Hunting For Manuscripts.

No , the first Z , ion Lodge was that warranted by the Grand Lodge of Lower Canada . There were Lodges in Detroit from 1764 , but they were all known as ' Lodges at Detroit in Canada . ' In 1785 there was a Harmony Lodge

and in 1787 a Lodge called No . 1 , New York . Bro . William Hull , the Governor of Michigan , was a member of Zion , and in May of 1 S 07 he entertained the Lodge at his residence in Detriot . Of course , our American friends criticise Hull for

surrendering Detroit in 1813 , but nevertheless he was a good Mason and popular with the Brethren . " " Are the old Craft warrants of Michigan in existence ? ' " Yes , very much so . The military warrant of 1764 , held in the 60 th Regiment and issued by Bro . Geo . Harison

of New York , when he was Provincial Grand Master , was for a hundred years in the archives of the Grand Lodge of New York and the Zion warrant of 1794 was in the same keeping for about ninety years . Through the efforts of Bro . Ehlers the Grand Secretary of New York , both these documents

were sent to Zion Lodge by order of the Grand Lodge of that state . For many years the 1764 warrant was missing . It had been put away by Bro . Austin , a former Grand Secretary of New York , and search was frequently made for it but without avail . Bro . Ehlers had never seen the document and was

satisfied that it was not in any of his safes nor in the fire-proof strong room , where he keeps his documents of value . During my frequent vists to New York I had many an entertaining chat with the Grand Secretary . Once I suggested to him that the old warrant was ' somewhere' among his treasures ,

reminding him of the fact that Bro . John Barker , of New York , the former Grand Librarian , ana the late Bro . Herman Carter had both declared that it was in the Grand Secretary ' s office after Bro . Austin ' s death . On one occasion I spent a morning in his office turning over scores of dusty old

parchments , warrants of old New York Lodges that had ceased work . When I got through my hands were as black as the ace of spades and I had to confess that i was beaten , so much so that Bro . Ehlers smiled at my wasted time and said : ' Bro . Robertson , I told you so / But all things come to him who

waits . I always insisted that the warrant would turn up ; indeed , I often wondered how the Grand Secretary stood my frequent reminders , for I was very persistent . But Ehlers is a prince in good nature and only expressed a wish that some day my ' hope deferred ' would be realised . Well , sure enoup-h

it was . A Brother from the northern part of New York called on Bro . Ehiers one morning about three years ago to talk about American Masonic history , for the Grand Secretary is well informed and most interesting on all that concerns the early history of the Craft in the state . During the

Conversation Ehlers said : ' New York is the only state that has a Provincial warrant from England and I have it in the safe . ' ' Let me see it , ' said his friend . ' I will , ' replied Ehlers , and with this stepped briskly to the strong room and opened one of the safes . Armed with his precious parcel he returned to

the Grand Master ' s room , where his friend was sitting . Here he opened the large envelope , unfolded the Provincial warrant and in doing so found another smaller parchment within the larger one . This he also opened , and what do you suppose the smaller package was ? Why , nothing but the long-lost

Detroit warrant of 1764 , which for safety had been carefully preserved within the folds of the Provincial Grand Lodge warrant for probably fifty years . Bro . Ehlers was more than delighted . The long-sought-for parchment had in due course

turned up and , in accordance with resolution of Grand Lodge , was sent to Zion Lodge at Detroit . Thanks to Bro . Ehlers I have been able to reproduce the warrant full size in my history of Zion Lodge . "

" What records have you of early Upper Canadian Lodges ?" " I have the manuscript minutes of a few of the Niagara Lodges from 1795 , but the minute books of the first Provincial Grand Lodge are not to the fore . I have , however , a

fair lot of the proceedings of the Provincial Grand Lodge at Niagara , for each Lodge was supplied with a copy of these minutes . Then I have type-written copies of the minutes of Barton Lodge at Hamilton from 1796 . I remember that they charged ten dollars for the first step . Bro . Davenport

Phelps was the first W . M . He was a great friend of Chief Joseph Brant . The old chief visited the Lodge and listened to a sermon preached by Phelps when he was W . M . Bro . Phelps was afterwards rector of an Anglican Church at Geneva , N . Y . The papers and records of Barton Lodge are

Hunting For Manuscripts.

in splendid condition , all classified and indexed , thanks to Bro . A . T . Freed , of Hamilton . Then there is old No . 6 at Kingston , now Ancient St . John ' s . Its history is more perfect and continuous than any of the early Lodges . It hasn ' t one break . "

" Was not the Niagara district a good Masonic centre , with plenty . of records ? " " Yes , in a way . The town of Niagara with all its old Lodges has only the records of one private Lodge , but Grimsby Lodge , No . 15 , of 1799-1822—that was the Lodge

at the Forty Mile Creek—has complete records . This Lodge did a little business on its own , account . It bought two swarms" of bees and went into the manufacture of honey . Two of the Brethren managed the swarms and the profits were shared by the Ledge . This Lodge , however , ceased

work from 1812-16 during the war . Union Lodge , which met at Ancaster and Dundas , had a short but eventful history . John Brant , a son of the chief , was its Secretary . I ' ve given in my history facsimiles of his writing . " " Were all these manuscripts easily found ? "

" Well , it was easy to find some of them and hard to find others . "

" I suppose you found all the old minute books you wanted ? " " Yes , whenever a Lodge had an old minute book I was always welcome to it . Rawdon Lodge , the first in Little York ( now Toronto ) , had minutes that long

sinceperhaps fifty years ago—disappeared . I have a certified copy made by Bro . Alfio de Grassi in 1849 , but even then four pages—the first four—are missing . Then I have the

minutes of St . John ' s Royal Arch Lodge , No . 16 , which met in Toronto in 1800 , succeeding to the antiquity of Rawdon . My impression is that the first four pages of the minutes of Rawdon will never be found . "

" But , Bro . Robertson , why is it more difficult to get manuscripts than pictures ? " " Now that is going back to the beginning . Well , in hunting- for pictures you have a fairly well defined area for research . You have the great libraries of England , the

British Museum and the Guildhall m London , and you have the Lenox and Astor libraries in New York , and the library of Congress at Washington . The best library I know fox my purposes is the library of the Grand Lodge of England . I found a number of Kingston Convention documents there ,

as well as volume upon volume of Masonic periodical literature for 1800-60 . Then in Canada the library of Parliament at Ottawa has many books containing Canadian pictures of use in illustrating Masonic history . So has the Public Library at Toronto . The collection of Canadiania in the

Toronto Library is the best in Canada—if not in the world . Then the Chateau Ramsey , the old residence of the Governors of Quebec , has a fine collection of steel engravings . My own collection has given me many of my best reproductions . I think 1 nave about 10 , 000 Canadian

pictures and portraits , so you see I have a fair number to select from . These include about 2 , 000 connected with Masonry . I have , as well , every picture—about a hundredthat Mrs . Simcoe made while in Canada from 1792-6 . You have tO' hunt for these pictures if you want them . You can

pick up a lot in the second-hand l ecture and book shops of London and New Y ' ork and Paris . So that your quest is in the libraries , the shops and the private collections . The

picture shops and old booK stores have treasures m books and pictures . But that is the story I gave you on the ' Lucania ' last June . " " What about manuscripts ? "

" Well , hunting for manuscripts is a good deal like hunting for a needle in a haymow . You are never certain of your find until you have your hand on it . Canadian Masonic manuscripts have queer hiding places . Through the kindness of Bro . Sadler , the sub-librarian of the Grand

Lodge of England , I obtained nearly three hundred manuscripts relating to Canada . Many of these had been put away in the vaults at Freemasons' Flail eighty or ninety years ago . Yes , some of them as early as 1800 . In Canada I have had a lively search for hidden manuscripts .

" An old certificate of William Emery , issued by Lodge No . 9 , Cornwall , one of the Jarvis Lodges in 1 799 was found between the leaves of a family Bible at AVilliamstown in Stormont County . " The minutes of New Oswegatchie Lodge , which met