Adoniram Lodge, No. 18, met in the Searle House, a seventy five foot
long, three story hotel located at the corner of Richmond and Bathurst Streets. Lodge was held in an upper front room of the
Tavern. The room was tyled by a brother armed
with an old sword, which had seen service in the Revolutionary War. A royal arch degree was conferred in those days,
in addition to the other degrees. Records
allegedly show that, on the evening of June 11, 1812, a Captain Fox was being
“Crafted” when an alarm was sounded at the tyled door. This proved to be not a visitor nor candidate but
a brother who rode in from Sandwich to advise that the American General Hull had crossed
the Detroit River and was proceeding south to take over the British Fort Malden (War was
declared June 18, 1812).
His message was terse “some Colonel wants Captain Fox to carry vital dispatches to General Brock at Fort George, as he knows every inch of the way”. The lodge was called off and within five minutes Captain Fox was on his way. The twenty brethren left their lodge and homes, buckled on their swords, shouldered their flint-locks and as part of a mere handful of troops repelled Hull’s forces at River Canard a few miles north of Amherstburg. Later in the War of 1812 the Americans did take over Fort Malden and what would be the town of Amherstburg.