We have again made our pilgrimage down to Madison Indiana to station our youngest Entered Apprentice in the northeast corner of our first Grand Lodge, Schofield House. Brothers traveled from great distances to join us in this great and good work. WB Bill Lane, curator of the establishment, welcomed the brothers of Broad Ripple Lodge #643 with great affability and historical remembrance.
The Schofield House, also known as the Lanier-Schofield House, is an historic building located in the Madison Historic District of Madison, Indiana in 1817. On January 13, 1818 fourteen Masons throughout Indiana met at the upstairs meeting room, after agreeing to establish a Grand Lodge for Indiana. Alexander Lanier was himself a Freemason, and his newly built tavern could support a lodge room being set up in the upstairs meeting room. It was here that the constitution to start the Grand Lodge of Indiana was approved, and five lodges from Indiana demitted from the Grand Lodge of Kentucky to form the initial lodges of the Grand Lodge of Indiana
“Entered Apprentices served their Master in former times, and should in modern times, with Freedom, Fervency and Zeal, represented by Chalk, Charcoal, and Clay. Because there is nothing freer than Chalk, which, upon the slightest touch, leaves a trace behind, nothing more fervent than Charcoal, to which, when properly lighted, the most obdurate metal will yield, nothing more Zealous than Clay, or mother earth, which is constantly employed for man’s use, and is an emblem to remind us that as from It we came, so to it we must also return.” Indiana Monitor and Freemason’s Guide
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40817908@N07/sets/72157631371012040/
