Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Volume 057-2 - April 2003 (8 pages)
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 8
.
Freemasonry and Some
Pioneer Luminaries of
Nevada Lodge #13 F&AM
by Orval Bronson
[Editor’s note: The history of the Masonic organizations in
Nevada County and its members parallels the history and
growth of the county itself. In 1850, when still part of Yuba
County (prior to the formation of Nevada County in 1851),
the first Masonic lodge was chartered in Nevada City. In
the next few years lodges were chartered in Grass Valley,
North San Juan, Rough & Ready, Orleans Flat, Truckee,
Washington and Red Dog, all bustling mining towns. The
early members of the local Masonic societies included supreme court judges, district attorneys, a supreme court commissioner, U.S. senators, a state attorney general, president
of a railroad, newspaper publishers and editors. Add to the
list the businessmen and entrepreneurs from one end of the
county to the other who were members of the Masonic
lodges and you have a large percentage of the male population of early Nevada County. Nevada City Lodge #13's collection of historical records, correspondence and history of
Masonry in California, now housed in the Doris Foley Library of Historical Research at Nevada City, is very valuable for historians and family research. ]
Fem THE TIME OF THE AMERICAN CONQUEST
of California and until the 1848 discovery of gold at
Coloma, the West’s population centers were primarily confined to coastal settlements. That trend was reversed when
gold was discovered, as the mining areas were inland.
Dozens of settlements sprang up almost overnight, and
with those settlements came attendant social problems.
Youthful Argonauts, many away from home for the first
time and free from parental control, thought they could do
as they pleased; poor judgement often prevailed. Those few
who remembered, and sought to renew, their religious and
fraternal ties back home, were responsible for bringing
some measure of civility and order to these settlements.
Most conspicuous were those with Masonic connections.
Along with looking forward to meeting with their fraternal
brothers, they were aware of their collective responsibilities
to attend to the sick, properly bury the dead and later, as
women arrived, to care for the widows and orphans. They
also knew that government would have to be established
and schools built to educate the young.
Origins of Freemasonry
While the exact origins of Masonry are unknown, historians generally agree that the craft arose from the medieval
stonemasons who built the great cathedrals and castles of
Europe. The oldest documented reference to the Freemasons is the Regius Poem, printed about 1390 A.D., which
itself was a copy of an earlier document.
( ae
Nevada Gounty Historical Society
Bulletin
VOLUME 57 NUMBER 2 APRIL 2003
Of the several theories regarding the origin and evolution
of Freemasonry (none of which can be proved), the most
popular is the “direct descent from operative masonry”
theory, which suggests that stonemasons gathered in huts
(lodges) around the edifice they were building. Eventually,
these lodges became not the hut, but rather the grouping,
and, in common with other trades, developed initiations for
new apprentices.
Because of the nomadic nature of the craftsmen and because there were no trade unions or apprenticeship certifications, these operative lodges adopted private words and
signs to be used when arriving at a new project, to be used
to prove proper training, experience and membership in a
lodge.
There is indication that operative Scottish lodges, in the
early 17th century, began to admit men who were not stonemasons, i.e., “gentlemen” or “accepted” masons. There is
no evidence, however, that these “accepted” masons were
other than honorary. The first evidence of a lodge comprised solely of non-operative (“speculative”) Masons was
in England in 1646, when Elias Ashmole, founder of the
Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, was made a Freemason in a
lodge convened for that purpose at his father-in-law’s residence.
In 1717 four lodges combined to form the Grand Lodge
of England, and the fraternity’s history from that point forward is well documented. The first lodge of Freemasons in
the United States was formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in
1733. Masonry was very popular in the American colonies
and grew dramatically in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
As might be expected, Masonry accompanied the western
expansion. Immigrants brought with them “dispensations”
from their respective Grand Lodges in the east, authorizing
them to start a Masonic lodge in any jurisdiction where no
Grand Lodge existed. As California was not yet a state and
had no Grand Lodge, lodges were opened throughout the
northern and southern mines.
Today there is a Grand Lodge in each state and the District of Columbia, each being the supreme Masonic authority within its jurisdiction, presided over by a Grand Master
and numerous subordinate Grand Officers.