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The 150th Anniversary of Freemasonry In Colorado
(Posted: March, 2010)
Our fraternity is reaching a great milestone this year. Its 150th anniversary is happening and not too many groups can claim this old of a conception in our state. Masonry has a rich history that intertwines with Colorado's, so let's take some time to tell this early story.
The date used for the 150 years of Masonic meeting is based on the conception of the Grand Lodge of Colorado. We know that Freemasonry did happen before this date within the boundaries of present day Colorado. A good resource on this is Mambry's paper, who writes of early 1850's meetings and some of the men who attended them. We can also link known members of eastern lodges to work and places before this decade. Most of the meetings held before establishment of the Grand Lodge might be considered "irregular" or not correct today, but small informal gatherings happened whenever three or more Masons met on the trails, at trading posts or at small settlements. We also know that a few military lodges were here. These traveling lodges that had for its members military men carried with them charters which allowed them to move their place of meeting from place to place. These groups came down the Santa Fe Trail and crossed the very southeast corner of the state.
When we consider how early Colorado Masonry started, most start with a group of seven men, who were miners and their first meetings. On November 2 1858, seven masons from two gold seeking groups came together for a Masonic meeting in a cabin. J. D. Ramage remembers how he was invited to this meeting:
After retiring that evening we hear some one calling out, "Ho, that tent there." One of the boys got up and asked if he were calling to us and he replied that there was a man in the tent whom he would like to see, and at the same time making use of a Masonic expression. I then arose and went out. Our caller proved to be Henry Allen… He told us that were five Masons meeting in his cabin that night and having heard that I was a Mason, they invited me to attend.That meeting was held only ten days after the first groups came to mine gold here. They decided to meet every Saturday night after that - since they prospected during the week along the south side of Cherry Creek and east of the Platte River. They continued this schedule until the gold strike in Gregory Gulch occurred and most of the Masons and other miners moved there. The first Masons came back for the winter months from the higher and snowier area and resumed the meeting schedule as far as I could tell. With each group that came into the area, these men sought out other Masons and added to their numbers.
Their first celebration was on December 27th, for St. John's Day and twenty six Masons came together in a 16 by 16 foot cabin. It must have been crowded, but they had for dinner that night: pork, beans, biscuits, coffee and wild game on a clean sheet borrowed from a Mormon family. There were no chairs at this meeting, but like the rest of the early building had a dirt floor.
The attendance to their regular meetings rose to around 40. And they moved from this meeting place to a two room cabin owned by Oscar Lehow and Andrew Sagendorf. One room was used as the meeting place, the other to receive and greet attendees. It should be noted that one of the first sermons preached in the Denver area was in this cabin. The first newspaper published in Denver, the Rocky Mountain News, dated April 23rd, 1858, had on its front page a notice about an upcoming lodge meeting. It read:
Masonic.From this beginning, three chartered lodges with dispensations from Kansas and Nebraska: Golden City (today's Golden, Summit Lodge in Parkville and Rocky Mountain at Gold Hill. Plus two lodges under dispensation from Kansas - Auraria and Nevada, sought to obtain permission to form their own jurisdiction for the purposes of advancing their fraternity.
The Arapahoe Lodge of F. & A, Masons meete every Saturday night at their lodge on Cherry Street Auraria K. T. [Kansas Territory]
H. A. Smith Sec. H. Allen W. M.
N.B. visiting brethren are invited to attend.
The first sole use Masonic building or Temple was erected in Gregory Gulch when William Slaughter pre-empted a mining claim on June 12, 1859. The owner of the land remembered that nearly one hundred Masons leveled the ground and used oxen to drag the logs of the building into their place. Andrew Sagendorf noted that "All of the safeguards of the Fraternity were as vigilantly guarded as they are today." This included armed guards at the four corners of the cabin to keep away those who would do mischief. "Four men (Masons) armed with rifles and revolvers stood guard, one at each corner of the Temple and one at the outer door also… If [any]desired examination as to his standing as a Mason, he was at once placed in charge of an examining committee, of whom there were not less than ten or more appointed to wait on visiting brethren whose names were entered upon the 'Journal' or 'Roll of visitors' as it was called at that first meeting."
The Colorado Masons obtained their dispensation to form a Grand Lodge from the Grand Lodge of Kansas. Kansas obtained theirs from Missouri in 1856 and Missouri from Tennessee in 1821. Tennessee was chartered by North Carolina's Grand Lodge. North Carolina was granted their charter from England in March 1754. So, Colorado Masonry is only four steps from ancient Freemasonry. There were 52 Masons in Colorado when it became a grand lodge.
Our grand lodge was made up of three lodges: Golden City (their charter came from Kansas), Summit (from Nebraska), Rocky Mountain (at Gold Hill from Nebraska) and two under dispensation at Auraria and Nevadaville. Their first official meeting was on December 10th, 1861.
The ritual we have today in Colorado has not changed much over the last 175 years. At first, the Mackey Monitor was unofficially accepted and used until 1906, when the jurisprudence committee adopted the Macoy Manual, but the custodians of the work did not like it and directed for a new revision which was called the Colorado Craftsman which came out in 1911.
The reader now can see just how early Freemasonry came officially into our state. And it has had an impact on it ever since its conception. The history of the two subjects, the state and the fraternity, can not be separated. They both overlap each other. And at this, the 150th year of continual helping the state and its citizens; it is fitting to remember those who saw fit to influence for the better those they met and the future members of the Grand Lodge of Colorado.
The original seven were:
- Henry Allen
- Oscar Lehow
- Charles Blake
- James Ramage
- Levi Russell
- Andrew Sagedorf
- William Slaughter
Fraternally,Mike Moore, PM
Lodge Historian
