Page 37 - Cornelius Hedges Story

For This And Succeeding Generations Gardiner 24

This Distant Territory~Montana

In January of 1866, speaking before the Travellers’ Club in
New York City, Chief Justice of the Montana Territory, Hezekiah L.
Hosmer. Hosmer served as Grand Secretary in 1870, while Cornelius
Hedges served as Grand Master. Justice Hosmer made the following
statement which captures the nature of the territory at that time:

“What will be the future of Montana? We see her now in her
infancy, fresh, vigorous, struggling with countless difficulties for
existence. What she will be when that triumph is achieved, and,
strengthened by the conflict, she begins to unfold her riches of her
mountains and valleys, who can tell? That time is near at hand. Until
it comes, let me bespeak for her your charitable consideration of all
that you may find in her condition and resources which promises
to advance the interests and promote the glory of our common
country.”65

On January 24, l866, Cornelius Hedges was among 19 Master
Masons representing their Lodges: Virginia City Lodge #43, Montana
Lodge #9, and Helena City Lodge #10, who met in Virginia City to
form the Grand Lodge of Montana, A. F. & A. M. After two days
of writing the By-Laws, Rules of Order, and Standing Resolutions,
officers of the new Grand Lodge were elected and Hedges was
elected to the position of R.W. Senior Grand Warden.66

It was of this organization that Robert Morris, poet laureate
of Masonry and founder of the Order of Eastern Star, was to
comment in Helena in 1887. That he remembered very distinctly the
establishment of the Grand Lodge of Montana in 1866.

“It excited at the time much interest among the fraternity in the
States. So little is known of this distant Territory, only reached by
long and painful pilgrimages by wagon or stagecoach that we should
not have been much more surprised to hear of the Organization of a
Grand Lodge at the North Pole than here.”67

In June, 1866, Cornelius Hedges was among the members of
the Helena Bar signing a request for permission from Territorial
Supreme Court Justice L. E. Munson to publish the June 4 decision
upholding a motion to dissolve the most recent legislative session
and declare their legislation null and void.