Foreword
The Bible, the Great Light in Masonry, asserts the allotted time of man is "three score years and ten." Medical science and research have added about five years. When at sixty-two I was asked to write a history of the Lodge for its seventy-fifth anniversary, I never thought that twenty-five years later I would be asked to prepare a history for the one-hundredth anniversary.
Only four members who equalled my age then are still members of the Lodge. They are Herbert B. Cowan, Walter P. Crosby, William A. Prentiss and James Sinclair. The all devouring scythe of time has gathered into the land where our fathers have gone before us many of our members in the past twenty- five years. Our mortality rate has been high owing to the large number who joined in the early years of our existence.
I wish to express my deep appreciation for the assistance I have received from Rt. Wor. Robert Gillette and Brother Henry C. Mallon. Bro. Gillette, who has been secretary for the past twenty-two years, has given much time to the perusal of the minutes from 1850 to date and has copied important and interesting data from the records. Bro. Mallon has made an exhaustive search for historical events, and newspaper items of interest. Their combined help has lessened my task materially.
This history may be roughly divided into two parts. First, an overall picture of the past one hundred years; second, excerpts from the records with some annotations.
May your enjoyment in reading this history be as great as has been mine in preparing it.
RT. WOR. A. A. BROOKS
© Laurel O'Donnell 1997 - 2012, all rights reserved
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