The First American Lodge in CHINA

by Kit Haffner, FPS

Beginnings

The first evidence that we have of
Freemasonry in China exists in the
records of the Grand Lodge of Sweden.
The third Lodge in that country, called
Salomon a trois Serrures (Solomon of
the Three Locks), at labor in the sea-
port of Gothenburg, initiated seven of fi-
cers of the Swedish East India Company
in 1756 and 57, and gave them a charter
to meet whenever they reached a port.
On the ship Prince Carl they reached
Canton, nowadays more logically spelt
Guangzhou, during the winter of
1759/60. There seems little doubt that
they met in the 'factories' (offices and
warehouses for 'factors') there, leaving
behind a Masonic club when the ship re-
turned to Sweden. The English followed
with a Lodge in their factory in 1767,
but both had closed by 1813.

With the opening of Hong Kong and
the Treaty Ports in 1842, English
Lodges were started, with two in Hong
Kong and one in Shanghai by 1849 .
Those were hard years, and the young
Lodges were almost extinguished, but
by the early 1860s things had changed
and everyone, Chinese and sojourner,
began to look forward to renewed pros-
perity and stability. But there were only
the three English Lodges, and other na-
tionalities, Americans amongst them,
were working within the 'Provincial
Grand Lodge of British Freemasons in
China.' But the Scots, ever intolerant of
English control, first started a Lodge in
1864 called Cosmopolitan No. 428
(which is still at labour in Hong Kong
and of which I am a Past Master). Its
chosen name was testimony to the wide-
spread interest in the Craft amongst all
nationalities. But then it was the turn of
the Americans to start a Lodge on their
own.

Hong Kong and Shanghai were essen-
tially different. Hong Kong was ceded
territory and formed a rather sleepy col-
ony in the tropical south of China. The
prosperous port of Shanghai was an in-
ternational settlement of a much
smaller land area, which abutted a
smaller French settlement and the 'na-
tive city,' more of a small town on a bare
mud flat in the 1840s. Justice and law
were administered within the Settle-
ment by consular courts, so that an
American would have been tried under
American law by his own Consul, the
same for the British, the Germans, the
Italians, the Dutch and so on. It can
readily be imagined that the system had
its anomolies, but most of the other gov-
emmental functions were exercised by a
democratically elected Municipal Coun-
cil which worked very well. Shanghai
was blessed with a marvellous climate
and a rich hinterland well served by a
number of rivers, and it was immensely
prosperous after 1860.

Ancient Landmark Lodge

Almost contemporaneously with the
display of Scottish Masonic indepen-
dence from England a petition was sent
by a number of American Masons resid-
ing in Shanghai to the Grand Lodge of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
for a dispensation to found a Lodge,
and this was granted. Its name was to be
Ancient Landmark. The first meeting
was held on May 9th, 1864 in the home
of Bro. H.W. Boone, with Bro. Charles
Eugene Hill in the chair as first Master.
The fact that eight petitions for degrees
and six affiliations were considered
shows that there was indeed a need for
an American Lodge in Shanghai at that
time.

At the meeting held on December
26th that year, a letter of hearty con-
gratulations from the Grand Master,
William Parkinson was read. This con-
gratulated the Lodge on its initial suc-
cess but urged 'extreme caution' in the
selection of candidates and the necessity
for very thorough instruction of new
members.

Early members were indeed very en
thusiastic, and Bro. L.P. Ward, the
first secretary, was in later years fre-
quently absent from Shanghai on busi
ness, and wrote in reminding members
to follow the great moral teachings of
the Order and to be individually exam-
ples of the moral light of Masonry. The
United States was at this time in the.
throes of the Civil War, and in April
1865, the Lodge demonstrated its loyal-
ty by sending fifty pounds sterling to the
'Boston Branch of the U.S. Government'
for the purpose of 'diminishing as far as
possible the horrors of war.'

Constitution by Brother Dunlop

The documentation to prove the
Lodge worthy of constitution was sent
off to Boston, and in due course a
charter was received. The Lodge was
formally constituted on September 5th,
1865 as the Master was installed and Of-
ficers invested. The ceremony was car-
ried out by a 'Wor Bro. Dunlop,' who
must be presumed to be Ludovic Grant
Dunlop .

This Bro. Dunlop was a Scot, born in
1832 and initiated, passed and raised in
Lodge Cannongate Kilwinning No. 2,
Edinburgh, all three degrees on 7
January 1857, apparently because he
was about to leave for China. He made
rapid progress in Shanghai Masonry,
and in 1860 was Senior Warden of the
senior English Lodge, the Northern
Lodge of China No. 832. He was Master
next year, and progressed in turn in
Zion Chapter which, in accordance with
English Masonic law, was attached to
and bore the same number as his
Lodge. Incidentally, at that time the
famed Masonic historian Robert Freke
Gould was Secretary of the Municipal
Council of the Shanghai International
Settlement, and was Master of the
Northern Lodge.

Bro. Dunlop had been an active par-
ticipant in the consecration of Lodge
Cosmopolitan (British jurisdictions do
not require a period under dispensation
prior to consecration, so the Scottish
Lodge was by this time a year ahead of
its American sister) and in the laying by
Bro. Gould of the foundation stone of a
new Temple for all jurisdictions on the
Bund (waterfront). It was probably for
this reason that he was picked to consti-
tute the Massachusetts Lodge, despite his
lack of American Masonic experience.

A letter was read from the Grand
Master of Massachusetts at the conclu-
sion of the ceremony, appointing Bro.
J.B. Eames as the first District Deputy
Grand Master. RW Bro. Eames was even-
tually to return to the United States in
1877. Another letter was read from the
Master of a new English Lodge, the
Tuscan No. 1027 (still working as
Shanghai Tuscan in London), saying
that, "The working of this Lodge has
been the subject of many remarks
among the different Lodges in Shanghai
and was particularly noticed and emu-
lated by my Lodge." This is the kind of

The Philalethes-April, 1990
sentiment which, no matter how gener-
ous in Masonic spirit it may be, is the
bane of the life of a District Grand
Director of Ceremonies attempting to
keep his Lodge free from 'foreign' influ-
ence in open Masonic territoryl But it
serves to show that the new Lodges of
this era were not founded out of animos-
ity, but from a mutual recognition of
genuine patriotic pride and search for
Masonic knowledge.

Bro. Dunlop was not to serve the
Craft for much longer. A couple of
months later, having travelled eight
hundred miles south to Hong Kong, he
died. His grave is still evident as No.
3226 in Hong Kong's Happy Valley
cemetery. In Ancient Landmark Lodge,
this called forth 'eloquent tributes to his
virtues and sincere expressions of
regret.' The Lodge of which he had
been Master went into mourning for six
months, normally only the practice on
the death of a Grand Master, and voted
to erect a stained glass window in the
new Shanghai Anglican Cathedral in his
memory. Few are the brethren who have
had Lodges do this upon their early
demise.

Early Activities

The Lodge participated in the Execu-
tive Committee for a new Masonic Hall
and witnessed the laying of the founda-
tion stone by the English Provincial
Grand Master. The Lodge also took
part in full regalia at the laying of the
foundation stone for the Anglican Ca-
thedral on the birthday of Queen Vic-
toria in 1866.

A less happy event was the barbarous
murder by 'natives' of Bro. Ballard
Preston about thirty miles from Soeul,
Korea, whilst there as Master of a
trading schooner.

Such was the admiration of all na-
tionalities in Shanghai for the monarch
of Britian that the Lodge participated
in a public procession in full regalia to
mark the golden jubilee of Queen Victo-
ria's reign, possibly the only American
Lodge in the world that did so.

The installation meeting for 1878 was
attended by seventy-one Master Masons,
the largest attendance at the Lodge to
that date. It was also the first official
visit of RW Bro. Cornelius Thorne who
was the District Grand Master of North-
ern China under the United Grand
Lodge of England (overseas Provinces
became 'Districts' in 1866). The Master
surrendered the gavel to Bro. Thorne
and asked him to carry out the installa-
tion working. This was happily accep-
ted, and indeed the English District in-
stalled the Master and Officers of An-
cient Landmark until 1885, when Bro.
Thorne retired as District Grand Mas-
ter. The Master first installed by Bro.
Thorne was W. Bro. D.C. Jansen, who
in 1892 became the next District Deputy
under Massachusetts.

The Lodge was honoured by a visit
from the future Grand Master of Eng-
land, RW Bro. His Royal Highness the
Duke of Connaught, in May 1892, again
a testimony to the unity of brethren of all
races and nationalities. His Highness was
then a District Grand Master in India.

Because of the lack of good schools
for children who were not Roman Cath-
olics, the Masonic fraternity of Shang-
hai had founded a public school. This
was soon taken over by the Municipali-
ty, but Masonic interest remained and
its pupils were recognized by its square
and compass badge on their uniforms
until the school was closed by the Pacific
War. At the December 1985 meeting
the brethren unanimously decided to
establish the 'Ancient Landmark Prize'
at the Shanghai Public School, in paral-
lel with several other Lodges.

The Lodge was said to have reached
its 'highest state of perfection' during
the years 1897-98 when Bro. the Revd.
John Reside Hykes was in the chair. It is
recorded that every officer was so well
acquainted with every office that each
could take over from another at a mo-
ment's notice. Equally, the candidates
were so well prepared that they could
take over any junior office upon becom-
ing a Master Mason.

The Revd. J.R. Hykes, DD, had re-
ceived his three degrees on October 9,
1891 in Cumberland Valley Lodge No.
315 of Shippenburg, Pennsylvania--like
Bro. Dunlop, all on the same occasion.
He affiliated to Ancient Landmark in
1895, served as Senior Warden in 1896
and was elected to the chair for the two
following years. He was commissioned
as District Deputy on the last day of
1902. He achieved equal prominence in
all the American 'higher' degrees which
were to be established in the Far East.
Masonic records say nothing of his
career within the church, except that a
long oration was given at his funeral by
the senior missionary of his organization
in China, and that he was so favourably
impressed with the institution that he
later became a Mason himself.

Funerals

It seems strange that the history of a
living Masonic body should be so punc-
tuated by funerals as was that of this
Lodge. It seems that the brethren of
those days were determined to pay a
'last sad tribute of respect to departed
merit' as an essential part of their con-
tinuing activity.

In 1884, Bro. Charles Eugene Hill
the founding Master, died in Yokoha-
ma, Japan, on his way home, and again
the Lodge was plunged into deep moum-
ing. The body was conveyed back to the
States and buried in Jersey City. A
member reported back to Shanghai,
"The day was dark and dreary; still the
brethren assembled at the call of Consis-
tory, Commandery and other Masonic
bodies, and marched several hundreds
strong to the cemetery some two miles
and a half distant, where the remains
were interred with all the grand honours
of the Craft."

RW Bro. Jansen was only to serve as
District Deputy for eighteen months. As
he installed the new Master of Ancient
Landmark in 1894, he was taken seri-
ously ill and expired. The Lodge was
hurriedly closed, only to meet two days
later to inter his body in the New Ceme-
tery of Shanghai, the ceremony being
conducted by Bro. the Revd. J. Stevens,
the Lodge Chaplain, assisted by RW
Bro. Thorne. Three English, one Scot-
tish and Ancient Landmark Lodges
proceeded in full regalia to the cemetery
and back. The English District Grand
Master, RW Bro. J.I. Miller, delivered
the eulogy, speaking of Bro. Jansen as 'a
typical Freemason, a just and upright
man,' saying that, "His labours for the
good of the Settlement and its public
institutions are so well and widely
known, that I will not dwell here upon
them. Whatever he did, he did well."

A Lodge of sorrow was held in Octo-
ber 1901 in memory of Bro. William
McKinley, late President of the United
States, who had been assassinated at
Buffalo, New York.

The funeral of the next English Dis-
trict Grand Master shows something of
the uniqueness of life in Shanghai at the
turn of the century. RW Bro. Lewis
Moore had arrived in the Far East in
1861 and became District Grand Master
in 1896. He was the acknowledged lea-
der of the substantial Jewish communi-
ty. In 1899 he was elected 'Chief of the
voluntary Shanghai Fire Brigade. No
less than nine addresses were given by
Lodges under Massachusetts, Scotland,
the Three Globes of Berlin and English
Lodges in Shanghai, as well as expres-
sions of sympathy from Lodges else-
where in China, the Province of Wor-
chestershire, England, and the District
Grand Lodge of Japan. The procession
to theJewish Cemetery--on a street with
the delightful name of Bubbling Well
Road was headed by the Town Band,
whilst the coffin was conveyed on a fire
truck escorted by mounted Sikh Police
followed by the Fire Brigade and the
rest of the Police Force. The procession
of private carriages was two miles long.

The New Century: a New Spirit

Bro. Hykes was installed as District
Deputy on April 21st, 1903, by W. Bro.
G.A. Derby acting under commission
from the Grand Lodge of Massachu-
setts. Until his installation, English and
Scottish Masonry had been modestly
growing and European jurisdictions
started new Lodges, whilst Ancient
Landmark Lodge continued uninter-
upted on its placid way as the solitary
representative of American Masonry in
China .

Suddenly things changed, and almost
exactly forty years after the petition for
Ancient Landmark had been forwarded
to Boston, in July 1903, two new peti-
tions were read in the Lodge and ap-
proved for submission to Boston. These
were for Peiho Lodge to meet in Tient-
sin (named after the river on which
Tientsin, now spelt Tianjin, is built)
and Orient Lodge in Shanghai. Both
were granted dispensations, and soon to
be followed by charters and then by
petitions for further Lodges. This
change can without doubt be attributed
to the dynamism of Bro. the Revd. J.R.
Hykes.

In the hope that the story so far may
have interested readers of The Phila-
lethes, I will continue with the new ex-
pansionist phase and the development
of 'higher' degrees in a later article.

The Philalethes-April 1990
