Excerpt from History of the M. W. Grand Lodge of Illinois, Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons: From the Organization of the First Lodge Within the Present Limits of the State Up to and Including 1850 The importance of preparing a history of the Grand Lodge of Illinois was first suggested by M. W. Bro. Dills, in his address delivered to the Grand Lodge, October 5th, 1868, as follows: "I have obtained, during the year, the following information relative to the existence of a former Grand Lodge of Illinois, but have failed to find any of the records, although I have sought for them diligently. I visited R.W. Henry H.Snow, who was D.G. Master as late as 182 G, and who is now old and infirm He informed me that there was a regular Grand Lodge of this State previous to 1827, and that to the best of his knowledge the time of its annual convocation was in December; that the last meeting was held in the winter of 1827-8; that grand officers were elected at that time, but that he does not now remember who the Grand Secretary was, or in what part of the State he resided. He also stated to me that there were some ten or twelve Lodges working in the State at the time, but that the following year, during the fiery persecutions which prevailed in the country, the Grand Master died or removed, work was suspended, and never resumed. "I have also been favored with a copy of the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Missouri for the years 1824 and 1825, from the W. M.of Franklin Lodge No.25, on the 18th page of which I find that their Committee on Foreign Correspondence recognized an existing Grand Lodge of Illinois. This is about all the information I have been able to obtain, and I now request the brethren of the subordinate Lodges in this State, or any brethren out of it, that if they can give any information which pertains to the early history of Masonry in this State, to communicate it to the Grand Secretary of this Grand Lodge, by whom it will be thankfully received. In speaking of the action of the Grand Lodge of Maine, in providing for a history of Masonry in that State, the Committee on Correspondence of 1858 remarked as follows: "It seems to your committee that something of the kind should be attended to in this State. "Several of the Lodges on our present registry obtained their charters from other jurisdictions, and as long ago as 1824 (and how long before we do not know), a Grand Lodge existed in this State, which afterwards went down, or was dissolved. After its dissolution, several Lodges in Marion, Montgomery, and other counties in that region, became identified with the Grand Lodge of Missouri, and constituted a district, of which Bro. Boyakin, formerly a member of our State Legislature, as late as 1847 was D. D. G. M. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.