Our History

Woodstown Lodge No. 138, Free & Accepted Masons, was organized in Woodstown, New Jersey, on February 3, 1874, more than 150 years ago. This page gathers what the published record tells us about the Lodge’s early years.

The Founding, 1874

The 1883 History of the Counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland, New Jersey records that the Lodge “was organized Feb. 3, 1874,” with nine charter members:

• A. M. P. V. H. Dickeson
• Howard Bassett
• L. A. D. Allen
• James D. Lawson
• John H. Peterson
• Henry B. Richman
• Benjamin F. Straughn
• Francis H. Walker
• Robert G. Sheppard

The First Officers

Worshipful Master

A. M. P. V. H. Dickeson

Senior Warden

Howard Bassett

Junior Warden

L. A. D. Allen

Treasurer

James D. Lawson

Secretary

John H. Peterson

Early Meeting Places

In its first years the Lodge set its meetings by the moon. A society directory in the Woodstown Register of September 28, 1875, lists the Masons’ Woodstown Lodge as meeting at Burton’s Hall “Tuesday night on and after full moon, and two weeks thereafter.”

By 1883 the county history gives the place of meeting as the Masonic Hall, with meetings “on or after the full moon of each month, and two weeks thereafter.”

Today the Lodge meets at the Masonic Temple, 32 Auburn Road, Woodstown, holding its Regular Communications on the first Tuesday of each month, except July, August and legal holidays.

Masters of the Lodge, 1874–1882

The 1883 county history lists the Lodge’s presiding officers, in order, from its founding:

1. A. M. P. V. H. Dickeson
2. L. A. D. Allen
3. Howard Bassett
4. Charles D. Coles
5. Edward Wallace
6. N. Y. Lippincott
7. Charles H. Richman

In September 1882 the officers were:

Worshipful Master

Charles H. Richman

Senior Warden

Isaac C. Dubois

Junior Warden

Richman Coles

Treasurer

James D. Lawson

Secretary

John H. Peterson

James D. Lawson and John H. Peterson, both charter members, were still Treasurer and Secretary, the same offices they held among the first officers in 1874.

Brethren in the Record

A. M. P. V. H. Dickeson, the Lodge’s first Worshipful Master, was born at Hancock’s Bridge, Salem County, in 1843. A graduate of Princeton and of the Albany Law School, he represented Salem County in the State Legislature in 1865 and 1866, became a member of the New Jersey bar in 1877, and opened a law office in Woodstown. He died on June 15, 1879.

Charles H. Richman, Worshipful Master in 1882, was a member of Woodstown Lodge from 1878. He was elected mayor of Woodstown in 1887 and was appointed postmaster by President McKinley in 1898.

William H. McCullough was made a Mason in Woodstown Lodge in 1884. Two years later, in 1886, he was the chief organizer and first Worshipful Master of Swedesboro Lodge No. 157.

Help Us Tell the Story

Much of the Lodge’s story, from the later Masters to the history of the Temple on Auburn Road, is still waiting to be written down. If you have photographs, documents or memories of Woodstown Lodge No. 138, we would love to hear from you. Please contact the Lodge.