Free Masons:

~ The original Masonic Lodge meeting took place at Fort Augusta under the warrant of Lodge 9, which was supposed to be meeting in Lancaster. The group consisted of nine officers of General Sullivan’s Army, Captain Stephen Chambers, W.M., Henry Starrett, Sr. W., Captain John Chatham, Jr. W., Robert McBride, Sr. D., William Leacock, Jr. D. John Weitzel, Treasurer, Ens. Samuel Quinn, Secretary, Col. Frederick Antes, and Daniel Lawrence. Recognizing that they were overstepping the warrant’s boundary requirements, Captain Stephen Chambers, who was serving as Master traveled to Philadelphia and received a new warrant from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania on October 4, 1779. This was only sixty-two years after the original Free Masonry was established in London in 1717.
The Lodge, which was known as the Ancient York Masons until 1900, was permitted to meet anywhere within a three mile radius of Sunbury and so during the first thirty years of its existence members took turns housing the meetings in their homes. Finally in 1809 the organization began meeting in the Grand Jury room of the Court House. They continued to meet there until 1866.