USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Lodge no. 61, F. and A. M., Wilkesbarr?, Pa. with a collection of masonic addresses > Part 49
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But few of the Masonic events of this expedition have come down to us, for the record-book of Colonel Procter's Lodge is lost, and no journalist gave many of the echoes of its Masonic gavel on his pages. That it had few opportunities for mystic labors, the haste and difficul- ties of the expedition fully show, for its resting places except at Wyo- ming and Tioga were few, and it had no garrison during its progress except at these places, and left none on its return except the one at this place, and at some points on the river below, one of which was at Northumberland. The Masonic history of these events now carries us to that ancient town sixty miles below your own historic Wyoming. That place like this was settled before the Revolution, and had its fort and garrison to protect its few inhabitants from the surrounding sav- age foe.
While General Sullivan was on his expedition to the North, some Masonic Brethren residing at Northumberland sought a warrant from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania to establish a local Lodge in that ancient settlement. The warrant was granted, and bore date October
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4th, 1779, three days before General Sullivan's return to Wyoming. Its registry number was 22 on our Provincial Grand Lodge records, and on our Grand Lodge becoming an Independent Grand Body in 1786, it took out a new warrant with the same registry number, and is still at work in Sunbury. The early records of this Lodge are fully preserved, and are of interest to the history of Military Lodge No. 19, which worked under Colonel Procter in Sullivan's army.
Within the next two months after its formation, the records of this Lodge show the names of Capt. Bernard Hubley and Surgeon Peter Peres of the German Regiment, and Capt. Philip Schrawder, all of whom had been connected with Colonel Procter's Military Lodge (which was now at Morristown) petitioning the Lodge at Northumber- land for membership, and one advancement in degrees, which were fully granted them, thus showing that Colonel Procter's Lodge had been actively at work before it left this valley. While this Military Lodge was with the main army in its winter quarters at Morristown in the winter of 1779-'80, the Brethren there assembled on the 27th of December, under the sanction of the warrant of "American Union Lodge" to celebrate the festival of St. John the Evangelist. Washing- ton, and a large number of distinguished Brethren in the army were present as visitors on this occasion, and among them we find the name of Colonel Procter. *
I am briefly presenting to you, my Brethren, some of those historic incidents in American Masonry contemporaneous with its first foot- prints in Wyoming, to show you its connection with the military events of that period. In many a place like yours, the storm clouds of war surrounded its birth, and its first mystic rites were amidst scenes of strife and blood. * *
* * The close of the Revolution was the beginning of a new era in the history of American Masonry, as well as in the political history of the country. Some of the old Lodges whose labors were suspended during the war were revived, and while many new ones were being formed, each State was conforming its Masonic polity to the new situation of the country, as had in part been recommended by the Brethren who met in convention in the army at Morristown at the beginning of 1780. Upon the disbanding of the army the associations that had been formed there were broken, and many a war-worn Brother found his domestic wants required him to leave the older settlements and make himself a new home in what was then a western wilderness. * *
Your old county of Luzerne had been established in 1786, being previously a part of Northumberland. And here let me remark, that the Chevalier de la Luzerne, in whose honor your county was named,
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was himself a Mason, and his name has honorable mention as such in the archives of the Grand Lodge of our State. The first Lodges in old Luzerne that succeeded yours in their organizations were one at the Great Bend of the Susquehanna, chartered April 11th, 1795, and numbered 65, and one at Tioga Point (now Athens), chartered June 24th, 1796, and numbered 70. Lodge No. 65, at the Great Bend, ceased to exist'early in the present century, but No. 70 at Athens still exists, and meets in a hall but a few rods from the site of old Fort Sullivan, where the Masonic sermon was preached by Doctor Rogers in 1779, on the death of Captain Davis and Lieutenant Jones. It is your oldest daughter Lodge, and owes to you its first Master, ARNOLD COLT, who was the first Secretary of your Lodge, and long a citizen of Wilkesbarré. * * *
To-day, Worshipful Master, Wardens and Brethren of LODGE 61, your Brethren from many of your daughter and sister Lodges have come here to tender you the tribute of their love, and to assist you in re-interring the remains of two valiant Brothers whose ancient graves you have so long guarded with pious care. These bones are your most sacred trust. They were the earliest Masonic heritage be- queathed you by your fathers. They link the present with the past- two centuries together in mystic brotherhood. Could we re-animate them, what a tale they might tell of events on which Time's shadow now rests. But the much we would desire to know, a kind Provi- dence has forbidden them to speak. They can no longer tell of coun- try or kindred, of social or fraternal ties. The mattock and the spade which have again re-opened their graves, cannot break the sleep of death !
But have they no silent lesson for us? These mouldering bones were once animate like ourselves. They were pillars of strength, clothed with all the functions of animate life and intellectual vigor. Now they have ceased to act or even think! All their vital energies are exhausted, and all their powers of life have passed away! To such a state, my Brethren, we are all hastening. Then let us each so improve our present opportunities, that when the last foot-fall of Time shall sound in our ears, and our weak and frail bodies shall become inanimate like theirs, and lie with them in kindred dust, our disem- bodied spirits may rise to regions of Life and Light Eternal.
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Address-"Masonry and its Relation to the Outer World"-delivered by Bro. the Hon. HENRY M. HOYT, Past Master of LODGE No. 61, in the Academy of Music, Phila- delphia, June 24th, 1882. (See page 355, ante.)
An organization which can project itself before a discerning public, confidently, modestly, and effectively as the Masonic Lodges of Penn- sylvania have this day done, will overbear every question of its right to exist, and will safely challenge an analysis of its "reasons for being." This well-ordered display of external power, without blazonry or frivolous trappings, may well lead the student of social science to explore those abiding and essential principles of human nature upon which Masonry in its esoteric philosophy is grounded.
No Fraternity of such proud, self-respecting citizens as have to-day countermarched upon the streets of this great city could be incorpor- ated, and hold its integrity for generations, if its underlying polity was conceived in any wide or serious departure from the laws of God or humanity. It were absurd to assume that its motive began and ter- minated in mere pageants or street parades, consciously strong, digni- fied, and imposing as this one has been.
For one hundred and fifty years, at least, this particular guild has gone on with its functions, overseeing and ordering an organism which has to-day, not for the first time, made an exhibit of its power outside the Lodge-room. And this Grand Lodge is only one among many, and yon thousands are only part of other tens of thousands. Does any one suppose that all this prearranged order and adjusted co-operation is the outgrowth of whim, or curiosity, or intrigue, and launched upon the public for mere vulgar display ? Here is a vast gathering of sedate, judicious and well-to-do citizens. They come from all callings in life. I hazard little in saying, that seated along these aisles are the foremost of the men who are making modern life what it is, in all its best phases and tendencies. They are not fanatics, nor are they conspirators. They pretend to no inspiration. They affect no supernatural mission. They are simply a body of plain, practical men, intent upon a plain, common purpose. Their minis- trations lie about the home and threshold of every brother-nay ! of every fellow-being. Fraternity with them is not limited to those who sit in the Lodge-room. They will take up the first awful question ad- dressed to the first wrong-doer, "Where is thy brother ?" They put it to every exclusive, oppressive, and corrupting person or community. They propose to reverse the melancholy philosophy of the Italian
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who thought "that no man in God's wide earth was able or willing to help any other man." They propose to gather up all the glorious ex- amples of their predecessors, and the ennobling traditions of the fam- ily of man, and as best they can, illuminated by the best light of natural reason, and in gathered strength and widened experience, fulfill the new and heightened demands of human fellowship. They invade no ecclesiastical domain. They usurp the functions of no sec- tary or Church, or their ministers ordained under other and higher credentials, whose exhortations are to be enforced under higher sanc- tions. They have no political dilemmas, except the equality of men as children of a common Father ; and no theological dogmas except only the daily prayer and precept that " we may practice out of the Lodge the principles of religion and morality we are taught within it."
Think you, Brethren, that with your great and extended member- ship, with your compacted unity, generous enthusiasm, your indoctri- nation in right morals, that your influence and impress can be confined within the jurisdiction of the tylers of your Lodge-rooms? The force generated within the dead walls will be borne out by living men in beneficent streams, well typified by the stream of living men which has flowed through these streets to-day. The "principles of religion and morality we are taught within the Lodge" are not complicated riddles beyond the comprehension and solution of the plainest mem- ber. * * *
Without insisting upon the antiquity of Free Masonry, I am insisting upon the antiquity of the reasons underlying it, and the identity of its doctrines and its methods of right humanity. There have come streaming down the centuries the central ideas of rightness and the maxims of justice which have saved us. In the pre-historic mists of the race, in the earliest types which blind Homer sang, anterior to the first Olympiad, amid the jealousies, and struggles, and even barbari- ties of the Grecian chieftains and kings of men before the walls of Troy, we come upon the full apprehension and exercise of the same essential qualities of manhood, whose definition has neither been lost nor essentially enlarged. From that day to this it has continuously included honesty, courage, love of country, loyalty to persons, faith- fulness to convictions, respect, fidelity, and love for woman, whether maiden or wife, cherished with tenderness "from the bloom to the ripening of the grape." Among the soundest of ideas got from all this past we may reckon the power of opinion and persuasion as op- posed to force; the sense of responsibility in governing men ; the ha- tred of tyranny and all unlimited power; the reconciliation and harmony between the spirit of freedom on the one hand, the spirit of
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order and reverence on the other; and a practical belief in right as relative and in duty as reciprocal, and that the rights of human nature are unitary. * * * Hopeless would be our condition if we strug- gled each for himself through the mazes and perplexities of life. In the whirl and attrition of the awful machinery in motion all about us, in the successes and disasters, in the hopes and woes, in the gladness and bitterness which hedge us round about, the individual is an in- consequent unit. Organization and fellowship rescue him from the unequal conflicts, in which single-handed he would go down before the craft and evil combined against him. They are the scaffolding from which the complete harmonious structure can be raised.
" God loves from whole to parts, but human soul Must rise from individual to the whole ; Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake. The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, Another still, and still another spreads ; Friend, parent, neighbor first it will embrace, His country next, and next all human race."
For my part I fully believe that mankind will finally triumph over the destiny that now seems so grievously to encompass them. They have well held their own. Step by step humanity has climbed nearer the heavens whence we came. Not alone by the maxims current with Agamemnon and Achilles, Socrates and Marcus Aurelius-not, per- haps, unaided from the Empyrean heights, whence Prometheus snatched the sacred fire, and not without enduring some of the tor- tures which that vicarious sufferer for his race endured, chained to the rocks of Mt. Caucasus-not without the pregnant formula of the Apos- tle of the Gentiles : "Now abideth Faith, Hope, and Charity, these three ; but the greatest of these is Charity"-not without the external and divine help of Him who, eighteen centuries ago, spoke the ser- mon on the mount and taught us "the Lord's Prayer." The chivalry, and art, and democracy with which the Olympian games glorified the Hellenic race ought not to be an anachronism to us. Our contentions are in the arena of ethics and morals. Rewards for victory in achieve- ments now, no less precious than the wreath from the sacred olive tree in Olympia, await successful competitors. They are for those who can " best work in the best degree." Our beatitudes terminate not upon the individual, but upon the family, the State and the race. We shall yet reap the harvest. "And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth ; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine and the oil ; and they shall hear Jezreel."
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CHAPTER VII.
WARRANT OF CONSTITUTION, OR CHARTER, OF LODGE NO. 61. FIRST CODE OF BY-LAWS OF THE LODGE.
"A Mason's chief and only care, Is how to live within the square."
The Warrant by the authority of which LODGE 61 is held, and under which its labors are conducted, is the original document granted by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania Tuesday, February 18th, 1794,* delivered to the first Worshipful Master of the Lodge, and transmitted to suc- cessive masters down to the present. The Warrant was de- livered up to the Grand Lodge in 1837 when "61" ceased its labors ; but when the Lodge was re-opened and re-con- stituted in 1844 it was, by special favor and dispensation of the Grand Lodge, "under its old Warrant." (See pages 67, 103 and 104, ante.)
* See page 28, ante.
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"Tattered and torn and all forlorn," this old document is not only a charter of Masonic rights and privileges still, but is an interesting and highly-prized relic or memento of the past, and is guarded with zealous care. The following is a literal copy of it :
LODGE PENNSY
I
GRAN
5.00
ANIA:
-
VIRTU
AMORE
UTE
SILENTIO
JOHN MCCREE, S. Grand Warden.
EDWARD FOX, J. Grand Warden.
J. B. SMITH,
Grand Master.
JOHN CARSON,
D. Grand Master.
To all to whom it may concern :
The GRAND LODGE of the most ancient and honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons (according to the old Constitutions, re- vived by His Royal Highness Prince Edwin at York, in the Kingdom of England, in the year of the Christian Æra Nine Hundred and Twenty and Six, and in the Year of Masonry Four Thousand Nine Hundred Twenty and Six) in ample Form assembled at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, Send Greeting :
WHEREAS the Right Worshipful Grand Lodge of England did by a Grand Warrant under the hands of the Right Honorable Thomas Erskine, Earl Kelly, Viscount Fenton, Lord Baron of Pitten Weem, etc., in Great Brittain, Grand Master of Masons : the Right Worship- ful William Osborne, Deputy Grand Master; the Right Worshipful Mr. William Dickey, Senior Grand Warden ; the Right Worshipful
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James Gibson, Esq., Junior Grand Warden ; and the Seal of the said Grand Lodge, bearing date June 20th, 1764, A. M. 5764, nominate, constitute and appoint the Right Worshipful William Ball to be Grand Master, the Right Worshipful Captain Blaithwait Jones Deputy Grand Master, the Right Worshipful Mr. David Hall Senior Grand Warden, and the Right Worshipful Mr. Hugh Lenox Junior Grand Warden, of a Provincial Grand Lodge, to be held at Philadelphia for the Prov- ince of Pennsylvania ; granting to them and their successors in office duly elected and lawfully installed, with the consent of the members of the said Grand Lodge, full Power and Authority to grant Warrants and Dispensations for holding Lodges, to regulate all matters apper- taining to Masonry, to do and perform all and every other Act and Thing which could be usually done and performed by other Prov- incial Grand Lodges, as by the above in Part recited Grand War- rant, Reference being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
AND WHEREAS the Right Worshipful William Adcock, Esq., Grand Master, the Right Worshipful Mr. Alexander Rutherford Deputy Grand Master, the Right Worshipful Jonathan Bayard Smith, Esq., Senior Grand Warden, the Right Worshipful Mr. Joseph Dean Junior Grand Warden, legal successors of the abovenamed Grand Officers, as by the Grand Lodge Books may appear, together with the Officers and Representatives of a Number of regular Lodges under their Juris- diction, duly appointed and specially authorised, as also by and with the Advice and Consent of several other Lodges by their Letters ex- pressed, did, at a Grand Quarterly Communication, held in the Grand Lodge Room in the City of Philadelphia, on the Twenty-fifth day of September, A. C., One Thousand Seven Hundred Eighty and Six, after mature and serious Deliberation, unanimously resolve, "That it is improper the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania should remain any longer under the Authority of any foreign Grand Lodge." And the said Grand Lodge did thereupon close sine die.
AND WHEREAS all the Grand Officers of the said late Provincial Grand Lodge, together with the Officers and Representatives of a Number of Lodges of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, did on the said Twenty-fifth day of September, One Thousand Seven Hundred Eighty and Six, meet in the Room of the late Provincial Grand Lodge, and according to the Powers and Authorities to them entrusted did form themselves into a Grand Convention of Masons, to deliberate on the proper Methods of forming a Grand Lodge totally independent from all foreign Jurisdiction.
AND WHEREAS the said Grand Convention did then and there
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Unanimously Resolve, That the Lodges under the Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania aforesaid, lately held as a Provincial Grand Lodge under the Authority of the Grand Lodge of England, should, and they then did, form themselves into a Grand Lodge, to be called, The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and Masonic Jurisdiction Thereunto Belonging, To be Held in the said City of Philadelphia, as by the Records and Proceedings of the said Convention remaining among the Archives of the Grand Lodge aforesaid may more fully appear.
Now KNOW YE, that we the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and Masonic Jurisdiction Thereunto Belonging, by virtue of the Powers and Authorities vested in us by the said Grand Convention, do hereby authorize and empower our trusty and well-beloved Brethren GEORGE SYTEZ Master, JOHN PAUL SCHOTT Senior Warden, and PETER GRUBB Junior Warden of a New Lodge, NUMBER SIXTY-ONE, to be held at Wilkesbarre in the County of Luzerne, in the State of Pennsylvania, or within Five Miles of the same. And we do further empower and appoint the said GEORGE SYTEZ, JOHN PAUL SCHOTT and PETER GRUBB, and their successors, to hear and determine all and singular Matters and Things relating to the Craft within the Jurisdiction of the said LODGE NUMBER SIXTY-ONE.
AND LASTLY, we do hereby authorise and impower our said trusty and well-beloved Brethren GEORGE SYTEZ, JOHN PAUL SCHOTT and PETER GRUBB, to instal their Successors, being first duly elected and chosen, to whom they shall deliver this Warrant : and to invest them with all the Powers and Dignities to their offices respectively belong- ing; and such successors shall in like manner from Time to Time instal their Successors, &c. &c. &c. Such installation to be upon or near St. John the Evangelist's Day, during the continuance of this Lodge for ever. Provided Always, That the said abovenamed Breth- ren, and their Successors pay due Respect to this Right Worshipful Grand Lodge and the Ordinances thereof; otherwise this Warrant to be of no Force or Effect.
Given in Open Grand Lodge, under the Hands of our Right Worshipful Grand Officers and the Seal of our Grand Lodge, at Phila- delphia, this Eighteenth day of February, A. C. One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-four, and of Masonry Five Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-four.
GAVIN HAMILTON, Junr., P. LE BARBIER DUPLESSIS,
Treasurer. Gd. Secretary.
Recorded in Warrant Book "A," pages 33-35.
P. LE BARBIER DUPLESSIS, Gd. Secretary.
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The following is a literal copy of the first code of By- Laws of the Lodge :
RULES AND REGULATIONS for the government of LODGE NUMBER SIXTY-ONE, at Wilkesbarre, County of Luzerne and State of Pennsylvania. Adopted by the Lodge March 6th, I794.
ARTICLE I. The Lodge number Sixty-one held at Wilkesbarre shall consist of the present Past Master, the Senr. and Junr. Wardens, also a Secretary, Treasurer, Senr. and Junr. Deacons & Tyler.
ARTICLE II. The Master, S. & J. Wardens, Secry. & Treasur. shall continue in their respective offices until Thursday before St. John the Evangelist's Day every year, when an Election for Officers will be made in the Lodge by Ballot where the choice shall be determined by the greatest number. Should any two so balloted for have an equal number then they may have a second balloting : and if the same even number should again happen then it shall be determined by lot. The like may be done should any mistake happen.
ARTICLE III. The Officers so chosen shall be duly Installed in their respective offices on the said St. John the Evangelist's Day ; and after such Installment the Master shall appoint his Deacons and Tyler. But no Brother shall be appointed to any of the before mentioned Offices unless he be a Master.
ARTICLE IV. The Jewels to be worn by this Lodge shall be of Silver pendant to a blue riband, and all the Brothers appear with decent aprons and dress .*
ARTICLE V. When a sufficient number of Brethren are assembled to form a Lodge and the Worshipful Master and other Officers are duly cloathed and taken the Chair, and given notice, the Brethren will take their seats.
ARTICLE VI. Whenever the Lodge is thus formed the brethren will behave with decorum & decency. Profane Language nor Religious or political disputes shall never enter the Lodge, that the beauty and harmony thereof may not be disturbed.
ARTICLE VII. Every question moved and seconded shall be put by the Chair, and no new matter shall be brought forward untill that
* At this time, in all well-regulated Lodges, "the actual dress of a Master Mason was a full suit of black, with white neck-cloth, apron, gloves, and stockings ; the buckles being of silver, and the jewel sus- pended from a white ribbon by way of collar."-Dr. Oliver.
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on hand shall be desided upon. No Brother shall speak more than twice to the same Question, unless with leave of the Chair, or to ex- plain himself. The Chair shall determine all questions of Order.
ARTICLE VIII. No Brother shall be permitted to enter into the Lodge after it is opened, unless he is properly Cloathed, and untill his name and Quality are announced by the Deacon and leave given by the Master or presiding Officer.
ARTICLE IX. If any person is desirous to become a Mason he is to send his request in writing and to hand it to a member of this Lodge, who if he supposes the applicant worthy of the benefits will at the first Lodge Night present the same, and he shall be balloted for unless reasonable objections are made. Such an applicant who may desire to have an extra Lodge called may obtain it by giving three days previous notice, & paying the necessary expences of the evening : But before this such a Brother who presents such application (if it be the desire of the applicant) shall shew him the Constitution and by laws of the Lodge that he may be undeceived by what is required of a Mason.
ARTICLE X. The person applying having thus satisfied himself with the constitution, and desires to become acquainted with the Craft, will lodge in the hands of the Treasurer ten dollars-for which he will have a receipt-which are the Lodge fees for Initiation. If the Lodge should not accept him his money shall be returned, but if accepted it will remain in the hands of the said Treasurer. (And when ini- tiated he shall pay half a Dollar to the Tyler.
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