On this day in 1764: The Provincial Grand Master of the Free and Accepted Masons in New York issued a charter to Michigan's first Masonic lodge in Detroit. The lodge, known as Zion Lodge, faced suspensions but always returned. On this day in 1833: The steamboat Michigan, the first steamer built in Detroit, was launched. It traveled 2,000 miles in its first season, visiting various ports on Lake Michigan.
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It was on this day in 1764, the Provincial Grand Master of the Free and Accepted Masons in New York issued a charter to a Masonic lodge in Detroit. Michigan’s first and the first oneestablishedwest of the Allegheny Mountains. The Detroit Masons first adopted the name Zion Lodge in 1794 when they operated under a new charter from Quebec, Canada, but with American occupation of Michigan, the lodge again came under the Grand Lodge of New York, which issued a new charter in 1806 to “Zion Lodge No. 1” of Detroit. It suspended operations during the War of 1812 and because of anti-masonic sentiments between 1829 and 1845, but both times the Masons returned.
And in 1833 the steamboat Michigan, the first steamer built in Detroit and the most-advanced Great Lakes passenger vessel of its time, was launched from Detroit. In its first season, it traveled2,000 miles, visiting Mackinac, Green Bay, and all other ports on either shore of Lake Michigan during the 13 days she was away from Detroit.