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176 on the summit of a high peak of the Rocky Mountain range near Helena. Soon after that lodges were organized in Helena, Bozeman and Virginia City. Among the men who met in council with Stockman in the lodge at the latter place were W. F. Sanders, John X. Biedler and Samuel T. Hauser. Than John X. Biedler, the "road agents" had no more daring man to contend with during the days of the overthrow of their reign.

He regards Masonry as having been the silver cord which connected the upright and order-loving citizenship of the West from the first days of wild scrambling for gold, through the building of the Northwestern Empire, whose destinies bear the imprint of the sober influence of its principles.