About us…
Primum in Occidentem
Multnomah Lodge # 1 is the oldest Masonic Lodge west of the Missouri River.
Multnomah Lodge No. 1 was formed after an advertisement was placed in the first issue of the Oregon City Spectator in February 1846. A total of seven Freemasons, led by Joseph Hull, P.G. Stewart, and William P. Dougherty, signed a petition to the Grand Lodge of Missouri for a charter for a lodge in Oregon City, to be known as Multnomah Lodge with the number 84.
The charter was granted in 1846, although the document did not arrive in Oregon City until 1848. In 1848, the Masons met in the second floor of a log store near Willamette Falls. In 1850, Captain John C. Ainsworth was elected the first Worshipful Master in the Oregon Territory under the Missouri charter.
A new Grand Lodge
In 1851, representatives from three Oregon Territory lodges met to consider forming the Grand Lodge of Oregon — Multnomah Lodge # 84 (Missouri), Willamette Lodge # 11 (California) and Lafayette Lodge # 15 (California). The Grand Lodge of Oregon was founded on September 15, 1851. The charters of the three lodges were turned in, but instead of issuing new charters, the new Grand Lodge of Oregon endorsed the originals, renaming the three lodges Multnomah # 1, Willamette # 2, and Lafayette # 3.
The original charter of Lafayette # 3 (now Union # 3 in McMinnville, Oregon) is still in existence. It is in the vault of the Grand Lodge of Oregon. The original charters of the other two were destroyed by fire. In 2014, a replacement charter was issued in Missouri for Multnomah Lodge # 84 and endorsed by the current Grand Masters of Missouri and Oregon. The first charter actually issued by the Grand Lodge of Oregon was to Salem No. 4 on June 21, 1852, at the first Annual Communication.
This replacement charter is stored in the vault of the Grand Lodge of Oregon in the original trunk that carried the first charter from Missouri to Oregon in 1846-1848.
The new Territory
The Oregon Territory in 1848
In June of 1846, a treaty with the British was concluded by the US establishing the border between the US and Canada at the 49th parallel. On March 2, 1853, the Oregon Territory was split into two smaller territories — the Oregon Territory and the Washington Territory.
The Oregon & Washington Territories in 1853
