Our First Worshipful Master Elijah Wadsworth

Posted On April 28, 2022

Educational presentation 4/27/2022

Welcome everybody and thank you for coming tonight.  My name is David Helscel and I am the WM for Western Star Lodge # 21 in Boardman Ohio. 

Now, I am no historian, nor am I a military buff.  But my Lodge was founded by Major General Elijah Wadsworth in 1813, and we celebrated out 200^th re-consecration in 2016, and I put together a history room where I showcased many of the historical items from our lodge including a historical background of Worshipful Brother Elijah Wadsworth.            

Elijah Wadsworth was born November 4^th 1747 in Hartford Connecticut.

Great Grandson of Joseph Wadsworth who in 1687 stole and hid the royal charter of 1662 in defiance of the British rule and to thwart its confiscation by the English governor general and hid it in an oak tree.

This charter will provide the legal precedence necessary to justify the claim of the Connecticut Western Reserve.  And this subtle piece of information will prove important through out our story here today.  You will find that there are many connections that come back and influence Elijah’s life.  Elijah Wadsworth is also allegedly the descendant of Llywelyn the Great who was in the Male line under IL Dracul and his wife Princess Cneajna (K-Knee- a – j-na) of Moldavia – yes…related to that Dracula… He was a black smith by trade in Litchfield Connecticut He was 27 years old when the Revolutionary War broke out. He is noted as being placed in command of the guard who held Major John André. Who was the British spy who was captured during Benedict Arnold’s plot to turn West Point over to the British.

Elijah helped raise and eventually became a captain the 2nd continental light dragoons which amongst their several battles were known as Washington’s personal bodyguard, even foiling an attempt at his kidnap by the British. They also earned the nickname “Washington’s Eyes”, likely because of their spy work.

Another person in the Dragoons from the Connecticut area Major Benjamin Tallmadge who became the spy master who ran one of the most successful spy rings of the war. 

The name may seem familiar to you, Tallmadge Ohio which is just a little NE of Akron is named after him. 

Now, secrecy in the intelligence community of the Revolutionary War was such that even Washington did not know everyone in the group.  But the connections can lead you to assume that some collaboration occurred.  Two men both from prominent families in the same area of New England, who joined the same regiment immediately after the battle of Bunker hill, and after the war Tallmadge moved to the same town that Wadsworth lived in, and who both invested and owned land very near each other in Ohio.  I think it’s likely to assume even in the absence of evidence Wadsworth was a spy. 

I’m sorry to give you bad news… but I found in my research… That on May 9, 1789 an association was formed in Litchfield Connecticut. Signed by 35 men including the town leaders which included Benjamin Tallmadge, and, Elijah Wadsworth, The association promised to “carry on our business, without the use of distilled spirits, as an article of refreshment, either for ourselves, or those whom we employ, and that instead thereof we will serve our workmen with wholesome food, and the common simple drinks of our own production.” 

Your Lodge was created by a sworn prohibitionist and activist in the temperance movement

After the war he invested what monies he had into a little known company named the Connecticut Western Reserve Land Company. 

He purchased 1/60^th share of the 3.4 million acres the reserve was made of.  Which translates to over 56,000 acres or 88 square miles.  Such was the investment that he did not own this all in one chunk, but rather owned portions all over the reserve,

his name can be found from Hudson in the north, Boardman in the East and to the Western most edge of the reserve, the town that’s named after him Wadsworth.  Such was the nature of this investment that the owners were looking to sell as soon as possible to earn a return on their investment, and live off the monies.  But, in order to make the land more valuable it was necessary to populate the land– as the land in a town was worth more than unpopulated fields. So the first sales were to people who were pioneers and willing to build towns and establish farms. This is what happened with the sale of land in 1813 to Daniel Dean  (born in Litchfield Connecticut where Wadsworth was from) and Oliver Durham of Vermont, these 1st settlers in this area, began clearing land in March 1814, on the east line of where Wadsworth is now, a town to be named Western Star.

He spent the summers between 1799 & 1802 commuting to Warren Ohio (if you can call a month long trip a commute)  and surveying the land of the Reserve. In the fall 1802 he returned to Connecticut and sold his home and moved his family to Ohio(a 33 day trip by wagon), he moved on to land that he owned in CAMPfield it was originally named by the surveyors who used it as a camp – this was before its name was changed to CANfield after Judson Canfield. (who owned the most land the town was settled on) – this is the same way Wadsworth got its name, because the town was established in an area where Elijah was the largest land owner.  The location of his original 1803 house is just south of the canfield village green. A non-historical renovation was done but some of the original parts may still be present.

He was the post master general in Canfield, innitially mail came every 2 weeks when a man walked from Canfield to Pittsburgh and back for 6 dollars it was a 6 day round trip.  In 1803 he became Sheriff of Trumbull County. And in 1804 became the Major General of the 4^th division of the Ohio Militia which embraced more than 1/3^rd of the Northern part of the state. When Detroit fell in 1812, Elijah organized a 1500 man militia from Trumbull, Columbiana & Jefferson counties to join the North WEST Army of William Harrison to protect the northern coast from invasion. 

He was 65 years old at the time.  He personally footed the bill to supply his troops with supplies he spent over $26,000 (or an equivalent of over ½ a million dollars today).  He died December 30, 1817 aged 70 years old.  His cause of death was due to complications of a stroke or “shock of the palsy which paralyzed his left side”.   Military history says of him, “The only reward he obtained for his services in the war of 1812, except the approval of his own conscience was a judgment against him for $26.551.02 for purchases he had made to subsist his troops.”  Now, to the honor of Congress and the Nation, however, this judgment was discharged by an act of Congress, but not until he had been dead for years, as the act was passed March 3, 1825.

Let’s get on to the fun stuff… His Masonic heritage…

While living in Warren between 1799 & 1802. He joined Erie lodge #47 of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut (keep in mind Ohio didn’t have a grand lodge until 1808) Internet research says he became Worshipful Master of Erie in 1803, but there is no evidence of this visiting Erie Lodge.  I admit, it was the year Erie was chartered (oct 19^th 1803) and he was not listed on the charter, so without confirmation I’d say if this was true, he was the acting WM prior to Chartering. 

Keep in mind that WB Wadsworth was living in Canfield and traveling to Erie Lodge in Warren, that’s 20 miles one way.  Traversing barely kept trails and dirt roads.  One would expect that would take a 4 hour horseback ride just to get to lodge and then a 4 hour ride home most of us expect that WB Wadsworth would spend the night and head home the next day – which probably would have been best for his horse.  And some complain about spending a few hours at lodge.  Old Erie was the driving force behind the formation of the Grand Lodge of Ohio in 1808 and provided the first Grand Master, Governor Samuel Huntington.  Clearly Elijah would have had input on that.

On January 17^th 1813 a dispensation was issued and John Leavitt master of Erie Lodge, was authorized Institute the new Lodge.

On account of sickness he named judge George Todd as his deputy and on June 8^th 1813 judge Todd consecrated the Lodge at Canfield, Trumbull County, to be named Western Star Lodge No. 21 with Elijah Wadsworth as W. M. other notable names you will recognize as leaders of this region of early Ohio: Boardman SW, Fitch as JD. RWB Whittlesey as treasurer. Well he wasn’t RWB yet, but he would be. The name Western Star was WB Wadsworth’s recommendation.

The Lodge started with 16 members and met at WB Fitch’s home for several years.  Western Star Lodge met “on the Thursday preceding every full moon” and continued under dispensation until a charter was obtained; the charter was presented at a meeting February 8, 1816 and this is an image of the minutes for this meeting.

Just under 2 years later December 1817 Elijah passed.

Western Star continued to grow over the next few decades.  It’s worth noting the name John Northrop who was WM for the first time in 1818, one of our founding members, he was WM again in 1834 when Western Star went dark following the Anti-Masonic movement caused by the Morgan Affair.  Let me quote an excellent explanation written at the time by Old Erie Lodge:

“Seizing on an unfortunate circumstance which occurred in a neighboring State, aspiring political demagogues took up the cry, and then, as now, pandering to the prejudices of the ignorant and uninformed for the purpose of gaining the honors and emoluments of office, raised an anti-Masonic tempest that, aided and encouraged by false Brethren who could readily make merchandise of their honor and sweep over the whole country. It is not however our intention to repeat the story of those times, when to be an avowed Mason was sufficient of itself to brand the man with infamy and yet an allusion must be made to those days in reference to their effect on the subject of which we are writing. Such exterminating zeal and wild fanaticism prevailed that in some towns where the lodges continued to meet, their rooms were broken into and their property publicly destroyed, and such a defection of members who before were considered good and true, that even the really worthy could not maintain their Masonic position in an organized form without incurring the enmity of the public and social ostracism by the community in which they lived.”

“In obedience to public opinion, then so inflamed, and concluding to let time, reason and calm judgement determine the right, many of the lodges in Ohio and in most of the States ceased to work as such. Some of them voluntarily surrendered their charters, some gave them up on the call of the Grand Lodge, while others with colors still unfurled died charter in hand. The charter of Erie Lodge No. 3 was consumed in 1833, when the house of Brother Edward Spear was burned.”

In such a violent environment, WB Northrop, following the example of our founding Master’s family, took our Charter and hid it in an oak tree.  From then on, the oak tree has stood as a symbol of Western Star.

Strong and resolute.  In 1948 WB Nortrop was again elected WM, 24 years after Western Star’s last election, and a letter was sent to the Grand Lodge of Ohio, apologizing for not paying their Grand Lodge fees for the last 24 years.  From then on Western Star has remained active, at the height of our growth raised 229 men in one year alone.  Regretfully we no longer share that amazing prosperity, but by looking to our past, we can see a Lodge can survive and grow with as little as 16 members.  As long as we have purpose.  As long as we have dedication to the principles of Freemasonry. We could even survive an absence of 20 years.

As I conclude, I’d like to reference how our officers dress:  Tuxedo, Tails, bow tie.  I should be wearing gloves, but I’m going casual tonight.  This is the normal Dress for Officers at Western Star for every stated meeting.  Why you may ask, because that is how our ancestors dressed when they went out on the town as fine upstanding gentlemen. Our pictures from a 100 years ago show our lodge members dressed to the nines..

and even though we need to keep our faces to the future, we cannot forget our past.

That Heritage …. That 200 year heritage in Ohio…

that 300 years of public heritage… nay… much longer than that our secret history… that is what makes us different from every other group, stronger, better.

And even though I doubt WB Elijah Wadsworth wore a tux while riding his horse to lodge, I’m sure he dressed the part.

A blacksmith, a gentlemen spy, a soldier, an explorer, a surveyor, a husband, a father, a leader, a sheriff, a post man, a land owner, a General, and a FreeMason

Thank you for your time tonight, I’d like to thank the late WB T. Kidd P.M. who is the historian of Western Star Lodge who taught me and provided me his notes after spending months reviewing hundreds, no thousands of pages of minutes gleaning snippets of information. To WB Joseph N. Higley, JR. P.M. who wrote the first history of our lodge, and to the many other members who’ve contributed to maintaining our history.

Truly the quote could have never been so true: “I have seen so far, because I have stood upon the shoulders of Giants.”