Scioto Lodge #6 F. & A.M.
1805—2005
200th Anniversary Edition
March 2006
1805—2005
![Text Box: On March 1, 1786 General Rufus Putnam and his associates, nearly all of whom were Freemasons, met at “The Bunch of Grapes Tavern”, in the City of Boston, Massachusetts for the purpose of forming a company to buy land in what is now Ohio. Thus was formed the Ohio Company. In order to handle the details involved in these land transactions the State of Virginia established a land office in Chillicothe. Settlers came up the Scioto River to establish homes in the new country. Chillicothe was platted and became a city in 1796. In 1803, Ohio became a state and the legislature met in Chillicothe which was
selected as the capital of the new state. A number of delegates to the legislature were members of the Masonic Order, and they and others felt that a lodge should be located at Chillicothe. These members subsequently petitioned the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for a charter. The minutes of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for September 10, 1805 read as follows:
“ A petition was presented, through R.W. and Rev’d Thad’s M. Harris, from Thomas Gibson and others, praying for a charter to hold a lodge in the town of Chillicothe, State of Ohio, by the name of Scioto Lodge, which was granted unanimously.”
The original minute book of Scioto Lodge contains a record of the first meeting held on the 22nd day of November 1805. The following were elected officers of the lodge:
Thomas Gibson, Worshipful Master
Jervis Cutler, Senior Warden
Nathaniel Willis, Junior Warden
Joseph Dix, Secretary Pro Tem
Another meeting was held on the 4th day of December of the same year, and the lodge was opened in the First Degree. At that time the names of the additional officers appear as follows:
Henrie Massie, Treasurer
Francis McHenry, Senior Deacon
Seth Thomas, Junior Deacon
James Davenport, Secretary
Oliver Strong, Tyler
Members present included Peter Marks, Joseph Dix, M. Mason, William Wilson. Visiting Brethren General Joseph Bewell, Elijah Heath and John McDonald.
At this meeting the bylaws of the lodge were adopted. In the second section of the bylaws, it provided that, “the Lodge comes to order in half an hour after the time ordered for the meeting from March 25th to the 25th of September between the hours of four and ten in the evening, and from September 25th to the 25th of March, between the hours of five and nine.” On reading the minutes of the lodge it is found that special meetings were sometimes called “at early candle-light.”
In the third section it is provided that, “when the Master or Deputy takes the chair and calls [the meeting] to order the brethren take their seats, and on the third stroke of the Master’s gavel there shall be a profound silence.”
Among the duties of the Secretary, it is provided that, “he shall keep a registry of all transactions and proceedings that are fit to be committed to writing.”
The fifth section provides that each member be subject to pay a fine of thirty cents for neglect of his attendance on regular nights, unless the majority shall think his excuse sufficient and shall receive it as such, besides the sum of two shillings and six pence to be considered as the common monthly expense.
NOTE: Excerpted from the Sesquicentennial History 1805—1955.](image302.gif)
