Petition Handwritten for Degrees of Freemasonry – 1874
First time in this jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Oregon that a hand written petition for the mysteries of the Ancient Craft has been located. The question of how a man requested the degrees at a lodge has always been there. Was there a form back in the 19th century for the degrees or was it always handwritten by the petitioner and submitted for review and vote?
Beautiful piece of history!
I had no idea that kind of printed, lined notebook paper existed at that time.
I would agree WB David. There are many surprises to these early correspondences. I assumed at this time in the early Oregon Territory that there would be less detailed correspondence because of the rural areas of the time. There appears to be access to the printing companies of the east coast. Much research needs to be done on this.