Wyoming.

The Grand Commandery of Wyoming was organized by authority of the General Grand Encampment September 23, 1886, and constituted March 8, 1888.

The constituent commanderies were:

CHAPTER LIX

HISTORY OF COLORED MASONRY IN THE UNITED STATES

HE action taken by the Grand Lodge of the State of Washington, wherein the legality of the organization of Prince Hall Lodge was duly recognized, renders it proper that, in the history of Masonry in the United States, some notice should be taken of that lodge and its successors in the present work. In our examination of this matter we have found the subject so well treated by the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, Brother William Sewell Gardner, in an address delivered before that Grand Lodge, in 1870, that we shall use the same as a foundation, and largely as the structure of this article, for the reason that he has fully and thoroughly covered the entire ground and answered all the arguments employed by the friends of that famous body of negro Masons, within the years 1898 and 1899 in almost every Grand Lodge in the United States, by the Grand Masters, and committees appointed, to respond to the action of the Grand Lodge of Washington in 1898, who have clearly set forth their views, in opposition to the recognition of negro Masonry in this country. The views set forth in this address have been referred to by most of those writers, and there is nothing new for the present writer to urge in opposition to recognition. In his own response in the report on correspondence in the "Annual Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia," for the year 1898, one point insisted upon by him was, that the charters of the Grand Lodge of England issued to Military Lodges did not authorize said lodges to make Masons of citizens in any country where there were already duly constituted lodges under Grand Lodge jurisdiction. The argument used was, that a lodge could not go beyond the letter and terms of the Charter by whose authority it worked. We laid this down as a necessary and fundamental principle, and we have been pleased to notice very many of our correspondents agree

with us in that position; and, finding that Grand Master Gardner uses the same point, we have thought it best to follow out his address as being more comprehensive and more strictly adhering to the true history of the first introduction of this foul blot upon the escutcheon of our Masonry, all through its succeeding ramifications, and subsequent discoloring of our fair fame and otherwise pure record in the United States.

It is due to our Brethren in Washington to say, that when it became known to the Craft at large in that State that the movement, on the part of their leading men, thus to drag in the dust the proud banner of Masonry had aroused the ire of every Grand Lodge in the country, at the succeeding Communication in June, 1899, the obnoxious resolutions were annulled and former harmonious and cordial relations have been restored.

We now proceed to use Brother Gardner's admirable address to give a true history of Prince Hall Lodge :

Address.

BRETHREN : In the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire, at its session held at Manchester on the 18th of June, 1869, "the Committee on Foreign Correspondence offered their report, and, on motion, it was voted, That the reading of the report be dispensed with, and that it be published with the printed proceedings."

In this report the following statements are made:

"In Massachusetts there was no legal Grand Lodge till the Union in 1792."

"The American doctrine of Grand Lodge jurisdiction has grown up since" the establishment of the African Lodge at Boston, by authority of a Charter from the Grand Lodge of England, "and is not elsewhere fully received even now; besides, there was then no Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, or in that State, whose rights could be interfered with; for, notwithstanding the claim to antiquity of that Grand Lodge, it was not formed till 1792, and the two Provincial Grand Lodges, before existing in that Colony, both expired in 1775 by the death of their Provincial Grand Masters. The Massachusetts Grand Lodge did not pretend to meet after the death of Warren, and although St. John's Grand Lodge did have some sort of meetings, probably no law that ever existed in Masonry any. where would hold such meetings regular."

If this report had been read to the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire, its venerable Past Grand Masters, Israel Hunt and Horace Chase, then present, could have informed the Committee on Foreign Correspondence that they were treading upon dangerous ground, and alluding to a delicate subject.

The Grand Lodge of New Hampshire was organized on the 8th of July, 1789, by four Deputies from St. John's Lodge of Portsmouth, chartered by the Massachusetts "St. John's Grand Lodge" June 24, 1734, and one Deputy from Rising Sun Lodge of Keene, chartered by the "Massachusetts Grand Lodge" March 5, 1784—five Deputies from two Lodges. All Masonic authorities claim that, to organize a legitimate Grand Lodge, there must be present the representatives of "not less than three Lodges holding Charters or Warrants from some legal Grand Lodge."

All the Lodges in New Hampshire existing prior to the year 1790, with the single exception of St. John's of Portsmouth, received their Charters from the "Massachusetts Grand Lodge."

St. Patrick's was chartered and established at Portsmouth, March 17, 1780. It continued in existence until the latter part of the year 1790, when it ceased working, most of its members joining St. John's Lodge, which was revived about that time. It never acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire.

November 8, 1781, the "Massachusetts Grand Lodge" chartered a Lodge at Cornish, then claimed to be a part of Vermont, but now set off to New Hampshire. It met at Cornish a few times, and when Cornish was decided to be in New Hampshire, it moved to Windsor, Vt., on the opposite side of the Connecticut River, and took the name of Vermont Lodge, No. 1.

Rising Sun, of Keene, well known as the Lodge which gave Masonic light to Thomas Smith Webb, was chartered by the "Massachusetts Grand Lodge" March 5, 1784. It surrendered its Charter to the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire August 3, 1792, and received a new one with the same name, and rank No. 3.

The "Massachusetts Grand Lodge" granted a Charter for a Lodge at Charlestown by the name of "Faithful Lodge, No. 27," February 22, 1788. This Charter was surrendered to the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire April 30, 1800, and a new one given, by which it was styled "Faithful Lodge, No. 12."

Dartmouth Lodge, of Hanover, received a Charter from "the Massachusetts Grand Lodge" December 18, 1788, and was the last Lodge chartered by this Grand Lodge in New Hampshire. Its dissolution took place before it acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of that State.

The Grand Secretary, Horace Chase, says, that when the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire was formed, July 8, 1789, "as appears from the record there were but three Lodges in the State, viz., St. John's and St. Patrick's at Portsmouth, and Rising Sun at Keene."

However irregularly organized the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire may have been, the "Massachusetts Grand Lodge" disclaimed jurisdiction in that State thereafter. It is unnecessary to state that this Grand Lodge, since 1789 to the present time, has been on the most friendly and fraternal relations with our sister Grand Lodge of New Hampshire, and that it will require something more than unauthorized and unconfirmed statements of a Committee on Foreign Correspondence to unsettle these pleasant relations.

Nevertheless, when it is pretended before a body of such great respectability as the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire, that, in 1784, when it is said the "African Lodge" in Boston obtained its Charter in England, there was no existing Grand Lodge in Massachusetts, for the purpose of proving the then and present legitimacy of the African Lodge, and of adding the weight and influence of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire to this pretense, it is due to ourselves, and to the Craft universal, that the truth should be fully known and fearlessly spoken.

The time is propitious to meet this false pretense, and I need but resume the history of the "Massachusetts Grand Lodge" where it was left at its Centennial on the recent Feast of St. John the Evangelist.

The system of Provincial Grand Lodges originated in the Grand Lodge of England in 1726, and arose from the necessity of having, in the distant colonies of Great Britain where Masonry has extended, some authority and power, not only to control and govern the Craft, but also to establish new Lodges in the Provinces. The Provincial Grand Master was appointed by commission of the Grand Master, wherein the extent of his powers was set forth, and by virtue of which he convened his Grand Body. In the language