Frederick Dalcho, 33°

Today marks the 210th anniversary of Frederick Dalcho's receipt of the Thirty-Third Degree. His original patent, the oldest extant document of the Scottish Rite, resides in the archives of the Supreme Council in Washington, D.C.

Dalcho was instrumental in the formation of the Scottish Rite and served as its first Lt. Grand Commander. He was born in London in 1770 and came to America with his family in 1787. He studied medicine under his uncle and became a physician in 1790. He joined the Freemasons in Savannah, GA in 1792. While serving in the Army, he first moved to Charleston in 1796 where he would come in contact with High Degree masonry and meet the other men he would join with to form the Scottish Rite.