February's
Masonic Minute

Masonic Minute – February 2011

The days of 1861- 1865 were dark days indeed. For the country, and Freemasonry. With the continued absence of many brethren and constant departure of others during the civil war, public and private attentions were naturally focused more on the daily news of battles won and lost, of loved ones wounded or killed than on fraternal society matters. These years induced a lukewarmness and induced habits and ritual which were not easily or quickly overcome. By 1868, three years after the close of the war, there existed in Reading, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, a condition which was Masonically speaking, undesirable. the work of the fraternity was frequently performed in an imperfect manner by officers who failed to make themselves fully conversant in it. Masonic dress was overlooked. In fact so little interest was paid the fraternity, that desirable persons ceased making application for membership. It was also rumored that a number of such men had knocked at the door for admission and failed to find it open to them. This condition could not long endure... a reformation ... a revival was in the wind.

Good men and brethren in Reading, to whom the fraternity was very dear, gave the matter serious thought and considerations. They realized the futility of attempting to effect the needed reforms in those Lodges already in existence. Better to start with a clean slate. Thus it was on July 6, 1868 that bros. Frederic Boas, John McKnight, Edward H. Sherer, Edward P. Boas, William G. McGowan, Thomas F. Hemmich, Henry May Keim, Reese W. Frescoln, Christopher Loeser, and Albert A. Simon presented their resignations to Lodge No. 62 for the purpose of forming a new Masonic Lodge.
A Lodge to be called, "St. John's Lodge".

And so it was, that on the first day of March, 1869, at High Noon, in the Masonic Hall of the American House, on the southwest corner of Fourth and Penn Streets in Reading was constituted in Ancient Form, a Lodge of High Ritualistic Standards, a Lodge proficient in "the work", a Lodge so distinguished it was amiably known as the "Silk Stocking Lodge." It was the birth of a new era in freemasonry. It was the birth of St. John's Lodge No. 435.

February's Masonic Minute

February's
Masonic Minute