 The Clinton Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons was the second organization to utilize Literary Hall as a meeting place . The Clinton Lodge was the first Masonic lodge to be chartered in Hampshire County and is among the earliest Masonic lodges to be established in present @-@ day West Virginia . It was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia on December 13 , 1825 . The lodge underwent four periods of hiatus : first , between 1838 and December 15 , 1846 ; a second time between 1855 and its rechartering on July 3 , 1857 ; a third time between 1861 and December 11 , 1867 , during the American Civil War and Reconstruction ; and a fourth time between November 29 , 1881 , and November 12 , 1890 , when it was again reactivated . 
