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A History of Dodge County Lodge #72 Free & Accepted Masons by Richard L Larson
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Rated "G" by the Author.
This excerpt was taken from the book and tells the beginning story of the creation of the lodge in the year 1856
The first meeting of what was to become Dodge County Lodge #72 F & AM was held in a wooden building at 109 Front Street of what was then E. Gogerts store, at a room on the third floor, on February 20, 1856. (This building has since burned down and rebuilt as a two story brick structure and is occupied by a beauty salon called A Cut Above)
The first meeting was U.D. (Under Dispensation) from the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin, located in Milwaukee.
“The lodge opened in due form in the Master Mason degree. The W. Master presented and read the Dispensation under which authority this lodge was to perform its labor. Dispensation was given under the hand and seal of Gabriel Bouch, Deputy Grand
Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Wisconsin, attested to by W. R. Smith, Grand Secretary and dated February 4th AD 1856.”
The following officers were appointed by the Grand Master to serve during the period of U.D.
John Robinson
Worshipful Master
Isaac V. Shaw
Senior Warden
Abram B. Manzer
Junior Warden
These men were all established Masons who had become members of other lodges in and out of state but were interested in starting a lodge in this area. It would have to be assumed that these men presented demits to the Grand Lodge to show that they were
legitmate Masons and were qualified to be involved in the organizing of the lodge in Beaver Dam.
This is the story of the author’s great great grandparents, Edward Lewis and Sarah Crosby, who were convicts transported to Van Diemen’s Land in the 1840s. It is told from the perspective of a detective agency searching for what happened to Edward, w
