends sought to betray ; while barbarians have demolished the grand monuments of the Order; and all that mal- ice could invent, and man perform, has been combined against it, still, Masonry LIVES ! Yes, and will live till Time itself shall be no more ! Nothing else, save Christianity, has stood the test of the ages! It stands to-day, adorned with life and beauty, simply because its great Light, the BIBLE, shines full upon and irradiates its throbbing heart! Its chief corner-stone, its central idea, like that of the symbolic Temple, and like Christianity itself, is Love, love to God supreme, love to our neighbors as ourselves. The golden chain which links us to the Past, to each other in the Pres- ent, and which shall join us indissolubly with the Future, is that
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heaven-born Charity, which is the ' bond of peace and the perfec- tion of every virtue.'
"In the great struggle through which the nation has so success- fully passed, Masonry has come out as grandly as the nation, tested as in no other age, glorious as never before. Under its almost magie influence, foemen have been made friends in rifle pits, on skirmish lines, at bayonet points, and at the cannon's mouth. Rebel and loyal, each, have learned on bloody fields, wounded and captive, in ambulance and hospital, that brothers ever answer to the sign, and fly, at the mystic cry for help, with comfort and suc- cor such as needed. And all this is full of richest promise for the future.
Go forward, then, ye faithful sons of faithful craftsmen gone ! By all that is sacred in the antiquity of the Order, by all that is tender in the bond of brotherly love, by all that is affecting in the condition and wants of your erring and needy brethren, by all the resources which heaven has poured into your lap, by all the pre- cious memories of those beloved in the lodge on high, and by all the motives addressed to you in every degree in which you have wrought, I say, go forward ! And, when all the bonds of earthly circumstances, the outward conformations of ministries and ordi- nances, have passed away forever, then, the whole body of Ma- sons, true and faithful Masons, who have adorned the divine prin- ciples of the Order by a godly life, shall stand up together in an imperishable fellowship, known by one name, animated by one spirit, and combined together in one glorious employment for eternity."
After the exercises at the Church, the procession was again formed, and marched to the site of the building recently occupied by Bro's Chapin and Lathrop, where the Lodge was held for fif- teen years,-from 1823 to 1837. Here a halt was made, and the "grand honors" given, in honor of the fraternal dead. The march was then continued to the residence of Geo. B. Lewis, Esq., for- merly the Inn of Peter Gilchrist, where the Lodge was held, from 1775 to 1797, where the "grand honors" were again given. Thence the procession moved to the Hotel of F. Kelly, where the " grand honors" were given in front of the "north chamber," where the Lodge held its meetings, from 1797 to 1823, and again from 1837 to 1839.
The vast concourse of Masons, Masons' wives, daughters, and
KING SOLOMON'S LODGE, NO. 7, WOODBURY, CONN.
SILMILJON
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invited guests, then entered the large Tent of the Litchfield Co. Agricultural Society, where they partook of a bountiful Collation.
ORDER OF EXERCISES AT THE TENT.
After the " cloth had been removed," the assembly was called to oder by Past Master A. N. Lewis, who announced the regular toats, and on giving the sentiment, "Our Sister Lodges," re- marked :---
"I see before me those who, as Entered Appentices, have delved and hewed in the quarries ; have wrought upon the Temple as Fellow-Crafts ; and learned lessons of fortitude and fidelity at the grave of the widow's son -- others who have received the " white stone," in which a "new name is written, which no man knoweth, save him to whom it is given ; " who have been inducted into the " Oriental Chair," and learned lessons in government from earnest and practical instructors; who have assisted at the dedication of the Temple, " when the glory of the Lord filled the house, so that the priests could not stand 1) minister,' but bowed themselves upon the pavement, exclaiming, 'for He is good, and His mercy endureth forever ; and, 'at the peril of your lives,' searched for and brought to light those valuable secrets, which lay buried and hidden from the craft, for the space of four hundred years ;- oth- ers, who have ' wrought in the secret vault, when prying eye were closed in sleep.'-Others who, as valiant and magnanimous Sir Knights, have worshipped upon the Island, at the Sepulchre, and in the Temple. And if there be any other and higher than these, I bid you all an earnest, a heart-felt, a Masonic WELCOME !"
This was followed by the third regular toast ; "The Fraternal Dead of King Solomon's Lodge,-Their failings are hidden by the sod that covers them ; their virtues are on perpetual record upon living tablets, the hearts of their brethren !"
Past Master William Cothren responded in the following words :
BROTHERS AND FRIENDS :-
In rising to respond to the toast just read in your hearing by our worthy presiding officer, I seem to be addressing some five
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hundred living, sentient beings,-a company of friends and broth- ers. And yet, as I firmly believe, not only am I doing this, but I am addressing an equal ninnber of the "faithful dead," whose mortal remains sleep peacefully in this beautiful valley, the home of the honored, and the resting place of the tried worthies who have gone before us to the " echoless shore." I take pleasure and consolation in believing, that that large company of the good and " great lights " of our beneficent Order, look down from their se- rene and happy abode upon us, their children, who, with filial hearts, unite in celebrating their virtues on this happy hundreth birth-day of our beloved Lodge, which they did so much to " adorn and beautify." Secure, themselves, from the perils of life, they smile benignantly upon the noble actions of their descendants. They speak to us from every lowly and saered mound,-they speak to us from their high abode in Heaven.
A sacred feeling comes over us, as we remember the character, and recount the noble deeds of our revered brethren, who lived and acted during the century which has now gone to "join the former ages " in the world's history. We look around us, and note the resting-places of those sainted men, in the pleasantest nooks of this most beautiful of valleys. We tread lightly, as we ap- proach the sacred dust, that silently reposes till the resurrection morn. Their ashes are all around us, as their spirits are above us. I firmly believe that the faithful dead take cognizance of things pertaining to the welfare of friends below. They smile on ns from their high seats to-day. "Their crown is secure, and their mem- ory precious forever ; to us the strife yet remains." Errors they had, like all the human race; for the Book of books declares, that all have gone astray. But their errors are "hidden by the sod" that covers them. They have "reached that silent home of all the living, which buries every error, covers every defect, extinguishes every resentment."
They lived in " days that tried men's souls." They lived in times that required great and heroic deeds. They lived in a period when moral courage, as well as manly hearts, was re- quired,-the great demands of history, the great urgencies of life in perilous periods. Even one of our Ministers, bearer of good tidings to men, was obliged, right there, two hundred yards from our place of meeting, to take, two savage, lurking lives, and send their guilty spirits to their dread account. Like courage was re-
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quired of other men, in that period of violence, a hundred years ago. 1
Look through the history of our State during the century that is past, and the part that our good old town has borne in all its great events, and you will find the worthies of our Order preëmi- nent in every good and great work. In the deadly struggle of the American Revolution, which gave us our nation's life, and planted the germ of freedom forever ;- in all the wars and struggles which have increased and shown our nation's strength ; and now, in the last, most momentous and greatest civil war in the history of the ages, which has signalized itself over those of all the past, in giv- ing freedom to an entire race, the brethren of the craft have ever been conspicuous,-foremost in every great undertaking. In the history of the Revolution, their names are radiant on every page, both in the crash of battle, and in the steady support of the breth- ren at home, giving more aid and comfort, with the other patriotic citizens, to the brave boys in the field, than came from any other interior town known to your speaker. Time would fail me to give a list of those brave men, or to speak of the deeds and vir- tues of the Hinmans, the Perrys, the Ortons, the Curtisses, the Osbornes, the Chapmans, the Prestons, the Shermans, the Hic- ocks, the Brinsmades, the Beers, the Nichols, and a host of others, who did great service in that memorable conflict. In our later civil struggle, our fraternal band has offered up of its numbers, and has increased the concourse of the " fraternal dead." In these early hours of our grief, need I speak, (while I say nothing of the living brothers who have done good service to our country ) of Pol- ley,2 and Orton, who have delivered up their lives, a willing sac- rifice, to the great canse of freedom, and of our country. Need I speak of their gentle, home virtues; their orderly walk and con- versation, their unwavering fidelity to friends ? Of Sergeant Walter J. Orton, dying by a shot through the breast, received at the battle of Winchester, I speak with more than ordinary friend- ship. He was more than a sincere friend. He was at once a devoted and effective one. Well do I remember that summer Sabbath, three years ago, when the members of Co. I., 19th Regt. Conn. Vols.
1 Reference here is made to Rev. Anthony Stoddard, who was for sixty-one years pastor of the First Church in Woodbury. His house, built in 1700, is still standing.
2 James C. Polley, of Company I. 2d Conn. Artillery, who died in service, of fever, at Alexandria, Va., 19th Nov., 1862.
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were called to leave in haste for the tented field, to " dare and do " for their country! We all remember how the churches were closed, and the people assembled to speed the brave boys on their way, for the salvation of the country,-heroic hearts all !- On that occasion of throbbing hearts, and hasty and sad farewells, well do I remember the words of Orton, as he talked with his friends, and bid adieu to his wife and children; that he should never more be a citizen of Woodbury. Something told him he should not survive the war, but that he thought it his duty still to go and fight in the defense of his country. How prophetic were his forebodings! He died a true soldier, from wounds received in the heat and shock of battle. The memory of such a soldier, such a brother, will be forever enshrined in the hearts of his liv- ing brethren of the "mystic tie."
I have already intimated, that, in all the civil and social virtues, and in all the great events in the history of our State during the past century, the members of King Solomon's Lodge have been prominent. Let us name a few of the more celebrated, for time would fail me to mention all who have done the State good ser- vice, and done honor to our ancient fraternity. John Hotchkiss, the first Worshipful Master, appointed by the Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and residing " at or near Waterbury," assembled the first members of our Lodge, and appointed the Wardens. The records of our Lodge, from 1765 to 1775, are lost, and we know not who those Wardens were; but, in the latter year, the Lodge began to be permanently held in Woodbury, a town then older, and considerably more important than Waterbury. The history of the Lodge since then is com- plete, even through the dark days of the miserable political Mor- gan excitement, when many other Lodges yielded to the fury of that relentless storm of reasonless indignation. Of John Hotch- kiss, little is now known, save that he was a prominent citizen of our Colony, trusted by the Massachusetts Grand Master, and the founder of the Hotchkiss family in this part of Connecticut.
Among the early Masters of the Lodge, was Hezekiah Thomp- son, Esq., the first practicing lawyer in the present limits of Wood- bury, and a leading citizen. Beginning as a saddler, by trade, he won his way to distinction as an advocate and jurist, a magistrate, a legislator, a soldier, a genial friend and an honest man, and died, leaving descendants who, in this and the adjoining States, have continued to take a leading part in public affairs, and to exercise
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