Freemasonry and the Church of Latter-Day Saints

While Freemasonry as a rule avoids religious discussion, the history of Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has definite masonic points of interest.

HISTORY INDEX

ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY

LATTER-DAY SAINTS

Freemasonry and Mormonism

Dr, John C. Bennett, Heber C. Kimball and Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith’s brother were Masons who moved to Nauvoo, Illinois in the late 1830s. On March 15, 1842 the Grand Master of the State of Illinois, M.W.Bro. Jonas constituted Nauvoo Lodge. On that occasion Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were "made Masons at Sight". This was considered irregular and, upon resolution received from Bodley Lodge No. 1, Nauvoo Lodge was suspended on August 11 then allowed to resume on November 2, 1842.

By October 3, 1843 there were five Mormon Lodges: Nauvoo, Nye and Helen in Nauvoo, Keokuk U.D. and Rising Sun No. 12 in Montrose, Iowa. The Grand Lodge Proceedings for 1843, 1844, 1845 and 1846 detail continuing irregularities on the part of these Lodges and although they were suspended, they continued to meet and make Masons by the thousands.

On June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered by a mob in Carthage Illinois. After Brigham Young moved the Church to Utah he renounced and denounced Masonry, forbiding Mormons to be Masons.

Portrait of Joseph Smith by Adrian Lamb, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution/Art Resources, NY. Text from Supplement to Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, H. L. Haywood. Macoy Publishing, Richmond, Virginia: 1966. P. 1314. Also see Mormonism and Masonry. S. H. Goodwin, Grand Secretary, Utah. Salt Lake City: 1921.

© 1871-2021 Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A.M. Updated: 2017/02/01
freemasonry.bcy.ca/history/mormons/authorship.html