The First Masonic Lodge in Buchanan County U.S.A.
The Constitution of the United States was only 54 years of age when the petition for a Dispensation to create the first Masonic Lodge in Buchanan County was applied through Liberty Lodge No.31, Missouri, issued May 11th 1841 by RWB. Joseph Foster, Deputy Grand Master, Secretary ProTem, Grand Lodge of Missouri U.S.A., named Katzell Lodge to be located in the village of Sparta.
Eli Hubbel was elected by the Brethren to be the first Worshipful Master, John Browning, Senior Warden; R. Duncan, Treasurer; Frederick Waymore, Secretary; and J. Selsil, Tiler. James Highly was also a charter member. Eli Hubbel was originally a member of Wisdom Lodge located in Massachusetts, John Browning from Liberty Lodge No.31 Missouri, Simeon Kemper from Montgomery Lodge No.23 Kentucky, Frederick Waymore from Lipton Lodge No.33 Indiana. Also chartered with this first Dispensation were John Edgar from Libery Lodge No.31, Cornelius Gilliam from the Lodge at Jefferson City, Missouri and S.K. Waymore from Lipton Lodge No.33 in Indiana. Katzell Lodge, met in regular stated communications until a Charter was issued and its name changed to Sparta Lodge No.46 at the next Grand Lodge proceedings October 8th 1842.
Fifteen years earlier in 1827, there was a Trading Post along the Missouri River at the mouth of Blacksnake Creek, owned and operated by Joseph Robidoux, who traded with the Native Americans in the region including the Pottawatomie, Musquakee, Kickapoo, Iowa and Otto. Robidoux made an arrangement with the American Fur Company a few years before to operate a business called Blacksnake Hills, and for many years Robidoux was the only evidence of European settlement as far North as Council Bluffs, Iowa and South to Independence, Missouri. With a large log house surrounded by a stockade built by Robidoux himself he conducted his business.
There were no cameras with which to record a picture of the Blacksnake Hills Trading Post but the journal of Richard Hayes McDonald from Kentucky wrote a description at the time. The journal is now kept in the Library of Commonwealth of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia: "From his cousin's home, Richard went to where the city of St. Joseph is now located, and where the only occupant and owner of a business house was a Frenchman named Robidoux who had lived there a number of years as an Indian Trader, and who was at that time still engaged in the occupation. He was moving around dressed in an old, red flannel shirt, his trousers strapped around his waist, on his head a slouched hat, and so tanned and weather-beaten that is was difficult to tell whether he was a white man, a mulatto, or an Indian. his establishment consisted of three log-cabins, one or more of which were filled with furs of otter, beaver, buffalo, deer, bear, and other skins; in the other buildings were stored provisions, trinkets and supplies for the Indians, the latter chiefly in whiskey, tobacco, and liquors. The old man seemed to be a very energetic and enterprising shrewd business manager. He was familiar with several dialects of Indian language, and was highly respected by all the natives who dealt with him...' 'From this Trading Outpost grew the city of St. Joseph, in many respects, perhaps, the most promising city west of St. Louis and East of the Rocky Mountains.
St. Joseph Lodge No.78Eli Hubbel was elected by the Brethren to be the first Worshipful Master, John Browning, Senior Warden; R. Duncan, Treasurer; Frederick Waymore, Secretary; and J. Selsil, Tiler. James Highly was also a charter member. Eli Hubbel was originally a member of Wisdom Lodge located in Massachusetts, John Browning from Liberty Lodge No.31 Missouri, Simeon Kemper from Montgomery Lodge No.23 Kentucky, Frederick Waymore from Lipton Lodge No.33 Indiana. Also chartered with this first Dispensation were John Edgar from Libery Lodge No.31, Cornelius Gilliam from the Lodge at Jefferson City, Missouri and S.K. Waymore from Lipton Lodge No.33 in Indiana. Katzell Lodge, met in regular stated communications until a Charter was issued and its name changed to Sparta Lodge No.46 at the next Grand Lodge proceedings October 8th 1842.
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| Survey of the Missouri Territory 1827 |
There were no cameras with which to record a picture of the Blacksnake Hills Trading Post but the journal of Richard Hayes McDonald from Kentucky wrote a description at the time. The journal is now kept in the Library of Commonwealth of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia: "From his cousin's home, Richard went to where the city of St. Joseph is now located, and where the only occupant and owner of a business house was a Frenchman named Robidoux who had lived there a number of years as an Indian Trader, and who was at that time still engaged in the occupation. He was moving around dressed in an old, red flannel shirt, his trousers strapped around his waist, on his head a slouched hat, and so tanned and weather-beaten that is was difficult to tell whether he was a white man, a mulatto, or an Indian. his establishment consisted of three log-cabins, one or more of which were filled with furs of otter, beaver, buffalo, deer, bear, and other skins; in the other buildings were stored provisions, trinkets and supplies for the Indians, the latter chiefly in whiskey, tobacco, and liquors. The old man seemed to be a very energetic and enterprising shrewd business manager. He was familiar with several dialects of Indian language, and was highly respected by all the natives who dealt with him...' 'From this Trading Outpost grew the city of St. Joseph, in many respects, perhaps, the most promising city west of St. Louis and East of the Rocky Mountains.Chartered October 14th 1846
In 1842 Robidoux contracted two surveyors to create plats for a town he had proposed to build next to his Outpost in the area previously named Saint Michael's Meadow by the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804. Meriwether Louis, in his journal on July 7th 1804, wrote that where they camped along the Missouri River that day reminded him of the woodland prairies of his home in Virginia. Brother Frederick W. Smith and Simeon Kemper, both members of Sparta Lodge No.46 surveyed plats for the new town. Smith named is plat Saint Joseph after Robidoux's Patron Saint and Simeon Kemper named his plat Robidoux. Frederick Smith's plat was selected and was recorded at St. Louis, Missouri in July 1843. The population at the time was about 200.
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| Artist's conception of St. Joseph in 1858 looking Northwest toward Wyeth Hill, The Missouri River and the future site of the Court House built in 1871. |
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| Detail of a Period Poster "Bird's Eye View" Saint Joseph 1868. |
Sparta to St. Joseph. DeWitt Lodge met in regular stated communications for the remaining year until the Charter was granted as a Masonic Lodge under the name of St. Joseph Lodge No.78 at the annual Grand Lodge Communication on October 14th 1846. Sinclair K. Miller was the first Worshipful Master; Simeon Kemper, Senior Warden; and James Highly first Junior Warden. Within the first year Samuel E. Love would be the Lodge's first Secretary. Although Joseph Robidoux was not known to be a Freemason, one of his 6 sons Felix, was a charter member of St. Joseph's first Masonic Lodge. On May 5th 1845 WB Sinclair K Miller was elected on the first Board of Trusties for the City of St. Joseph and was a member of the St. Joseph City Council in 1851. In 1850 he was elected State Representative of the District that included St. Joseph, Missouri at the time. He became superintendent of the Marysville, KS Palmetto & Roseport R.R. in 1860. The Palmetto & Roseport Railroad was an early extension of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad across the Missouri River to Marysville, Kansas..William R. Penick, Worshipful Master of St. Joseph Lodge No.78 in 1858, was the 21st Grand Master of Missouri in 1861. 1861 is also known as the year of the "Rebellion", and the beginning of the Civil War. From the first Post Office, the Pony Express carried President Lincoln's Inaugural Address west to Sacramento, CA. and Confederate and Union men, some of whom were Masonic Brethren, battled in the streets of St. Joseph and citizens watched as the
American Flag was torn from the Post Office flag pole by an angry mob. R.W.B. Penick entered the Union Army in 1862 as a Colonel in the 2nd Regiment, Missouri Militia and wrote his address to the Annual Grand Lodge Communication from the field.Such is the beginnings of Freemasonry and its travel to the town of St. Joseph, Missouri in the United States of America.
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