The Grand Lodge of Georgia
Grand Lodge of the Month for July 2024
A band of English colonists under the leadership of James Edward Oglethorpe, a British soldier, statesman, and humanitarian, arrived on the west bank of the Savannah River on February 12, 1733. This was the birth of the English Province of Georgia, the last of the Thirteen Colonies. Georgia was the southwestern frontier of British America for many years. In the same year, December 13, 1733, the Grand Lodge of England at its Quarterly Communication in London adopted a resolution to:
“collect the Charity of this Society towards enabling the Trustees (of Georgia) to send distressed Brethren to Georgia where they may be comfortably provided for....that it be streniously (sic) recommended by the Masters and Wardens of regular Lodges to make a generous collection amongst all their Members for that purpose.”
Some three months later, on February 21, 1734, a Lodge of Freemasons was organized at Savannah under the “old Customs” (without warrant). Noble Jones, intimate friend of James Oglethorpe, was initiated on that date, the first Freemason made in Georgia. On December 2, 1735, the Lodge was warranted by the Grand Lodge of England and entered on the engraved list as “The Lodge at Savannah in Ye Province of Georgia“. It was assigned № 139 on the register of English Lodges. By 1770, its number had been reduced to № 63 and by 1792 it was № 46, although no longer an English Lodge.
The Lodge at Savannah changed its name to Solomon’s Lodge around 1770. In 1774 and 1775, respectively, the Grand Lodge of England warranted two more Lodges in Savannah, Unity № 465 and Grenadiers № 481. Both Lodges died an early death. Except for that brief period, Solomon’s Lodge was the only Lodge in Georgia from 1734 until 1785. Solomon’s Lodge was the second duly constituted Lodge in America, next only to a Lodge in Boston warranted in 1733. Solomon’s Lodge is the Mother Lodge of Georgia.
Grey Elliott served as the Provincial Grand Master from 1760 to 1771 until he was succeeded by Noble Jones. Brother Jones served until his death in 1775. Sometime during the War for Independence, Samuel Elbert, American soldier and later Governor of Georgia, was “elected” Provincial Grand Master. On December 15, 1786, Brother Elbert resigned as Provincial Grand Master so that the independent Grand Lodge of Georgia might be formed.
A group of dissident Freemasons in Savannah, disapproving the workings of Solomon’s Lodge, petitioned the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1784 for a charter to organize a Lodge. Their petition was granted by Pennsylvania on March 31, 1785, and was listed on Pennsylvania’s register as № 42, known as Hiram Lodge, Savannah, Georgia.
In the true spirit of Freemasonry the differences between the two Lodges were soon reconciled. In the following year it is known that two additional Lodges existed in the state, one at Augusta and one at Washington. It is believed these four Lodges, on December 16, 1786, met together and created the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons for the State of Georgia. William Stephens, Past Master of Solomon’s Lodge, now № 1, and the first U. S. Court Judge in Georgia, was elected and installed Grand Master.
The next eight Lodges in Georgia were: Columbia № 3, Augusta; St. Louis № 4, Washington, Ga.; Washington № 5, Washington, Ga.; St. John’s № 6, Sunbury; Little River № 7, Little River; St. Patrick’s № 8, Waynesboro; St. George’s № 9, Kiokas; and Union № 10, Savannah. With the exception of Solomon’s № 1, all of the above Lodges are extinct. Social Lodge, originally № 18, Augusta, Ga., now also № 1, was chartered in December, 1799.
Today Grand Master Benjamin W. Polston presides over more than 400 lodges and 35,000 Georgia brothers.
The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Georgia811 Mulberry Street
Macon, Georgia 31201-6779http://www.glofga.org478-742-1475
