04/04/2024
A little history:
Official Exposition Record and History of Masonry in the State of New York, 1922. page 56. ST. JOHN'S REGIMENTAL LODGE - Sir John Johnson, Provincial Grand Master for New York, having left for Canada, at the beginning of hostilities in the War for American Independence, his prerogatives descended upon his Deputy, Dr. Peter Middleton, who exercised them with tact and a due regard for the feelings swaying the population of the Province. He issued the first warrant granted to any unit of the Continental Army, owning allegiance to George Washington as Commander-in-Chief; it authorized the formation of St. John's Regimental Lodge, composed of New York Brethren who had joined the ranks of the revolutionists. This warrant was dated 24 Jul 1775. After the close of the war, it turned up at Clark's Town, Orange County, New York, where a Lodge continued to work under its authority, later transferring its headquarters to Warwick, in the same county. This Lodge, known later as St. John's Lodge, No. 18, succumbed finally, about 1825.
