One of the Masonic brothers in one of the portraits recently found in the lodge’s collection. This one shows Robert Cotton Brown (1834–1894), a brother in 1860 and a captain in Company B of the 44th Regiment of the Confederate Infantry. The lodge did not meet from December 20, 1861 until April 15, 1865, during the Civil War. R.C. Brown lived through the war to return as a member.
southern tour. Books of minutes chronicle lodge activities from 1811. Handwritten correspondences and documents tell the story of Concord 58. Penmanship and literacy vary greatly, and they reveal not just official business but also the thoughts and ideals of the times. Some examples: At the January 1818 meeting, it was “Resolved, that the Tyler procure for the use of this lodge twenty spit boxes.” The tyler was an officer who served as the “outer guard,” standing outside the door of the room while the lodge was meeting. In 1821, Concord No. 58 had 28 members who met monthly and paid dues of 50 cents a quarter. Once funds exceeded $100, members could apply for personal loans which had to be paid with interest within a year. On March 15, 1845, it was “Resolved that the interest accruing from the funds of this lodge be appropriated to the education of the orphans or children of indigent Worthy Master Masons and that should there not be a sufficient number of Masonic children that the committee be privileged to make selections among others that are not Masons.” In 1998 when the lodge moved from its Main St. location to a new location off Barlow Rd., a collection of portraits was discovered in an attic. These portraits of lodge officers
and brothers, dating from the late 1810s to the 1870s, represent a Who’s Who of the Tarboro community’s elite: Gen. Louis Dicken Wilson (1789–1841), namesake of Wilson County, state legislator, Mexican War hero and benefactor of local causes; Gen. William Dorsey Pender (1834–1863), Tarboro native, namesake of Pender County, a West Point graduate who died of wounds suffered at Gettysburg; Gov. Henry Toole Clarke 1808-1874, Civil War era governor. Others are still being identified. The lodge plans to restore and preserve these portraits.
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William Reid is compiling the third and most recent history of Concord Masonic Lodge No. 58.
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