Gila Valley No. 9 F & AM Masonic Lodge
The Southern point of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, was opened up by the Dutch East India Company as a trading station to supply ships on the route to the East Indies with fresh produce. Freemasonry in the Netherlands, founded in 1756, was expanding rapidly and, with many masters of ships being Freemasons, it was natural for a Lodge to be founded at this halfway station under the banner of the Grand East of the Netherlands (G.E.N.).
The eyes of the G.E.N. were focussed on the Cape as early as 1764 and in 1771 Brother Abraham van der Weijde, the captain of a sailing vessel plying between Holland and the East Indies, was appointed Deputy Grand Master Abroad, with the necessary authority to found Lodges, subject to subsequent ratification by Grand Lodge.
He arrived at the Cape on the 24th April 1772 and called a meeting of Brethren, to which ten Brethren responded under his chairmanship. Ten days later he issued a warrant for the founding of Lodge De Goede Hoop (Lodge Good Hope) as Lodge No. 12 on the register of the G.E.N., which was ratified on 1st September 1772.
