USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > The history of the Masonic fund society for the county of Allegheny from the year 1847 to 1923; with biographical sketches of deceased members of the Board of trustees By Hiram Schock. > Part 2
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Apparently for some time, probably until the year 1816, Lodge No. 45 occupied the Wood street buildings alone. But in that year, 1816, Ohio Lodge, which was at that time meeting in the Irwin building at the southeast corner of Market street and the square known as the "Dia- mond," moved into the Wood street building, and perhaps it was then the home of the Encampment, as the Knights Templar bodies were then designated, and also the Chapter, these bodies then existing under the sanction of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. The directory of Pittsburgh for the year 1815 mentions the above named two bodies and also Lodge 45 and Ohio Lodge, No. 113, as the only Masonic organizations in Pittsburgh at that date. That Directory notes that Lodge 45 met "at the Masonic Hall in Wood street," and that Ohio Lodge convened "at the S. E. corner of Market street and the Diamond." The Directory for the year 1819 gives the locations of the Pittsburgh Masonic bodies as follows: "Mark Lodge at the Masonic Hall in Front street;" Lodge 45 "at the Masonic Hall on Wood street; Ohio Lodge "at the Masonic Hall on Front street;" Milnor Lodge No. 165, in the same place, and Church Lodge No. 145, constituted February 5, 1816, met "at Wilkins- burg on the Mondays preceding full moon." The Hall men- tioned above as being on Front street comprised a part of the upper story of a warehouse rented from William B. Foster. Sometime in the year 1816 Ohio Lodge moved to the Masonic Hall on Wood street, where Lodge 45 had met since 1811.
By the year 1819 the membership of the Masonic bod-
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ies in Pittsburgh, particularly the Blue Lodges, was nota- bly increasing. The brethren needed more commodious meeting places and the demand for a central "hall" or even "Temple," was becoming insistent. The field was being prepared for the labors of the future Masonic Fund Society, and doubtless even at that early date such an organization was foreshadowed. According to lodge minutes which have come down to us definite action toward securing a larger Masonic meeting place for the bodies was taken early in the year 1822. In June of that year Lodge 45 held a meeting "for the purpose of taking into consideration a proposition for the purpose of building a Masonic Hall." In July of the same year it was decided to sell the Wood street property, bought in 1809. In August, 1822, it was sold to Benjamin Darlington, the then well known proprietor of the Darlington Hotel, which had been erected at the corner of Wood street and Fifth avenue, then known as a "street." This hotel property abutted on the lot bought from the Masons. The minutes of a meeting of Lodge 45 held Au- gust 21, 1822, state the transaction as follows :
The W. M. reported that the officers of the lodge, being a com- mittee appointed for that purpose, have contracted with Benjamin Darlington for the sale to him of the building or Masonic Hall which belonged to this Lodge, for the sum of $1,250, payable in twelve months, with interest from and after the first day of October next.
This deed was made November 29, 1822, Brother Charles Shaler, later the distinguished jurist and Trustee of the Masonic Fund Society, being then Worshipful Master of the lodge. Having bought the lot from the Masons, Mr. Darlington added the building used by the Craft to his hotel building. Speaking about this purchase, William M. Darlington, a son of the hotel proprietor, said, in giving his recollections of General Lafayette's visit to Pittsburgh in 1825:
The room in which Lafayette slept at the Mansion House, to my boyish notions, was the most magnificent ever constructed. It had for many years been the lodge room of the Free Masons. The ceiling was arched, painted with figures of the sun, moon and stars. When the Masonic sale was made, the decorations were allowed to remain.
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And it may well be imagined that as the beloved French patriot, himself a world-renowned Free Mason, gazed upon those fading decorations upon the ceiling of his sleeping room, his memory went lovingly back to the great days of the Revolution when he and Washington sat side by side in meetings held by military lodges in the American army.
Having thus sold its ground and Hall on Wood street near Fifth street, Lodge 45 and Ohio Lodge took up their habitation in the Foster warehouse on Water street, then known as Front street. There was then in the year 1822, no property owned in Pittsburgh by the Masonic bodies. But every now and then, as is shown by minutes of the lodges, the brethren put forth suggestions for the purchase of land and the construction of another Masonic building, which should be owned by the bodies in general. However, nothing in this respect was reached definitely until about the year 1828, when negotiations were begun for the pur- chase of a property owned by George Darsie, then a mem- ber of Lodge 45. He was at that time in partnership with John McGill, a member of old Milnor Lodge, No. 165. The firm was known as McGill & Darsie, furniture manufactur- ers. Mr. Darsie then owned the lot at the northwest corner of Smithfield and Third streets. In those days the word "avenue" was not in popular use, the present "avenues" being at that time all known as "streets."
The firm of McGill & Darsie were making arrange- ments to put up a building for business purposes. The local Masonic bodies, seeing their opportunity, entered into ne- gotiations with Mr. Darsie, by which as they doubtless then understood, they were to get title to one-third of the lot and that Mr. Darsie was to erect thereon a three story building and furnish the third story for the use of the Masons, to be occupied by them "forever free of rent." On the part of the lodges, the stipulation was that Lodge 45 "should pay $1,000 cash," and that the individual Masons "in Pitts- burgh and vicinity" were to raise by subscription $1,500 more. It was afterwards claimed by the brethren that they had scrupulously fulfilled their part of the agreement; but that although they paid the money required and took pos- session of the upper story of the building as their meeting
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place and remained there until the fire of 1845, they had never received any deed from Mr. Darsie, and that there- fore when a contest over the title arose the Masons had no formal conveyance proving their title to the one-third part of the lot, nor had they any written evidence to show that they were to have the use of the third story free of rent. The structure erected by Mr. Darsie was, as has been said, three stories in height, built of brick, and the Masonic room or hall could be entered only by an entrance reached by means of an outside stairway running up from the Third street side of the building.
By the year 1830 the third story was occupied by the Craft, and they continued to use it until the conflagration of 1845 destroyed it totally.
It is at this period that we come across the first prac- tical movement among the Pittsburgh Masons towards a closer range of united action on the part of the various local Bodies. The Masonic membership of those days, the same as today, included many of the most prominent and influential business and professional men of the community. These men, seeing the past successful achievements of the Craft, decided to work for its future. They saw the neces- sity of better business guidance in Masonic affairs, apart from the work of the Bodies; and this necessity was made more apparent by certain developments following the ca- tastrophe of the year 1845. These developments resulted from the historical law suit between the Masons and Mr. Darsie after the great fire. As this episode has never been clearly and adequately presented, and as it had a direct bearing on the influences which led to the creation of the Masonic Fund Society for the County of Allegheny, it is given here at some length and with details not heretofore published.
Apparently a year or so before the conflagration of 1845 contentions began to arise as to the title of the Masons to the one-third part of the lot on which was erected the building in which they had their Hall. It had become known that Mr. Darsie had in 1838, eight years after the beginning of the occupancy of the Masons, transferred by deed an undivided two-thirds part of the lot to one Freder-
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ick Bauder. The structure of which the Masons used the third story stood on the part of the ground deeded to Bau- der. But it was stipulated in his deed that the Masonic fraternity was to have perpetual possession and use of the third story. It was later claimed that, according to the conveyance to Bauder, the brethren had no title whatever to a third of the lot and had only the possession and use of a part of the building. The Masons protested. They con- tended that they had purchased for the sum of $2,500 a one-third part of the lot, and that it was on this one-third part that the building they partly occupied stood. There arose also a question of rents, it being claimed by Darsie that the Masons were, according to the original arrange- ment, to pay an annual rental and that the $2,500 furnished by the brethren in 1830 was intended to cover future ren- tals and not to pay for any portion of the ground.
Unfortunately for the fraternity, they had never, as stated above, received a deed to any part of the lot; so that when the great disaster of 1845 destroyed the building and the disagreement got into the courts, they had no deed or other written evidence to offer. The controversy, as has been stated, began before the great fire, Darsie wanted the Masons to get out of the building, pay the rent arrearages he claimed and acknowledge that they had no title to any part of the ground. But the brethren would not resign their claim to title, nor admit that they had ever obligated themselves to pay any rent, nor would they move out. Then the contention developed into litigation, in the form of an action of ejectment against the Masons. In January, 1845, about three months before the terrible fire, John McGill and George Darsie, as plaintiffs, brought the suit and a writ of ejectment was issued and served on Brother Wil- liam Gillespie, who was then tyler of Lodge 45. It was held that as he was, as tyler, "the most immediate in posses- sion", he was the proper one upon whom to serve the writ. Being thus brought into court, the Masons, in a sort of gen- eral convention, appointed a committee of leading brethren to collect funds and employ counsel. The brethren forming this committee were: John Birmingham, Samuel Mckinley, George Armor, Alexander McCammon and Richard Cowan,
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all prominent citizens of Pittsburgh. They secured the services of Attorneys Cowan and Brentlinger as counsel, while Lawyers Metcalf and Loomis were counsel for the plaintiffs. The usual plea of "not guilty" was entered by the Masons in February. Then in the following April came the great conflagration, which destroyed the Darsie build- ing and of course the Masonic Hall and its contents.
Some weeks after the fire it became known that Bau- der, the person to whom Darsie had previously transferred a two-thirds part of the lot in question, had, since the fire, released, for a consideration, this two-thirds interest to both McGill and Darsie. Later on the case came to trial, and the different parties presented their claims as follows:
Darsie and McGill contended that when they were about to erect a building on the lot in question in the year 1828 they made arrange- ments with the Masons "to finish the third story of the structure for a Masonic Hall." McGill and Darsie were to receive $2,500 from the Masons, which sum was to be raised by the latter by the sale of 100 shares of stock, "each share to be $25," and the lodges occupying the hall were to pay a rent sufficient to pay the stockholders 6 per cent."
In their claim, Darsie and McGill further set forth that :- Lodge 45 took $1,000 of this stock, and a portion of the balance of the $2,500 was held by individual members of the Order. The lodge not paying any rent for a number of years, most of the individual stock- holders became dissatisfied and "urged us to purchase the stock, which we did, to more than one-half of the amount at par value. We were induced to do so to enforce the payment of the rent of the lodge. Lodges Nos. 113, 165, and the Chapter in the meantime were dissolved, or were merged in Lodge 45, which was then the only lodge left to which we could look for the interest on our stock. We made several propositions, that if they would pay up the interest due and give an assurance of payment for the future, we would make a con- veyance of the title. To these no attention was paid. We never had any agreement with Lodge 45, other than as a stockholder.
On the side of the Masons it was shown that Lodge 45 had paid $1,000 to Mr. Darsie and that individual members belonging to Lodges 45, No. 165 and 113 had added an ad- ditional sum of $1,500, thus making in all a total of $2,500 which had been turned over to Mr. Darsie. The contention of the Masons was set forth as follows:
Mr. Darsie proposed to build a Masonic Hall on his lot for the accommodation of the brethren. After some preliminary arrange- ments, this was agreed to, to-wit: First, that Lodge 45 should pay $1,000 cash. Second, that the individual Masons in Pittsburg and vi-
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cinity should raise by subscription $1,500 more, and pay it over to Mr. Darsie, as he might need it during the progress of the building oper- ations. In consideration of this amount of money, Mr. Darsie stipu- lated, first, to transfer to Lodge 45 the one undivided third of his said lot of ground at Smithfield and Third streets. Second, to finish the third story of the Masonic Hall building for the use and purposes of the Masons, to be used and occupied forever free of rent. The Lodge and the individual subscribers to the fund performed their part of the contract, but Mr. Darsie never did make out a deed to the lodge for the lot, and the fire of 1845 deprived the Masons of their hall. Previous to the fire, Mr. Darsie sold two-thirds of the lot occu- pied by Masonic Hall to Mr. Bauder, not pretending to have any right to the other third of the lot, which he had promised to deed to the lodge. It should be remembered that Mr. Darsie, when he sold to Mr. Bauder reserved the third story of the building from sale, as it belonged, with a one-third part of the lot, to the lodge and to the individual members of the Order. In the assessment of taxes (prior to 1845) on the property, Mr. Darsie took care to have the lodge assessed distinctly as one-third owner of the property; and Lodge 45 regularly every year paid the tax, until after the 1845 fire, when Mr. Darsie took possession of the lot; and the reason given for this action is that as Lodge 45 cannot show a deed for the lot, it has no title to any part of the land.
Whatever may have been the merits as to the question of title, the action of ejectment was promptly disposed of when the matter got before the court. McGill and Darsie, the plaintiffs, lost by being non-suited. The final entries on the old docket in the Allegheny court house read as follows:
October 1st, 1845-Plff. non suit.
October 9th, 1845-Discontinued and costs, $5.72, paid by Mr. McGill.
As a matter of fact, the contention as to the title to the one-third of the lot was never judicially determined. But the controversy left no scars. The claim of the Masons to title seems to have been dropped by mutual and friendly consent, and according to the meager records the whole matter wound up by the payment by Mr. Darsie of $100 to the Masons, in return perhaps for a quit-claim deed. There is ground for the belief that there was misunder- standing on both sides. No papers in the way of agree- ments or contracts had ever been drawn up, and as a per- iod of fifteen years had elapsed from the time of the first arrangements until the matter got into dispute, each side could, through lack of written evidence, reach certain
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conclusions, more or less well founded.
The great conflagration which on April 10, 1845, swept over a large portion of the city of Pittsburgh has become one of the historic catastrophes of the United States. It entailed much suffering on the part of the citizens and an enormous loss financially. it was a calamity for our Ma- sonic brethren of those days. But it was one from which, with little outside aid, they recovered speedily. Their hall had been totally destroyed and practically everything in it was devoured by the flames. In this hall at Smithfield and Third streets the Masons had been meeting for fifteen years, and it is quite likely that despite the litigation over the title to the property, they would have continued to meet there for some years more. They had fitted up the hall appropriately and attractively during their occupancy of it. It had been constructed solely for Masonic uses, and its capacity was still adequate to meet the requirements of the fraternity. How completely the property, records, etc., of the lodges were destroyed is signalized by the following entry in the minutes of the Quarterly Communication of the Grand Lodge held September 7, 1846:
The Grand Secretary stated that he had received from Bro. Alexander McCammon, of Pittsburg, a trunk containing a number of collars, aprons and books of the late Lodges No. 113 & 165 held at that place, and that Bro. McCammon informed him that the jewels and Warrants of said Lodges were either burned or lost at the great fire which took place in 1845.
At this period the only Masonic lodge existing in Pitts- burgh was Lodge 45, Lodges 113 and 165 having gone out of existence. What Lodge 45 suffered, and how actually it was in need of financial aid, is shown by the follow- ing record from the Grand Lodge proceedings, December 15, 1845:
A communication was received from Lodge 45 at Pittsburgh, stating the loss which the lodge had met with in the great fire, which occurred in that place April last, and praying the Grand Lodge to remit the dues which will be owing up to December 27th next.
When on motion duly made and seconded, the request of Lodge No. 45 was granted and dues remitted up to December 27th, 1845.
Another of the immediate unfortunate results of the catastrophe was the failure, for the time being, of the plans to revive old Milnor Lodge, No. 165, which had been war-
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HISTORY OF THE MASONIC FUND SOCIETY
ranted in the year 1819 and had gone out of existence in 1837. In 1844 some of the brethren who had been mem- bers of the old lodge made application for a charter for reorganization. The application was favorably acted on by the Grand Lodge and about the first of April, 1845, the war- rant arrived in Pittsburgh. But on the very day the lodge was to be constituted, April 10, the great fire broke out, and the new warrant was destroyed with Masonic Hall. It was not until 1846 that the present Milnor Lodge was organized.
There is to be found in the June, 1845, number of that valuable old magazine, the "American Masonic Register," published then in Albany, N. Y., by Bro. L. G. Hoffman, a sympathetic request for aid for the afflicted Masons at Pittsburgh, in which the editor says: "If ever a case re- quired Masonic sympathy and aid it is this one. Our readers are already aware that nearly the whole of Pittsburgh has been destroyed by fire, and that thousands who were but a few hours before enjoying all the comforts of life, have now been left in a most deplorable state of wretchedness."
A few days after the fire an appeal, now of much Ma- sonic historic interest, was sent from Pittsburgh to various parts of the United States asking for aid for the suffering brethren. It was signed by Brothers Richard Cowan, Alex- ander McCammon and Samuel Mckinley, the two latter later becoming members of the first Board of Trustees of the Ma- sonic Fund Society. This appeal which has never been re- printed and which was long ago supposed to be entirely lost, is here reproduced, after an oblivion of over three-quarters of a century, in its exact wording :
Whereas, in the Dispensation of Divine Providence we have been visited with the most destructive calamity that has possibly ever befel any people, there being not less than from fifteen hundred to two thousand families not only homeless, but without the necessities of life. Many of them are brethren, some of whom are penniless.
And whereas, our beautiful Temple, in which so oft we have met, to adore the Supreme Architect of the Universe, together with all of our jewels and furniture, have been destroyed, thereby leaving us des- titute of a hall to meet in, and, if not assisted by our brethren at a distance, the means to procure one. And, whereas, believing it to be the birth-right of every Mason to call upon a Brother Mason in the hour of distress, we, under our present embarrassment, are com-
DUASPRINTING
PR
INTLY
HOME OF PITTSBURGH FREEMASONS After Great Fire of 1845. At Wood and Third Streets.
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HISTORY OF THE MASONIC FUND SOCIETY
pelled to appeal to the benevolence of our brethren for aid to assist in the rebuilding of our hall.
Therefore, Resolved, that R. Cowan, A. McCammon and S. Mckinley be a committee to correspond with Lodges at a distance, soliciting aid to assist in the rebuilding of our hall destroyed by the late fire.
R. COWAN, A. McCAMMON,
Committee.
S. McKINLEY,
Not a very considerable amount in the way of dona- tions was received by the afflicted brethren in Pittsburgh and it is evident that practically all of the contributions received from a distance were used to alleviate the distress among the individual brethren. None of these contribu- tions seem to have been utilized in any manner towards defraying the cost of the erection of a new hall.
But the spirit of hope and progress dominated the Masonic brethren in the very midst of their affliction, and they at once set about securing new quarters. Having for a time no place of meeting, the Lodge 45 for several weeks convened in the back room of the residence of Brother Samuel Mckinley, in the old city of Allegheny. This house is still standing on Rebecca street, the present owner being the daughter of Brother Mckinley. Less than a month' after the fire they were again in a Masonic Hall. They had rented from Mr. Darsie, the opponent in the lawsuit, the three story brick business building which stood, until about 20 years ago, at the northeast corner of Wood street and Third avenue, then known as Third street. This structure the Masons never owned, but they rented it and remained there until the opening of their elegant new Masonic Hall on Fifth avenue in 1851.
In truth, as soon as they got settled down in their hall at Wood and Third streets, they seem to have come to the conclusion that it would be well to wait awhile before they entered definitely into the important plan of erecting a hall upon land of their own. They decided to put that project off for a time, and it was a wise decision. For out of the losses and the miseries of the flames seemed to have arisen strength and progress for the Masonic fraternity. Within a year's time there came a remarkable increase in the mem- bership of the Order in Pittsburgh. In March, 1846, St.
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John's Lodge, No. 219, was constituted, and Franklin Lodge, No. 221, came into existence in September of the same year. In September, 1847, came Allegheny Lodge, No. 223. In the meantime another encouraging situation de- veloped. There had been a sharp contention between the Grand Lodge and the Masonic brethren in Pittsburgh over the dissolution by the Grand Master of the old Fifth Dis- trict, in which for years Pittsburgh had been the center, always having furnished the District Deputy Grand Mas- ter. But weighed down by the burdens of the anti-masonic persecutions and by a stress of hard times, all the lodges in Allegheny county, with the exception of Lodge 45, had gone down, and in the year 1844 the Allegheny county brethren saw their district disrupted and, worse still, their county tacked on to another district with a deputy named from a far distant locality in Western Pennsylvania. Else- where in this volume is a detailed account of this very interesting and historically significant chapter of Masonry in Allegheny county. As a result of and as an end to the differences over this question, the Grand Lodge established, "as a principle for her future government the necessity of having at least five subordinate lodges to constitute a dis- trict and be entitled to the privilege of a Deputy Grand Master." The result of this decision was the revival of the old Fifth district at the beginning of the year 1847, with Brother Samuel Mckinley named as the district deputy, with the district embracing the counties of Allegheny, Bea- ver and Westmoreland. This settlement of the difficulty gave great satisfaction and encouragement to the Pitts- burgh Masons. Their county was becoming very prominent and progressive in lines of manufacture and business ; many of the most influential citizens were members of the Craft and the Order was becoming not only numerically strong throughout Allegheny county, but also it was plainly becom- ing a large and beneficial factor in the civic life of the com- munity. The Masonic brethren therefore justly felt that they had a right to claim that Pittsburgh should be again, as it had been for many years previously, the center of the Fifth District, with a District Deputy Grand Master selected from the Craft in Pittsburgh. And with the un-
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