In 1762, Freemason Joseph Wait was travelling from Springfield to Boston when he was caught in a blinding snowstorm that left him wandering in the woods for hours and nearly dying. To spare others from the same ordeal, he ordered the construction of a monument to mark the path of Boston Road.
The Wait Monument displays several Masonic symbols, including a sun, moon, stars, twin pillars, and seven steps.
In 1787, a group of farmers, made up mainly of ex-Revolutionary War soldiers, rebelled against their state’s unfavorable economic policies. Shays’ Rebellion, as it now called, began with them attacking The Springfield Arsenal. Grapeshot fired during their assault struck the Wait Monument and left one-inch craters that are still visible.
With its enduring Masonic symbols and evidence of bullet fire, the Wait Monument is the only existing artifact from the attack on Springfield Arsenal.
(A replica of the Wait Monument can be found at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, PA.)
Bro. Bernard Schaffer
