After the Revolutionary War was concluded
there came the great westward surge of Americans in search of land and new
opportunities. Several Masonic Brethren settled at what is now Marietta, Ohio.
Across the Muskingum River from Marietta was Fort Harmar, among whose officers
was Capt. Jonathan Heart, Worshipful Master of American (Army) Union Lodge. This
had been chartered as a military Lodge under St. John's Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts on February 15, 1776. When this Lodge moved to New York shortly
after it was chartered, the Brethren obtained from Dr. Peter Middleton, Grand
Master of the Province of New York, permission to meet on April 23, 1776. In
that same month he granted them a new Warrant under the name of Military Union
Lodge No. 1. The Brethren, however, referred to the Lodge as American Union
Lodge.
On June 28, 1790, Bro. Jonathan Heart and a number of Marietta Masons opened
American Union Lodge in that community, and thus it was that Freemasonry
formally appeared in what is now Ohio.
A few years later the Charter of American Union Lodge was destroyed by fire. The
Brethren applied to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for a Charter but were
refused. They then asked Massachusetts to renew their Warrant and were granted
permission to work under their old Charter until such time as a Grand Lodge was
formed having jurisdiction over the territory in which they were located.
On January 4, 1808, American Union Lodge No. I met with representatives of
Cincinnati Lodge No. 13, Erie Lodge No. 47, Scioto Lodge No. 2, and Amity Lodge
No. 105 to establish a Grand Lodge in Ohio. After four days they adopted a
resolution to form such a Grand Lodge, electing Bro. Rufus Putnam as Grand
Master, and setting the first Monday in January, 1809 (January 2), as the date
for the first Communication, which was to be in Chillicothe, the state capital.
When they convened on this date, American Union Lodge was not represented. Since
it seemed advisable, or at least desirable, to the other representatives to have
delegates present from all the Lodges which participated in the formation of the
Grand Lodge the preceding year, they waited for three days for the arrival of a
representative from American Union Lodge. Finally, deciding that none was
coming, on January 5, 1809, they adopted the same Constitution as that of the
Grand Lodge of Kentucky, and installed their officers.
Bro. Rufus Putnam having declined because of age and ill health to accept the
position of Grand Master, they elected Bro. Samuel Huntington, governor of Ohio,
Grand Master of Masons for 1809.
Thus it was that The Grand Lodge of F. & A. M. of Ohio came into being.