Lenoir County NcArchives News.....Caswell's Grave Visited 1908
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Sloan Mason http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00022.html#0005225 February 10, 2025, 11:45 am

The Charlotte Observer Fri. May 15, 1908 Page 1 1908

             Caswell's Grave Visited
The Grand Lodge of Masons Make Make a Pilgrimage From
Kinston to the Neglected Grave of the State's First
Constitutional Governor and Most Honored Citizen and
With Beautiful Ceremonies His Resting Place is Marked--
Prof. E. C. Brooks Delivers Splendid Address on Caswell,
Naming Him the State's First Industrial Governor--Grand
Lodge Formally Adjourns--Meeting of Masons of the Fifth
District.

Special to the Observer.
   Kinston, May 14.--This morning the Grand Lodge of Masons
of North Carolina was opened in the court house, after
which the Masons formed in procession and marched to the
N & S. depot, where they had embarked on a special train
for the grave of Richard Caswell, where a marker was placed
over the spot where this eminent man and Mason was buried.
Governor Caswell was interred in the old Desmond burying
grounds and it was here that the ceremonies commemoration
of the great Carolinian took place under the spreading oaks
on a beautiful green knoll, a few feet from the banks of
the Neuse. After the Masons and the general public had 
gathered at the little cluster of graves, a funeral dirge
was rendered by the bank. Judge O. H. Allen, in an 
appropriate talk, announced the object of the gathering
prophesying that the pilgrimage thus made would mark an 
epoch in the history of Masonry in Lenoir county and
throughout the State generally.
   For years the grave has been inadequately marked and
now a towering water oak stands upon its foot. Recently
the Masons have erectedd a simple headstone with a marker.
This morning this headstone was placed by Senior Grand
Warden W. B. McCoy in behalf of Grand Master Samuel I.
Gattis, who could not be present. The marker is a very
neat block of marble, on whose face is the following
inscription:
   "Richard Caswell, Aug 3, 1729, to Nov. 10, 1789. 
First Constitutional Governor. First Recorded Master of
St. John's Lodge No, , A. F. & A. M. Second Mater of the
Grand Lodge of North Carolina."
   Past Grand Master F. M. Moye, of Wilson, acted as 
senior grand warden, and a closing prayer was offered by
Rev. L. T. Rightsell, of LaGrange.
   Immediately upon the return to Kinston from the grave
of Caswell the grand lodge met in the court house and
adjourned. Then the Masons and a large crowd went to the
Eagle Warehouse, where the address of the day was delivered
by Prof. Eugene C. Brooks of Trinity College. The subject
of Prof. Brooks' address was Richard Caswell and he handled
the subject in an excellent manner, making a very fine
impression upon his audience. The speaker said in part:
    "Caswell was our first industrial Governor. He 
encouraged tobacco culture, public warehouses, the silk
industry, iron foundries and established a gun factory.
Richard Caswell, surveyor, lawyer, legislator, Speaker
of the Assembly, colonial treasurer, delegate to the
Continental Congress, president of the Provincial Congress,
brigadier general, major general, chairman of the council.
Extraordinary Speaker of the Senate, Comptroller General 
and Governor for six times, was more variously honored by
the people of North Carolina than any other citizen
before or since his day. As a military officer, in organizing
and equipping troops for service. North Carolina has never
produced a man who had such control among so many difficulties.
As a statesman his patriotism was unquestioned, his discernment
quick and his judgment sound. As a soldier his courage was
undaunted, his vigilance untiring, his success triumphant."

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