USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 53
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Plans for a building to be used in part as a chapel and in part as
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a hospital, prepared by Messrs. Stone, Carpenter and Wilson, were accepted. These called for an ornate edifice, irregular in its outline, its longest axis measuring 103 feet, and having a floor area on the main story of 3,405 square feet, 2,427 of which should be given to the chapel and its ante-rooms, and 978 to the hospital. Provision was made in this hospital for fifteen beds on the ground floor, with a piazza on the east and on the west sides, the one sunny in the morning, the other sunny in the afternoon; so that a convalescent patient might sit out of doors in the sun at all hours of the day. The south end was to be unob- structed, having large windows on either side of a broad open fire place. The second story was assigned for the severer cases of sickness, with accommodations for six beds and a separate room, for patients who might be expected soon to die. Here also was a room for the nurse in charge. An open fire place was provided similar to that in the lower ward. The chapel would seat three hundred persons on the floor, and on each side was a gallery intended to accommodate fifty more. The architect's estimate of cost was $13,000; the actual cost proved to be several thousands of dollars more than this estimate.
This year about ninety-five boys earned $5,257.89, making brushes under the contract with the Herbert Brush Company. Fourteen boys were employed in the printing office.
Out of doors the boys did all the gardening and farming, raising large quantities of vegetables for home consumption ; excavated for a conduit, the trench being ten feet wide, ten feet deep, and three hundred and thirty-five long, forty feet of which was through rock four feet in depth ; excavated for the cellar of the chapel and hospital four hundred cubic yards of very hard soil; helped to build 150 cubic feet of foundation wall, working under hired masons as apprentices might be expected to work; excavated for an ice-pond three-fourths of an acre in area ; cleared the stony lot to the east of the boiler house of the school ; quarried and prepared stone for the chapel and hospital; graded the play ground of Cottage No. 2; assisted to place steam pipes in the conduit, and in covering these with a non-conducting material ; and helped the hired masons to build the conduit.
Lest some one should suspect that while so much work was being done the study of books must have been neglected, it may be said that each boy spent three hours per day in some one of the school rooms, five days in each week, excepting legal holidays, during fifty weeks of the year.
The contract for labor with the Herbert Brush Company expired in July, 1891. The earnings for the six months then closing were about $1,550. Since that date there has been no attempt to secure remuner- ative labor for the boys. An income has not been sought. but to make the school in the largest sense profitable to those committed to its care
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has been had at all times in view. That such an institution must be expensive has been well understood, and the results have been esteemed worth all their cost.
The work of preparation for industrial education was progressing rapidly, machinery for the work shops had been purchased, and was partly in place, when Superintendent Nibecker resigned to take charge of the Philadelphia House of Refuge. A considerable period inter- vencd before a successor was appointed, and there was a consequent delay in the work. After Mr. W. W. Murray, formerly of New York State Industrial School, took charge this was resumed with energy and skill.
A forty horse-power horizontal steam engine was placed in the base- ment of the main building.
A machine shop was started, equipped with tools and vises for bench work, drill press, lathes, planer, milling machine, etc. Instruc- tion was given with practice in bench and vise work, in plain and taper turning, in inside and outside screw cutting, in fitting upon the lathes, in hand turning, and in varied work upon the planer, milling machine, and drilling machine. The result appeared a year or two later when the work accomplished included an upright four-horse-power steam engine, a speed lathe, a lathe center grinder, and the machine work on one hundred and twenty-four iron window gratings, in addition to all the machine repairingforthe school and much for the other institu- tions at Cranston. A carpenter shop was furnished with eight benches, each furnished with a set of tools necessary for ordinary bench work ; besides these, there were an adjustable saw-table, planes, and a wood- turning lathe. A carefully graded course of instruction was prepared and as fast as they acquired the use of tools the young workmen were employed upon necessary repairs and improvements about the school buildings and premises.
A blacksmith's shop was fitted up with eight forges and as many anvils, hammers, and sets of tools. Additional hammers and tools were afterwards made by the boys. These during the next year forged the iron and steel parts of the engine, and of the window gratings men- tioned above, all the tools called for in the machine shop, with all the drills and other tools used in clearing up the school grounds. They did all the horse-shoeing and ox-shoeing, sharpened more than three hundred drills, and made thirteen hundred "grapples."
A class was taught by a well qualified instructor in bricklaying, stonecutting, and plastering.
A shoe shop was started, in which all repairing for the school has since been done.
These, with the laundry, sewing-room, farm, and printing office, are the various branches of industry taught and pursued in the Sockan-
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nosset School. Of the different trade schools, the printing office, started in 1884, is much the oldest. Continuing till the date of this writing, 1901, under the care of Mr. H. A. Barnes, its first instructor, it has lost none of its efficiency and ability to earn money with the lapse of years, the money value of its work during the year of 1900 being upward of $2,000.
A system of military training was introduced several years since ; a battalion of four companies being organized, each company includ- ing the boys of a single cottage. These were instructed in setting up exercises, squad drill, the school for the company and battalion drill. The equipment consisted of rifles, belts, bayonets, scabbard, and cart- ridge boxes, for the privates, with the appropriate insignia, swords, belts, etc., for the officers.
The school band was reorganized with a view to greater efficiency, and the sound of the steam whistle was superseded by bugle and drum calls as signals for all general movements of the boys. The following daily schedule of calls was adopted : Reveille, cadets arise, 5:45 a. m .; assembly, setting up exercises, 6:05 a. m. ; mess call, break- fast, 6:15 a. m .; assembly, assemble for work, 7:00 a. m .; recall, cease work for recess, 9:10 a. m .; assembly, assemble for work, 9:20 a. m .; recall, cease work, 11:55 a. m. ; mess call, dinner, 12:05 a. m. ; assembly, assemble for work, 1:05 p. m .; recall, cease work, 2:10 p. m .; school call, assemble for school, 2:25 p. m. ; mess call, supper, 5:40 p. m .; re- treat, 7:00 p. m .; tattoo, retire, 7:45 p. m .; taps, lights out, 8:30 p. m. On Saturdays, mess-call (supper) is at 5:00 p. m .; tattoo, at 7:30 p. m., and taps at 8:15 p. m. In winter the time of rising is half an hour later.
Early in the year of 1895, after a little more than three years of service as superintendent, Mr. Murray suddenly resigned. His place was immediately filled by the reappointment of Mr. J. H. Eastman, with Mr. Eher Butterfield, an officer of long and high standing in the school, as deputy superintendent, to whom the details of administra- tion were and still are committed. It does not detract in the least from the credit due any who went before to say that the prosperity and usefulness of the school during the seven years which have since elapsed was never equaled in any similar period of its history. Cer- tainly the Sockannosset Reform School for Boys has no superior among schools of its class in the United States.
James H. putting
Free Masonry and Odd Fellowship.
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CHAPTER VI.
FREE MASONRY AND ODD FELLOWSHIP.
Although tradition, legend, and speculation have frequently ascribed to the origin of the Order of Free and Accepted Masons vast antiquity, there is no positive proof that it antedates the early years of the eighteenth century. Some members of the Order and various writers on the subject have found pleasure in identifying the well- known symbols of masonry with the building of Solomon's temple ; others have contended that the finding of those symbols cut on stone in the valley of the Nile River is conclusive proof that the Order existed in ancient Egypt. Neither of these presumptions can be sup- ported by tangible evidence. The English Grand Lodge was formed in 1717, from which event dates the actual historical beginning of modern Freemasonry. Since that date "there has been a governing body of the Craft from which, directly or indirectly, all Masonic lodges in existence trace their origin".1
But there is ample proof that there were so-called Masonic lodges in Great Britain previous to the date named. These were composed mainly of architects, builders, and other allied workmen who united in fraternal bodies almost wholly for practical purposes; trade pro- motion and self-protection in business were the objects thus sought by them, and their proceedings, brief and simple in character, were kept secret. The first distinct account of the admission of a member to one of those old bodies of craftsmen is found in the diary of Elias Ashmole, who joined a lodge in Warrington, England, on October 16, 1646. He mentions others, not practical masons, who were admitted to the "Fellowship of Freemasons". A lodge at Chester was, at about the same time, admitting members who were not operative masons. Finally, such modifications were made in the governing regulations of the lodges that all classes were eligible to membership.
The strongest claim of Freemasonry to great antiquity is the con- clusive proof in existence that it is directly descended from the ancient Guilds of the Middle Ages, which in many respects were like the
""Freemasonry in Rhode Island," Rugg, p. 8.
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modern institution.1 Those guilds were lineal predecessors of the English craft organizations above noticed. But beyond its connec- tion with these medieval societies, the voice of history is silent regard- ing this ancient and honorable Order, owing doubtless to the fact that among the earlier Masons there existed the greatest repugnance to commit to writing anything respecting the working or management of Masonic affairs. This was apparent down to a comparatively recent date, as shown by the meagre mention of known transactions in the written records of the old lodges.
With the changes made in Freemasonry about the beginning of the eigliteenth century, the work of the Craft was liberalized and the later system of degrees was introduced or extended. The Grand Lodge of England, in 1723, recognized only two degrees; before that time there were among the English Masons only two grades, or degrees, con- ferred-the Apprentice, and the Fellow, or Master, and substantially the same condition prevailed in Scotland. William J. Hughan, one of the ablest of Masonic authorities, reached the conclusion that the Master's degree was not recognized until after 1717, and probably about 1722, or 1723. At that time, as before intimated, radical and comprehensive changes were introduced, which placed the Order upon a broader and more philosophie plane, and greatly extended the field of its usefulness.
Although it is more than probable that Freemasonry was introduced into America during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the assumption rests largely upon tradition ; it cannot be decisively proven. There are evidences, all more or less unreliable, that the Order was in existence in Nova Scotia and in the vicinity of Annapolis in the century named, and there is a tradition that a lodge was started in Boston in 1720. Tradition makes Savannah, Ga., also the scene of Masonic practice prior to 1730, while the same is true regarding the existence of organized Freemasonry in Newport, Rhode Island, pre- vious to that year. Undoubtedly there were many Masons in this country long before that date; but the presumption that there were organized bodies practicing the mysteries of the Craft rests upon con- jecture.
The year 1730 marks the historical beginning of Freemasonry in this country, and both Boston and Philadelphia claim the honor of precedence. Careful research has revealed the fact that in the year named there were several lodges in Philadelphia and its vicinity; one of these was St. John's Lodge, which was without doubt the first one in that city. This lodge was, in the beginning, a voluntary associa-
1Dr. Albert G. Mackey, a very excellent authority, says on this point: "We may trace our institution with an older but not dissimilar form, in the Masonic guilds of Europe, and in the travelling Freemasons of the Middle Ages."
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tion, acting without regular Masonic authority, and it is not clear just when or from what source it received its charter. Daniel Coxe, of New Jersey, received from the English Grand Lodge a commission dated June 5, 1730, appointing him Provincial Grand Master for Pennsylvania. New York, and New Jersey. While this act gave him authority to constitute the first Philadelphia lodge, the assumption that he did so is not wholly undisputed. A letter purporting to have been written by Henry Bell to Dr. Thomas Cadwallader, dated Novem- ber 17, 1754, would conclusively establish the fact, if the genuineness of the letter were not attacked ;1 but the record book of St. John's Lodge (Liber B) for the year 1731, discovered in 1884, almost con - clusively proves it a fraud, and it is so considered by Masons of high authority. At the same time it is admitted that there were undoubt- edly regular meetings held by a body of Masons in Philadelphia in 1730, and perhaps still earlier, and that in that sense it was a Masonic lodge, but without constituted authority.
Liber B, of St. John's Lodge, refers to William Button, late Master, and to William Allen, Grand Master ; but it is not believed that there was at that time a Grand Lodge in Philadelphia. The Grand Lodge and St. John's were undoubtedly identical. Allen was succeeded as Master of St. John's by Humphrey Murray in 1733, and he by Ben- jamin Franklin in 1734. Franklin wrote to the Provincial Grand Master at Boston, and to Henry Price, Grand Master in the same city, under date of November 28, 1734, requesting "sanction of authority", conferring the exercise of Masonic proceedings by brethren in Phila- delphia ; it is confidently assumed that he would not have so written if any body of Philadelphia Masons had been "duly constituted", or if any Philadelphia body of the Craft had as good a claim to legal au- thority as the Boston organization, established in 1733. Henry Price, who resided in Boston several years beginning with 1723, returned to London and was there initiated into Masonry (probably in 1731), and on April 30, 1733, was commissioned Provincial Grand Master of New England. Returning to Boston he, on July 30 of that year (O. S.), met with ten brothers at "The Bunch of Grapes" tavern and there constituted them into a Provincial Grand Lodge. This was the first meeting of Masons in America, as far as can be determined by present historical evidence, held under the sanction of rightful written au- thority. Several candidates were initiated at the same meeting. "The
This letter reads as follows: "As you well know, I was one of the origi- nators of the first Masonic Lodge in Philadelphia. A party of us agreed to meet at the Tun Tavern, in Water street, and sometimes opened a lodge there. Once, in the fall of 1730, we formed a design of obtaining a charter of a regular lodge, and made application to the Grand Lodge of England for one, but before receiving it, we heard that Daniel Coxe, of New Jersey, had been appointed that Grand Lodge as Provincial Grand Master of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We therefore made application to him, and our request was granted."
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Holy Lodge of St. John" was constituted in Boston by Grand Master Henry Price, on the 31st of August, 1731 (O. S.), and from that beginning the Order in Massachusetts has spread and grown to its present great estate.
It will, therefore, be seen that while Masonic preeedency in America may be given to Philadelphia, from one view of the ease, Boston pre- sents a strong elaim when the limitation, "duly constituted", is ap- plied to the early organizations in those eities.1
For its value for reference, it may be stated that Freemasonry was in organized existence in Georgia as early as 1735; in New Hampshire and South Carolina in 1736; in New York in 1737; in Virginia in 1741; in Rhode Island in 1749; in Connectieut and Maryland in 1750; in North Carolina in 1754; in New Jersey in 1761; in Delaware in 1765; in Vermont in 1781.
The history of Freemasonry in Rhode Island is clearly traceable baek to 1749, in which year, on the 27th of December, St. John's Lodge, of Newport, was constituted, with Caleb Phillips, Master.2 For some unexplained reason the Master withheld the dispensation, and there- fore a second warrant was issued with date May 14, 1753. The New- port brethren were authorized to confer only two degrees, but regard- less of this they did confer the Master's degree, and so eloquently upheld their action that the Grand Lodge confirmed their aets and gave them a charter to hold a Master's lodge, under date of March 20, 1759.3 Candidates in the early history of this lodge frequently went no further than the degree of Fellow Craft, and those who did paid an additional fee. The charter to this lodge from the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island was granted April 26, 1793, and a duplicate was issued December 27, 1854. The lodge was ineorporated in October,
""Freemasonry in Rhode Island," p. 28.
2 Rhode Island, like many other localities, has its traditions of Masonic organization being in existence long before the formation of St. John's Lodge. J. L. Gould, of Connecticut, in his "Guide to the Chapter," published in 1868, states that there is an account of Freemasonry in existence in Rhode Island in 1658. This statement was to some extent confirmed by Rev. Edward Peterson, in his Rhode Island History, published some years earlier than the "Guide." In the history is found the following: "In the spring of 1658, Mordecai Campennell, Moses Peckeckol, Levi, and others, in all fifteen fam- ilies, arrived at Newport from Holland. They brought with them the three first degrees of Masonry, and worked them in the house of Campannell, and continued to do so, they and their successors, to the year 1742." This bold statement was credited to "documents now in possession of N. H. Gould, Esq." When pursued to the end this whole case was found to rest upon the following words written on a scrap of paper, which Brother Gould had seen in the possession of his father, but could not, or did not, produce: "Ths ye [day and date obliterated] 1656, or 8, Wee mett att ye House off Mordecai Campunall and affter Synagog Wee gave Abm Moses the degrees of Maconrie." While this is good as far as it goes, it is, in the opinion of the best-informed authorities, not to be accepted as evidence that there was a constituted lodge at that early date.
3See pp. 34-5, "Freemasonry in Rhode Island," for this charter.
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1793, and a new charter was granted in January, 1887. Caleb Phillips was succeeded as Master by Robert Jenkins, May 14, 1753, and he was followed by Benjamin Mason in 1763. The lodge records from 1765 to 1790 are lost and possibly were destroyed by the British during the Revolution. Ever since the close of the war for independ- ence this old and honorable body of Masons has kept its existence, having in its membership many men occupying high station in public or private life.
Not many years elapsed after the stable founding of the first Masonic lodge of the State in Newport before the Masons of Provi- dence applied to the Provincial Grand Master for a charter, which was issued under date of January 18, 1757. The name, St. John's, was adopted, as it had been by the Newport brethren. By the terms of the charter the brethren were required to observe the constitution, make returns to the Grand Lodge, and annually to keep, or cause to be kept, the Feast of St. John the Baptist and to dine together on that day. This lodge was one of sixteen which had up to that time been chartered by the Provincial Grand Lodge of Massa- chusetts; the sixteen were located in eleven provinces or colonies. St. John's Lodge No. 1, of Providence, held its earliest meetings at a tavern on North Main street, which displayed the sign of "The White Horse", and later at "The Two Crowns" tavern. St. John's, of Newport, probably held its early meetings in the council chamber of the old State House, while the Providence lodge, after the interregnum, met in the council chamber of the State House in that city. These two early bodies of the Order were for a time zealous in the work of the Craft and applied themselves diligently to the advancement and usc- fulness of their respective organizations.
The first meeting of the Providence lodge was held on February 18, 1757, and the lodge was incorporated by the General Assembly in October, 1793. John Burges was the first Master, but in the first year of his term he went on a voyage to Jamaica and the office was filled by Edward Scott. Brother Burges was Master until 1762, when he was succeeded by Joseph Brown. During a number of the years be- tween 1763 and 1784, including the period of the Revolution, the records are fragmentary. Jabez Bowen was chosen Master Decem- ber 3, 1778, and as far as the records show, continued in the office until 1791; other Masters previous to 1800 were Daniel Stillwell (1791-2), Oliver Bowen (1793), and John Carlile (1794-1805). Moses Brown was admitted to the lodge in October, 1758, and was chosen Secretary in December of the same year, an office filled by him with fidelity during about cleven years.
As before intimated, just previous to the beginning of the Revolu- tionary War, both of the lodges described ceased to hold meetings. While no special reason is given for this as far as relates to the Provi-
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denee lodge, other than the general stress of the times, the chief eause of suspension of the Newport lodge was the establishment of King David's Lodge in 1780, under immediate authority of Moses M. Hays, who bore the title of Inspector-General of Masonry, and elaimed broad power under a warrant purporting to emanate from George Harrison, Provineial Grand Master of New York, then a resident of New- port. Mr. Hays was chosen the first Master of King David's Lodge. Although the regularity of this new lodge was open to question, it flourished about ten years, when its membership was merged in St. John's, of Newport.
Thus we find Freemasonry in Rhode Island at the elose of the Revolutionary War represented by St. John's Lodge in Providenee, and King David's in Newport, St. John's of the latter eity having become inaetive long before that time. Among the members of the Order in that far-away period were many men of high standing, whose deeds and names shed luster upon the institution in this State. In this eonneetion it is proper to here preserve the following address of King David's Lodge to President George Washington :
"Newport, R. I., Aug. 17, 1790.
"To George Washington, President of the United States of America :
"We, the Master, Wardens and Brethren of King David's Lodge in Newport, Rhode Island, Joyfully embraee this opportunity to greet you as a Brother and to hail you welcome to Rhode Island.
"We exult in the thought that as Masonry has always been patron- ized by the wise, the Good and the Great, so hath it stood and ever will stand, as its fixtures and on the immutable pillars of Faith, Hope and Charity with unspeakable pleasure we gratulate you as filling the Presidential ehair with the applause of a numerous and enlight- ened people, whilst at the same time we felieitate ourselves the honor done the Brotherhood by your many exemplary virtues and emanations of goodness proceeding from a heart worthy of possessing the Aneient mysteries of our Craft being persuaded that the wisdom and grace with which Heaven has endowed you will ever square all your thoughts, words and aetions, by the eternal laws of honor, equity and truth, as to promote the advancement of all good works, your happi- ness and that of mankind.
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