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History of Freemasonry in McDuffie County:  By William C. Mabry, PM   A. J. Miller Lodge No. 204

The History of Freemasonry in McDuffie County cannot be discussed without the mention of Columbia County.  The first known Lodge of Columbia County was St. George’s Lodge No. 9, located at Kiokas.  The Lodge was chartered in 1790 and was dissolved in 1803.  W. P. Arnold Lodge No. 82 of Wrightsboro was chartered in 1848.  They moved to Mesena in Warren County in 1899, their charter was forfeited in 1916.  St. Johns Lodge No. 100 was chartered at Raysville in 1849 and moved to Clay Hill in Lincoln County in 1874.  Their Charter was forfeited in 1886.

We also have Franklin Lodge No. 11 of Warrenton that was chartered as No. 23 in 1807, then rechartered No. 24 in 1821, and rechartered again as No. 11 in 1838.  Other Lodges in Columbia County still in existence are Saw Dust No. 276, which was chartered in 1871.  They changed their name to Harlem when they moved there.  Martinez Lodge No. 710 was chartered in 1954 and Grovetown Lodge No. 730 was chartered in 1976.  - The last four Lodges are still active and prospering. 

A. J. Miller Lodge No. 204 F. & A. M. was chartered on October 30, 1856 in Thomson, GA.  The Lodge was named after Andrew Jackson Miller who was born in Camden County, Georgia on March 6, 1806 at Point Clear near St. Mary’s.  He attended an academic institution in Georgia until he was sixteen years old, and then attended and passed one year at West Point Military Academy.  He returned to Georgia to study law, and in 1825, by a special legislative act, he was admitted to the bar before reaching the required age. He entered a successful law practice in Augusta where he made his home for the remainder of his life.

A. J. Miller was married on October 9, 1828 to Martha Olive of Columbia County.  They were parents of ten children.

In 1836 he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature to represent Richmond County and in 1838 he was elected to the state senate and was continually reelected until his death, and during his tenure twice served as president of the Senate.

He served as president of the Medical College of Georgia, City Attorney of Augusta, Georgia and director of the Georgia Railroad Company.  He was an effective pioneer in Georgia’s system of railway improvements and was one of the creators of the Western and Atlantic Railroad.  He served as Captain of the Oglethorpe Infantry.  He was a zealous member of the Presbyterian Church.

Miller is probably best remembered today for his avocation of the right for women to own property, and on many occasions, he presented several bills to give them this right, however they never passed in the all-male Senate.  A. J. Miller was a Trustee of The Southern Masonic Female College in Covington.  The institution was, the 15th day of July 1853, publicly dedicated to the purpose of education, benevolence and virtue, with imposing forms and ceremonies of our ancient order.  During his twenty years of unbroken service, he was a controlling spirit in the state.  He was one of those rounded well balanced men of great abilities and virtues who mold the times in which they live.  He was an esteemed and industrious lawyer in a galaxy of legal giants, with a faultless and unfailing memory.  No Lapse of time made him forget, and to know was always to remember and use.  The Whig party had no influential or wiser adviser. One of the prime objects of his public career was to secure the passage of a bill, of which he was the author, to allow married women to hold property in their own name.  However, he did not live to see it enacted into law.

Miller County, Georgia is named for this distinguished man who first saw the light of day in Camden County where tall pines weep over the waving wire grass.  Brother Miller died on February 3, 1856 in Richmond County and is buried in the Historic Magnolia Cemetery.

Credits:  History: From the History of the Grand Lodge of Georgia.

               Andrew Jackson Miller:  From the history of Camden County Georgia.