Payette County ID Archives News.....History of Washoe Lodge, No. 28, A. F. & A. M. 1942 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/id/idfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Patty Theurer seymour784@yahoo.com September 13, 2005, 1:43 am Independent Enterprise, Payette, Idaho, September 10, 1942 1942 Independent Enterprise Payette, Idaho Sept. 10, 1942 History of Washoe Lodge, No. 28, A. F. & A. M. By Byrom Defenback, Grand Lodge Historian This is the story of the settlement and development of a beautiful and prosperous small western city, and of a fraternal group whose members have contributed somewhat to its progress. Not all of the men herein mentioned were Masons, but this article frankly emphasizes the masonic element. In the year 1805 two distinguished masons made the first white men’s crossing of what is now Idaho; their names were Lewis and Clark; they never got south of the Salmon river. The first white man to cross the Payette river was a scotch mason; he was what you would call a “Big Mason”; he weighted 312 pounds; his name was Donald McKenzie. All he said about the then nameless river is that its waters were cold; as it was in November, 1811, he was doubtless right about it. For several years the chilly river had no name. It is a natural mistake to imagine that streams and other features were christened like we do babies. All creeks and rivers swarmed with beaver and other fur-bearers and beginning with 1818 Hudson Bay trappers ran their lines in every month that had an R in it. For example, there was Jacob Weiser, and Joseph Portneuf whose halfbreed daughter married a smiling roly-poly Frenchman named Francois Payette. The last named trapper was No. 718 on the Hudson’s Bay payrolls; he was postmaster down at Old Fort Boise where Parma is now, at a salary of $300 a year. It is easy to understand how they began speaking of Weiser’s river, or Portneuf’s or Payette’s; the names stuck. In 1854, the Indians massacred the Ward wagon-train over across the Boise; that practically ended the Oregon Trail. White men just disappeared from Idaho. In the spring of 1860 thirteen families settled at Franklin; in August the Otter train was almost annihilated south of the Snake river and gold was discovered up the clearwater. These three events mark the birth of Idaho. Franklin started our Mormon people in; the Otter massacre brought the soldiers, whie the yellow lure at Pierce City drew 15,000 miners. In September, 1862, three Masons met near the top of the continental divide in what later became Idaho territory, and there regularly opened a masonic lodge. At almost exactly the same time, twelve of the brethren were meeting down at the forks of the Snake and the Clearwater and soon afterward were legally organized under the name of “Lewiston Lodge U. D. Jurisdiction of Washington Territory.” Those were terrible days everywhere. Civil war raged east of the mountains while our own section was dominated by the vilest gang of desperados in all northwestern history. Before the big war ended we had driven these brigands across the Rockies; there the Masons hung some fifty of them, thirteen in one day. This final rope rodeo took place on January 13, 1864, at Virginia City, then in Idaho, now in Montana. The Lewiston lodge soon faded out, but in 1865 Idaho Lodge No. 1 built the masonic hall which still stands in Idaho City. By 1867 there were seven regular lodges with 226 members in Idaho and in December their delegates met at Idaho City and formed the present Grand Lodge. Many of those pioneer Masons are still clearly remembered by older men now living but most of them are gone now. To the best of my knowledge the last survivor was Judge R. H. Leonard who just the other day laid down his well worn working tools and turned in his time. The only names of that early group that later came into Payette history were those of J. B. Oldham, Peter Pence and the older Alex Rossi. During all these years from 1811 to 1864 the Old Man River Payette was a lonely stream; its cold current just kept rolling along. But in the last named year David Lamme arrived, just ahead of Peter Pence. In 1867 Charley Toombs built the store which he later sold to Nathan Falk; it was seventeen years later that the railroad came bringing with it A. B. Moss. Our town was incorporated in 1891 and about the first thing they did was to start a masonic lodge. Coming down to 1892, we find Idaho the latest addition to the galaxy of American states. The second Harrison was president Willy was governor, soon to be succeeded by the vigilante William McConnell whose son-in-law, young Will Borah, was practicing law in Boise. Pinney was may of Boise, largest town in the state, followed in size by Montpelier. In September the masonic Grand Lodge, representing 911 Idaho members, met in Boise with John H. Myer of Placerville in the chair. Present and voting were Charles Himrod, Wickersham, Waterhouse, Sherman Coffin, Aulbach and Will Northrop. They granted a charter to a new lodge at Payette, naming it “Washoe, No. 28.” Among the names on this charter will be found such as Rider, Pence, Venable, Chase and A. B. Moss. There were seventeen altogether, and their Master was the Barvarian, Alex Rossi. Another twenty-eight years had gone by when on September 8, 1920, we laid the cornerstone of our present building in Payette. Grand Master Arch Cunningham looked around him on that sunny autumn afternoon and saw Albert White and his son Carl; Henry Ashcroft, Calvin Keller, Fred Moss; Peter Pence; P. Monroe Smock; Colonel Patch and Charley Hurtung. Also Oldham, Venable, Doctor Woodward, Brainard, and the most recent initiate, John McKinney. “Remarks were made,” says the record, “by M. F. Albert and Byron Defenback.” Well, here we are in another September, the 80th for Idaho Masonry and the 50th for Washoe No. 28. We are for the first time entertaining the Grand Lodge. We have 150 members of the 10,000 who make up the Masonry in Idaho. Payette’s river, its waters still cold, runs smoothly along through a beautiful city of 3000 in a land where the red apple has crowded out the cactus and the sage. The wheels of progress do not turn of themselves; it has taken toil and sacrifice to keep them revolving. We older men may well point with pride to the record of our masonic fellows through all these long years. We have done our part in “making the wheels go ‘round.” File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/id/payette/newspapers/historyo26gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/idfiles/ File size: 6.9 Kb