Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts & Archives
User information
Historical sketch
Scope and Content note
Cataloguing information
Processed by
Charles Latham
2 February 1994
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 1 item
COLLECTION DATE: 1826
PROVENANCE: Ed Eckard Books, Indianapolis IN, 25 January 1994
RESTRICTIONS: None
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society
ALTERNATE FORMATS: None
OTHER FINDING AIDS: None
RELATED HOLDINGS: None
ACCESSION NUMBER: 94.0372
The Masonic Order had its American origins in Boston in the early eighteenth century. Many of the country's early leaders were Masons, including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. The Order was organized in Indiana at Madison in 1818. From then until 1826 Grand Lodges met at Jeffersonville, Corydon, Salem, and Madison. Grand Masters for those years included John Tipton and Jonathan Jennings.
The Order used in its documents a slight variation of Archbishop James Ussher's calendar which dated from the Biblical creation of the world in 4004 BC. The Masons used a simplified version, adding 4000 to the Anno Domini year.
James F. D. Lanier, later noted as a banker and railroad financier, moved with his family to Madison in 1817. In 1826 he was twenty-six years old.
Sources: William Wesley Woollen, Biographical and Historical
Sketches of Early Indiana (1883), pp. 489-512
Dictionary of American History, article on Masonry
This collection consists of one item, a broadside of 18 November 5826 (1826), addressed to the Grand Lodge in Montpelier, Vermont, and announcing the election of officers for the ensuing year. The document is signed by J. F. D. Lanier, Grand Secretary, and contains the signatures of the officers: Isaac Howk (a founder of Indiana Historical Society), Elihu Stout, [?] Barker, and John Jacobs.
MAIN ENTRY: Freemasons. Grand Lodge of Indiana
SUBJECT ENTRIES: Freemasons. Grand Lodge of Indiana
Lanier, J. F. D. (James Franklin Doughty), 1800-1881
Howk, Isaac, 1793-1833
Stout, Elihu, 1782-1860
Freemasonry--Indiana--Salem
Freemasonry--Vermont--Montpelier
Salem (Ind.)
END