HAWAII was discovered by Bro. Captain Cook in 1778. In 1843 its first Masonic Lodge, Lodge le Progres de l’Oceanie #124 was formed under dispensation from the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite of France, which in those days, included supervision over both Craft Lodges and the Scottish Rite.

In 1852 the Lodge petitioned, and received a charter from the Grand Lodge of California, under which jurisdiction all 12 Lodges in Hawaii have operated – until 1989, when the Grand Lodge of Hawaii was formed and officially recognized.

Craft Masonry is alive and well in Hawaii, as are the York Rite, Scottish Rite, Shriners, DeMolay, Eastern Star, Job’s Daughters, etc. and the Honolulu Shriner’s Hospital for Crippled Children.

King Lot KAMEHAMEHA V was the first royal family member of the Hawaiian kingdom to be made a Mason (in 1853), and was also the first Hawaiian of aboriginal Polynesian blood to have been so “Raised”.

His younger brother, Alexander Liholiho, later enthroned as Kamehameha IV, was made a Master Mason in 1857, and in 1860, was elected Acting Grand Master for the cornerstone laying of Queen’s Hospital. So highly was Bro. Alexander Liholiho regarded, that the Scottish Rite movement in Hawaii gave his name posthumously to the Chapter Rose Croix, and elected him a Grand Knight of the Order.