Paul Boynton, during the 1832 political campaign, lived in the Green Mountain
country of Vermont. Those were dark days for the Craft.
Andrew Jackson, a past Grand Master of Tennessee, was the candidate for the
Presidency against William Wirt, a Mason running on the Anti-Masonic ticket.
Brother Boynton was a devoted Freemason and did not recant or hide his
association with the Craft while the storm was brewing and many members
deserted.
He made an election vow that if Vermont went for Wirt he would move "out
west". I
n those days "out west" meant St. Lawrence Country, New York, to New
Englanders.
When Wirt won in Vermont (the only state in which he won),
Brother Boynton kept his word and moved. At the end of an eighty day journey
on horseback, Brother Boynton settled down in Canton New York.
He swapped his horse for a watch and a gun shop. He became the best gunsmith
in the area and his gun stocks are now collector's items.
He invented many things, such as eight day clocks and a pedometer.
In 1835 he built what is now known as The Royal Arch House, located at 12
Pine Street, as a constant reminder to friend and foe alike, that he was a
mason.
Emblems familiar to the Royal Arch Mason are on the front of the building. It
is said that he dug his own grave and made his own marker, except for the date.
He died on July 13, 1851.
