The History of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia

by S. J. Quinn

CHAPTER XV

Charitable and Benevolent Societies—The Mary Washington Hospital—Newspapers and Periodicals—Political Excitement—Strong Resolutions Condemning the Administration of John Adams—An Address Approving the President’s Foreign Policy—The Names of Those who Signed the Address, &c.

Next in importance to the churches in a community, dedicated to the service of God, come the charitable and benevolent societies and institutions. The former show the state of religion among the people, or their relations to their Maker, while the latter is an evidence of that fraternal feeling existing from one to another which binds all the members in one common cause for humanity. And as Fredericksburg is not wanting in her church privileges and accommodations, so she is not deficient in the number of her charitable and benevolent societies. The oldest of these societies is the Masonic institution.

Fredericksburg Lodge, No. 4, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, was organized on the first day of September, 1752. Under what authority it was organized is not positively known, and therefore three authorities are suggested. The first source of authority claimed is that of Thomas Oxnard, Grand Master of St. John’s Lodge, of Massachusetts and “Provincial Grand Master of all of North America.” A second claim is made that the Masons in the community organized themselves into a lodge and continued as a self-constituted body until a charter was obtained from Scotland. This could hardly have been true. The third claim is, and it is believed by the best authorities to be the original source of authority, that a dispensation was obtained from the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and this was the authority by which the lodge was held until it was regularly chartered by said Grand Lodge. The lodge held its meetings under the authority of this dispensation for six years, and made Masons, among others, of George Washington, George Weedon, Hugh Mercer, Wm. Woodford, Thomas Posey, Gustavus B. Wallace, all of whom became general officers and did distinguished service in the Revolutionary war.

In the year 1758 Daniel Campbell, for several years master of the lodge, visited Scotland, and, at the request of the lodge, applied for and obtained a charter for the lodge from the Grand Lodge of Scotland, which was dated July 21, 1758, and designated the organization “The Lodge at Fredericks-Burg,” Virginia. Possessed with this charter the lodge concluded it had the authority to charter other lodges, and exercised that authority in chartering one at Falmouth, Va., and one at Gloucester Courthouse, Va. The latter soon obtained a charter from England and the former from the Grand Lodge of Virginia. In 1775 the Fredericksburg Lodge united with four other lodges in the State and organized the Grand Lodge of Virginia, and received a charter from that Grand Body, dated January 30, 1787, under the name and title of Fredericksburg Lodge, No. 4. The lodge is holding its authority now under the Virginia Grand Lodge charter, but still has in its possession the old Scotch charter, which is well preserved. The original dispensation has disappeared and was probably lost more than a century ago.

In the years 1798 and 1799 the town was the seat of frequent and heated political discussions, and the strong, not to say bitter, feeling was shared in by the entire population of the town. It was during this excitement, and because of the bad feeling it engendered, a number of members of No. 4 Lodge withdrew their membership and organized Fredericksburg American Lodge, for which a dispensation was granted in 1799 by Gov. Robert Brooke, the Grand Master of Masons in Virginia. In the following year the lodge was chartered and given the number 63. It continued to flourish until the breaking out of the Civil war, when it suspended its meetings and finally became extinct.

In the bombardment and subsequent sacking of Fredericksburg on the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th of December, 1862, by straggling Federal soldiers, all of the records of the Masonic Lodge were destroyed or carried away except those from 1752 to 1771, which were taken to Danville, Va., and preserved by Wm. Ware, Esq., a member of the lodge.

When No. 4 Lodge first organized its meetings were held in the market house, or town hall, then on Main street near Market alley, but in 1756 the time for holding the meetings was changed to “the day before Spotsylvania county court,” which was then held at Germanna, on the Rapidan river, and the place of meeting was fixed at Charles Julien’s, who lived between Fredericksburg and Germanna. The lodge continued there for about six years, when it was moved back to the market house to “stay for all time to come,” and continued there from 1762 to 1813, when the building was torn down preparatory to the erection of the present town hall and market house.

When it was decided to remove the old market house the meetings of the lodge were moved to the “Rising Sun Tavern,” the old frame building still standing on Main street between Fauquier and Hawke streets. In the year 1815 the present Masonic hall was completed, which stands on the corner of Princess Ann and Hanover streets. The Fredericksburg Masonic Lodge has, at various periods, embraced in its membership eminent men, including soldiers, Statesmen, professional men and private citizens. Among the first two classes mentioned—soldiers and Statesmen—was the father of his country, George Washington, who, in this historic lodge, received the first degree in Masonry on November 4, 1752, the second degree on March 3, 1753, and the third degree on August 4, 1753, and continued his membership in the lodge to the day of his death. The Bible used in these interesting ceremonies is now in possession of the lodge in a fine state of preservation. It was printed by John Field, at Cambridge, in the year 1668. It is believed that John Paul Jones, the father of our infant navy, was also a member of this lodge.

By an order of the lodge, and by funds to the amount of five thousand dollars, raised by its exertions, a very beautiful and faithful statue of Washington, in Masonic regalia, was wrought out of white marble by the great Virginia artist, Hiram Powers, while he was in Rome, Italy. It was safely transported to Fredericksburg, but before it could be erected the war came on. For safe keeping it was sent to Richmond, and there perished in the terrible conflagration of April 3, 1865. Fredericksburg Lodge, No. 4, has furnished six grand masters to the Grand Lodge of Virginia, as follows: Judge James Mercer, in 1784; Governor Robert Brooke, in 1785; Major Benjamin Day, from 1797 to 1800; Hon. Oscar M. Crutchfield, in 1841; Judge Beverly R. Wellford, Jr., in 1877, and Capt. S. J. Quinn, in 1907. Fredericksburg American Lodge, No. 63, furnished Hon. John S. Caldwell, in 1856.