DDGM

The Origin of the Office of District Deputy Grand Master

Soon after the Revolutionary War, there was a definite inland trend of population throughout the Colonies and Freemasonry went with it. In our Jurisdiction, new Masonic Lodges began to appear in Lancaster, Harrisburg, Wilkes Barre and as far west as Pittsburgh.

As new Symbolic Lodges were being constituted in our expanding Jurisdiction, the Right Worshipful Grand Masters found it increasingly difficult to keep in personal touch with the distant Lodges. Prior to the railways, a trip of thirty miles was considered an average day's journey. There was an obvious need to create an appointed Grand Lodge Officer that would afford the Right Worshipful Grand Master a personal representative and overseer in all areas of his Jurisdiction.

In the early 1800’s several Right Worshipful Grand Masters, recommended the appointment of a "skillful Brother to serve as either a Provincial or District Deputy Grand Master, to visit the country Lodges, inspect their labors and report their proceedings to the Right Worshipful Grand Master."

​The first four District Deputy Grand Masters were appointed and assigned to Masonic Districts in 1822, comprising of several counties each. The following year a rising young lawyer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was appointed a District Deputy Grand Master for the Counties of Lancaster, York and Lebanon. A generation later, that same District Deputy Grand Master, Brother James Buchanan, became President of the United States.

​In the years that followed, railroads and canals increased the speed and ease of travel. District Deputy Grand Masters were then visiting not only their respective Lodges, but also the Grand Lodge with greater frequency. The number of Masonic Districts rose steadily through the years until today when we have fifty Masonic Districts throughout our Grand Jurisdiction.