MASONRY AMONG THE ABORIGINES.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3173, 21 April 1879, Page 3

MASONRY AMONG THE ABORIGINES.

We have often heard it asserted and as often agfiin denied, that Masonry exiated among the " savage tribes " of America, when the white man first reached that continetit. We have lately come across the following in the Masonic Eeview, purporting to be a portion of an address by Bro S. H. English, Past G.H.P. of Chapter Masonry in the United States: —" During the "Revolution, Washington held a travelling Lodge in his tent, and on one occasion Bed Jacket, a venerable Indian; chief, left his own camp and reposing warriors at night, and visited the Lodge of his white brother. Washington received and treated him with fraternal kindness, and when he departed, jjave him a Masonic jewcfl, which.his grandson, an educated man and Masop, r exhibited to the General Grand Chaffer/ at Chicago, in 1859." Again— "In lihe early settling of Ohio, Bift. Samuel Eeed, from whom we pbtained our corrected work and lectures, knew a SenecaV who, on being asked where the Bed men obtained their Masonry, an-swered,-'from the Great Spirit;' and on being asked how long they had had-it ambpg'them, replied, 'Ever since the rivers began to now, and the grass and trees to grow.'"