Happy 261st Birthday, Harmony Lodge!

It is commonly known that the Masonic Lodge in Beaufort is among the oldest in South Carolina.  In fact, today, just might be its 261st birthday.  The South Carolina Gazette newspaper reported on January 10, 1752 that:

The 27th ult., (December 1751,) being the Festival of St. John the Evangelist, at 10 o'clock, the members of a Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons met at the house of Mr. Nathaniel Greene, at Beaufort, (on Port Royal Island,) and at 11, went in procession from thence, properly clothed with the ensigns of their Order, to church, to attend Divine Service, where, after prayers, an excellent sermon, suitable to the occasion, was preached by their late worthy Master, the Rev. Mr. Peaseley.  From church they returned in the same processional order to Mr. Greene's, where an elegant entertainment was provided, to which all the company of note on the Island were previously invited.  After dinner and the usual healths drank, the whole was concluded with the greatest order and good fellowship.  The procession was saluted by a discharge of the cannons from all the vessels in the harbor, both at going to, and returning from, church.

Cited in  The History of Freemasonry in South Carolina. From Its Origin in the Year 1736 to the Present Time by Albert G. Mackey, Columbia, SC: South Carolina Steam Power Press, 1861; Reprinted for Solomon's Lodge No. 1, AFM, 1936.   Available in the BDC under call number SC 366 MAC, p. 22.

For more about the somewhat confusing dates and names related to what we now know as "Harmony Lodge No. 41", read "History of Harmony Lodge No. 22 from A.D. 1756 - A.D. 1983, A.L. 5756 - A.L. 5983," compiled by Robert Pinkston at http://afm22.org/history.htm.

Reminder: The Research Room is closed for lunch, Noon - 1 pm, for the rest of the week.