Joseph Warren Lodge No. 92 A.F. & A.M.

09/27/2026

🚨 SCHEDULE UPDATE! 🚨

We’ve got an updated schedule of events, and there’s one important time change we want to make sure everyone sees:

THE PARADE WILL BEGIN AT 10:00 AM!

We know some posters and flyers with the previous parade time have already been created and shared by us and others, and we apologize for any confusion that may have caused! We recently received approval to bring the parade back onto public streets, which is something we’re very excited about, but it also meant shifting a few things around to make the new route and schedule work. So, please toss that old schedule out and save/share THIS ONE!

Thank you for your patience as we work through the details and make this year’s Homecoming celebration bigger, better, and back out where the whole community can enjoy it! ❤️

09/23/2026

09/20/2026

When the 1764 smallpox outbreak struck Boston, inoculations were performed by almost all of the town’s physicians. This epidemic would be a proving ground for Dr. Joseph Warren. A decade later, Warren would lead the colonial rebellion, but in 1764 at the age of 23, he was just a promising young doctor thrust onto the frontlines of the epidemic. Ten of the first twelve people infected in the 1764 outbreak died, an ominous portent. Corpses were bound by a tarred sheet and hauled away by the gravedigger at off hours. The situation quickly became so grave that floggings were imposed on those who would flagrantly defy the imposed smallpox ordinances.

A makeshift quarantine hospital was established at the island fortress of Castle William in Boston Harbor. (Here Warren first met his lifelong friend John Adams in the spring of 1764 when Adams and his brother came to Castle William to be inoculated.) The forty-eight rooms accommodated nearly five hundred patients and would become the main battleground against the smallpox scourge. Doctors were required to bring their own medical supplies, in addition to non-medical items such as feather beds, pillows, and blankets. Without modern technology or conveniences such as plumbing, heat, or air conditioning, the conditions within the hospital were nothing short of miserable. The waft of human waste, oozing pustules, and death became a familiar stink; when the pustules burst, a distinct and foul odor emanated once described as “so loathsome and evil-smelling that none could stand the great stench.”

Although anyone who had previously survived smallpox was immune to the disease, doctors understood that inoculation did not guarantee survival. The chances of surviving smallpox were much greater if one received inoculation intentionally, rather than contracting the disease naturally, but death was still a very real possibility that weighed heavily on the physicians. The average recovery time took several weeks, confined in the horrors of Castle William.

Yet of the hundreds of patients Dr. Joseph Warren inoculated, not a single person died.

Ultimately, the fatality rate from approximately five thousand inoculated individuals stood at just one percent—numbers previously thought unimaginable. The doctors were heralded as heroes and many went on to become prominent figures and well-respected advocates. Perhaps, most important, they set an example for the fledgling medical profession with their bravery and selflessness.

09/19/2026

On Thursday, September 17, Joseph Warren Lodge No. 92 had the distinct honor of initiating Thomas L. Johnson, Jr. and Joseph M. McLamb as the newest Entered Apprentices of our Lodge. Additionally, we initiated Harold J. Averette as a courtesy to Mount Lebanon Lodge No. 117.

I encourage each of you to visit our Lodge, participate in its work, and experience the joy that comes from brotherly love, relief, and truth.

We welcome Brothers Johnson, McLamb, and Averette into the fraternity and look forward to sharing in their Masonic journey and witnessing their continued progress.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making the event possible. The work of our Lodge continues, and last night reminded us of what can be accomplished when we labor together.

~Alex

06/02/2026

The process to tear down the Sudan Shriners Temple has begun.

Story: https://www.witn.com/2026/06/01/demolition-begins-historic-sudan-shriners-temple-new-bern/

05/25/2026

Memorial Day is a solemn holiday to honor the brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our nation. Our own namesake M:.W:., Major General, and Dr. Joseph Warren, who was slain, a martyr for liberty’s cause.

Between the moments of revelry that have become Memorial Day, take a moment to reflect upon the solemn meaning of this day. Pause to remember those dearly departed, and pray for the widows and children these soldiers left behind.

May we never forget those who sacrificed their future that our's might be lived in freedom.

May you have a blessed and peaceful holiday.

04/04/2026

April 4 1776
The body of Doctor Joseph Warren, who had been killed at the Battle of Bunker’s hill almost ten months earlier, was discovered by his two brothers Ebenezer and John Warren along with Paul Revere.

On the 21st of March the brothers were able to explore the old battle site and it is commonly agreed that on the 4th of April in a grave no more than 3 feet deep, the remains were found.
The body was first identified by the golden wire attaching two false teeth which Revere had made.
This seems to be the first time in American history that a body was identified by dental records of a sort.
On the 8th of April a procession took the Doctor's remains and proceeded to King’s Chapel for re-interment in a friend's, George Minot, tomb at the Granary Burying-ground.

The location of the buried Warren was forgotten and rediscovered in 1825 and the Warren family moved the coffin to St. Paul’s Church in Boston.
In August 1855 the coffin was again re-interred and placed at Forest Hills Cemetery.

03/06/2026

Excerpt from M:.W:. Warren’s oration of March 6, 1772…

In 1775, March 5 fell on the Sabbath. Therefore, “at a Meeting of the Freeholders & other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston…The Comittee appointed by the Town…to apply to a proper Gentleman to deliver an Oration…had made Choice of Joseph Warren Esq. to deliver an Oration on the 6th. of March instant, who had accordingly accepted of said Service.” It was voted the oration be delivered “at the Old South Meeting House half past 11 O'Clock A.M.”

Unlike previous occasions of the commemoration, British troops were abundant in Boston (they had been removed to Castle William after the massacre). The British soldiers were going to resent an oration whose purpose was, in the words of Samuel Adams, “to commemorate a massacre perpetuated by soldiers and to show the danger of standing armies.” Joseph Warren had delivered the oration in 1772. Samuel Adams wanted Warren’s experience in the pulpit. He knew that Warren would not be intimidated.

Warren arrived in a carriage and proceeded to change into a toga in the shop across the street before entering Old South Meeting House. A toga was worn by a citizen of Rome and distinguished him from a soldier or a slave. This was Warren realizing Cato: the citizen unintimidated by Caesar’s tyrannical threats, declaiming to an honorable citizenry on behalf of liberty and a representative government.

Since the meetinghouse was jammed with people, Warren was taken around to the back of the building, where he climbed a ladder to access the pulpit through the rear window. He opened with a statement of natural rights: “And no man or body of man, can without being guilty of flagrant injustice, claim a right to dispose of the person or acquisitions of any other man, or body of men, unless it can be proved that such a right has arisen from some compact between the parties in which it has been explicitly and freely granted.”

When Warren spoke of the events of March 5, 1770, he focused on the agony and despair of the families who had lost loved ones that night “Come widowed mourner, here satiate thy grief; behold the murdered husband gasping on the ground, and to complete the pompous show of wretchedness, bring in each hand thy infant children to bewail their father’s fate. Take heed, ye orphan babes, lest, whilst your streaming eyes are fixed upon the ghastly co**se, your feet glide on the stones bespattered with your father’s brain.”

Warren’s voice rose to an emotional crescendo. “Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determine to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves …”

He finished by stating, “With having redeemed your country, and secured the blessing to future generations, who, fired by your example, shall emulate your virtues, and learn from you the heavenly art of making millions happy; with heart felt joy, which transports all your own, you cry, the glorious work is done. Then drop the mantle to some young Elisha, and take your seats with kindred spirits in your native skies.”

02/25/2026

One of the first pieces of “furniture” that I noticed within the confines of that hallowed edifice last night.

During Tuesday night's State of the Union address, House Speaker Mike Johnson will display the gavel used by George Washington to lay the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol building in 1793, according to the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. The gavel is housed in the oldest Masonic lodge in Washington. Its use is meant to mark the nation's 250th anniversary.