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 6
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(2) Palmyra E., born at Nicholson, Penn .; died at Wilkesbarré in March, 1880.
(3) Louisa Catharine, and (4) John Francis, born and died at Wilkesbarré.
Mr. Dupuy was made a Mason in LODGE No. 61 June roth, 1796. From March, 1799, until his death he served as Tyler of the Lodge.
[See biography of Bro. Chas. Miner, Chapter V., post, for further notice of J. F. Dupuy.]
* Rev. MARMADUKE PEARCE was the seventh child of Captain Cromwell and Margaret (Boggs) Pearce, both of whom were natives of Ireland, but who, when quite young, had emigrated to Chester county, Penn., with their respective parents. Cromwell Pearce was an officer in the French and English War of 1756. In 1758 he was commissioned by Gov. Duane a Lieutenant, and with his company as- sisted in the erection of Fort Augusta at Shamokin (now Sunbury),
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habits, he was pursuing the even tenor of his way, in the midst of do- mestic comforts and enjoyments, when the storm of destruction burst over his country, and he fled to save himself and family from the bloody scenes of the St. Domingo massacre.
With a mere trifle of his former fortune, accompanied by his family, he found an asylum in the United States, and soon after removed to this Valley, where he has since lived for a period of upwards of thirty-five years, gaining a support by his own exertions, and enjoying the undi- vided respect of the whole community.
Penn'a. He served through the Revolutionary War as a Captain. He died at Willistown, Chester county, Penn'a, August 4th, 1794.
Marmaduke Pearce was born at Willistown, August 18th, 1776. His opportunities for acquiring a complete education were very limited. He possessed a natural taste for books and study, and by improving himself became qualified to teach a country school. In 1807 he removed from Chester county to Bellefonte, Penn'a, where he continued to reside for several years. Having determined to preach the gospel, he was, in 1811, licensed to preach by Rev. Gideon Dra- per, Presiding Elder of the Susquehanna District of the M. E. Church. Mr. Pearce labored most faithfully and successfully as a minister of the Methodist society during twenty-six years ; for several years of which period he was stationed on the Wyoming circuit. In 1837 he became superannuated, and remained so until his death, which oc- curred September 11th, 1852, at Berwick, Columbia county, Penn'a. The writer of this has not been able to ascertain when and where Bro. Pearce was made a Mason. Without doubt it was in one of the Lodges held in Chester county. He took great interest in the affairs of Free Masonry, and when living in or near Wilkesbarré frequently attended the meetings of LODGE 61.
The late Hon. Stewart Pearce, of Wilkesbarré-author of "The Annals of Luzerne County"-was the oldest son of Rev. Marmaduke Pearce. He was born in Kingston, Luzerne county, Penn'a, Nov. 26th, 1820, and was educated at Cazenovia Seminary, N. Y., and at Franklin Academy, Harford, Penn'a. He studied law with S. F. Headley, Esq., at Berwick, Penn'a, and in the Fall of 1846 was elected from Columbia county to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and was re-elected in 1847 and 1848. From 1850 to 1852 he was Col- lector of tolls on the Pennsylvania Canal and Railroad, at Columbia.
In 1855 he removed to Wilkesbarré, having purchased a house on Franklin street, above Market. Here he resided until his death, which occurred October 13th, 1882. He was Post Master of Wilkesbarré
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When he first came to this vicinity he felt that he was a stranger from a foreign land, with blasted hopes and broken fortunes, and, though receiving the sympathies of the people around him, yet he felt that between him and them there was no common subject of interest. It soon, however, became known that he was a Mason, and he discov- ered that several of his neighbors were Masons, acknowledging the same ties and duties with himself. He then found-though a stranger in a strange land-the friends of his youth and early manhood scat- tered and destroyed by the convulsions of their common country, and scarcely an individual with whom he could converse in his beloved and native language-yet that there were many around him, and those, too, among the worthy and respectable, who were ready to ex- tend to him the right hand of fellowship, and hail him by the appella- tion of "Brother." He found that even in this distant region, to which his wandering steps had led him, there was still an existing bond that bound him to society, and gave him a right to ask for con- solation, kindness and friendship. He recognized with heartfelt satis- faction the means of union with his fellows, joined the Lodge at this place, and subsequently continued until his infirmities prevented act- ive exertions, a member and an officer-squaring his conduct and ruling his behavior by the principles of honesty and integrity. All persons, Masons as well as others, have ever awarded to him respect for his blameless life.
No one will wonder, then, that under these circumstances Masonry was to him a comfort and enjoyment, a healing balm to a wounded spirit ; that its principles received his warmest affections, and had be- come interwoven almost in his very existence. He acknowledged it as the tie that had returned him to society, when its former connection had been so rudely broken.
Our deceased Brother, several years since, caused a request to be entered on the minutes of the Lodge that when death should release
from 1869 to 1877. From 1855 to the date of his death he was unable to read on account of disease of the eyes.
Two editions of his "Annals " were published-in 1860 and 1865. He was a member of LODGE 61, having been initiated January 28th, 1856.
Rev. Marmaduke Pearce's youngest son is Rev. John J. Pearce (born February 28th, 1826), who became a Methodist minister in 1845, and is now a member of the Central Pennsylvania Conference, and is located at Lewistown. In 1854 he was elected a member of Congress.
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him from his worldly troubles, he should be buried according to ancient Masonic usages. And again lately, upon his death-bed, among the last wishes that, as a mortal, he ever expressed to his fel- low man, he reiterated this demand upon the love and kindness of his Brethren.
We then, acknowledging the force of the request, would have been cravens in spirit and recreant to faith and duty, if we had refused to gratify the dying wishes of our departed friend and Brother."
Following is the copy of a notice published in the Wilkes- barré newspapers on the 19th of June, I837 :
NOTICE.
THE MEMBERS OF LODGE 61, in Wilkesbarré, and other Ancient York Masons, in good standing, are re- quested to meet at the house of A. PARISH, in Wilkes- barré, the 24th inst., at 10 o'clock A. M., to partake of a DINNER, in commemoration of St. John the Baptist.
E. BLACKMAN,
H. PARSONS, PIERCE BUTLER,
HENRY COLT, Committee.
The Brethren above-named, with about a dozen others, were the " WELL-TRIED, TRUE AND TRUSTY MASONS" who, during the vacation of LODGE 61, kept alive in Wilkesbarré the fires of Free Masonry, and enkindled them anew on the ancient altar when the "appointed time" had arrived.
HOLY BIBLE
CHAPTER III.
HISTORY OF THE ANTI-MASONIC ERA.
" On you, who Masonry despise, This counsel I bestow ; Don't ridicule, if you are wise, A secret you don't know ; Yourselves you banter, but not it ; You show your spleen, but not your wit."
" Masonic links compose a sacred chain Of holy brightness and unmeasured length ; The world, with selfish rust and reckless stain, May mar its beauty but not touch its strength."
The troubles and annoyances that encompassed and op- pressed our forefathers in Masonry fifty years ago, are al- most wholly unknown to this generation, and little under- stood. That period-so rife with anti-Masonic stratagems and discoveries-may now well be called by us the Dark Age of Free Masonry-when the fell monster of anti-Ma- sonry spread its wings over our country, veiled the lights of Reason and of Sense, and permitted a large political party to make the grand discovery that Free Masonry is an Institu- tion established in opposition to all laws, human and divine !
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Masonry was, in very truth, under a cloud, and so strong was the storm of prejudice against the Institution that for a time it was feared the flood would sweep it away.
Whence the storm started, by what it was originated, none could tell. What wonder in that ? What wisdom has traced the cholera to its source ? What quarantine was ever efficient to wall out the plague ? There was a Judas among the Twelve, an Arnold among the patriots-and that was enough! But in whatever source it originated its course was rapid and violent, and the cry "Down with all secret societies !" soon became popular.
In the year 1826-year of light 5826, year of darkness I -an event occurred in the State of New York that was seized upon by the enemies of Free Masonry, and the "place-hunter " in politics, to excite public prejudice against our Fraternity, and inaugurate what is known in the history of our country as " the anti-Masonic Era" (1826-'37).
William Morgan, a native of Culpepper county, Virginia, was residing in the year 1826 in Batavia, Genesee county, N. Y. Of his previous history little or nothing was known, although it was frequently asserted that he had belonged in early life to a band of pirates, and once was sentenced to be hanged. During his residence in Batavia he was very in- temperate. He had only a limited education, but being possessed of a good share of common sense and suavity of manner, he appeared intelligent and respectable-when un- influenced by ardent spirits. He was by trade a stone- mason, and he claimed to be a Free Mason, but when or where he received his degrees no one ever knew.
At this same time there resided in Batavia one Col. D. C. Miller, the proprietor of a newspaper. He was endowed by nature with a great deal of cunning, possessed of respecta- ble talents, and familiar with the arts to which designing men frequently resort for the acquisition of power in cases of doubtful policy. Having become intemperate in his
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habits, inattentive to business, and embarrassed in his cir- cumstances, the publication of his paper ceased to be an ob- ject. He and Morgan becoming boon companions, and both being in need of money, entered into arrangements "for creating a stir among Masons " by publishing what purported to be an exposition of the secrets of Free Ma- sonry. That the object to be attained was money, is evi- dent from the fact that when the book was published it was
sold at first for one dollar per copy, when the expense of publication could not have exceeded seven or eight cents. The announcement was duly made, in bar-rooms and else- where, of the intended publication. Some of the Masons took alarm, but why or wherefore no one can satisfactorily tell. At all events nothing could have been more indis- creet, and at the same time more unnecessary. Shortly after this (in September, 1826,) Morgan was arrested in Canandaigua for a debt due a tavern-keeper, and in default of payment was committed to jail.
The next morning he was released, some one having paid the debt for which he was imprisoned. At the time of his release a carriage was waiting at the door of the jail, into which he was thrust notwithstanding his resistence, and driven to the town of Rochester. There positive traces of him ended, so far as the world at large was concerned. It was never known who rode in the carriage with him ; but the man who hired the carriage, and the men by whose aid Morgan was released from jail, were, together with two. other men, indicted for participating in the transaction. Three of them plead guilty to their indictments, while the fourth was tried and convicted, and all suffered imprison- ment.
It was not believed at the time that these four men had had anything to do with Morgan except to deliver him over to other parties who were to spirit him away-thus producing a separation between him and Colonel Miller and preventing
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the publication of the contemplated book. Where Morgan went, and what he did, directly after reaching Rochester in charge of his four mysterious and unknown companions, will probably never be certainly known. It was claimed during "the Crusade" that he had been conveyed from Rochester to Fort Niagara (near the mouth of the Niagara river), there confined in the magazine for several days, and then bound and thrown alive into the river by a party of Masons. Affidavits to that effect were made and published. Still other affidavits were published which set forth in the most positive manner that Morgan on his arrival at Fort Niagara was tried by a sort of Masonic Council, sentenced to death, and afterwards executed .*
The authority for saying that Morgan was confined in the fort was derived principally from the declaration of Ed- ward Giddings, the anti-Masonic almanac-maker. Giddings claimed that he had had charge of Morgan during a por- tion of the time he was confined in the fort, and he offered to swear to this on the trial of Sheriff Eli Bruce for partici- pation in the alleged abduction of Morgan ; but on account of his atheism he was not permitted by the Court'to testify.
The mystery attending Morgan's departure, and the cir- cumstance of his not having been heard from after the 12th of September, excited public curiosity ; and the inquiry "Where is Morgan?" was in the mouth of every man, woman, and child in and about Batavia. Finally the citi-
* The following paragraph appeared in the Rochester Democrat a few years ago :
" William Morgan, of Masonic fame a great many years ago, * * has a second cousin now residing in Clyde, and from him it is learned that the said Morgan was not murdered (as believed by many), but that to this cousin's personal knowledge he left the country of his own free will, going directly to Australia, and receiving therefor his pas- sage money and $200. Morgan published a newspaper in Australia until his death. His son is now there, and in the same business."
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zens of Genesee county were invited to attend a mass-meet- ing at the Court House in Batavia on October 4th, 1826, " for the purpose of making arrangements to ascertain Mor- gan's fate."
The meeting was numerously attended, and a committee of ten citizens was appointed to investigate the facts and circumstances of the case .* A request was sent to De- Witt Clinton, Governor of New York, for his aid, and he promptly issued a proclamation calling upon the citizens of the State "to co-operate with the civil authorities in main- taining the ascendency of law and good order." It was boldly charged by the Genesee committee that the Free Masons were concerned in Morgan's abduction, and that " it behooved the Fraternity, whose good name was suffer- ing, to take the laboring oar in restoring the lost man to his liberty." It was also frequently asserted that the Grand Lodge of Masons of New York was deeply implicated, and that Governor Clinton-then, and until his death in 1828, M. E. Grand High Priest of the Grand H. R. A. Chapter of New York-had issued a Masonic edict for suppressing " the Ex- position," even at the expense of human life ! These charges and assertions caused great excitement among the Masons, and the Grand Chapter of New York, at its first meeting thereafter, in February, 1827, having appointed a " commit- tee on the affair of Wm. Morgan," and heard its report, adopted the following : " Resolved, by this Grand Chapter, that we, its members, individually and as a body, do dis- claim all knowledge and approbation of the said proceed- ings in relation to the abduction of the said Wm. Morgan ; and that we disapprove of the same, as a violation of the
In the spring of 1827, anti-Masonry having assumed a political character, several of the members of this committee-who were anti- Masons from principle-declined participating in the acts of the com- mittee, and never met with it afterwards.
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majesty of the laws, and an infringement of the rights of personal liberty secured to every citizen of our free and happy Republic.
Resolved, That the foregoing report, preamble, and reso- lution be published."
Similar resolutions were adopted by the different Lodges and Chapters in various parts of the State.
In March, 1827, Governor Clinton issued a proclamation in which he offered, as Chief Executive of the State, "a re- ward of $1000 for the discovery of the perpetrators of the violent outrage supposed to have been committed on Wm. Morgan."
While several committees were pursuing their inquiries with great assiduity, and those suspected of guilt were pre- paring for the impending storm, the contemplated book- " Morgan's Illustrations of Masonry "-appeared. It was found to be a verbatim copy of a book entitled " Jachin and Boaz," published in Albany, N. Y., in 1797. Even this book, the compiler of it said, was but a reprint, with slight variations, of a book by the same name published in Eng- land in 1750. Goodall, the author of this alleged exposition of the secrets of Free Masonry, was a tallow-chandler by trade. Being reduced in circumstances he thereby became desperate, and in order to re-establish himself in business wrote and published "Jachin and Boaz," and then mysteri- ously disappeared. That one fact in the whole matter gave the book a large sale, at a guinea a copy. After an absence of two years Goodall returned to his family, and a fortune of several thousand pounds sterling accumulated from the sale of his book.
Shortly after the publication of Morgan's " Illustrations " political organizations were formed and conventions were called to protest against and resist the election of Masons to office. The contagion spread from town to town. All the disappointed and the revengeful ; all who had ever pro-
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voked a black-ball from a Mason's hands; all who knew their own unworthiness too well to run the risk of rejec- tion ; the remnants of defeated parties, and sections of par- ties-all united, with one accord, under the pirate's flag, whose motto was " Extermination ! Death to Masonry !" Their standard-bearers were the defeated politicians of old; their heroes were the seekers of spoils.
Every man of eminence, known to be a Mason, was called upon to renounce his connection with the Fraternity, or stand branded as a traitor to the laws of his country.
The Judge on the Bench, the Representative in the Leg- islative Hall, and the juror in his seat, were all accused of being prejured and oath-bound. No means were neg- lected to bring the Fraternity into disgrace and ruin, right or wrong. At a meeting held in Poultney, Steuben county, N. Y., it was resolved by those present that they would not hear any Free Mason preach unless he should refuse to meet with any Lodge of Free Masons, and should openly and boldly declare that the Institution of Masonry was a bad Institution .* Similar resolutions were adopted else- where, and clergymen were dismissed ; the relations which had existed for years between pastor and flock were de- stroyed, and Churches formerly as harmonious as the Christ- mas angels now became like unto heathen temples dedicated to the Goddess of Discord. "The groans of Calvary were lost, and the precepts of the Redeemer forgotten, amidst the universal cry of ' Where is Morgan ?'"
It was not until the Fall of 1827 that the anti-Masonic party as such took the field. In 1828 they placed Solomon Southwick in nomination as their candidate for Governor of New York. He received 33,345 votes in a poll of over 276,000. As the oracle of his party he delivered himself of the following blasphemous effusion of fanaticism : "Anti-
* See letter of Rev. George Lane to LODGE 61, page 63, ante.
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Masonry sprung from the throne of God, and under His Almighty wings it will conquer hell's master-piece, and re- deem our country from vile slavery and galling chains, from eternal disgrace, from everlasting ruin and degrada- tion. The man who hesitates to support such a cause, stabs his country and dishonors his Creator. Let no such man be trusted-let him live neglected, and die unpitied and despised, and let no monument tell his name or point to the spot where his recreant ashes pollute the soil that gave him birth !"
One of the boldest and most prominent leaders in the New York anti-Masonic party was Thurlow Weed, a shrewd and unscrupulous newspaper writer and politician, who managed the Morgan business entirely for political effect. At the time of Morgan's disappearance Weed was connected with the Rochester Telegraph, but a paragraph concerning " the disappearance," written by him and published in the Telegraph, caused him to break his connection with the paper, in order to save the financial standing of his partner. The majority of the subscribers withdrew their names from the books of the concern, claiming that Weed had been " too busy in getting up an excitement about Morgan." Weed soon became very active and prominent in "working up" the anti-Masonic business.
About thirteen months after Morgan's disappearance the dead and putrid body of a man was found at Carlton, N. Y., on the shore of Lake Ontario. A Coroner's inquest was held and the verdict of the jury pronounced the body that of " some person unknown to them, who had perished by drowning.", One week after this the body was disin- terred and a second inquest held, conducted in a manner entirely without fairness and candor. It was the verdict of the jury this time that the body was that of William Mor- gan, and that he had come to his death by suffocation by drowning ! Thurlow Weed was one of the witnesses ex-
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amined before the jury at this inquest. After the inquest it was boldly and distinctly charged in some of the news- papers of New York State that " Thurlow Weed had taken an active, efficient, and responsible part in smothering the truth with regard to the disappearance of Wm. Morgan ; and that he had, preparatory to the second inquest, shaved or stripped off the hair and whiskers on the body found at Carlton, in order that it might resemble Morgan's."* Two weeks after the second inquest a third was held, and, being conducted fairly and impartially, the body buried as Mor- gan's was declared to be that of Timothy Monroe, who had been drowned in Lake Ontario one month previous.
In 1831 a libel suit was commenced against Mr. Weed by General Gould, of Rochester. The libel charged Gen- eral Gould with giving money he received from the Grand Chapter of Masons to enable certain men, charged with Morgan's abduction, to escape from justice. Judge Vander- poel, in charging the jury, dwelt at length upon the licen- tiousness of the press and called upon the jury to give ex- emplary damages to the, innocent and injured plaintiff, Gould. The jury found a verdict of $400 against Mr. Weed.
The crusade against Masonry was not confined to the State of New York. It was extended into all the States of the Union, particularly into Massachusetts, Vermont, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
The first important organization or body that endeavored to exert an influence against the Masonic Institution in Pennsylvania was the Presbyterian Synod of Pittsburgh, which met in January, 1821.}
* When some one at the time suggested to Mr. Weed that the body which had been discovered was not Morgan's at all, he replied : " Well, at any rate it's a good enough Morgan till after election.".
+ See also page 63, ante.
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This Synod-having as a precedent the Associate Synod of Scotland in 1757, and being actuated by the same feel- ings which pervaded the breast of Clement XII., Pope of Rome, who in 1738 issued a Bull against Masonry-went so far as to appoint a committee to inquire whether it was right for them to hold intercourse with persons who visited and belonged to Masonic Lodges. The same question was agitated at the ensuing General Assembly of the Church ; but it was indefinitely postponed, on the ground that they did not possess sufficient information on the subject, and that many of their own pious and excellent members be- longed to the Fraternity.
In 1828 Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams were candidates for the Presidency of the United States-Adams being at the time President. Jackson was a Mason, Adams was not. In order, therefore, to enlist anti-Masons in favor of Mr. Adams a variety of expedients was resorted to." Among others, a dismissed postmaster residing in Canan- daigua, N. Y., wrote to President Adams inquiring whether or not he was a Free Mason. Mr. Adams without delay replied : " I am not; never was, and never shall be a Free Mason!" This letter was published, and at the election in November all anti-Masons voted for Adams for President, -but of course he was not elected.
In March of that year memorials from sundry citizens of the Commonwealth were presented to the Pennsylvania State Legislature, setting forth that the Society of Free Ma- sons had become dangerous to the free institutions of the Commonwealth, and praying for relief.
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