Contents
THANKSGIVING
The Old Order Changeth
Keep The Light Burning
Washington Military Lodge
In Memoriam
Sociability and the Lodge Feast
From Time Immemorial
WHENCE CAME COMMUNICATION
Books of Interest to Masons
LOST LEADERS
Jerry Marsengill, F.P.S. Editor
2714 Park Place
Des Moines, Iowa 50312
Alphonse Cerza, F.P.S. Life Assoc. Editor
237 Millbridge Road
Riverside, Illinois 60546
John Black Vrooman, F.P.S. Life
Editor Emeritus
P.O. Box 402
St. Louis, Missouri 63166
OFFICERS
Dwight L. Smith F.P.S. President
157 Banta Street
Franklin, Indiana 46131
Robert L. Dillard Jr. F.P.S. First Vice Pres.
P.O. Box 1850
Dallas, Texas 75221
Bruce H. Hunt F.P.S. Second Vice Pres.
P.O. Box 188
Kirksville, Missouri 63501
Franklin ("Andy") Anderson, F.P.S.
Executive Secretary
9580 Standon Place
Columbia Maryland 21045
Ronald E. Heaton, F.P.S. Treasurer
728 Haws Avenue
Norristown, Pennsylvania 19401
LIVING PAST PRESIDENTS
Philalethes Society
Lee E. Wells
Alphonse Cerza, F.P.S. (Life)
Dr. Charles Gottshall Reigner, F.P.S.
Judge Robert H. Gollmar, F.P.S.
William R. Denslow, F.P.S.
Robert V. Osborne, F.P.S.
Eugene S. Hopp, F.P.S.
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY EMERITUS
Carl R. Greisen, F.P.S.
CONTENTS
The Old Order Changeth
Honor Roll
Washington Military Lodge
John Paterson – Soldier-Judge-Congressman
Benjamin Tupper: 1738-1792
In Memoriam - Wylie Brodbeck Wendt
Annual Assembly and Feast
From Time Immemorial
Whence Came Communication
Elmer Hoffman Dies
New Members
Books of Interest
Local Chapters
Lost Leaders
For What It's Worth
The time of Harvest. The unique American Holiday. Let us on this occasion give thanks, not only that we live in a country where we have things for which we are thankful, but also let us be thankful that we are members of the Masonic Fraternity. We have all had many blessings, not the least of these is that we can associate in this great fraternal organization...
JEM
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by Jerry Marsengill, Editor
When I gave up freelancing and started writing Masonic articles, I had to learn to do research. The superficial job I had been doing wasn't good enough for the critical audience which I developed.
I don't like to do research. I love to write if I don't have to spend my time in libraries and old files looking up background material on what I am writing. What I really wanted at that time, and it was many years ago, was someone to do the main part of the work while I did the writing. I found him. So did a lot of other Masonic authors. His name is Keith Arrington. Until September 15, he was librarian at the Iowa Masonic Library. Keith is one of the best friends I have, and one of the hardest working, and best informed, Masons in the United States.
Keith never seemed to have a problem with research. Write him a letter and he came up with far more research material than a person really needed. He didn't just send books. Any librarian can do that. He went through the books, marked paragraphs, made Xerox copies of other material, and a number of times, went outside his own library to run down some elusive facts for some budding author. Keith has earned his well-deserved retirement. We all know that. But, for a while, there will be fewer books and articles written. At least there will be fewer good ones. Keith will be hard to replace. He has gone far beyond the call of duty.
The prestigious collection of books on Prince Hall Masonry in the Iowa Masonic Library was gathered by Keith Arrington alone.
He has never received enough credit from any of us. A line or two in a book. Perhaps a dedication. Few have ever written him or told him just how much his work has meant to their particular projects. It's not too late. Keith is still working. Now, though, he is working on his own projects. He is writing for a number of magazines that he didn't have time for.
I wish Keith the best in his retirement. But, from a personal standpoint, it's too bad that "the old order changeth." We will miss his help.
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by Allan D. Parsons. M.P.S.
In every organization there are certain members whose efforts keep the wheels turning. Whose actions help in reaching established goals. Whose energies assure achievement of its purposes by encouraging others to join in its worthy endeavours.
Now, in its 51st year of pursuing its avowed intention "to seek and to impart more light," the Philalethes Society continues to serve those who are interested in Masonry, its beginnings, progress through more than two and a half centuries, its place in the world today and its future.
Our effectivenesss is tied to growth - and to the dedication of members who search out and sign up prospects to work with us in spreading the faith.
During the first half of 1979 the Society has added
approximately 200 members to our roster. Here is a list of sponsors of
these new members. We hope your name is included on the Honor Roll. If
not it can be on the Honor Roll to be published at the conclusion of the
last half of the year.
| Bobby M. Stowe | William Lee Jenney |
| Plez Transou | F. J. Anderson (6) |
| John D Busbee | Robert E. Fielden |
| Kenneth C. Johnson (7) | Robert B. Armis |
| William McGhee | Garold R. Mullin |
| Karl A. Fluharty (9) | David S. Pike |
| Cyril H. York | Wm. E. Copenhaver (5) |
| W.C. Wood | John B. Arp, Jr, |
| William A. Rick | C.W. Coons (2) |
| Paul E. Rudbeck (2) | Morrison L. Cooke (3) |
| Estel M. Brooks | Alfred H. Dreisbach (3) |
| Earnest A. Neath | Burnell C. Stambaugh |
| Roland P. Fox | W. Russell McCullough |
| Robert E. Doe | Gordon R. Brittain |
| T. Olin Core, Jr. | Carl J. Bacsman (2) |
| Harold F. Yaeger | William Stemper (3) |
| James T. Luttrell | Raymond E. Loose |
| Kenneth Weise | D. P. Jones |
| Robert L. Taylor | Alvin Crump |
| Richard M. Bard (3) | G. Wilbur Bell |
| Russell E. Offaus (2) | Milton C. Christensen |
| Edmund J. Outhouse | W. E. Belt (3) |
| Robert W. Gibson | Dr. Earl D. Emery |
| Leonard A. Theis | Edward R. Ahlenius |
| Roy Norgarrd | Harry Kuckenbrod |
| S. Brent Morris (2) | Robert B. Rowell |
| C. Wallace Jackson | Renato Boeri |
| E.C. Martin | M. Hays Hickey (2) |
| James P. Wagner | Dr. Sidney B. Case |
| John B. Hall | Harold D. Bremer |
| Jerry E. Marsengill (3) | Harold P. Hadley |
| B.F. Mandlebaum | Walter E. Beedle |
| John E. Kelly | David J. Godschall (2) |
| L.W. Christensen | Harvey Mize |
| Alex Horne | Allan D. Parsons (5) |
| Ronald E. Heaton | John Black Vrooman |
| Robert M. Bair | James T. Delaney |
| Donald S. Robinson | Dr. C. Joesph Chacko(2) |
| J.T. Burnett | Eugen N. Berato |
| Peter Corbin | Jerome B. Collins |
| David T. Woodruff | David M. Sink |
| Alva H. Montgomery | Charles B. Finney |
| Glen E. Welsh | Robert H. Mateer |
| A.W. Griffith | Gordon H. Merrick (3) |
| Thomas W. Barrs (2) | George R. Hughey |
| Douglas C. Gordon | Chesley M, Greene |
| Joesph S. Lewis | Robert H. Bibb (2) |
| Cyril H. York | Grant R. Rubly |
| Roger W. Shafer | Olin Marth |
| Chalmers E. Carroll | Dr. Mark M. Caffin |
| Wesley A. Buehl | T. W. King |
| Warren F. Bower | Harrison E. Williams |
| David M. Reinhardt | Donald A. Dahl |
| George Jovanovich (2) | Earl W. Haoze |
| J. Worrell | Vernon E. Quay |
| Dennis E. Yeingst | Dr. Frank H. Caffin |
| Peter C. Schmidt | Jack L. Chimonishi |
| Harold P. Bull (6) | William A. Taylor |
| Dr. J. F. Garica-Llaque | Otto R. Burkeyile |
| Harold G. Schierer | Bohdan Berendt |
| Ronald Edinkman | F.B. Lumbard |
| John C. Outlaw | Frank E. Sosebee |
Allan D. Parsons
Chairman
1402 West Euclid
Arlington Heights, III. 60005
Harold P. Bull
Co-Chairman
519 Country Lane
Glenview III. 60025
EVERY MEMBER GET A MEMBER
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First To Bear The Illustrious Name
Article No. XLIII
by James R. Case, F.P.S.
George Washington was raised in the Lodge at Fredericksburgh August 4, 1753 and, according to the few minutes extant, was only in his mother lodge on two occasions, and those within a few months.
Twenty-five years were to elapse before the name of Washington again appears on the records of any Masonic body. Researchers in the archives, and historians of the fraternity have sought diligently, but in vain, for some evidence of his activity during that period. Sydney Hayden, in his book entitled "Washington and His Masonic Compeers", published 125 years ago, could find nothing substantial, and no one has since.
On Saint Johns Day in December 1778, the Commander-in-chief was guest of honor at the customary observance in Philadelphia, appearing in public procession under escort of the Grand Lodge officers. Three hundred of the Craft were present on Saint Johns Day in June 1779, when American Union Lodge sponsored the observance at West Point, most of the Main Continental Army being stationed in the neighborhood that summer. Again, the Commander-in-chief was a guest of honor, being accompanied by his "family" or staff for the services and collation which followed. A total of 107 members paid their club that day, during which the sermon was delivered by a non-Mason, the several Chaplains who were Masons being on leave.
This display seems to have given a great boost to the popularity of the fraternity among the officers in the area, as in the few months which followed, more than thirty applicants were made and advanced in American Union Lodge, many "made elsewhere" were passed and raised, and a number admitted or affiliated, as would be said today.
It became known that the Connecticut Brigades would be among the troops to be sent to winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey. Masons in the Massachusetts Line regiments, which were to remain at West Point made application for a charter in order to hold a lodge in their midst. The Massachusetts Grand Lodge, meeting "on special occasion", received a petition from John Pierce, Paymaster of the Army, and others, and granted a charter for a traveling lodge with Brigadier General John Paterson as Master, the Wardens being Colonel Benjamin Tupper and Major William Hull.
There was a proviso in the dispensation, designed to avoid invasion of jurisdiction by any traveling lodge. In case the lodge was to meet in any state where there was a "Grand Master, Constituted by the Brethren of these United States", his sanction was to be obtained. This was deliberately by-passing Dr. Peter Middleton, then Provincial Grand Master in New York City, whose permission had been sought for American Union to work there in 1776. Not only was he a Loyalist, he had been "constituted" indirectly by succession from the Grand Lodge at London.
A report of the institution of the lodge and installation of officers was made to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in due course, and is of sufficient interest to warrant its citation in full:
Washington's Lodge No. 10
Nets York State, West Point Thursday, the
11th of November, A.M. 5779
At a Grand Lodge held by Authority from Joseph Webb, Esqr. Grand Master of Masons for the State of Massachusetts Bay, delegated to Jona. Heart, Esqr. Master of the American Union Lodge appointing him his Proxy for certain purposes.
Present
Jonathan Heart, Grand Master, by Proxy.
Richard Sill, D. Grand Master
Simeon Belding, S.G. Warden
Samuel Richards J. G. Warden
Daniel Lunt, Grand Treasurer
John Pierce Junr., Grand Secretary
.......................... S. C. Deacon
…………………. J. C. Deacon
Thomas Binn, Grand Tyler
After usual Business, the Deputy informed the Lodge, that Br. John Paterson, Benjamin Tupper, John Greaton, Esqrs. Timothy Whiting, Joseph Foot, William Burley, Billy Porter, John Jones, Henry Sewall, John Williams, Elisha Skinner, William Storey and Richard Welsh, all Ancient free and accepted Masons, resident in the State of the Massachusetts Bay in N.E. having obtained a Charter from the Grand Lodge at Boston, granting them the privileges of Masonry, &c., were now waiting, & begged permission to present themselves to be duly formed & erected into a regular Lodge, &c, &c, &c, by the name of Washington's Lodge No. 10 Our faithful and worthy Brother John Paterson was also presented to the Rt. Worshipful, to be their Master, and agreeable to ancient usage was duly installed & invested with the powers & honors &c, &c, &c, belonging to the same. The Master elect then entered upon his Office, appointed Br. Benja. Tupper to be his Senior Warden, & Br. John Greaton to be his Junior Warden - presented them to the Rt. Worshipl for his approbation: - They were accordingly approved and confirmed to the same, &c, &c, &c, to each the proper Charges given &c, &c, &c, with united Congratulations & earnest Requests for Health, Peace & Safety to all entitled to the Mason's Prayer.
Lodge closed,
By order Grand Master
Richd. Sill D. G. Master
Attest -
Jno Pierce Junr., G. Secry
In a return made to the Grand Lodge under date of July 20, 1780 there appear the names of 104 Masons who had been made in the Lodge during the eight months since they had been constituted. The additions were mainly Massachusetts officers, with twenty from New Hampshire, ten from Pennsylvania, and a few scattering. It must have been a busy winter. All in all more than 250 Masons had some connection with Washington Military Lodge and they are listed with brief biographical mention in Volume X of the Transactions of the American Lodge of Research on pages 259-280.
Colonel John Brooks, a later Governor of Massachusetts among other attainments, was elected Master in 1780. In apparent appreciation of the honor, he presented to the lodge a "set of silver Jewels" made by Paul Revere. The 5 ounces of silver used cost 1/15 - 0 and "the making" 6/15 - 0. Ten years later, when American Union Lodge had reopened at Marietta, Ohio, a letter was written to Brother Price, the storekeeper at West Point, in an effort to recover the jewels, but without success. The present whereabouts of those Revere jewels is unknown.
The light companies of all the New England Continental regiments were sent to Virginia under Lafayette early in 1781, and there was no activity in American Union Lodge. But Washington Lodge was still busy as we learn from a diary kept by Brigadier General William Heath that in December 1781 the "Freemasons celebrated the Feast of St. John &c". The Continental army began to shrink after Yorktown, many officers and men being released, and the regiments consolidated. We know that American Union Lodge, in conjunction with Washington Lodge, celebrated "the Festival of St. John the Baptist" at West Point in 1782. The last report made to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts by Washington Lodge on December 6, 1782 named the newly elected officers and listed all the members, many of whom had left the service or died. Although listed at later Grand Lodge sessions as a subordinate, Washington Lodge was never thereafter represented by officer or proxy, and sent no fees for new members. In December 1785 it was listed as "defunct".
The tradition that Masonic lodges met in the "Temple" at the New Windsor encampment during the winter of 1782-85 cannot be supported by evidence from the minutes of any of the several lodges known to have been working at that time and in the vicinity. The Massachusetts troops, greatly reduced in number by consolidation, were there, it is true. American Union Lodge was at West Point. Independence Royal Arch Lodge had been meeting in the New Jersey brigade. St. Johns Regimental Lodge was then dark, as far as known.
The "new Public building" was not ready for worship services until February 15, 1785. Officially the building provided an "assembly room" to which the soldiers might resort when off duty, a recreation hall such as all army camps have in some shape or other. There was no suitable apartment which a Masonic lodge might use for their purposes. The name "Temple" seems to have been facetiously applied. It was many years later that Masonic Halls came to be known as Masonic Temples.
Moreover, a new organization, for which every officer was qualified, and which promised some substantial benefits in the future, was in process of formation. The Society of the Cincinnati came into existence in the spring of 1783, some of the promoters known to have been Masons. Anyway, lodge activity had begun to ebb as men were discharged and officers relieved from active duty. There were no new prospective candidates. At the last few meetings of American Union Lodge (cited because we have the minutes), the average attendance of members and visitors was just over a dozen, and degrees were conferred on only one candidate during the last six months. But the departing members took their Masonry home with them.
Most of the men on the nominal roll were later identified with lodge, sometimes with Grand Lodge, either in their home states of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, or west as they moved to new lands and new homes in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Two of the brothers who moved to Ohio may be given particular mention. Benjamin Tupper, named as Senior Warden at the organization of Washington Lodge, became one of the stockholders in the Ohio Land Company, and removed to Marietta where he was surveyor of lands and judge of the territorial court. When he died in 1792, he was given elaborate funeral honors. A visitor in town left an interesting account of the ceremony, as seen by a non-Mason, which appears in an adjacent column.
Hugh Malloy removed to Ohio and settled near Bethel in Clermont county. When John Barney, Grand Lecturer paid him a visit in 1845 Hugh thought he was about 93 years old. Barney reported to the 'Freemasons Monthly Magazine' that Malloy related how he had been "initiated in the year 1782, in Gen. Washington's markee. Gen Washington presided in person, and performed the initiating ceremonies. Like some other old men, Brother Malloy remembered clearly something that really didn't happen.
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Soldier - Judge - Congressman
by James R. Case, 33d
As the Berkshire county regiment of militia hurried across Massachusetts in response to the Lexington alarm, the countryside was amazed - and probably amused - to see among the march units a company of Stockbridge Indians, accompanied by their women, children, and dogs.
John Paterson led the column and with it formed part of the reserve at the battle of Bunker Hill. He was soon after commissioned a colonel of a continental regiment which served during the siege of Boston, and in the spring of 1776 marched to the vicinity of New York. Meanwhile, the camp followers had been sent home.
As part of the column sent to the relief of the American forces under Wooster and Arnold in Canada, Paterson and others arrived too late to save the 14th colony for the Union and fell back to form part of the garrison at Fort Ticonderoga.
Ordered to the southward to join Washington and the main army, Paterson was again in the reserve at Trenton, but in the front line at Princeton. He was promoted brigadier general in February 1777 and ordered to Ticonderoga to take command of a brigade of Massachusetts continentals.
The campaign of 1777 ended with the surrender of Burgeyne at Saratoga, where Paterson's brigade behaved well. They again marched toward Philadelphia, wintered at frigid Valley Forge, fought in the torrid heat at Monmouth, and then returned to West Point.
All the rest of John Paterson's nearly nine years of active service was to be spent in that vicinity. He was stationed near Stony Point at the time of Arnold's defection and was one of the members of the court-martial board which tried Andre'. To keep up the morale of his troops on routine camp and garrison duty and to encourage reenlistment, he devised a forerunner of the current service stripe and chevron. It was a strip of white tape to be worn on the left sleeve of the dress coat, made in a herringbone figure, and extending from seam across the upper part of the sleeve below the shoulder.
While on duty near West Point and Newburgh, Paterson visited American Union Lodge in the Connecticut Line, and in November 1779 was named the charter Master of Washington Lodge in the Massachusetts Continental Line. The names of more than 250 Revolutionary army officers appear on the rolls of this lodge, the first one to bear the name of Washington. Paterson had earlier been a petitioner for Berkshire Lodge, organized at Lenox, Mass., in 1776. At Newburgh, he became one of the original members of the Order of Cincinnati.
After discharge as a Major General in December 1785, he returned to Lenox and resumed his law practice. He held various local offices, was a representative to the General Court, and major general in the militia. During Shay's Rebellion the troops were called out, and Paterson, even though he ranked high in popular esteem as he did in legislative and militia circles, was hard pressed to prevent widespread disorder.
He became interested in land speculation, probably having accumulated much colonial and continental scrip which he knew would be redeemed by grants of acreage of public lands. He had extensive interests in Maine, was a director of the Ohio Company, and in 1790 acquired a tract of 250,000 acres in what is now Broome and Tioga counties, some few miles above Binghamton. This would have been an area of about 20 square miles.
Paterson removed with his family to Lisle and, of course, was soon serving as a local official, was sent to the legislature, and was made the first judge of the county court. Interested in education, he was a trustee of Oxford Academy and commissioner of schools. He served in Congress from 1803-05 and then returned to the bench until his death in 1808 at the age of 65.
Although a large landholder, he was never rich because of the easy terms he made with purchasers in his tract. We know little about his affairs, because all his papers were lost by the burning of his house. However, a grandson was his biographer and has left us a full account of his civic and military career in a printed biography.
John Paterson was born in Farmington, Conn., in 1744, in that part of the town now the city of New Britain. He was a graduate of Yale in 1762, the very same year in which his father died at the Siege of Havana as a major in the Connecticut forces under Israel Putnam.
Young John became a schoolteacher studied law and began practice in his home town, but removed to Lenox Mass., in 1774. He became town clerk at the next election and prefaced his military service by attendance at the conventions protesting repressive measures of the British parliament, held in Berkshire county and for the Province. He was also active as a member of the committee of Safety. One of his early associates was David Avery, a native of Norwich Conn., but preaching in Windsor Mass. He went off to war with Paterson's regiment and became the first chaplain in the continental army.
Just where Paterson was made a Mason has not been ascertained, but it is presumed to have been in the lodge at Wallingford, Conn., where several of his college and home-town associates were made. Although the lodge is more than 200 years old, records are missing for the first 50 years.
Paterson and his wife were buried at Lisle, N. Y., but about 1890 his biographer grandson caused the remains to be brought back to Lenox and reinterred in the cemetery there.
On the Green in the center of town a monument has been erected to his memory, with an inscription commemorating his services. Few people traveling through town by automobile today will take the time to find a parking place and leave the car to inspect the monument in detail.
As a noteworthy character in his generation, John Paterson merits wider recognition. We honor him by this brief review of the military and Masonic attainments of a most worthy patriot and brother.
January, 1977- The Northern Light
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(1738-1792)
The funeral of General Tupper was an affair of unusual distinction, and as an incident of pioneer days, conducted by the Lodge of which he was a past Master, justified inclusion in the History of American Union Lodge, wrote Charles S. Plumb. He also included an extract from the narrative of John Heckewelder's journey to the Wabash, in the course of which the traveler was in Marietta on the day of the funeral.
"In consideration of the four different offices which (General Tupper) held, firstly as General in the service of the United States in the late wars; secondly as a member of the Cincinnati order; thirdly as Director of the Ohio Company; and fourthly as Master among the Freemasons, therefore, because of these positions great honors were shown his remains at the funeral. I will mention what was most remarkable to me.
. . . AII the Freemasons had gathered, the latter entered the house of the deceased for about a half an hour during which time a guard had been placed at the doors of the house. When they came out they were furnished with tools according to their several degrees. They wore leather aprons, skillfully embroidered with red, blue or green ribbons around the edge, and bearing the design of a Square and Compass in the center. A few wore only a clean leather apron. Two men with drawn swords placed themselves on both sides of the door through which the body was to be taken and when at last it was brought forward and placed in the Square, the Masons gathered around it, and those with swords stood between it and the people so that no one could draw near to. On the coffin were laid; first, an open Bible, with Square and Compass; second, a costly sword in a black sheath; lined with red velvet; third, four black boxes, two at the head and two at the feet, his four written commissions were laid. On each side of the coffin stood a Mason holding a well turned column of walnut wood in his hand, and at the foot another with a measuring lath about ten feet long. Others stood in different places holding wooden hammers. Some of the Masons wore red, others blue ribbons fastened at the breast. Two of them stood with long, round, beautifully carved wands in their hands, to which a blue ribbon was fastened at the top. Two others held finely carved candle sticks, two and a half feet long, containing white candles wax, at least two inches in diameter.
All these arrangements having been completed, the clergyman, who was also a Mason, offered up a prayer, of which however I could understand but very Iittle as he spoke in a low tone. A very mournful dirge was then sung, and the order of the procession called out. Hereupon the coffin was closed and every Mason broke off a Iittle branch of the greens which lay upon it, and stuck it in his coat. The Bible with the Square and Compasses, the pocket book, the four black boxes with the papers resting upon them, and the sword, were now carefully Iifted up, and carried by as many men as were necessary, and also the coffin, which had been covered by a large white cloth. The soldiers who had stood in double rank from the gates during the whole of the ceremony with stacked bayonets, were now in part stationed by their Corporal where the procession passed. After the other part had performed various evolutions before them officer, the drums were muffled and covered with a black cloth, and at a given signal they marched off, while a funeral march was being played. The Masons who had not been occupied with the care of the remains marched behind them, hand in hand, two and two. These were followed by those carrying hammers, measuring laths, the two round wands, columns, etc., and finally came the clergyman, and behind him a man carrying a black box, the coffin now followed, the Master walking beside it, and the mourners behind him .... the soldiers.... retired. Hereupon the Masons drew near to the grave, and after a given signal knelt down around it. The clergyman then said "Lord! now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, etc. " He pronounced several passages from the Scriptures applicable to the servants of God, and closed with the words, "after labor sweet is rest." The Masons then arose, and threw their green twigs on the coffin and the grave was immediately filled up .... All returned in the former order, the Masons reassembling in the house for the closure exercise."
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Wylie Brodbeck Wendt
1885-1979
by Morrison L. Cooke M.P.S.
Wylie B. Wendt was born in Newport, Ky., November 19, 1885. A graduate of the University of Kentucky he was a retired professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Louisville.
Raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in 1907 in Robert Burns Lodge No. 163, he was knighted in Newport Commandery No. 13, April 4, 1908. Sir Knight Wendt affiliated with Lansing (Mich.) Commandery No. 25 in 1909. He affiliated with Oriental Commandery No. 48, Manhattan, Kan. in 1915, and with Schrader Commandery No. 9, Rapid City, S. D. in 1920. Wylie served as Commander there in 1922 and 1923, and was Grand Junior Warden of the Grand Commandery of South Dakota in 1925, when he was transferred back to Kentucky. He organized the Inspection Department of South Dakota, serving as Inspector for four years, and then in 1953 became the first Chief Instructor of the Grand Commandery of Kentucky, serving for five years. He wrote practically all of the present Kentucky Asylum Ceremonies, and privately published a Manual for conferring the Order of Malta with the Full Ceremonial.
Sir Knight Wendt commanded the South Dakota battalion in the Triennial parade in Minneapolis in 1931, and the Kentucky battalion at Indianapolis in 1958. He was the winner of the first award of the Grand Encampment Knights Templar Cross of Honor in Kentucky, in 1965. Made Honorary Past Grand Commander of Grand Commandery of Kentucky, 1974.
He was a member of DeWitt Clinton Consistory, A.A.S.R., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Kosair Shrine Temple in Louisville. Wylie was Sovereign of St. Simon Conclave. Red Cross of Constantine, Sioux Falls, S.D., and was Intendant General in South Dakota in 1937-38. He was a member of St. Barnabas Conclave, Louisville, and Intendant General in Kentucky. Wylie was a charter member of Golgotha Tabernacle No. XIV, Knights Templar Priests, serving as Preceptor in 1949-53. He was Grand Preceptor of the Grand College of America, Knights Templar Priests in 1957.
A Fellow of the Philalethes Society, and also of the Grand College of Rites, a member of Grand Master's Council, Allied Masonic Degrees. He was Sovereign Master in 1 959, and Sovereign Grand Master of the Grand Council, A.M.D. in 1970, when he was made a Knight Grand Cross. Wendt belonged to the Red Branch of Eri, Knight Masons of Ireland, Order of the Cork, Masonic Order of the Bath, Council of the Nine Muses, Virginia College, S.R.I.C.F., the Royal Order of Scotland, and the Great Priory of America, C.B.C.S. He was a member of Missouri Lodge of Research and a regular contributor to the KNIGHT TEMPLAR Magazine.
Our beloved Venerable Patriarch was an honorary member of many Masonic organizations. As he celebrated his 50th Anniversary as a Past Commander, he celebrated his 65th anniversary as a Knight Templar by acting as Commander in conferring the Order of the Temple - a performance that he accomplished at 5 year intervals since his 50th anniversary in 1958.
----o----
On The Philalethes Trestleboard
Annual Assembly and Feast
by Dwight L. Smith, F.P.S.
YOUR PRESIDENT is pleased to accept an invitation from our editor to make an announcement that should be of great interest to members of the Society.
It pertains to our annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Friday, February 15, 1980.
But first, before reading further, please shift your eyes to the right; and read three pages from Haywood's book, More About Masonry. This excerpt is reprinted through the courtesy of Brother H. Paul Scholte, president of the Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, of Richmond, Virginia:
***
Now that you have read that classic essay of Haywood's on the vital role of sociability and fellowship in the traditions of our Craft, you will be in a better position to understand the background for the announcement I am making.
Our annual gathering in Washington will be different in one important detail.
The word "workshop" will be abandoned and the format will be altered to emphasize how the pursuit of Masonic light (or Masonic education, if you insist) can be made a happy, interesting, challenging experience; not something to be endured, but something to be anticipated and enjoyed.
We are indebted to our editor, Brother Jerry Marsengill, for the name to be assigned to our meeting. Instead of workshop, or seminar, or any of those much overworked terms with deadly dull connotation, Brother Jerry said, "Why not go back to the most important date in all Masonic history and call it the Annual Assembly and Feast!"
"Brilliant!" was my response. "Absolutely perfect!"
And so, Annual Assembly and Feast it will be. If precedent is needed, that portion of Anderson's Constitutions of 1738 which describes the meeting of the four old Lodges in London on the Feast of St. John the Baptist, 1717, should suffice.
We read that the old Lodges came together at the Goose and Gridiron alehouse to "form a Center of Union and Harmony" and to "hold the Annual Assembly and Feast."
Our meeting will be about the dinner tables. The occasion will, I trust, evoke a smile now and then, so that our Society can begin to get away (for all time, I hope) from what Haywood terms "cheerlessness, repetition, monotony, dullness."
We are giving serious thought to music - the singing of Masonic odes - something else that has gone by the board in those generations in which American Freemasonry has adopted what Haywood calls a "girm and silent sitting on a bench staring across at a wall."
It will not be a Table Lodge as such; hence, there need be no ruffled feelings over real or fancied invasion of jurisdiction.
I have invited several of the Goose and Gridiron Brethren based in and about New York City to arrange and present a program It will be different, but with far more traditional Masonic flavor than any we have yet experienced.
Theme for the Annual Assembly and Feast will be "The Ideal Lodge."
Names of Brethren who will present papers and lead discussions will be announced in a future issue of our magazine, together with details as to reservations and price of dinner tickets.
We expect our dinner to have a bit of "class." That will serve to illustrate something else our Lodges have forgot ten, or chose not to emphasize, within the memory of most of us.
It will not be distinguished for its cheapness, but we hope it will be memorable in that it may mark the beginning of a return to some of the basic things that our Lodges have been neglecting for a long, long time.
A second revival, akin, perhaps, to 1717? It could be. Let the Philalethes Society lead the way.
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Sociability and the Lodge Feast
(Condensed from Chapter 24 of H.L. Haywood’s book MORE ABOUT MASONRY, 1948, and repented by permission of the Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, Inc., Richmond, Virginia.)
THERE ARE HISTORIANS of small arts, and minute divisions of science, and movements of only a local fame, of cities, of counties, of states, and of people and nations. There also are historians who have, as it were, an all-seeing eye, who see the world's history and see it whole, who have in their minds neither a taint nor a twist of partiality for their own folk nor prejudice against any other.
There are a few such historians now as there have been in every age, but it is always interesting to see one's own people as they see them.
What image of the American people is seen in that universal mirror?
If we examine that image for ourselves, as we can if we are sufficiently impartial, we shall find that one of the outstanding peculiarities of ourselves is that almost more than any other people on earth we are the least given to feasting - we are not a festal folk, and we have few festivals.
For some mysterious reason, perhaps because of an inheritance from the Purtians, we got it fixed in our minds one or two centuries ago that food and drink are somehow "material, " that feasting is somehow a form indulgence, is a little questionable, and a little gross. Even our religion, which almost everywhere in the world is the mother of the festal spirit, is non-festival: a church supper is something to sup, it is never anything to feast on.
If at any point our American Lodges have fallen away from the Ancient Landmarks. and fallen below our early Lodges, it is at this point. We have Lodge Lunches, Lodge smokers, Lodge dinners, but almost never a Lodge feast.
It is written in the first paragraph of the account of the founding of the Mother Grand Lodge in 1717 that the old Lodges in London had two (and only two) purposes in constituting a Grand Lodge. One was to establish a center of union and harmony, the other was to revive the Quarterly Feasts.
Why feasts? Because then (as it had been for centuries) the feast stood close to the very heart of the Lodge, was one of the fundamental things in the Lodge. Even the original version of the Old Charges, in which everything was condensed to the fewest possible words and only essentials were included, feasts were provided for among the rules and regulations as a fixed and necessary party of the Masonic life. Feast were a "third sector" in the work and scope of the Lodge, and one of the principal officers, the Junior Warden, had as the purpose of his office to responsible for that sector: and in early Speculative times this Landmark was not weakened but was reinforced by giving the Junior Warden the two Stewards to assist him.
A dinner is nothing but a meal: a banquet is an occasion where a dinner is nothing but the preliminary to a program a feast is not a dinner or a banquet, but an occasion; where food and drink in overflowing abundance and of every possible variety, it is eaten for its own sake and for the enjoyment of it, those who sit down to it remain a long time at their places, and there is always much talk, laughter, and singing, but the talking and singing go on during the eating, not as a set program after it.
In the Eighteenth Century Lodges the feast bulked so large in the life of the Lodge that in many of them the members were seated at the table when the Lodges were opened and remained at it throughout the Communication, even when the degrees were conferred. The result was that Masonic fellowship was good fellowship. In it, as in a warm and fruitful soil, acquaintanceship, friendship and affection could flourish. There was no grim and silent sitting on a bench staring across at a wall.
Out of the festal spirit flowered the love which Masons had for their Lodge. The brought gifts to it, and only by a reading of old inventories can any present-day Mason measure the extent of that love. The Lodge was a home, warm, comfortable, luxurious, full of memories, and tokens, and affection, and even if a member died his presence was never wholly absent.
To such a Lodge no member went grudgingly, nor had to be coaxed, nor was moved by the ghastly, cold thing called a "sense of duty," but went as if drawn by a magnet, and counted the days until he could go.
It was an old puzzle to historians until a half-century ago to explain how Freemasonry was able to grow, first in Britain and America and then around the world.
The puzzle was solved when historical research began to discover for the first time how large had been the place of feasts in early Lodges, and what their consequences were. The average early Lodge had only 8, 10, 15, or possibly 25 members - not enough to keep a modern American Lodge in existance - yet it flourished generation after generation, and it was those small Lodges which made Freemasonry great. It was because they loved their Lodges.
And it so happens that Freemasonry is such that if in a Lodge of only ten members the ten whole-heartedly love it, then theirs is Masonically a larger and more powerful Lodge than one of a hundred members in which they are nothing but members, and do nothing but attend it now and then.
It is hard to love a Lodge if it meets in a half empty room, if its walls are bare, if its furniture is ugly, if its color is drab, and if its communications consist of nothing more than a routine turning over the Lodge "business."
Business indeed! What business has any Lodge to be nothing but a machine for grinding out their work! It was not called into existence in order to have the minutes read. Even a mystic tie will snap under the strain of cheerlessness repetition, monotony, dullness. A Lodge needs a fire lighted in it, and the only way to have that warmth is to restore the Lodge feast, because when it is restored good fellowship and brotherly love will follow, and where good fellowship is members will fill up an empty Lodge room not only with themselves but also with their gifts.
----o----
By C.W. Coons, M.P.S.
Concepts are not good just because they are old; they are old because they are good.
In many American jurisdictions the EA is shown, early in a lecture, a combination of three of the most ancient and profound of man's religious graphic symbols.
When, however, have you ever heard the lecturer remind the E A of the following?
"This combination of symbols signifies that you are part of and subject to - and the agent of - the plans and forces of all creation, in other words, the eternal verities of existence, from everlasting to everlasting."
The candidate sees what he supposes to be merely a geometric figure consisting of a dotted circle with two parallel tangents attached.
What he is being shown, however, is based on two of the most ancient sacred concepts ever committed to graphics. The circle and the dotted circle were significant religious symbols before geometry was ever developed.
Whether they were individual shamans or medicine men, or members of an organized priesthood, religious leaders were the initiators of the systems of pictographs (also called pictograms) which eventually evolved into our several forms of written communications.
As soon as early man realized that there was no life, or even well-being without its warming rays, the sun was deified. Its circle pictograph eventually came to represent concepts ranging from omnipotence to the combined powers of all natural forces.
This pictogram (with and without rays) appeared with various of its multiple religious interpretations again and again as civilizations developed pictographic systems, many simultaneously, on all continents.
[It is the root of the sound and the letter O in modern languages; see the first paragraph under this initial in an encyclopedia, and the article on "Alphabet" in the A volume.
It is interesting to note (throughout the ages) how many names of deities contain as the vowel of their main vocable the O sound or one of its variations (oo, AH, or short O), as in Lord, Theos, Hom, Aum, Om, Oom, Deus, Ba'al, God, Brahma, Horus, or Allah.
The honorific forms of address to deity beginning "O", or "Oh", have been used and are still being used in many other religions besides the Judeo-Christian.
The representations we now have of the earliest pictographs of the deified sun were sometimes rather crude circles because scratching them into a substance durable enough to preserve them for half a dozen or more millenia was quite
With the greater formalization of various sun-cult religions came more meticulous treatment of the pictogram. Possibly because some sort of a compass or divider-like instrument was used for inscribing it, a dot began to appear in the center of the circle.
The priesthoods of the various religions at first ascribed several different interpretations to the dot, but none were so very far apart.
For example, one interpretation was that the dot represented the individual man under the influence of the (total) forces of nature - represented by the sun, which was considered as omnipotent over all nature.
Another interpretation saw the dotted circle as a representation of the "all-seeing eye", which developed into the concept of omniscient deity.
This eye, often in more or less full detail, sometimes appeared in conjunction with, and even in the palm of a representation of the hand (of God?).
It is not difficult to merge the concepts of omnipotence and omniscience.
Even now, when sun-worship has given way to "modern" religions, these two concepts and many of the other terms of the vocabulary of sun-worship still permeate religious - and Masonic - rituals with references to light, dark, warmth, shadow, etc.
The concept of eternity was a later addition to religions, and its representation by parallel lines that could not meet, even at infinity, would not have been possible before the science of geometry was developed. [Modern space geometry may today advance differing ideas about the possibilities of parallel lines but curved space was not a part of the thinking of ancient priest-geometrists.]
Therefore, the addition of the parallel tangents to our symbol probably occurred less than five thousand years ago.
To answer the question as to why religious symbology was so prevalent in the training rituals of the builders' guilds, we must remind ourselves of the functions of religious leadership in ancient societies, and, indeed, up to the last couple of centuries.
The religious leader was maintained by a society, literally, to do the thinking for the lay leaders and their subjects or followers. As shaman, medicine man, or priest, he preserved and taught the traditions and lore of his society; he maintained the records of seasonal changes and heavenly convolutions, and (by means of sacred festivals of sanction) controlled the planting and other life cycles of his charges. He advised the lay leaders not only when and where to build temples and commemorative stelae, but also determined the construction of dams, aqueducts, sewer systems, canals, levees, seawalls, or fortifications.
[When priests were strong enough to assume the necessary power, they controlled either overtly or covertly whole tribes or nations under a theocratic government, as in the examples of Pharoahs, Samuel and Eli, Tecumseh, or Cardinal Richelieu, just to cite a few. Also consider the edict, obviously delivered to David by his priests, (prophets), described in the 29th Chapter of First Chronicles, noting especially the 21st verse.]
In the final analysis, it was the priesthoods that were responsible for hiring foreign chapters of builders, or for sponsoring the development of local chapters. In many instances, such as the cases of the Amunist, the Dionysian, and Hebrew priesthoods, or several orders of Christian monks, chapters of builders were developed within the membership of the priestly orders.
With such interlocking and/or close relationships, it was inevitable that their precepts and nomenclatures would intermingle.
----o----
by John Black Vrooman
Communication - The imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions or information by speech, writing or signs - The American College Dictionary
A meeting of a symbolic lodge is called a communication. At this meeting the business of the Craft is discussed, planned and executed. It is the most important phase of the Craft. It is the essence of understanding and solving the problems which are to be met. Communication is essential to understanding.
Primitive Man had few needs. Food, shelter and clothing were his personal needs. Communication was scarcely a problem, but was a means of better and greater understanding of his state of life. When he needed to communicate with his tribe or family, he drew crude pictures and designs on the wall of his hut, carved them from the earth, or in the cave in which he lived. That was the only need he had.
Communication became more and more developed. We learn that the Hebrews and the people of their times, had many forms of interchange. The hieroglyphics and cuneiform writings of these and succeeding peoples gave evidence of the customs, laws and activities of the time.
Not to be overlooked, is the Bible story of the promulgation of the Book of the Law - the "Ten Commandments", which Moses brought, in stone tablets from Mount Sinai. This was Divine Communication.
In a recent newspaper article we learn that in the translation of the latest "Dead Sea Scrolls", new evidence about the origin of Christian teachings on sex, marriage, divorce, and other things of importance, has appeared.
In Babylon the writings told tales of the history, philosophy and religious attributes of the time. This was amplified and elaborated upon in the Egyptian manuscripts.
In China in the earliest times, the story of progress and contemporary conditions was exposed. When it was necessary for one to communicate with another, colored stones were laid in certain positions to convey messages and meanings. India also had such means of communication.
Greece and Rome at the height of their destiny, were replete with material, dug up from the ruins by archaeologists and researchers. There was intercommunication between Rome and its "colonies", Greece and its subordinate parts and between all parts of the two then - great Empires.
With the fall of Rome, and the coming of the "Dark Ages", communication centered in the monasteries and Cathedrals. The Lonely Monks set themselves at the task of hand illuminating manuscripts and tapestries. It must be remembered that this was a world of illiteracy. Even after the discovery of printing in the late Fifteenth Century, there were few to make use of it.
Following the invention of printing, there was little use of it except by the clergy. The Church used printing. All (or most) of the books printed were of a religious nature.
With the coming of the Renaissance the floodgates were opened. Literature, culture and greater understanding were brought to life. No other era of human history saw as much literature as the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.
Communication became active and useful to the world.
Now, we are confronted by the greatest growth and development of communication know to man. Publication of books, pamphlets, and magazines has become a major industry.
In the scientific field the Wireless, served a useful part. The Transatlantic Cable was laid. It is an asset of immense value. The Radio was partially perfected during the first quarter of the Century.
Do you remember the old hand-set radio, with its long cords and its earphones? Do you remember the static, the almost unrecognizable voices and eerie music that came in spasms and was never quite perfect? If you remember these things, you will have a better idea of early communication. That was the peak of its early use and development.
Today we have the most complicated and variegated means of communication that Man has ever known. It is possible in several seconds to reach any part of the world. Newscasts from China or Peru are common. We seem to have reached the peak of communication.
----o----
Elmer Hoffman Dies
The Valley Forge Chapter of The Philalethes Society announces with deep regret the death of its Secretary, Brother Elmer C. Hoffman, M.P.S., on July 26, 1979, at the Masonic Home of Pennsylvania, Lafayette Hill, Pa. He had been ill for over a year.
Brother Hoffman served the Chapter from its inception more than ten years ago, and was an active member in all its activities over the years.
Brother Hoffman was born in Wilkes Barre, Pa., and attended public schools there. After graduation from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he followed his profession of school teacher. He taught for 25 years in the Norristown High School, and an additional 3 years at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa.
He was an active member of the Executive Board of the Montgomery County Sunday School Association for many years; a Sunday School teacher in Norristown; and was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Collegeville, Pa.
Brother Hoffman was a member of Charity Lodge No. 190, F. & A. M., Norristown, Pa. The Lodge conducted a Masonic service at the funeral home. Funeral service was private, with burial July 28, in Limerick, Pa.
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February 15, 1980 - Annual Assembly and Feast
The banquet will begin at 7:00 P.M.
Cost: $15.00 per person, including tax and tip
Menu: Pea soup St. Germain, Roast Chicken Grand Mere, Potatoes Parisienne, Buttered carrots, Tossed Salad, French Pastries, Coffee, Wine with dinner and afterwards for toasting (grape juice available for those who don't care for wine)
Reservations: Must be to F.J. Anderson, 9680 Standon Place, Columbia, Maryland 21045, by Tuesday the 12th with check. Cancellations can be made through Thursday noon by phone or otherwise for full refund.
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WE WELCOME
OUR NEW MEMBERS
Jeffrey L. Cook
Recommended by
Alex Home, F.P.S.
Johnny R. Brown
Recommended by
J.E. Marsengill, F.P.S.
Charles H. Knowles
Recommended by
A.W. Griffith. M.P.S.
John Frank Perry, Jr.
Recommended by
Chesley M. Greene, M.P.S.
Alfred D. Sawyer
Recommended by
Thomas W. Barrs M.P.S.
Arthur De-Grussa
Recommended by
Alex Home. F.P.S.
Jess W. Gern
Recommended by
Gordon R. Merrick. M.P.S.
Ralph W. Shackelford
Recommended by
Earl W. Hoage, M.P.S
Garth H. Ballantyne
Recommended by
William Stemper, M.P.S.
Samuel W. Hartshorn
Recommended by
Thomas W. Barrs, M.P.S.
Ellis L. Sappington
Recommended by
Robert H. Bibb, M.P.S.
Frederick Neild
Recommended by
Vernon E. Quay, M.P.S.
Jodie T. Sosebee
Recommended by
Frank E. Sosebee, M.P.S.
George J. Kane
Recommended by
David T. Woodruff, M.P.S.
Samuel A. Wise
Recommended by
Allan D. Parsons, M.P.S.
Harold P. Bull, M.P.S.
Claude L. Sweigart
Recommended by
Robert H. Mateer M.P.S.
Herbert Hultman
Recommended by
Alva H. Montgomery, Jr. M.P.S
George H. Hebert
Recommended by
Dr. Frank H. Caffin, M.P.S.
Dr. Mark H. Caffin. M.P.S.
Verl Stuart
Recommended by
Gordon R. Merrick, M.P.S.
William O. Banks
Recommended by
Glen E. Welsh, M.P.S.
Kenneth B. Charlesworth
Recommended by
Gordon R. Merrick, M.P.S.
Earl L. Guinn, Jr.
Recommended by
Harrison B. Williams, M.P.S.
Dean R. Larson
Recommended by
Otto R. Burkeyile, M.P.S.
John E. Odom
Recommended by
Donald A. Dahl, M.P.S.
Fred D. Decker
Recommended by
Eugene S. Hopp, M.P.S.
O.A. Milner, Jr.
Recommended by
John B. Arp, M.P.S.
Harry Muellich
Recommended by
Norval P. Marks, M.P.S.
George C. Sellars
Recommended by
Jack L. Chimonishi, M.P.S.
James N. McGee
Recommended by
T.W. King, M.P.S.
Leo E. Brink
Recommended by
William A. Taylor M.P.S.
Donnie C. Stowe
Recommended by
John E. Kelly, M.P.S.
Donald R. Walden
Recommended by
Robert H. Bibb, M.P.S.
Richard T. Harwood
Recommended by
Douglas L. Gordon, M.P.S.
Roger S. Mills
Recommended by
Grant R. Rubly, M.P.S.
John R. Price
Recommended by
Olin Marth. M.P.S.
Robert E. Barnett, Jr.
Recommended by
George R. Hughey, M.P.S.
Earl C. Slayton
Recommended by
Gordon R. Merrick M.P.S.
Carl T. Baeseman. M.P.S.
Howard A. Morrow, Sr.
Recommended by
Allan D. Parsons, M.P.S.
Harold P. Bull, M.P.S.
Robert B. Fox
Recommended by
F.J. Anderson, F.P.S.
Andrew Podbielski
Recommended by
Bohdan Berendt, M.P.S.
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Al Cerza Reviews Books of Interest to Masons
In January, 1963 the Masonic Service Bureau of Rochester, New York published the first issue of the Monroe Masonic News. Starting with the next issue, in February, there appeared a column entitled "Dear Herman" which answered questions sent to the periodical by the readers. The answers were prepared by Brother Herman A. Sarachan, M.P.S.. This feature has appeared in the periodical ever since. The questions related to a variety of Masonic subjects. The answers proved of interest to readers. Many readers suggested that the questions and answers be collected and published in book form. In 1977 the author was requested by the Bureau to make a selection of the material and to arrange it in a form suitable for publication as a book. This he has done and has published a book entitled "Dear Herman", containing 276 questions and answers, arranged alphabetically, plus an appendix, and an index.
The questions and answers cover a matter of Masonic history, law, symbolism, ritual, and other phases of the Craft. While some of the material, is locally oriented it is of interest to show what questions exist in the minds of some of our members and how they are answered locally. Most of the material, however, is of general interest. The book is interesting to read and contains a wealth of worthwhile information.
Available in paper back edition at $6.00 a copy, and with a hard cover at $8.50 a copy, from the Masonic Service Association, 875 East Main St., Rochester, New York 14605. The proceeds of the sale are used for the educational and charitable work of the Bureau .
***
Since 1950 the Midwest Conference on Masonic Education has met annually to discuss matters of interest to Masons and ways and means of disseminating Masonic information. Each year the Proceedings of the Conference containing the papers read and the discussion of the subjects have been printed in soft cover books. Each of these volumes make a valuable addition to the reading of any Mason. A few of these Proceedings are available and can be secured as long as the supply lasts, at the following prices:
1950 to 1976, $2.50 a copy;
1977, $5.00 a copy;
1978, $6.00 a copy.
Send requests to Dr. Dawson Grim, 4300 E. Avenue NE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402
***
On June 8, 1979, the Connecticut Council of Deliberation of the Scottish Rite, held its 100th session. In commemoration of this anniversary, James R. Case, F.P.S., Grand Historian, wrote a brief history of the Council. It is a model of skillful research, good writing, and brevity.
A limited number of copies are available from the author, at $1.00 a copy; his address is R.F.D. Randall Road, Lebanon, Conn. 06249.
***
In 1952 there was published the History of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States of America, written by Dr. Francis J. Scully. It presented the traditional background of the Order and the history from the beginning to the year 1952. Plans are under way to bring the history up-to-date and to republish it under the supervision of R. Julian Knight, a member of Hot Springs Commandery No. 5.
***
There has been published a List of used Masonic books being sold by Ars Hermetica, 23 Terkels Park, Camberley, GU15 2LE, England, identified as List No. F5. A free copy is available on request. The list contains a number of books that have been out-of-print for many years.
***
Readers of science-fiction books will be happy to hear that "Revolt in 2100," by Robert A. Heinlein, is available again in a softcover edition. This novel was written many years ago and describes a "secret society" and its operation in the year 2100 with a plot that will prove interesting to members of the Craft.
Available at $2.00 a copy from the New American Library, P. O. Box 999, Bergenfield, NJ 07621.
***
The Masonic Service Association of the United States, 8120 Fenton Street, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, has updated and has available the following printed items:
List of Short Talk Bulletins. Free.
List of Digests. Free.
Special Events in Lodge, containing ten suggested lodge programs. $1.75 a copy.
Research Lodge, listing them with basic information about each. $.50 a copy.
New Play Catalog. Free.
Crystal-Balling the Future, being a summary of a survey made in Texas and projecting the conditions of the Craft in the year 2020. $1.00 a copy.
***
The matter of mandatory retirement has been hotly debated in recent years with some emphasis on what is the ideal age to bring this about. We now have a paper back edition of "It Takes a Long Time to Become Young," by Garson Kanin. This interesting book is opposed to mandatory retirement at any age and presents the reasons in an interesting and light manner. There are many illustrations of how senior citizens have made valuable contributions to the world with many of them being well known members of the Craft including Benjamin Franklin, of ages past, and Col. Sanders, of recent years.
Available at $2.75 a copy, from Berkley Book Mailing Service, P.O. Box 690, Rockville Centre, N. Y. 11570.
***
The United States Printing Office is publishing a series of volumes under the title "Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789." To date three volumes have been published and contain pertinent documents, and letters, to the delegates which are in the Library of Congress. Students of the colonial period may want to secure copies of these volumes for their libraries. For example, the third volume covers the period from January 1, 1776 to May 15, 1776, has 735 pages, at the price of $10.25 a copy, from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. 20402.
***
Research Lodge No. 2, of Iowa, with Brother Thomas B. Case, as Secretary, P.O. Box 302, Boone, la. 50036, has the following soft bound books for sale:
Haywood's Introduction to Freemasonry. $1.00 a copy.
Hogan, The Vital Statistics of Nauvoo Lodge. $3.00 a copy.
Barry, The Story of Old Glory. $2.00
Cerza, Women's Liberation & Freemasonry. $2.00 a copy.
Marsengill, How to Kick a Sacred Cow. $2.00 a copy.
Marsengill, Negro Masonry in lowa. $2.00 a copy.
----o----
Local Chapters
by John Black Vrooman
The following Local Chapters are now active - We note Name and location and date of formation of each Local Chapter, as far as it has been possible to determine.
1. Chicago Chapter
Chicago, Illinois.
June 15, 1956
President: Dr. Ridell A. Kelsey
Secretary: Raymond W. Langosch
2. Kentucky Chapter
Louisville, Kentucky
October 18, 1959
President:
Secretary:
DeMoville P. Jones, Temporary co-ordinator
3. Central Illinois Chapter
Bloomington, Illinois
October 16, 1969
President: Kenneth W. Smith
Secretary: Edward R. Ahlenius
4. Valley Forge Chapter
Norristown, Pa.
April 16, 1969
President: Ferman O. Steveson
Secretary: Charles H. Wernersbach
5. Western Reserve Chapter
Cleveland, Ohio
April 15, 1975
President: Joseph E. Bennett
Secretary: Reinhold Schultz
6. Chester County Chapter
Exton, Pa.
December 6, 1975
President: Vernon E. Quay
Secretary: Robert M. Bair
7. Northern Lights Chapter
Minneapolis, Minn.
November 6, 1976
President: Cleon V. Cain
Secretary:
8. Tennessee Valley Chapter
November 24, 1976
President: Paul E. Drinnon
Secretary: Thomas F. Craig
9. Northern Indiana Chapter
South Bend, Indiana
September 9, 1978
President: Paul E. Rudbeck
Secretary: Ted Kosiba
10. Texas Chapter
San Antonio, Texas
October 28, 1978
President: Deed L. Vest
Secretary: John E. Kelly
11. Indiana Chapter
Indianapolis, Indiana
November 1, 1978
President:
Secretary:
No officers elected at this time.
12. James Buchanan Chapter
Lancaster, Pa.
January 31, 1979
President: Paul R. Hoffer
Secretary: Charles C. Getz
EVERY
MEMBER
GET A MEMBER
----o----
by Bill Stemper, M.P.S.
It's difficult to look at the Fraternity without concern for its health and vitality. The Craft is undergoing a shift in character, which will shape its future and affect its survival.
The main aspect of this change is loss of membership, and with it the vitality associated with a growing, healthy, and stimulating organization. In 1978, forty-six grand lodges lost (net) 59,447 members. Only four grand lodges showed net gains. The total net loss for the Fraternity was 58,403. This leaves a total of 3,360,409 members in the 49 American grand lodges. The principal reason for the losses is mounting deaths and fewer initiations. The gains (North Carolina, Arizona, Florida, and South Carolina) either reflect shifts in Masonic affiliations or are from grand lodges that do not reflect the nation as a whole. This should give leaders of the Craft cause for concern.
Losses are not the issue. The health of the Fraternity has never been members, but the relationship of the Mason to his lodge. As Dwight L. Smith has said for years, this is best indexed by the numbers of new lodges being formed, not the gains or losses of individual grand lodges.
The fact is the Craft is neither healthy by the standard of its overall membership, nor by the standard of lodge life. Few new lodges are formed each year. Far more consolidate or merge.
The fundamental reason the Fraternity is in such a state is Masons are not communicating the teachings, traditions, and principles of the Craft to the world outside the lodge. Most lodges are not making an effort at educating their members to fundamental Masonic teachings. Beyond ritual, little is done to educate the candidate about the institution. Masonic research is carried on outside of the general Masonic population in research lodges, clubs, societies, and committees far removed from the attention of the ordinary Freemason. Grand lodges are preoccupied with their own affairs, and more and more with the costs of maintaining and perpetuating Masonic homes, hospitals, and charities. There is little evidence on the part of the official Masonic leadership in the United States that the Craft's leadership is aware of the state of the Fraternity. Certainly it is not prepared to discuss ways to stop the decline. Such suggestions as are made, allowing solicitation for example, involve no diagnosis of the nature of the problem.
There is monumental irony in that the Fraternity appears to be in such precarious health today. At no time in its recent history has there been more interest in Freemasonry by scholars outside of the Craft. This has been evidenced by eminent historians (Cf., Francis A. Yates, whose several works on Renaissance history give Freemasonry provocative and stimulating mention; and John M. Roberts, The Mythology of Secret Societies, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972), concerned with early modern and modern study of social history and the history of ideas. There appears to be such a renascence of interest in Freemasonry among non-Masonic scholars that one can scarcely examine the index of a recent work on European, and frequently American, history dealing with the 17th-20th centuries without mention of the relationship of Freemasonry to religion, politics, or society.
At no time in recent American history has there been a more pronounced susceptibility on the part of American youth to the kinds of ideals, brotherhood and universal harmony and justice, Freemasonry has espoused for centuries. It is as if there is no connection between our teachings, work and tradition and the world.
Such a climate requires careful action on the part of the leaders. Every effort to examine the nature of the decline and the possibility for survival should be made at every level of Masonic authority without delay.
What form should this effort assumes In the briefest terms, it must take two courses, one at the national level, the other at the local. Both are related. Each has a contribution to make to the solution of what appears to be the gravest crisis Freemasonry has faced in the United States since the period of the Morgan episode.
First, at the local level, the form for Masonic renewal is simple. No Master, or other presiding officer, should be elected or installed without a planned and well-executed effort to revive the "ancient" custom of Masonic and social discourse around the "festive board." It is not enough to carry on "Masonic education" via magazine subscription, books, pamphlets, etc. Masonic education must be the essence and core of a lodge's life. It should be an indispensable element of each regular Masonic communication.
The framework for such a process is the "table lodge," if authorized, or a dinner setting at which informed and brief addresses on the history and tradition of the Craft are presented. There is ample resource for doing this. Many books are available which describe these settings and how to use them.
There is no way for establishing Masonic education as a priority in lodges without making it a reason for honors and advancement. Realistically speaking, most Freemasons, as human if extraordinary men of character, pursue Masonic office, as awards accrue, on the basis of what values the organization sets at the practical level, beyond, or below the level of surface ideal. In the United States, Masonic honors tend to follow from ritualistic proficiency and support of Grand Lodge activities, especially Masonic homes, at the lodge level, and from membership recruitment and support of philanthropies at the concordant or appendant bodies' level. If a systematic effort were made to promote Masonic education programs at the local level, with recognition and honors, the results would be dramatic. Freemasons would soon learn their own best interests are served from knowing more about the Craft, and from teaching others. The rewards in personal fulfillment and self-development for the individual Freemason would be significant.
At the national level, the necessary form for Masonic renewal is closer cooperation and communication among and between grand lodges and the various appendant, allied, and concordant bodies. Because each state is sovereign, and grand masters tend to change every one or two years, absolute consensus among the various states' leaders is almost impossible. Each grand lodge is jealous of its prerogatives; and the richness of the American Masonic legacy stems in large measure from its diversity and independence.
This fact should in no way deter serious leaders of Masonic organizations, and especially the Masonic intellectual and journalistic communities, from adopting a sound and practical strategy for renewal. The clearest means toward this is the formation of a centralized institute or research center designed to stimulate ideas about the nature of social and fraternal organisms. Such a center could be a clearinghouse for current research and writing on the nature of voluntary societies, shifts and changes in modern lifestyle, and how it will affect the Fraternity and its future. It should not be controlled by any one body, but serve all equally, whether or not such bodies contribute to its support.
Such an institute should avoid any particular viewpoint. It should be a Forum for the exchange of ideas. It should draw on the best social research available in the nation regardless of the researcher's Masonic affiliation. Its findings should be disseminated to all interested in the future of voluntary fraternal societies, and to the quality of American life in general. Such a center would best be financed from the contributions of individuals within the Fraternity who are interested in its future - and solicitations to that effect might be jointly sponsored by the whole range of Masonic and related memberships.
Out of such an environment, creativity could result. One project might be a plan of coordinated efforts to establish lodges designed to appeal to the younger professional man. Another might be a re-thinking of the Fraternity's strategy of youth organization support; how existing Masonic sponsored organizations can strengthen the Fraternity's appeal to young people. Still another might be the linkage of lodge life to programs of continuing adult education and career development to keep pace with shifting social and economic developments.
One can hardly think or write about such matters without the sense of responsibility Masonic membership confers upon the individual man. Freemasonry is a deep and rich tradition from every viewpoint - ethical, social, cultural, psychological, spiritual, and beyond. It was never intended to be anything save a way of life - the intent pursuit of light and understanding in a frequently dark and worrisome world. If for no other reason, each Freemason, especially those who wear the purple of the Fraternity, should work full-time in their fraternal endeavors to preserve and hand on this 'goodly heritage' to the ensuing generation, with more brilliance and clarity than that with which they themselves received it.
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by Jerry Marsengill, Editor
Christmas Carols at the Hospital
For its 1979 fund raising campaign, the Royal Masonic Hospital in London has commissioned a recording of Christmas Carols, sung by the Cantores Medicini and produced - at cost - by a major recording studio, for sale to the Craft. This beautifully sung stereo recording is available in either record or cassette tape for a cost of $5.00 plus postage - an excellent value for the money in addition to providing support for the Hospital of the Grand Lodge of England (a similar effort, with a different record, in 1977 raised over $33,000 to outfit a new surgical facility). The record has critical acclaim as an "outstanding artistic achievement", and makes a wonderful gift.
The only way these recordings can be sold internationally (1) without costing a disproportionate amount for postage and (2) with maximum protection against breakage is by the box. Postage on a package of up to 15 records is $20.00, $25 00 on a larger package up to 35. A package of up to 20 cassettes requires $15.00, up to 50 cassettes is $20.00. Thats only 40 cents each on the large box of cassettes, just over 71 cents each for records. Interested Brothers should consolidate their orders - by Lodge or within a local area - and mail them, with payment, to: The Royal Masonic Hospital Association of Friends, Ravenscourt Park, London W6 OTN, England. Order early to allow time in the mail and be sure of delivery by Christmas!
Your ready response to this letter will enable the Association to continue its valuable assistance to the Hospital, as well as providing you with a distinguished purchase or an acceptable gift.
Be sure to include the following with your order:
NAME ...........................
ADDRESS ........................
Qty..............................
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Master Mason Cigarettes
I have a letter from H.V.B. Voorhis F.P.S. which is self explanatory and should prove interesting. It follows:
Yes, the picture is the front of a cigarette package - at least twenty-five years old. A Canadian Brand.
I have in my collection of such items, three hundred front covers - although I have not collected them for some fifteen years.
This one was taken out of the collection but if anyone is interested in collecting these covers - drop me a note.
Harold V.B. Voorhis
105 New England Ave. B2
Summit, No. 07901 USA