Of the many achievements he might have had inscribed on the granite monument over his grave in Quincy's Valley of Peace Cemetery, Abraham Jonas sought to be remembered for only one:
Abraham Jonas
first grand master
of masons of Illinois, 1840-41
Freemasonry in Illinois began before Jonas arrived in Quincy in 1838. But a national controversy that clouded the organization's reputation left the story of Freemasonry blank between 1829 and 1835. Jonas helped restore its image, first in Kentucky, then in Illinois.
Lt. Col. George Rogers Clark was the first documented Freemason in the environs of the mid-Mississippi that would become Illinois. On July 4, 1778, Clark and 175 Virginia militiamen during the American Revolution routed the British and Native Americans from the French settlement at Kaskaskia. Before he left, Clark inspired an interest in Freemasonry, and Kaskaskians in 1806 formed the territory's first Masonic organization, the Western Star Lodge. Illinois' first Grand Lodge, the governing body of a Masonic jurisdiction, was created in Vandalia in 1822. Shadrach Bond, the state's first governor, was the lodge's grand master.
From its beginning in the early 18th century, Freemasonry had powerful foes, including former President John Quincy Adams, opposed mainly to its secret ceremonies and rituals. The kidnapping and suspected murder of ex-Mason William Morgan of Batavia, N.Y, in 1826 so disturbed public sensitivities that a national political party, the Anti-Masonic Party, formed. Morgan had threatened to reveal Masonic secrets. Publisher Thurlow Weed's New York Tribune circulated nationally and led the anti-Masonic movement in the United States. Americans believed Masons had kidnapped and killed Morgan, who was never seen again.
With Weed's support, the Anti-Masonic Party achieved enough national prominence to run a presidential candidate in 1832, former Freemason William Wirt of Baltimore. Both of Wirt's opponents, President Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay of Kentucky, were Masons, however, and Jackson's re-election ultimately ended opposition to Freemasonry.
Jonas was 18 years old when he left his parents and 20 siblings in Portsmouth, England, in 1819 to join his older brother Joseph, the first Jewish settler in Cincinnati. There, the Jonas brothers organized a small community of Jews to establish a congregation and Bene Israel, the oldest synagogue west of the Alleghenies.
In Cincinnati, the younger Jonas became acquainted with a group of men whose bond was Freemasonry. Although he had found some doors closed to Jews in Cincinnati, Jonas found no discrimination among his Freemason friends and joined their lodge. When in 1825 he lost his wife, nee Lucy Orah Seixas, and shortly afterward their newborn son, Jonas moved 40 miles south to Williamstown, Ky. There he opened a store, married Lucy Block in 1829, fathered five children, and founded a Masonic lodge. Within six years Jonas led Freemasonry in Kentucky, elected and serving as grand master from 1832 to 1838. It was in that role that he became acquainted with Quincy.
With the anti-Masonic movement behind them, a group of Quincy men petitioned the Grand Lodge of Kentucky to charter a lodge. Under Jonas' administration of Kentucky Freemasonry, Bodley Masonic Lodge No. 97 of Quincy was the first lodge chartered in Illinois on Aug. 31, 1836. Bodley was named for Thomas Bodley, a past grand master of the Kentucky Grand Lodge. Among Bodley Lodge's charter members were lawyer Henry Asbury; grocer and wholesaler Michael Mast; meatpacker Nathaniel Pease; doctors Joseph N. Ralston and Hiram and Samuel Rogers; city and county founder John Wood and his father-in-law Joshua Streeter, a former justice of the peace; and federal land agent Richard M. Young.
At about that time, leaders of the Adams County, Ill., town of Columbus began agitating to relocate the county courthouse from Quincy to their community. State law required the seat of government to be situated near the county's geographical center. Columbus met that requirement. Quincy, on the western edge of Adams County, did not. With the promise of the benefits of government ahead, within the year, Columbus boomed. Settlers built 100 homes, and mills and several businesses opened.
The newly arrived Abraham Jonas family made a home in Columbus, and Jonas opened a general store there. Jonas took the lead in the town's endeavor to win the county seat. Editorials in his Columbus Advocate newspaper argued for the town's rightful place as the county seat. Jonas also advocated Freemasonry in his adopted town, and the Columbus Masonic Lodge was chartered on June 3, 1839.
Contested for years, the courthouse matter was decided in Quincy's favor in 1847. Columbus withered, its Masonic lodge withered with it, and Jonas himself, as past grand master, wrote in 1846 that "the few brethren who live at Columbus intend to surrender their charter, as they number too few to carry on a lodge."
The Jonas family in 1840 moved to Quincy, where Jonas and brothers Edward and Samuel opened an iron and carriage business at Fifth and Hampshire. Jonas began studying law with Orville Hickman Browning on the second floor of the building and the town's small Jewish community met on the third floor for prayer services.
A Grand Masonic lodge in Illinois was chartered April 6, 1840, and Jonas was elected the first grand master. Six lodges gave up their out-of-state charters to be rechartered under Illinois' new grand lodge. Quincy's Bodley No. 97 became Bodley Lodge No. 1.
A number of Jonas associates petitioned for admission and became active members. Among the more prominent were Illinois Supreme Court Justice Stephen A. Douglas of Quincy and Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. All three remained Freemasons until their deaths.
Reg Ankrom is a member of the Historical Society and a local historian. He is a member of several history-related organizations, the author of a history of Stephen A. Douglas, and a frequent speaker on pre-Civil War history.
Sources
Reg Ankrom, "Once Upon a Time: Quincy Outmaneuvers Columbus to Keep the Courthouse," Quincy Herald-Whig. March 13, 2012.
Asa Wellington Blakesley, "Synopsis of Bodley Lodge No. 97 & No. 1." Bodley Lodge No. 1 archives.
"Fraternity, Enlightenment, Benevolence." The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of A.F. & A.M. of Illinois Historical Marker Dedication, Jacksonville, IL, July 21, 2012.
David Frolich, "From Immigration to Integration: Jewish Life in Quincy in the Nineteenth Century." http://www.lib.niu.edu/1998/iht519829.html
Larry Gorrell, interview by Reg Ankrom, July 18, 2015.
Ed Husar, "Illinois oldest Masonic lodge celebrates 150th birthday," Quincy Herald-Whig, undated in August 1985.
A History of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in Illinois, 1846-1965, compiled and edited by Alphonse Cerza.
Jonathan D. Sarna and Benjamin Shapell, Lincoln and the Jews: A History. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2015.
Wayne C. Temple, Stephen A. Douglas: Freemason. Bloomington, IL: The Masonic Book Club, 1982.
Everett R. Turnbull, The Rise and Progress of Freemasonry in Illinois, 1783-1952. Bloomington, IL: Pantagraph Printing and Stationery Co., 1952.