MountMoriahR

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MOUNT MORIAH LODGE (Reading)

Location: Reading

Chartered By: Josiah Bartlett

Charter Date: 03/12/1798 II-125

Precedence Date: 03/12/1798

Current Status: in Grand Lodge Vault.


NOTES

MountMoriahR_Charter.jpg
Original Charter of Mount Moriah Lodge

Chartered by Josiah Bartlett at the beginning of 1798, before the moratorium on the granting of further charters; ceased work 1829.

MEMBER LIST, 1802

From Vocal Companion and Masonic Register, Boston, 1802, Part II, Page 26:

  • R. W. John Hart, M.
  • W. Oliver Pope, S. W.
  • W. James Gould, J. W.
  • David Smith, Tr.
  • Thomas Swain, Sec.

No. of Members, 33.

  • John Swain
  • William Batey
  • Jeremiah Bryant
  • Nathan Eaton
  • Timothy Sweetser
  • Amos Bordman
  • Nathaniel Cowdry, Jr.
  • Thomas Sawyer
  • Benjamin Simonds
  • James Dix
  • Joseph Allen
  • Thomas Emerson
  • Reuben White
  • Nathaniel Wiley, Jr.
  • Oliver Swain
  • Joshua Tweed
  • Joshua Lincoln
  • Isaacar Stowell

REFERENCES IN GRAND LODGE PROCEEDINGS

  • Petition for Charter: 1798

HISTORY

FROM GOOD SAMARITAN 50TH ANNIVERSARY HISTORY, NOVEMBER 1920

From Proceedings, Page 1920-369:

The first connection of Reading with organized Masonry was the institution of Mount Moriah Lodge, March 14, 1798, when a Charter was granted to Joseph L. Cordis, Dr. John Hart, and a Mr. Harvey. Mr. Cordis was a large landholder on the east of the lake, a man of "intelligence, judgment, and generous impulses, honorable feelings, and very high spirited. He held many important civil offices, and then, late in life, financially broken, and broken in spirit, committed suicide by jumping into the river from Charlestown Bridge, a pathetic ending of an honorable and useful life. Dr. Hart also was one of the leading men of the town, Selectman, School Committee, Justice, patriot, Vice-President of the Society of the Cincinnati.

If you glance from the car window as you go toward Boston, you note on the left an old yellow house, just east of the second group of ice-houses below the gas-house in Wakefield. This, one of the oldest houses left, was then in the old First Parish of Reading and owned by Dr. Hart. In that house, in a room especially fitted up, Mount Moriah Lodge used to meet. . .

As for Mount Moriah Lodge, it went into what a distinguished man once called "innocuous desuetude." In 1848, just fifty years after it was Instituted, District Deputy Grand Master Ordway found its Charter in the hands of one, whom, being long dead, I will not name, "and who was determined not to give it up." What actuated him I do not know. For his refusal he-was expelled from the Order, as I have found from the Grand Lodge records, and that was the final event in the obsequies of Mount Moriah Lodge.

FROM GOLDEN RULE LODGE 50TH ANNIVERSARY HISTORY, JANUARY 1938

From Proceedings, Page 1938-3:

Very little authentic history concerning the lodge is available either at the Grand Lodge Library or elsewhere. The Lodge was probably instituted in 1798. In 1812, when South Reading was incorporated, the Grand Lodge approved the continuante of meetings in the original location, but under the identification of South Reading instead of Reading. Reading Masons immediately petitioned for the formation of a new Masonic Lodge to meet in that town. The petition was acted on favorably, but it does not appear that any Lodge was ever started.

Mount Moriah Lodge held meetings in the old Lafayette House, now known as the Col. James Hartshorne House, just to the West of this meeting place, it having been restored and opened for public use for several years now.

It is known that there was considerable anti-Masonic sentiment in this section about 100 years ago, and at times meetings were undoubtedly held at homes of members. This probably accounts for the absence of records. Most of the paraphernalia belonging to the Lodge has evidently disappeared, although it is stated "unofficially" that the jewels now worn by Wyoming Lodge, of Melrose, are those used by the old Mount Moriah officers. A number of interesting articles are still in existence, however, some of which belong to Golden Rule Lodge.

The date of the dissolution of the Lodge is also very uncertain. Although records at the Grand Lodge Library noted that a Brother represented Mount Moriah Lodge at a Grand Lodge session as late as December 27th 1848, newspaper accounts and other records have noted that the Lodge passed out of existence at varying dates, including 1812, 1835 and 1842.

In 1915 Grand Secretary Frederick W. Hamilton composed a very comprehensive article on "The Period of Persecution" bearing on Masonry in the early 19th century, and considering the hectic years described by the author it may readily be imagined why records are incomplete or missing, besides the mystery incident to anything Masonic, at that period, either in South Reading or anywhere else.

FROM GOLDEN RULE LODGE 75TH ANNIVERSARY HISTORY, FEBRUARY 1963

From Proceedings, Page 1963-1:

In the year 1798, ninety years before the first regular communication of Golden Rule Lodge, Joseph Cordis and others presented a petition to the Grand fodge of Masons in Massachusetts praying that a Charter be granted to hold a Lodge in the Town of Reading, this Lodge to bear the name Mount Moriah. In 1812, the first parish of the Town of Reading, in which Mount Moriah Lodge was located, was, by Legislative Act, incorporated as a town by the name of South Reading, which name was eventually changed to Wakefield.

Thus begins the history of Freemasonry in Wakefield. Mount Moriah Lodge, which met in the old Lafayette House on Church Street, now known as the Col. James Hartshorne House, existed for approximately fifty years. The date of its dissolution is not clearly established, but apparently it was somewhere between 1835 and 1848. It is known, howwer, that although the Lodge was not active, the Charter in 1848 was in the hands of Bro. Joel Winship, who was not at all inclined to part with it. When Grand Lodge sent the Grand Sword Bearer to Bro. Winship to reclaim the Charter for Grand Lodge, it is recorded that Bro. Winship's refusal was, among other comments, "Quite abrupt." Grand Lodge, needless to say, took the necessary action and eventually did recover the Charter.

This happened in that earlier portion of the last century when Freemasonry was in what has become known as "the period of persecution." This storm of anti-Masonic feeling which had started in Bavaria swept across Europe and to the United States, and was at its height from 1826 to 1843. It is recorded that Wakefield, Reading, Stoneham and Melrose were a hot-bed of anti-Masonic feeling. These were trying times for all Masons, and the mortality of Lodges was high. Of 107 Lodges on the roster in 1826 only 52 remained in 1843.

The persecution fell not only on the Fraternity as an institution, but on individual members. Its form was political, religious, and economic. Masons, in many instances, were ruined in business, cut ofi from working for their church, and ostracized socially and politically.

FROM GOOD SAMARITAN LODGE CENTENARY HISTORY, NOVEMBER 1970

From Proceedings, Page 1970-548:

Reading's first Masonic venture dates from Mt. Moriah Lodge in 1798. It was in the First Parish which became South Reading in 1812 and the Town of Wakefield in 1868. Mt. Moriah Lodge was on the second floor of Dr. Hart's home in a specially furnished Lodge room. Many of you know this today as the Col. Hartshorne House, built in 1681 and located on Church Street in Wakefield.

Dr. Hart was a prominent man. He served Reading as Selectman, School Committee member, and Justice of the Peace. He was a patriot in the Revolutionary War and became Vice-President of the Society of the Cincinnati, a memorial society formed May 13, 1783, by officers of the Continental Army. George Washington was elected its first President in May 1784.

Reading was divided in 1812, placing Mt. Moriah in South Reading. Four years later Jacob Goodwin, Daniel Flint and others applied for a charter to establish a new Lodge. Mt. Moriah Lodge approved and also relinquished jurisdiction, but finally ceased to operate about September 1829, and the Mt. Moriah Charter was finally surrendered to the Grand Lodge.

OTHER

  • 1810 (Committee on irregularities, II-442; report tabled, II-450)
  • 1812 (Petition to remove to South Reading (Wakefield); granted II-538)
  • 1848 (DDGM sent to reclaim charter, V-163)

EVENTS

OFFICER LIST, MARCH 1832

From Masonic Mirror, New Series, Vol. III, No. 37, March 1832, Page 290:

  • Joel Winship, M.
  • J. B. Atwell, S. W.
  • J. Hartshorn, Jr., J. W.
  • Joseph Hartshorn, Tr.
  • Joseph Atwell, Sec.
  • A. Smith, S. D.
  • Wm. Parker, J. D.
  • O. Bryant, J. Green, Jr., Stewards.
  • P. B. Willey, Mar.
  • Jesse Pope, Tyler.

DISTRICTS

1803: District 1 (Boston)

1821: District 9


LINKS

James Hartshorne House web site

Massachusetts Lodges