Historians and amateur researchers are often challenged when confronted by gaps in the historical record. This is not unique to Freemasonic history, but the Fraternity seems to have more than its fair share of missing information. Of course, most know that the very old history of Freemasonry – that which is older than 300 or 400 years – has many holes in it. The more recent historical record, however, is also plagued with lost pieces of important information.
This can often be attributed to the secret nature of Freemasonry. Much was not put to paper and, even when written down, there are usually not multiple copies of what was written. This makes Masonic history very susceptible to the ravages of nature and man.
My Lodge is a good example of this. I began to research the history of my Lodge many months ago and am still involved in that process. The first place I went was to the old minute books. My Lodge was chartered in 1869, but the first entry in the minutes was dated 9 May 1878. That first entry explains that there had been a fire. Minutes, charter, and even the seal had been destroyed. There is now a gap of almost eighteen years in my Lodge’s history that will very likely never be recovered.
Grand Lodges have also suffered through such disasters. During the Fire of 1838 that burned approximately a third of the city of Charleston, South Carolina, the brand new Grand Lodge Hall was destroyed, along with most of its records and furniture – as well as those of many of the subordinate Lodges in that city. Only one chest, containing the jewels and collars of the Grand Lodges officers and a small portion of the Grand Lodge’s furniture, was saved when a Brother pulled it from the flames. In this calamity, a full one hundred and two years of Grand Lodge written history were destroyed.
Thankfully, in current times, technology enables us to take measures to secure historical documents. The written word can be digitalized, copies can be made easily, and electronic data can be backed up. All members of the Fraternity, especially those Secretaries and Grand Secretaries that are tasked as the “Keepers of the Books” should be actively engaged in measures designed to preserve the history of Freemasonry for those future Masons who are yet to be born.
Random Building Thoughts - 2024-04-23
2 hours ago
2 comments:
Right on.
One of the Lodges in one of the Massachusetts districts to which I was a member was chartered in 1795 and had Minutes dating back to its first meeting.
A few years before its 200th anniversary the Historian of this Lodge embarked upon a program of preserving these very early minutes. For the first 50 years or so the minutes were written out in long hand in a leather bound book. These early books had paper that was yellowing and disintegrating. It was a situation in which these early minutes could be lost becasue of deterioration if something was not done.
So this Historian took these first 50 years and typed the minutes into Microsoft Word to preserve them. But not satisfied with just doing this he also scanned into the Lodge computer every page of Minutes in its original handwriting for the first 50 years also.
This labor of love took him in excess of 5 years of continuous work to accomplish. But when it was done his early Lodge Minutes were preserved for antiquity irregardless of how badly the original books deteriorated.
The rare lodge out there that is approaching 150+ years that hasn't had a fire is truly a treasure beyond words to history geeks like us.
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