Masonic Beer!

Sometimes it's just easier to plagerize!!!  Original article can be found HERE!

Alexander Keith was born on October 5, 1795, at Halkirk on the River Thurso, six miles from the town of Thurso in Caithness. His Father was a highly respected farmer and Chief of the Clan Keith. After receiving a liberal education he proceeded, in 1812 at the age of seventeen, to Sunderland, England, then the center of the brewing trade in Northern England, where he was placed under the instruction of his uncle to learn the brewing and malting business. Five years later Keith migrated to Halifax in Canada, where he became a Master brewer, and  In 1820 Mr. Keith purchased a business and brewed strong ales, porter, ginger wine, table and spruce beer.

Keith joined freemasonry in the year 1816 in Sunderland in Lodge of St. John No. 118, and on his arrival in Halifax affiliated in Virgin Lodge No. 2. In 1819 exalted to the Holy Royal Arch Degree in Royal Union Chapter and was subsequently appointed Grand Superintendent of R.A. Masonry for Nova Scotia. In Chivalric Masonry Sir Knight Keith held the important position of M.E. Grand High Priest He was Treasurer of Virgin Lodge from 1824 thru 1829 and again from 1831 thru 1843 as well as Master of Virgin Lodge from 1834 thru 1838 and served as Master again in 1845. In 1839, he was chosen to become Provincial Grand Master for Nova Scotia and in 1846 his jurisdiction was extended to the Province of New Brunswick and the Islands of Prince Edward and Newfoundland. In 1843 the Grand Lodge of Scotland also appointed R.W. Bro. Keith Provincial Grand Master over the Scottish Lodges in the Maritimes. Following the union of the District Grand Lodge and the Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia in 1869 he was elected Grand Master by an unanimous vote and re-elected in each of the following years, serving until his death in 1873.

During the Civil War in the United States (1861 - 1865), many Halifax families took the side of the South. Business interests in the capital city were closely associated with the South. Tradition has it that the Hon. Alexander Keith on more than one occasion assisted southern raiders, captured off the port, to escape when they were being landed. A ship called the "Tallahassee" was reported to have been out of North Carolina and believed to have destroyed fifty-four federal vessels. Her arrival at Halifax was reported to the United States authorities by telegraph. It was added in the telegram, that she was formerly the blockade runner "Atlanta" and would probably make sail during the night. A letter was discovered from a Confederate Agent to Alexander Keith, for a shipment of a thousand muskets to Halifax and that Keith had recently written to New York to order a compass, which was intended for the "Tallahassee", and three thousand Barrels of Pork. Was Grand Master the Hon., Alexander Keith a Confederate Spy?