The Daily Times and Chronicle, Tuesday, April 5, 1983
Burlington Past and Present, by John E. Fogelberg
(Article # 196)
A little Masonic history
Masons in this area this year will be celebrating the
250th anniversary of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, the
third oldest Grand Lodge in the world, preceded only by the
Grand Lodge of England, known as the Mother Lodge, and the
Grand Lodge of Ireland.
The English Lodge was constituted in 1717 and met for the
first time in the Goose and Gridiron Alehouse in London. The
Irish Lodge was constituted in 1725 and the Boston Lodge, or
First Lodge, now St. John's Lodge, in 1733.
Previous to those years there had been individual Masonic
lodges here and there, but the English Grand Lodge was the
first which succeeded in tying a whole group of them together
under one jurisdiction and one declaration of principles.
It was at the famous Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston that
one Henry Price, under authority granted him by a commission
from the Grand Lodge of England, formed the first Grand Lodge
here in America. That was on July 30, 1733.
Alice Morse Earle in her "Stage Coach and Tavern Days"
mentions that first lodge:
"Massachusetts Grand Lodge organized at the Green Dragon,
and the first lodge of all. St. John's Lodge, met in 1731 at
the Bunch of Grapes in King, now State, Street. One of the
three bunches of grapes that formed the original tavern sign
still hangs in front of the lodge room of St. John's Lodge
Masonic Temple in Boston. This tavern had an early and lasting
reputation as the best punch-house in Boston. In Revolutionary
days it became the headquarters of High Whigs and a scarlet
coat was an inflammatory signal in that taproom.
Alphonse Cerza, a noted Masonic scholar, wrote about Henry
Price:
'It is not known when or where Price became a Mason, but in
1730, while in London, England, he was listed as a member of
Lodge No. 75, which met at the Rainbow Coffee House. On April
13, 1733 (sometimes stated as April 30), when he was again in
London attending Grand Lodge, he received a deputation by order
of Viscount Montague, signed by Thomas Batson, Deputy Grand
Master and the Senior and Junior Grand Wardens, appointing him
Provincial Grand Master of New England and Dominions and Ter-
ritories therunto be longing; he paid the required fee of three
guineas. The deputation authorized him to form lodges, to
superintend them, and to perform other incidental duties."
Henry Price served as Grand Master until 1737, again from
1740-43, 1754-55, and 1767-68.
The Massachusetts Grand Lodge referred to by Mrs. Earle
was a lodge, originally St. Andrews' Lodge and chartered by the
Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1756 and it met at the Green Dragon
Tavern. Paul Revere became a member of that lodge and Joseph
Warren, who was to lose his life at Bunker Hill, was named
Grand Master of Masons in Boston by the Grand Master of Scot-
land.
This set up something of a rivalry between two Grand
Lodges which was amicably settled in 1792 when the two joined
to make the present Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts
which began with 22 constituted lodges, 11 from St. John's
Grand Lodge and 11 from the Massachusetts Grand Lodge.
Some of the early individual lodges formed were: 1733, St.
John's (Boston); 1760, Philanthropic (Marblehead); 1766, St.
John's (Newburyport); 1770, Tyrian (Gloucester); 1770, Mass-
achusetts (Boston); 1771, Union (Nantucket); 1779, Essex
(Salem); and Corinthian (Concord), date unknown.
Some famous early Masons beside Henry Price were Benjamin
Franklin, Paul Revere, John Hancock, John Brooks, Joseph
Warren, Isaiah Thomas, Moses Cleveland, Benjamin Crowinshield,
Gen. Henry Knox and Gen. George Washington. A tombstone in the
old Burying Ground shows that Burlington's, Gen. John Walker
was a Mason but to what lodge he belonged is not known.
Closer to home and much later in time, charters were
granted in: 1865, Mt. Horeb (Woburn); 1871, Simon W. Robinson
(Lexington); 1889, Thomas Talbot (Billerica); 1902, Friendship
(Wilmington); and 1955, Simonds (Burlington). Washington Lodge
(Roxbury) whose charter was granted in 1796 is now located in
Lexington.
Before Burlington had a lodge it was only natural that a
number of Burlington men should join the Woburn lodge. Samuel
B. Sewall entered in 1857, Ward B. Frothingham joined in 1858
and Nathan Simonds became its Worshipful Master in 1872-73. A
much later arrival, Herbert Crawford, fire chief of Burlington,
became Master in 1957-58.
The original petitioners for Mt. Horeb Lodge in 1855 were
David Tillson, J. Franklin Bates, William T. Grammer, George
Butler, William Pratt, William D. Stratton, Samuel S. Miles,
Jesse Converse Jr., Page Eaton, John Nelson and Albert H.
Nelson. David Tilson became the first Master in 1855-56, fol-
lowed by William Stratton, 1857-59, and Charles W. Stevens in
1860.
Just 100 years after those petitioners asked to have a
lodge formed in Woburn, so a group of Burlington men asked to
have a lodge formed here. Thus on March 2, 1955, acting on the
petition of 63 Masons, all of whom became Charter Members of
the new lodge, the Most Worshipful Grand Master Whitfield W.
Johnson, Grand Master 1954-56, granted precedence to Simonds
Lodge and directed Dist. Deputy Grand Master Geoffrey Pippette
to institute said lodge which was done March 8 in the Church of
Christ, Burlington.
The charter was granted Dec. 14, 1955 and the lodge was
duly constituted Dec. 20, 1955 in ceremonies held in the audi-
torium of the Memorial School on Winn Street. George L. Michaud
became the first Master of Simonds Lodge; 1955-56, followed by
Fred Simms, 1957-58, and William L. Nelson, 1959-60, all of
whom are now deceased.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland, which approved the formation
of Warren's Massachusetts Lodge in 1756, "ranks fourth in
Masonic precedence throughout the world," said Joseph Earl
Perry in an address in 1936 (he was later to be Grand Master of
Masons in Massachusetts in 1938-39 and '40), "but, more than
that, it contains the individual Lodge, Edinburgh No. 1, at
Edinburgh, whose records date back to 1599, antedating those of
any other lodge in the world."
Perry mentions a number of interesting items relating to
masonry in a little published book titled "The Masonic Way of
Life."
There are more or less authentic records of general assem-
blages of operative masons, or traveling builders, as far back
as York, England in 926 and in Strassburg in 1275 and 1375," he
wrote.
"As early as 1350 a statute fixed the wages of the Master
Freemason at a rate higher than those of ordinary masons, and
there is some evidence that the term 'Freemason' was used to
distinguish workers in free-stone from those who did rough work
with unhewn stones known as 'rough masons' or, in Scotland, as
'cowans.'"
As the "era of cathedrals and abbeys and great stone
fortifications was drawing to a close, the conditions which had
given operative Masonry such an impetus was ending. Confronted
with this fundamental change, the societies of operative Masons
gradually admitted leading men of the community as speculative
or 'accepted' Masons, and a new emphasis was placed on Masonry
as a code of ethics or plan of living."
So that by the time Henry Price started his lodge in
Boston Masonic lodges already were operating elsewhere. In
fact, some encyclopedias give credit for the first lodge in the
new world to a Daniel Cox of New Jersey who received a deputa-
tion in 1730 as Grand Master of New York, New Jersey and Penn-
sylvania. However, Cox never followed through and nothing came
of that authority at that time.
Thus Henry Price, a tailor by trade, whose business block
stood on the corner of what is now Bedford and Washington
streets, who owned other property on what is now State Street,
who owned a farm in Townsend, and had a summer place in Meno-
tomy in Cambridge, now Arlington, who married twice and left
two daughters to inherit his considerable fortune, who actually
gave himself a death wound while chopping wood and died at the
age of 83, is now known as "The Father of Freemasonry in
America."
To be applied with particular emphasis to today's world is
this statement by the Most Reverend William L. Wright, a 33-
degree Mason and retired Metropolitan of Ontario, Canada:
"Freemasonry is a declaration that mankind is indivisible
and that we must learn to live together if we are going to live
at all."
(First photo, 4.3 inches wide by 4.7 inches high: "HENRY PRICE
the 'Father of Freemasonry in America.' This photo is from a
copy of 'The Northern Light.' a magazine sent to Masons.")
(Second photo, 6.6 inches wide by 5.5 inches high: "THE FIRST
OFFICERS of Burlington's Simonds Lodge were (seated, from left)
Bro. Clarence I. MacDorman, Bro. the Rev. Sidney D. King, Wor.
Fred Simm, Wor. George L. Michaud (master), Bro. Frederick M.
Henderson, Bro. William A. Barnes, Bro. Wilbur McIntire,
(standing, from left) Bro. A. Gordon Turnbull, Bro. Herbert W.
Crawford, Bro. Benjamin R. Bird, Bro. Gordon C. Thomson, Bro.
William L. Nelson, Bro. Norman C. Blaisdell, Bro. Douglas
Forbes, Bro. Harold Marvin, and Bro. Richard G. Berry.")
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