Contents
It Seems To Me
Craftsmen Of The Round Table
American Union Lodge
Stamp Masonry On Your Hobby
Holland No. 1
The Lodge As Primary Community
The Grand Lodge of Kentucky
THE GOLDEN MEAN
Books of Interest to Masons
From Time Immemorial
The North Alabama
For What It’s Worth
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
It Seems To Me
Craftsmen Of The Round Table
American Union Lodge At Morristown
Stamp "Masonry" On Your Hobby
Holland No. 1 - The Lodge of Presidents
The Lodge As Primary Community
The Grand Lodge of Kentucky and the Civil War
The Golden Mean
Books of Interest to Masons
From Time Immemorial
The North Alabama "Shittim Wood" Legend
For What It's Worth
Assistant Executive Secretary Appointed
Because of the illness of Brother Franklin J. Anderson, the Executive committee has appointed Brother S. Brent Morris M.P.S. Assistant Executive Secretary. Until further notice all mail should be sent to Brent at 5449 Ring Dove Lane, Columbia, Maryland 21044. Please make your reservations for the Philalethes Annual Assembly and Feast with Brent as soon as possible. The cost is $15.00. Send your check to Brent at the above address.
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by John Black Vrooman, F.P.S.
That it is smart for Freemasons to use traditional methods to incalculate its lessons, yet, we must sometimes use more up-to-date means of teaching and exploring our Mysteries.
For years the Masonic Workshop in Washington during "Masonic Week" has attracted attention and has done much to focus the principles and objectives of the Philalethes Society - An Understanding Of Freemasonry.
Times change and we look to more modern means of transmitting our lessons. We must Never innovate, but we must progress in methods and pursuit of ways in which we can become more proficient.
I have known many Masonic leaders, dedicated and devoted, who, even though they know so much about Freemasonry, are unable to transmit and accelerate this knowledge to the benefit of those with whom they are working. Modern methods cannot lapse in lethargy and routine activity. We must have new ideas, new thoughts, new concepts and new enthusiasm. That is the reason that our Executive Committee has decided, in its 1980 meeting to innovate, change methods and stir up greater participation and activity.
The old fashioned Table Lodges of the Eighteenth Century were truly the Lodges of instruction of their day. We have never had more forceful and efficient means of translating the mysteries of Freemasonry into everyday language and usage.
It is an interesting note that those who will participate in the Table Lodge in Washington, call themselves members of the Goose and Gridiron Club. We all know, the Mother Grand Lodge of England was formed by brethren who met at that famous tavern in June, 1717, and formed the first organized Freemasonry in the World. Let us attend, interpret and learn!
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by Alphonse Cerza. F.P.S. (Life)
For hundreds of years the legendary Knights of the Round Table connected with King Arthur's Court have captured the imagination of young and old alike. The idea of sitting around a table and discussing things of interest has a great deal of appeal to anyone who enjoys exchanging ideas and exploring various theories. Recently I received a letter from Brother Ben Isaacson M.P.S., and a member of the Masonic Book Club of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who remembered that some years ago Mystic Tie Lodge, of Indianapolis, Indiana, had a series of meetings at which scholars delivered lectures on Masonic subjects, to members enrolled as students, and at the end of the course there was a graduation exercise and each faithful student was awarded a certificate attesting to his attendance and completion of the course of instruction. He suggested that the Masonic Book Club take steps to establish a correspondence course of Masonic instruction on history and philosophy and thus provide a forum for members of the group to visit via the mail and exchange views. It is a fine idea but the Masonic Book Club does not have the workers or facilities to engage in such a worthy program. Since the idea has merit means of implementing it should be explored.
It occurred to me that this is something that might fit into the program of local Chapters of The Philalethes Society. Since these groups are in existence and working with interested members a slight change in the method of conducting the meetings might prove beneficial. Most of the Chapters up to this time have used the format of having one or more members prepare a paper and present it at a meeting with some discussion of the topic afterwards. This can still be continued at some of the meetings but occasionally the format might be changed for the sake of variety, if for no other reason. Here are some suggestions on what can be done.
Request the members of the Chapter to secure a copy of The Builders, by Joseph Fort Newton, from the Supreme Council, P.O. Box 519, Lexington, Mass. 02173, at $1.00 a copy, for its soft cover edition. Or better still, have the chapter order enough copies for the entire membership and then distribute them to the individual members. Appoint two members to act as Moderators and secure a copy of the questions prepared by the Cincinnati Masonic Study School, based on this book, and reproduced in The Builder Magazine, Volume XI, pp. 128, 166, 189, 227, 279, and 311. At a meeting of the Chapter the members can sit around a table and the Moderators can present all or some of the questions as a means of having a discussion with all members taking part. The method can be used with other books, of course, especially if a history of the Craft in the area has been published recently. If the members are told in advance what book is to be discussed they can read it before the meeting and be able to take an active part in the discussion.
Another method is to announce in advance a list of questions that are going to be discussed at the Round Table meeting of the Chapter so that the members can read up on the subjects and thus be able to take an active part in the exchange of ideas. If the subjects are somewhat controversial the meeting might start out as a debate with two or more members taking sides and then having a general discussion with everyone participating.
This does not exhaust the subject of how a Round Table Chapter meeting can be conducted but it is a good start. If this method is adopted it is hoped that reports will be made to the Editor so that other Chapters may be informed of what is taking place. It will be interesting to know how these new formats are succeeding and whether other Chapters ought to do the same thing.
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Send reservations and check for $15.00
for Assembly and Feast to:
S. Brent Morris
5449 Ring Dove Lane
Columbia, MD. 21044
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At Morristown December 1779 – March 1780
Article No. XLV
by James R. Case, F.P.S.
When the Revolutionary War began, Morristown, New Jersey was a typical settlement of no more than fifty houses grouped around the usual church, school-house, tavern and smithy. Aside from working the land, there were iron mines, furnaces and forges in the vicinity which gave employment.
After the Battle of Princeton in early January 1777, Washington's army retired to Morristown, which was strategically situated in the Watchung mountains. Not only was the location defensible, it was a vantage point from which movements of the British could be observed and countered. It was also on the line of communication and supply from New England to the southward.
Here the Main Army was again concentrated in winter quarters during the severe winter of 1779-80. Washington and his staff arrived on December 1st and took over the Ford mansion as headquarters, with the Life Guard in barracks nearby. The soldiers were in tents until New Years Day, huts for the officers were built later, and finally an Assembly Hall was erected and opened in March. All in all the army was in close quarters.
On a hill just west of the town a strong point was developed which acquired the name of Fort Nonsense, its construction seeming just that to the fatigue parties. In Jockey Hollow, a mile or two southwest of the town. a cantonment of log cabins or 'huts’ was built to accommodate several thousand men, among them the Connecticut brigades in which many officers were members of American Union Lodge.
It was a bitterly cold winter, so much so that at one time Long Island Sound and New York harbor were frozen across. The deep snow impeded all travel and transport, there was a change in the Quartermaster and Commissary departments, and as a result blankets, shoes, meat and bread were in short supply. There was no place in Morristown where routine work of the Lodge could be carried on. However, at the observance of St. Johns Day in December 1779, George Washington was among the visitors, and later in the winter there took place several sessions of a "convention Lodge" proposing a General Grand Lodge of the United States of America, which never materialized.
The last meeting of American Union Lodge before the army moved to Morristown, was held October 11th at Robinson's House, across the river from West Point, when two candidates were made Entered Apprentices. It was a large gathering with thirty members and fifteen visitors in attendance.
In contrast, when the Lodge met December 15th in Colonel Gray's quarters at Morristown and on the Entered Apprentice level, only five members were present in addition to the Master, Wardens, Treasurer and Secretary. Officers chosen for the "next half year ensuing" added two Deacons and two Tilers. John Heart, re-elected as Master, was "appointed to meet a Committee from the different Lines in the Army at Morristown, to take into consideration some matters respecting the good of Masonry".
Two weeks later "an Entered Apprentice's Lodge was held / at Kinney's Tavern / for the Celebration of the Festival of St. John the Evangelist," Other than the officers, there were twenty-four members present and sixty-nine visitors, including Brother George Washington, with Caleb Gibbs, Commandant of the Life Guard, listed, perhaps seated next. "After usual Ceremonies" the assemblage proceeded to the Meeting House where a "very polite Discourse adapted to the occasion was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Baldwin."
The procession was formed as follows - Bro. Binns, one of the Tilers, "to clear the way"; the Bands of Music; Bro. Loraine, Tiler, with a Drawn Sword; the Deacons with their Rods; the Brethren, by juniority; Past Masters; the Treasurer and Secretary; the Wardens with their Wands; the Worshipful Master. Query - where did "Bro" Washington march? Upon return to the Lodge Room, the tavern keeper provided a "collation" rather than a "Feast". Those were hard mid-winter days and frugality ruled.
The customary vote of thanks to the preacher (not a Mason) was passed, also a vote that when the "dividend of the expense of the Day was paid" each Brother was to contribute "what he shall see fit" for charity. This was placed in the hands of Brother Kinney "to appropriate to the Necessities, first of the Widows and Orphans of Masons, next to Soldiers' Wives and Children in distressed Circumstances, if any shall remain he shall apply it to those poor persons in this Town whom he shall judge stand most in need thereof."
With a vote that it he referred to Committees to be raised in the different Army Lodges, in the Continental Line units of each state, and in the Staff of the Army, the following petition was read:
To the most Worshipful, the Present Provincial Grand Master in each of the Respective United States of America,
The Petitioners, ancient, free & accepted Masons in the several lines of the Army of these United States, assembled on the Festival of St. John the Evangelist at Morristown, Dec. 27th, 1779, to you as the patrons and Safe-Guard of the Craft in America, beg leave to prefer their humble Address.
With sincere Regret we contemplate the Misfortunes of War which have unhappily separated us from the Grand Lodge in Europe, and deprived us from the Benefits arising therefrom, so essentially necessary for the well-being of Masonry, and which has in many instances been subversive of the very Institution of the Order. At the same time we lament that political Disputes and national Quarrels should influence the exercise of Charity and Benevolence, and their several Virtues, so necessary for our present and future Happiness. Yet, considering the present situation of our Lodges, and Masonry in general, the necessity for the honour of the Craft, and the importance of enjoying the Benefits of so valuable an Institution, that some exertions are made for checking the present irregularities, restoring peace and Harmony to the
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Otho Holland Williams
(1749-1794)
Among the early initiates into American Union Lodge during the Siege of Boston, when it was meeting at Roxbury, was this brother with a distinctive name. Made on February 26, 1776 and passed on March 11th, he was elected Junior Deacon the following evening, although not raised until a day later. This unusual sequence would not take place nowadays.
Born in 1749, as a school boy Williams was apprenticed to the county clerk in the colonial office at Frederick, Maryland, and served as the assistant until 1767, when he removed to Baltimore. Here he intended to engage in a business of his own in a thriving seaport, but restrictive trade acts of the mother country did not permit much progress or prosperity among the colonial merchants at that time.
Answering the call to arms which followed the Battle of Lexington and Concord, he served as Lieutenant in a Maryland company which marched to Boston and was shortly promoted captain. He took part in the Battles of Long Island and White Plains but in the Battle of Fort Washington on September 13, 1776 had the misfortune to be among the wounded and captured. For a time he shared the same prison cell with Ethan Allen, of Ticonderoga fame.
When exchanged a year later he was made colonel of the 6th Maryland regiment of Continentals and was at the battle of Monmouth. The next spring he was sent south and under General Gates and Greene took part in much of the maneuvering and fighting there, being finally discharged in 1783, as a Brigadier General.
In 1780 he was among the petitioners to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for a charter for Military Lodge No. 27, Ancient York Masons, to be held in the Maryland line regiments, and was designated the first Senior Warden under General Mordecai Gist, the Worshipful Master. This lodge accompanied the army in the southern campaigns and lost its charter and effects in the baggage captured by the British in the Battle of Camden. Recovered by Gist in 1782 it resumed labor in Charleston and seems to have left its mark on Freemasonry in South Carolina.
Williams was present in American Union Lodge at the famous St. John's Day observance of December 27, 1780 at Morristown, New Jersey. This was the occasion when a General Grand Lodge of the United States was proposed, and the honor of becoming the first General Grand Master traditionally offered to George Washington. At the later Convention Lodge called to further this plan Williams was secretary and some of the records pertaining to this meeting are among his papers preserved in the manuscript collections of the Maryland Historical Society. The scheme for a national grand lodge did not meet with favor at that time, nor has it since on the several occasions when the proposal was revived.
Appointed Collector of Customs at Baltimore in 1783, Williams was compelled by ill health to retire four years later and removed to Williamsport, a town which he had laid out for development and which is named in his honor. There he died in 1794, when only forty-five years old, "beloved, honored and deplored." Adjacent to his original modest tomb Medairy Lodge has erected a monument to the memory of one of the foremost among Maryland's military Masons.
JRC
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Captain Adam Bitting
The winter of 1780-81 was an uneasy one at Morristown, New Jersey, where the Pennsylvania Brigade under Mad Anthony Wayne was quartered. Their dependent families neglected by state authorities, themselves almost entirely destitute of clothing and blankets, they had not been paid for a year. The new recruits who drifted in boasted of the cash bonus which had persuaded them to enlist. Having signed for "three years or during the war," the old-timers found their three years expired but their service extended. All in all they were very unhappy. A consolatory double issue of rum on New Year's Day warmed their discontent and brought it from a gripe to open revolt. Under a committee of sergeants they seized the artillery and ammunition, compelled a reluctant few to cast lots with them, formed on the parade ground, determined to march on Philadelphia and present their case to the state assembly.
The general alarm having been sounded by the drummers at the main guard was among the hundreds taken prisoner house, Wayne and his officers rushed to the parade ground to try and quell the uprising. In the excitement of their appearance, brandishing side-arms, and in confusion as to their intentions, weapons were brought into play and blood flowed freely. In the melee Captain Adam Bitting, advancing with a charged espontoon, was shot through the body by the one of his own men, expiring two hours later at low twelve.
When General Wayne and Colonels Butler and Stewart found themselves unable to persuade the mutineers to return to quarters, but rather determined to proceed, they accompanied the march. Popular as those officers were with the troops, the malcontents would not be persuaded when asked to return to their barracks. Not until several weeks later, while halted at Princeton, were they pacified by a Committee from Philadelphia, their grievances compromised, and a few ringleaders punished. With their wrongs righted, many re-enlisted and the brigade conducted themselves gloriously later in the year at Yorktown.
Adam Bitting went out in 1776 as a lieutenant of Pennsylvania troops, and at the Fort Washington disaster in November that year. Although paroled, he was not formally exchanged for nearly a year-and-a-half, when he again reported for duty as a Captain in the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment. He accompanied the punitive expedition under Generals Sullivan and Clinton which laid waste the Indian villages in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York.
He had been made a Mason in Saint George's Lodge at Schenectady June 12, 1779, was a visitor to American Union Lodge at Morristown March 27, 1780, and later a member of Pennsylvania Union Lodge, No. 29, A.Y.M., working in the Pennsylvania Brigade. The scanty records of this Lodge which have survived, show that on February 6, 1781, a sum was voted "for relief of the widow and children of Br. Adam Bitting."
Traditionally this Brother, who was fervent in his fight for freedom, and who died "a victim to his zeal and duty," is buried under or near the "Bettin Oak" which stands on Jockey Hollow Road in the National Military park at Morristown, Pennsylvania.
JRC
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Lodges, for opening a way to the enjoyment of the fruits of benevolence, Charity and Brotherly Love, and for the re-establishment of the Order on the ancient respectable Foundation; which we conceive can never be done more effectually than by the appointment of a Grand Master in and over the United States of America.
We therefore most earnestly request that the present Provincial Grand Masters in the respective said United States would take some Measures for the appointment of a Grand Master in and over the said Thirteen United States of America, either by nominating a person proper for that office, whose Abilities and Rank in life shall answer the importance of that conspicuous and elevated Station, and transmitting such nomination to our Mother Lodge in Britain, that the appointment may be made, or in such manner as shall to them appear most eligible. And we further beg leave to express our Wishes, that the several Provincial Grand Masters in these States would, in the intermediate time, enter into unanimous and vigorous measures for checking the growing Irregularities in the Society, cementing the different Branches, erasing the distinction between Ancient and Modern in these States, that the Craft may be established in unanimity, the established principles of its Institutions more universally extended, and that our Conduct may not only be the admiration of Men in this World, but receive the final Applause of the Grand Architect of the Universe in the other, where there is nothing but Light and Love.
Not until January 24th did circumstances again permit a meeting of American Union Lodge, then at "Mr. Prittons near Morristown" when a Fellow Crafts Lodge was opened "per Master Order" Only a Tiler is recorded present in addition to the five elective officers. Three Entered Apprentices were passed to the degree of Fellow Craft and the Lodge closed until January 31st. Many of the officers of the army were absent on leave.
The officers, five members and one visitor (later admitted a member) - a total of twelve were present at an Entered Apprentices Lodge at Pritton's on January 31st when "the Petition" of December 27th was read, taken under consideration, and the "Matters thereof unanimously approved." Jonathan Heart was appointed a representative of the Lodge and of the Masons in the Connecticut Line to meet with committeemen from the several Lodges in the army at Morristown on February 7th "for the purpose of adopting some measures for executing the Design & purpose of the Petition".
A "Committee of Ancient free & accepted Masons met on the Seventh day of the second Month in the Year of Salvation 1780 according to the Recommendation of a Convention Lodge, held at the celebration of St. John the Evangelist".
Those present were John Pierce, Paymaster of the Army, "MM delegated to represent the Masons in the Military Line of the State of Massachusetts Bay & Washington Lodge No. 10"; Jonathan Heart, representing the Connecticut Line and American Union Lodge; of which he was Master; Charles Graham, FC representing the New York Line; John Sanford, MM, the New York Line; George Tudor, MM, the Pennsylvania Line; Otho Holland Williams, PMM, the Delaware Line; Mordecai Gist, PMM, the Maryland Line; Prentice Bowen, MM, St. Johns Regimental Lodge; John Lawrence, PMM, the Staff of the Army; Thomas Machin, MM, the Corps of Artillery.
Mordecai Gist was elected President of the Convention and Otho Holland Williams the Secretary. The Committee then proceeded to take into consideration an address to be preferred to the Grand Masters in the respective United States. Whereupon Brother Williams presented the address, which was unanimously agreed to by the Committee and ordered to be sent to the several Grand Masters, signed by the President and Secretary.
To The Right Worshipful
The Grand Masters of the several Lodges in the Respective United States of America.
UNION FORCE LOVE
The Subscribers, Antient Free and Accepted Masons in Convention, to you, as Patrons and Protectors of the Craft upon the Continent prefer their humble Address.
Unhappily the distinctions of Interest, the Political Views & National disputes, subsisting between Great Britain & these United States have involved us, not only in the general Calamities that disturb the tranquility which used to prevail in this once happy Country, but in a peculiar manner affects our Society, by separating us from the Grand Mother Lodge in Europe, by disturbing our Connection with each other, impeding the progress and preventing the Perfection of Masonry in America.
We deplore the Miseries of our Country
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Mordecai Gist (1742-1792)
The "Convention Lodge", held at Morristown, New Jersey during the winter of 1779-80 was formed under the sanction of American Union Lodge and was probably the brain child of Jonathan Heart, the Master. To give the appearance of wide representation, the group advocating a General Grand Lodge of the United States, presumably with George Washington as Supreme Grand Master, organized with Mordecai Gist, of Maryland as President.
He was a Baltimore merchant, organizer of the Baltimore Independent Company in 1775. As a company, field and general officer he led his "brave Marylanders" in action at Long Island, Brandywine, Germantown and wintered at Valley Forge. They later were sent south and taught under Gates, Lincoln and Greene, more often vanquished than victorious.
Made a Mason in Lodge No. 17, under a Pennsylvania charter, at Baltimore in April 1775, there is no trace of his Masonic activity until American Union Lodge held their observance of St. Johns Day in December 1779 at Morristown, Washington being among the hundred or more men assembled. Gist was named charter master of Army Lodge No. 27 warranted April 4, 1780 by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, to be held in the Maryland Brigade. Considering the fact that at that date the Marylanders were on their march south, the probability is that the lodge never worked. The warrant was in the lodge chest which fell into the hands of the British at the battle near Camden on August 11, 1780. Gist recovered the lodge effects after Charleston was evacuated, reactivated the lodge and became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge organized among the "Antient" lodges in South Carolina, in 1790.
Favorably impressed by South Carolina as a place to live, even though his war time experiences had not been happy ones Gist bought a plantation near Charleston, and settled down there soon after his relief from active duty. He left the service late in 1783, with a Resolution of Thanks from Congress which included him among others with compliments for his "bravery and good conduct". He had been elected vice president of the Order of Cincinnati in Maryland before his removal.
He was not to enjoy his retirement for long, as death overtook him when only fifty years old. He had been married three times and left two children behind him. Love of country was a marked characteristic of his action and words, both oral and written. As substantial evidence he named his sons Independence and States.
JRC
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Men and particularly lament the distresses which many of our poor Brethren must suffer, as well from the want of Temporal Relief as for want of that Source of LIGHT to govern their Pursuits and Illuminate the Path of Happiness. And we ardently desire to restore, if possible, that Fountain of Charity, from which to the unspeakable Benefit of Mankind, flow Benevolence and love. Considering with anxiety these and the many irregularities and improprieties committed by weak or wicked Brethren, which too manifestly show the present dissipated and almost abandoned Condition of our Lodge in general, as well as the Relaxation of Virtue amongst Individuals.
We think it our duty, Rt Worshipful Brothers and Seniors in the Craft, to solicit your immediate interposition to save us from the impending Dangers of Schism and Apostacy; to obtain security from those Fatal Evils, with Affectionate Humility, we beg leave to recommend the adopting and pursuing the most necessary Measures for establishing One Grand Lodge in America, to preside over and Govern all other Lodges of whatsoever Degree or Denomination, licensed or to be licensed, upon the Continent; that the Ancient Principles and Discipline of Masonry restored, we may universally and Mutually enjoy the advantages arising from frequent Communication and Social Intercourse. To accomplish this Beneficial and Essential Work, permit us to propose that you the Rt Worhsipful Grand Masters, or a Majority of your Number, may Nominate as Most Worshipful Grand Master of said Lodge, a Brother whose Merit and Capacity may be adequate to a Station so important and elevated, and transmitting the Name and Nomination of such Brother together with the name of the Lodge to be established, to our Grand Mother Lodge in Europe for approbation and Confirmation, and that you may adopt and execute any other Ways or Means most Eligible for preventing impositions, correcting abuses and for establishing the Generous principles of Masonry; that the Influence of the same in propagating Morality and Virtue may be far extended, and that the Lives and Conversations of all True Free and Accepted Masons may not only be the Admiration of Men on Earth, but may receive the final approbation of the Grand Architect of the universe, in the World wherein the Elect enjoy Eternal Light and Love.
Signed in Convention in Morristown, Morris County, this seventh Day of the second Month in the year of our Saviour 1780, anno Mundi 5780 - Which being read, was unanimously agreed to Sign and Ordered to be forwarded with an Exact copy of their proceedings Signed by the President and Secretary, to the Provincial Grand Masters. And the Committee adjourned without day.
Not until March 6, 1780 was it convenient to hold another "Convention lodge from the different Lines of the Army and departments, in due form, under the authority of the American Union Lodge". There were now two Deacons in their chairs and a total of 40 present other than the officers. The report of the Committee held February 7th was read, "after which the question was proposed whether the foregoing proceedings meet with the approbation of this Lodge? And after debate, it was unanimously resolved in the affirmative". Jonathan Heart was no doubt pleased with what had been done, for we learn that before closing "An Entered Apprentice Lecture was given by the Master".
The last meeting of American Union Lodge at Morristown was a "Master's Lodge held by special Order of the Master" at the Assembly Room, accommodations at last being available. Two "Fellow Crafts petitioned to be raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason, and being examined in open Lodge, by the W. Master, and having given satisfactory evidence of their proficiency, they were raised accordingly".
With two Brothers acting as Tilers, and only four members other than the officers, no less than thirty-four Visiting Brethren witnessed the degree. A grand finale to the winter at Morristown.
The best resume of the several attempts to promote the formation of a National Grand Lodge may be found in Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia.
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by Keith Barrington, M.P.S.
Are you a Mason with stamp collecting as a hobby? Have you ever thought of the possibility of combining the two activities for more enjoyment from both?
Many Masons join the Shrine for activities such as chanters, clown clubs motorcycle teams and other activities that tie in with their interests, talents and hobbies. The lodge has little to offer the new member who might like to find more in Masonry than ritual alone.
Did you know that there are organizations of Masonic stamp collectors? What brought these men together? As Joseph N. Kane, president of the Masonic Stamp Club of New York, wrote in the Empire State Mason: "It is the acquisitive instinct, the master builder technique. One collector tries to obtain stamps from every state bearing the same cancellation. For example, his goal may be a stamped cancellation from Hiram, Alabama; Hiram, Alaska; Hiram, Arkansas, etc.
"Another collector only saves stamps depicting famous Masons, while another saves only stamps on which Masonic regalia appears. Other collectors are more specific. They limit their collections to stamps depicting a specific Mason, such as Washington, Churchill, etc.
"Still another group of collectors save covers or envelopes bearing the names of towns and cities having the same names as those of distinguished Masons. One man saves only those envelopes from the Masonic Grand Lodges, another brother collects envelopes from every lodge in his state."
All of this, besides adding new zest to your philatelic acquisitions, can provide new opportunities to increase your Masonic knowledge. As one group put it: "We believe that philately affords a distinct approach to the study of the liberal arts and sciences."
The Masonic Stamp Club of New York publishes a quarterly magazine, The Masonic Philatelist. Another periodical available to the Masonic stamp collector is The Philatelic Freemason, the bimonthly journal of the Masonic unit of the American Topical Association. The latter is published in loose sheets, numbered consecutively. Typical issues of these publications provide news of stamps and covers or cachets of Masonic interest scheduled to be issued and biographical information about famous Masons, particularly in regard to their Masonic membership.
For instance, Will Rogers, the beloved humorist, actor, author and Mason, was honored with a special stamp issued November 14, 1979.
The person who has just collected stamps may be a little bothered by such terms as "covers," "cachets," and "philately" or "philatelic." We have even heard more than one brother ask, "Is the Philalethes Magazine about stamp collecting?"
While the words do look alike, there is a difference. A free translation of Philalethes would be "love of truth," which in this case is Masonic truth or light. Philately is defined as the collection and study of postage stamps and of postal stationery that has passed through the mail; stamp collecting. So, philatelic means anything related to stamps, postal stationery and the hobby of collecting these.
"First day covers" are widely collected by philatelists. What is a first day cover? Well, letters used to be sent without envelopes, the letter itself being folded and sealed, with the address written on the back. Airmail letters from England still take this form. In essence, they are letters without covers. We put our letters into an envelope, which is the cover.
The United States postal system regularly honors important men, events and places in its history through the issuance of official U.S. commemorative postage stamps. When a new stamp is to be issued, one and only one post office is designated to provide, on one day only, the authentic "first day" cancellation. Envelopes bearing the new stamp and cancelled on the exact date of issue at the officially designated post office, are first day covers.
A cachet is just a little different. The dictionary says it may be a motto or slogan included in a postal cancellation on a piece of mail. Actually, to philatelists, it generally means a specially designed cover bearing a picture, design or inscription stamped or printed on the envelope to commemorate some postal event. Some of the most attractive items collected by Masonic philatelists are cachets. News of these is often carried in the publications previously mentioned.
Some of the stamp clubs have cachets for sale to collectors. Lists may be obtained by writing to the clubs. It is a cardinal rule, in writing to another Masonic stamp collector or a club, that you use a commemorative stamp on your envelope, to add to their collections. Also, since many of these persons and clubs are receiving much correspondence and have limited budgets, it is thoughtful to enclose an SASE - a stamped, self-addressed envelope - for the answer you expect to receive. This way you can get your own special commemoratives returned to you with cancellations from far places.
Here are listed some of the groups promoting stamp collecting among Masons. The Masonic Stamp Club of New York, c/o Collectors Club, 22 East 35th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016. Membership is open to all Master Masons throughout the world. Initiation fee of $1 and annual dues of $5, which include subscription to The Masonic Philatelist, a quarterly magazine. Include satisfactory evidence of membership in good standing, such as a photo-copy of your dues card or a letter from your lodge secretary. A list of Masonic cachets available may be obtained from Masonic Cachets, 451 West 46th Street, New York, N.Y. 10036.
The George Washington Masonic Stamp Club, Herman J. Lichty, Secretary, 4532 47th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016. Membership is understood to be limited at the present to Masons in the Washington area. However, covers issued by the club may be purchased from Dr. John Hoffman, 2501 Q Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20007.
The Masonic Stamp Unit of the American Topical Association, Richard M. Needham, Secretary-Treasurer, 708 North Mt. Pleasant Ave., Lancaster, Ohio 43130. Dues are $5 per year in the U.S.A. and Canada and $8 overseas and include the bimonthly, 10 page bulletin, The Philatelic Freemason. This is filled with news of new issues and information about Masons featured on stamps.
Any serious Masonic stamp collector should belong to the New York Club and to the Masonic Stamp Unit of the ATA.
Masonic cachets are prepared and issued by the Philatelic Committee of Louisiana Lodge No. 102 of New Orleans. Information may be obtained by writing the Philatelic chairman, John R. Allen, P.O. Box 26135, Richmond, Virginia 23260. Brother Allen is a member of the New Orleans lodge, but now lives in Virginia.
Masonic stamp clubs have been active in the past in Philadelphia and Denver and Philatelic Lodge No. 552 was at Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, but we have no up-to-date information on these.
So, Masonic stamp collectors, get together with these brothers who share your interests - by mail, of course, and using commemorative stamps - and greatly increase your enjoyment of your hobby and increase your knowledge of Masonry in the doing.
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The Lodge of Presidents
By George H.T. French, M.P.S.
In one short decade, from March 2, 1836, to February 16, 1846, the "spunky, little independent" Republic of Texas was governed by five separate administrations. In every one of those administrations, a Master Mason who had been a member of Holland Lodge No. 1 at one time or other, performed the duties of president.
That fact explains and justifies this title, "Holland Lodge No. 1 - the Lodge of Presidents."
The first president was chosen on March 4, 1836, by the convention assembled at Washington-on-the-Brazos. The convention created and installed an ad interim government with full powers to conduct the civil phase of the war then fast approaching its climax. The president was David C. Burnet.
The second president was the Old Hero, General Samuel Houston, inaugurated on October 22, 1836. His term expired on December 12, 1838.
The third president was Mirabeau B. Lamar. Members of Harmony Lodge No. 6, Galveston, will protest immediately, for Lamar was made a Fellowcraft and a Master Mason in Harmony Lodge, and became a member. Yes. However - that is not the point.
For what happened during this third administration was that Burnet "was president in 1840 during the illness of Lamar." And Burnet was a member of Holland Lodge!
The fourth president was Sam Houston for a second term.
And the fifth and last president was no other than Dr. Anson Jones, Holland's first Worshipful Master, whose statute sits in the hall of this building.
David G. Burnet
Burnet was born in Newark, N.J., in 1788. In 1806, and again in 1808, he joined the liberator Francisco de Miranda on the ship Leander in an attempt to free Venezuela. After that he returned to Newark, where he studied law and petitioned St. John's Lodge. The minutes of December 8, 1813, state that his petition was laid over for further consideration.
He established a trading post in Natchitoches, in 1813. The venture failed. Sick and depressed, our hero mounted a horse and rode into the wilderness of Texas. He fell from his horse and was rescued by a band of Commanche Indians, who in two years (1817-1819) nursed him back to health.
After having obtained in December 1826 a land grant to settle 300 families, Burnet came to Texas. He gradually got into public life, until, on March 4, 1836, he was appointed ad interim President of the newly created Republic of Texas.
During his eight months as President some very important events took place, such as: the Battle of the Alamo, the Goliad Massacre, the Battle of San Jacinto, and the capture of General Santa Anna.
Burnet's government was rather "ambulatory one. Starting out at Washington-on-the-Brazos they fled to Harrisburg as part of "The Runaway Scrape." Santa Anna tried to capture Burnet and his Vice-President Lorenzo de Zavala at Harrisburg. The government fled. The town was burned.
Santa Annna continued to purse the government. Burnet and his associates barely escaped by boarding a boat for Galveston Island.
After that came the Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836) with the capture of Santa Anna.
In the latter part of July 1836 President Burnet called an election for September 1. Sam Houston was elected and inaugurated on October 22, 1836.
Burnet twice preformed the executive duties of President of the Republic of Texas. Ironically, on neither of the two occasions did Burnet occupy that high office directly by the vote of the people. In the first instance, his fellow delegates to the convention at San Felipe de Austin chose him in March 1836. On the second occasion it came about in the following manner. On December 10, 1838, Mirabeau B. lamar was inaugurated as President, with Burnet as Vice-President. In 1840 Burnet took over the presidential responsibilities. This is how Anson Jones describes the event:
The fall of the year (1840) brought the fifth Congress, and I took my place rather mechanically in the Senate. A few days after the session commenced, the President (Lamar) obtained leave of absence, the Vice President (Burnet) vacated the chair of the Senate to assume the executive functions.
Lamar did return, for toward the end of March 1841 there is a record of Commodore Moore (of the Texas Navy) going to Austin to talk over naval problems with "President Lamar, who had resumed the office of President two weeks before.
Burnet was made a Master Mason in Holland Lodge on May 21, 1839. He was then Vice-President, and at that time both Sam Houston and Anson Jones were members of No. 1. Burnet demitted in 1842, and there is no later Masonic record of him.
When the first Congress met in 1836 it adopted a flag designed by Burnet, consisting in "an azure ground with a large gold star central." This remained the flag of Texas until 1839, when our current flag was adopted.
A vitriolic presidential campaign was waged in 1841 between Vice-President Burnet and the Old Hero Sam Houston. Burnet was regarded as a patriot and a man of integrity, but during several months absence of President Lamar from the state he had served as President. Because of this "he had become identified in the public mind with the alleged extravagancies and misfortunes of the Lamar administration." Houston was still the popular hero and was elected by a vote of more than 2 to 1. Notwithstanding this, Burnet became Secretary of State under Houston, and did likewise in 1846 under Governor Henderson after the annexation. He retired to his farm, and died December 5, 1870, at age 82. Anson Jones, in his Memoranda, states that "D.G. Burnet is a good honest man enough, has patriotism, and means well enough, and has decided talent."
Samuel Houston
Houston was born on March 2, 1793. On that same date, forty three years later, the convention in which he was a delegate from Nacogdoches declared the independence of Texas.
But before that he was made a Master Mason on July 22, 1817, in Cumberland Lodge No. 8, Nashville, Tennessee, the same Lodge of which President Andrew Jackson was a member. In Houston's Masonic career, as in other aspects of his complex life, there are puzzling obscurities and unanswered questions. Thus, he demitted from his Lodge in November 1817, and then re-affiliated on June 20, 1821, and soon became Junior Warden.
Member of Congress 1823-27, Governor of Tennessee 1827-28, he left Tennessee in disfavor, and after an interval as an exile among the Cherokees, he reappeared as a delegate from Nacogdoches to the 1836 convention that declared the independence of Texas and elected him Commander-in-Chief of all Texas land forces. Then came the Battle of San Jacinto, his wounded ankle and surgery in New Orleans.
Undaunted, he announced his candidacy twelve days before the election, and became President of the Republic of Texas on October 22, 1836 by 4374 votes out of a total of 5104 votes.
The First Congress chose the new town of Houston as the seat of government, and on November 13, 1847, and for the second time, Holland Lodge No. 36, Louisiana, met in the Senate Chamber. Sam Houston was received with grand honors, seated at the right of the Worshipful Master in the East, became affiliated, and presented the Lodge with a sword.
Three lodges, Holland, Milam and McFarland, met on December 20, 1837, in the Senate chamber, at the Old Capitol building. That site, Main and Texas, Houston, is now occupied by the Rice Hotel. Houston presided over this momentous meeting that organized the Grand Lodge of Texas.
Houston became President for a second time, from 1841 to 1844. But now the capitol was Austin, "the city Lamar had built and Houston never learned to love." He demitted from Holland Lodge in duly 1842, and affiliated with Forrest Lodge No. 19, Huntsville.
He served as a United States Senator from 1846 to 1859, when in spite of his well known opposition to secession and his strong advocacy of the Union, he was elected Governor of Texas. When he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy on March 16, 1861, the Texas Legislature declared the office of governor vacant. Heartbroken over the turn of events, Houston retired to his home at Huntsville, where he died July 26, 1863, at age 70.
Sam Houston towers today as one of the truly great men of Texas. His life was marked by extremes of success and failure, from an idolized governor of Tennessee to an exile among the Cherokees, and from the Hero of San Jacinto to deposed governor of Texas.
Anson Jones
Dr. Anson Jones arrived at Brazoria, Texas, on November 1, 1833, despondent, dejected and defeated at age 35.
However, he soon developed a successful medical practice which kept him busy. He had obtained a license to practice medicine in 1820 in New York. After two years in Venezuela he returned in 1826 to Philadelphia, where he practiced medicine and became a Mason in Harmony Lodge No. 52.
In 1834, he and four other brother Masons met under "The Masonic Oak" in Brazoria, and decided to petition for a charter. The Grand Lodge of Louisiana granted the charter.
The Mexicans continued to advance. General Urrea occupied Brazoria, and this accounts for the loss of Holland Lodge's paraphernalia and the records of the few meetings held from December 1835 to February 1836.
After San Jacinto it proved impossible to get Holland Lodge re-organized in Brazoria. But as Jones was a Representative in Congress which was then meeting in Houston, he and his fellow member George Brown, and ten visitors, held a Holland Lodge meeting in the Senate chamber on November 8, 1837. Following that success, Milam and McFarland Lodges were invited to participate in the organization of a Grand Lodge of Texas, and Anson Jones, at that moment Master of Holland Lodge, was elected first Grand Master of Texas.
The Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas designed an apron with the initials G.L.R.T. Active Members of Texas Lodge of Research are permitted to wear replicas of that apron.
From 1837 to 1839 Jones was Minister to the United States from Texas. In 1840 he became President of the Senate and ex-officio Vice-President of the Republic. From 1841 to 1844 he was Secretary of State in President Houston's second administration.
On March 13, 1842 he demitted from Holland Lodge. There is no evidence that he affiliated elsewhere until June 11, 1855, when he re-affiliated with Holland. This, however, is not confirmed by Holland records.
He was present in Grand Lodge on January 21, 1845, being officially received as the Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of New York. At that time he was serving as President of the Republic of Texas. He never appeared in Grand Lodge during the last 12 years of his life, his last visit having been on February 20, 1846.
After a noisy election campaign with Vice-President Edward Burleson, Anson Jones was inaugurated in 1844 as Texas' last President.
Anson Jones was a worthy and friendly man, of plainness of speech and simplicity of manner. He lacked impressiveness of appearance, speech and conduct, but had a far reaching sagacity that discovered remotest consequences.
The question of annexation over-shadowed all other issues while Jones was president. He called a convention which met in Austin on July 4, 1845, ratified the resolution to annex and wrote a constitution for the State.
On February 16, 1846, W. Pinckney Henderson took the oath as Governor of the State of Texas. President Jones, in closing his farewell address, declared "The Republic of Texas is no more!" He then stepped forward to lower, with his own hands, the banner of his Republic. The weather-beaten pole broke in two as the flag came down for the last time.
In Conclusion
This concludes the story of how presidential duties of the five separate administrations of the Republic of Texas were performed by Masons who were, at one time or other, members of Holland Lodge No. 1.
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Complete "MASONIC WEEK" Program
February 15-20, 1980 Washington, D.C.
Programs of A.M.D. And Other Meetings for 1980
All Meetings Will Be Held At The Washington Hotel 15th at Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. February 15-17, 1980
Friday, February 15, 1980
7:30 P.M. - Annual Assembly and Feast -
THE PHILALETHES SOCIETY
26th Meeting
Dwight L. Smith, President
Franklin J. Anderson, Secretary
Saturday, February 16, 1980
8:30 A.M. - REGISTRATION
9:30 A.M. - GRAND COLLEGE OF RITES OF THE U.S.A.
49th Annual Convocation
M.'.I.'. James R. Case, Grand Chancellor
M.'.I.'.Herbert A. Fisher, Grand Registrar
10:30 A.M. - GRAND MASTER'S COUNCIL, A.M.D.
47th Communication
V.'. William E. Yeager, Jr., Sovereign Master
V.'.C.'.Clark Julius, Secretary
11:15 A.M. – EXEMPLIFICATION OF DEGREE OF KNIGHT OF CONSTANTINOPLE by Triple Tau Council, No. 54
11:30 A.M. - GRAND COUNCIL, ALLIED MASONIC DEGREES OF THE U.S.A.
48th Annual Communication
M.'.V.'.G. Harold D. Elliot, 2nd, Sovereign Grand Master
R.'.V.'.Robert L. Grubb, Grand Secretary-Treasurer
Open for the receipt of the Grand Master's and Grand Secretary's Reports. All A.M.D. members are invited to attend.
RECESS
12:30 P.M. - LUNCHEON (Dutch Treat)
2:00 P.M. - INSTALLED MASTER'S COUNCIL, A.M.D.
47th Annual Communication
V.’.C. James H. Horne, Sovereign Master
R.'.V.'.Robert L. Grubb, Secretary
To confer the Installed Master Degree on Masters of Councils present who have not been installed. All Installed Masters are invited to be present.
2:30 P.M. - COUNCIL OF THE NINE MUSES, No. 13, A.M.D.
47th Annual Communication
M.'.V.'. William G. Preacher, Sovereign Master
R.'.V.'. Robert L. Grubb, Permanent Secretary
All A.M.D. members are invited.
3:00 P.M. - GREAT CHIEF'S COUNCIL, No. 0, KNIGHT MASONS
14th Annual Meeting
E.'. Russell B. Tandy, Excellent Chief
V.'.E.'.Walter M. McCracken, Scribe
3:30 P.M. - GRAND COUNCIL, KNIGHT MASONS OF THE U.S.A.
14th Annual Meeting
M.'.E.'. Wallace Jackson, Great Chief
V.'.E.'. Ray Scarborough, Grand Scribe
4:30 P.M. - SOCIETAS ROSICRUCIANA IN CIVITATIBUS
FOEDERATIS
M.'.W.'. Laurence E. Eaton, Supreme Magus
R.'.W.'. John Phillip Berquist, Secretary General
RECESS
6:00 P.M. - ANNUAL BANQUET, ALLIED MASONIC DEGREES
M.'.V.'. Harold D. Elliot 2nd, presiding
M.’.W.’. Thomas R. Dougherty, P.G.M., Grand Lodge of New Jersey, Speaker
All present for any of the meetings may secure tickets.
8:00 P.M. - GRAND COUNCIL, ALLIED MASONIC DEGREES
Labor resumed: Committee reports, routine business Election and Installation of Grand Officers, and closing.
10:00 P.M. - MASONIC ORDER OF THE BATH OF THE U.S.A.
58th Assembly
M.'.H.'. Henry Emmerson, Commander-General
V.'.H.'. Harold D. Elliott, 2nd. Keeper of the Bath Records
11:00 P.M. - YE ANCIENT ORDER OF CORKS
54th Cellar
M.'.W.'. Thurman C. Pace Grand Bung for the Americas
R.'.W.'. Robert A. TiIkey, Prov. Grand Bung of the U.S.A.
Sunday, February 17, 1980
7:30 A.M. - CONVENT GENERAL, KNIGHTS OF THE YORK CROSS OF HONOR Breakfast in the Hotel
M.'.E.'. Marvin Isley, Grand Master-General
M.'.E.'. Stanley W. Wakefield, Grand Registrar-General
9:00 A.M. - THE SOCIETY OF BLUE FRIARS
Forty-Nineth Annual Consistory
M.'.I.'. Dwight L. Smith, Grand Abbot
R.'.I.'. Henry Emmerson, Secretary-General
9:30 A.M. - THE GRAND PRECEPTOR'S TABERNACLE, H.R.A.K.T.P.
48th Ingathering
V.'.E.'. Paul O. Gooder, Preceptor
R.'.E.'. George M. Fulmer, Registrar
10:00A.M. - THE GRAND COLLEGE OF AMERICA, HOLY ROYAL ARCH KNIGHT TEMPLAR PRIESTS
48th Ingathering
M.'.E.'. Thomas A. Booth, Grand Preceptor
R.'.E.'. George M. Fulmer, Grand Registrar
COMMITTEE ON TIME AND PLACE
Marvin E. Fowler, Chairman
1904 White Oaks Drive
Alexandria, Va. 22306
Herbert A. Fisher, Secretary
553 Caren Drive
Virginia Beach, Va. 23452
Henry Emmerson
148 Elm Street
Cresskill, N.J. 07626
Robert L. Grubb
P.O.Box 220547
Charlotte, N.C. 28222
Harold V.B. Voorhis
105 New England Avenue
Summit, N.J. 07901
Stanley W. Wakefield
41 Amherst Drive
Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. 10706
HOTEL
Hotel reservations must be made by addressing a post card or letter to Hotel Washington, Mr. Muneer Deen, Manager, Pennsylvania Avenue and Fifteenth Street, Washington, D.C., N.W. 20004, call attention to the fact that you are attending the Annual Meeting of the Allied Masonic Degrees. It will be well to ask for a confirmation, reservations should be requested at least two (2) weeks prior to your arrival.
ANNUAL DINNER
The Annual Dinner will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 16, 1980. Reservations are not necessary. Purchase your tickets from the Committee on Dinner on the morning of the dinner.
LADIES' COFFEE HOUR
At 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 16 our ladies will meet for coffee in the room posted on the bulletin board in the hotel lobby.
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Masonic Week February 17-20, 1980 inclusive, Washington, D.C. All meetings will be in the Shoreham Hotel except that of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association, will be held at the Memorial Building at Alexandria, Virginia.
Sunday, February 17, 1980
12:00 P.M. - REGISTRATION - Lobby
5-7:00 P.M. - Grand Master Conference Tea and Reception - Ambassador Room
Monday, February 18, 1980
7-9:00 - Deputy Grand Masters Breakfast - Diplomat Room
10:00 A.M. - George Washington Masonic Nat. Mem. Assn. Buses leave promptly at 9:00 A.M. for Alexandria, Virginia.
12:00 P.M. - Luncheon at Memorial with buses returning to Shoreham - Americana Hotel.
2-5:00 P.M. - Masonic Service Ass’n of U.S. - Diplomat Room
7:00 P.M. - Grand Secretaries' Dinner - Palladian Room
Tuesday, February 19, 1980
7-8:45 A.M. - Frank S. Land Breakfast (DeMolay) by courtesy of the Imperial Council of Shrine - Regency Ballroom
9:00 A.M. - Grand Masters Conference - Diplomat Room
9:00 A.M. - Grand Secretaries' Conference - Tudor Room
12:00 P.M. - Grand Masters Picture
12:30 P.M. - Grand Secretaries' Luncheon - Executive Room
1:45-5 P.M. - Grand Masters Conference - Diplomat Room
2:00 P.M. - Grand Secretaries' Conference - Tudor Room
7:15 P.M. - Grand Masters Banquet - Regency Ballroom (Doors open 6:45 P.M. tables reserved until 7:10 P.M.)
Wednesday, February 20, 1980
8:30 A.M. - Grand Masters Conference continues to adjournment at 12:45 P.M.
9:00 A.M. - Grand Secretaries' Conference continues – Tudor Room
1:00 P.M. - Luncheon - Supreme Council 33d A. & A.S.R. Southern Jurisdiction. House of the Temple. Transportation provided for return to Shoreham - Americana Hotel at 2:30 P.M.
Checkout Time - 4:00 P.M.
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The Lodge As Primary Community
By John Mauk Hilliard, M.P.S.
Picture, if you will, a venerable urban lodge with a small membership slowly declining in numbers, and advancing in age. Picture also, a time in the mid-seventies which finds a group of young Masons, in their late twenties and early thirties, children of the Sixties, the Age of Confrontation, Politics, of War and Protest, men who grew up in a time of Social Activism and Change, drifting to a great Eastern city from the far-flung states where they grew up and were educated, pulled to the great metropolis by the force of education or careers; picture these men finding their way by accident and coincidence into this staid, nearly dormant old lodge, and there confronting a handful of old men, Children of Depression and World War, and of an earlier America; old men led by a Lodge Secretary who had, virtually single-handedly, kept the lodge alive in the fierce decade of the sixties, with a little help from a couple of retired pastmasters, a lodge with the usual sprinkling of semi-comatose sideliners, drowsing through dreary meetings.
Picture a lodge with a few vigorous Grand Lodge magnates who long since left it in spirit if not actuality, for more fertile Masonic lives grazing the lush purple pastures of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge, men for whom the lodge represents an embarrassment, an uncomfortable reminder of the days when they were part of the common herd.
And all this in a city in turmoil, a society faced with a shortage of space, money, energy, options, and an abundance of dirt, noise, deviance, and irresponsible behavior springing from the poverty, greed, and indifference of its populace.
Bitter old men dreaming of a richer, more fulsome past for City and Lodge, and ardent young men filled with the excitement and stimulation of urban living and fresh hope-filled careers: A volatile mix, set for one grand masonic explosion. For the first time in seventy-five years, the sidelines and lower chairs of office filled with men wearing beards! Extraordinary conflict results, a clash of values in which the young, seeking an image of a Freemasonry vital in the tradition of Washington, Franklin, Voltaire, Mozart, Burns, Goethe, and Kipling, find instead the hostility of rigid old minds set in a siege mentality conceiving themselves the last survivors of the good fight, striving to hold back the barbarian hordes at the last gate of freedom, as the bulwarks of civilization give way all around.
However, the setting maul of time and death now begins to work, as it inevitably does, in favor of the young. The old tire, die or leave. The young inherit. But inherit what?
A shrinking, and much left visible craft. An aging, demoralized institution, in some sense as much afflicted by the structures of its traditions as sustained by them, an institution slow to confront the change and diffusion of cultural and social attitudes following World War II.
It is true that numbers are not necessarily measures of vitality. But in the face of declining numbers, comes more and more public indifference to the Craft, and with the lessening of a wide public consciousness of our nature, aims, and mission, there is bound to follow a diminution of public appreciation and good will, and with it a diminished opportunity for men who are "Masons at Heart and by Nature" to seek us out simply by reason of this lessened visibility and lower public esteem.
Many Masons proudly and bravely assert: "We're not getting smaller, we're getting better." We are no longer a mass movement as we were in the 1880s, 90s and after World War I and II; I do not say that we should be a mass movement again, but I cannot escape the notion that as a mass movement, Freemasonry touched thousands more lives in a profoundly significant, productive and fruitful way that would not have been possible had we restricted ourselves to the elitism and esoteric, deeply private approach of our European brethren. Mass movements are not in and of themselves bad; witness Christianity, and the other great religions. If indeed we have been losing the chaff and retaining the fertile grain of the Order, then we should be witnessing, in the intimacy of smaller more compact lodges, a renewed bond of commitment to the Craft and its grand principles, a revitalized community capable of sustaining its members in the wild and often vicious throes of an unpredictable world and inconstant fate. Do we see such renewed bonding? Do we see men growing mentally hale and spiritually strong in fresh unity of association and spirit in our lodges throughout the land? I think, brothers, if we answer honestly, the answer, the sad answer, is "No."
What then, is likely to happen? We must face the inevitable fact of shrinkage and contraction for our Gentle Craft. We must be prepared to see the dissolution of many Masonic institutions especially the concordant bodies, and such institutions as our masonic homes (which, ironically enough, have an existence predicated on endowments and sustaining populations garnered by American Freemasonry in its guise of a Mass Movement). The recent action of the Shrine in permitting members to retain good standing in the Shrine, even though they may have been dropped from other Masonic bodies represents in my opinion an opening salvo of eventual independence and an attempt to cut away a vital organ from a gangrenous body.
Perhaps the question is "Should Freemasonry survive?" I have within my current acquaintance plenty of Masons who would answer that question in the negative, convinced that none in current or future generations is worthy of this jeweled institution of great worth; men who would see it die a quick death and be interred with them in forgotten tombs.
But for myself, I say "Yes," as I am sure most Masons would. . . I am convinced in times of rapid, intolerant change, that jettisoning institutions that have proved helpful over a range of ages, continents, cultures, and seasons of man may prove dangerous to the survival of our race. We humans can never tell when some forgotten, musty concept in the mind's spiritual attic will prove newly adaptable as a tool of survival, nay even as a tool for the enchancement of our lives. So it is with Freemasonry. Human beings need Landmarks... landmarks to chart the course of turbulent lives, to anchor one's hope and dreams, to govern one's frantic progress. Now, more than ever, modern man needs a sense of identity, and more importantly, a sense of community. And what is Masonry in its greatest and happiest aspect but a school of human relations; in its most sublime attribute, but an extended family? I believe that it is the greatest fraternal complex ever devised by the mind of man, and perhaps still in its infancy, the exaggerations of its antiquity by many of its addled and more dotty historians, notwithstanding. Two hundred years of Grand Lodge Freemasonry is but a short time relative to the life of institutions like the Church and the nuclear family. And so, if the Shriners stitch the cockade of independence on their jaunty fezzes, how should the remnant of us who are left in the Craft proceed?
We must return to the Basic nature of the institution so as to emphasize the Gentle Craft's greatest strengths. If you'll pardon the pun, we must prepare our lodges as crafts: small, self-contained, compact, well-balanced, highly responsive communal units which can sweep like great ships thru the buffets of time and storms that shroud the future; they must be fitted like space ships to probe the deep space of history that lies ahead of us.
I have a few strategies to suggest:
We must reaffirm the inherent spirituality of our ritual. All Masons acknowledge that it is central to our Gentle Craft. It is no overstatement to say that it is the very foundation and fabric of Masonic institution. It is the vessel which contains and transmits from one generation of craftsmen to another the essential message and fundamental spirit of Freemasonry. And like any institutional element of such paramount importance, it has been and is, subject to corruption. A traditional notion would hold that the greatest abuse of the ritual is the tendency for lodges to neglect its proper exemplification by permitting sloppy or inadequate memorization and floor work, or reference to ciphered ritual books or monitors. Certainly, the accurate and expressive recitation of ritual, when done with conviction coupled with smooth floor work, is much to be desired in order to make the Masonic experience complete for candidates and Brothers alike. When done properly ritual can proceed at a stately, yet efficient pace, and can powerfully inspire and motivate.
I submit, however, that the greatest corruption of Masonic ritual is not sloppiness or inefficiency (as unpleasant and unattractive as those things may seem) but rather a failure of conviction and will and focus on the part of many Masons, both ritualists and side-liners alike. The persistent notion that a Brother's worth to a lodge should be measured by how much ritual he can commit to memory and rattle off at a moment's notice is a distortion and perversion of the fundamental task of ritual. Ritual exists to focus the powers of the heart and mind on the deep and hidden realities that we humans might otherwise miss or ignore in the pedestrian familiarities of daily life.
To know ritual perfectly and recite it faultlessly will be to no avail if he who speaks, and he who hears are deaf to its revelations. The hearts of the ritualist and his listener must quicken in the presence of the mystery; ritual and mystery are one, and anything less, even though it be word-perfect, rock-bound, and copper sheathed in rote memory, is futile and deadening to exemplar and beholder alike.
If we cannot take each step toward death with the Master Craftsman as he himself takes it, if we cannot sense with him the approach of the fearful end which awaits him as the implacable price of fidelity, if we cannot feel with him the agony of leaving a sacred and beloved task unfinished, if we cannot mourn with Kings who have lost a friend, and Craftsmen who have lost a teacher, and above all, if we cannot yearn with all our hearts for that which is forever lost, then truly the foundations of the Ancient Craft will crumble though perfect its ritual be.
At the same time we must drop the insistence that every man do as much ritual as he can pound into his tired brain. As one of my clergy friends who is also a Mason so aptly puts it, "Masonry is the only institution I know where we insist that every member of our congregation be a clergyman."
We must build into the lodge structure the concept of Gifts. If I may paraphrase our socialist friends, "From each according to his gifts, to each according to his need." We must establish a "socialism of fraternity" ...by using people for what they do best. We must broaden, somewhat, the concept of lodge leadership by opening an avenue to the Warden's and Master's chairs through service other than that of learning reams of ritual. To try our leaders by the measure of whether a man can learn and deliver the Middle Chamber lecture gives no scope to men of great talent and ability who would make superb leaders in the Craft. I propose that we broaden the concept of the chair system to include Ritual, Education and Membership Committees and choose our future lodge wardens from men who excel at one or several of these functions. I do not wish to jetison the Chair System completely as it serves the function in healthy lodges of differentiating competition and conflict among a number of ambitious and aggressive men who aspire to leadership. It guarantees that everyone will eventually arrive at the Oriental Chair, and thereby lessens the inevitable jockeying for advantage and position.
The role of lodge governance of the Past Masters and Secretary must be reduced, probably by involving the PM actively in the committee system, and in the life and administration of the Lodge. The Buzzard's Roost in the SE corner of the Lodge comes into being and its denizens flock there, and squawk, wail, and dirty the floor, because of the anxiety and unease brought on by retirement from the Oriental Chair. "From the ranks you came, and to the ranks you must surely return..." Some PMs cannot forgive the Lodge for giving and then retaking the greatest gift in its power. Reincorporation in the life of the Lodge is necessary by giving them responsibility. Otherwise, they fight hard to maintain the illusion of an all-wise elite.
About secretaries, little good can be said. Since they so often have to compensate for the gross inadequacies of the many wounded birds who all too often reach the Master's Chairs in our Lodges, they inevitably fall prey to the occupational hazard of meglomania that appears to infect all the secretaries' race. They begin to fancy themselves indispensable as they pick up the pieces for the incompetents and they end by completely identifying the Lodge with their own, by then, quite warped egos. It is therefore necessary for the Lodge to remain actively conscious of the need to regard the Secretary as being in a purely clerical and administrative role as a support person for masters and wardens, and to constantly readjust administrative duties and priorities to prevent or discourage secretaries from assuming too much responsibility. Bylaw provisions limiting secretaries terms to no more than five years might prove helpful.
We should consider lessening the role of the Grand Lodge and dispersing or reorganizing to some extent, the welter of appendant and concordant bodies. Grand Lodges were Anderson's greatest innovation on and in the Body of the Craft. Originally intended to serve as administrative tools for coordinating mutual relations and efforts among Lodges and also to serve as the instruments for propagation of the Craft, they have become, in many Grand Jurisdictions, massive Masonic bureaucracies girded round with legions of men hungry for the purple of Craft.
Overlaying its administrative function and to some extent warping it, the Masonic Grand Honors Syndrome, with hordes of District Deputies, and masses of purple-and gold-sheathed magnates of the Grand Line, has succeeded in syphoning off enormous talent and energy from the primary community, the symbolic lodge.
Originally perhaps this Honors System served like the Chair System internally in Lodges, to differentiate conflict and competition by drawing away the more ambitious and potentially troublesome Past Masters into the giddy heights of the Grand Celestial Sphere of the Grand Lodge. The Symbolic Lodge can no longer afford the loss of talent. Even the terminology is askew: the term "Constituent" lodges is a travesty - Grand Lodge itself should be subordinate. I would eliminate all Grand Rank although not the Grand Lodge itself. The overwhelming, smothering presence of Grand Lodge must be alleviated. I am not suggesting its dissolution, however. We still need a grand structure, even if reduced, to adjudicate disputes, for consistent record keeping, to organize and marshal! the resources of all lodges to serve the needs of each, and most importantly, to maintain a visible profile for the institution above the bland plane and horizon of the rest of society. This is necessary simply to attract the attention and interest of potential members.
The appendant bodies also draw off too much precious energy from the primary community. I would recommend the reincorporation of these bodies within the structure of the symbolic lodge (we may not want to keep all of them) much in the manner of the Scandinavian and Continental Systems in which lodges work several degrees. This would tend to refocus interest in the primary community.
At the same time the institution must be more open in and with society. This is not to say that we should give up the canon of secrecy which is a major landmark.
We Freemasons consider our ritual a highly private, and intensely personal matter, and anything that smacks of intrusion or invasion of this, for us, very special system of allegory and symbol is rather upsetting. We should always be happy to discuss the general essence and aspects of the order with any human being who inquires in good faith, but the specific form of and detail of allegory and symbol is an intimate matter which, I think, should honorably lie beyond the range of a general curiosity on the part of the uninitiated.
This is not to say that we can preserve the secrets of the Craft from prying eyes. Anyone who has access to a major public library can find expose after expose of our ritual. Films like the recent Murder by Decree reveal much to the public. But we Masons value secrecy because it too is a symbol. It is a symbol of the bond among us. The process of maintaining a quiet and dignified silence on the forms or our liturgy constitutes a mental discipline that constantly reminds us of our obligations to each other and reinforces them. So, if the world finds out, it matters not a whit. It matter only that we keep the faith of secrecy with one another. Secrecy's primary function is intended to be an internal bond, not an external veil.
In this context, I must say that I favor the practice of asking men to join the Fraternity. In my opinion the proscription against this practice is no landmark. I do not approve of arm-twisting, fraternity rushing, or proselytizing techniques, but if I encounter a decent, God-fearing man whom I believe would help and be helped by the Craft, I first will make him aware of it, then when he shows genuine interest, apprise him of the procedures for joining; if he continues to evince interest, I will invite him to join, and offer to be his proposer.
Let us make a clear distinction between what is secret about our institution and what is not: the forms we may jealously guard; but the substance and essence and consciousness that give rise to the forms, we should be willing to share with the world - at least with those of our friends and neighbors who have a genuine interest and not an idle curiosity. There is nothing of substance about Freemasonry that we cannot and should not share with those who have a legitimate interest of scholarship, or personal search.
I would lower the age of membership to 18. We all know that eighteen year aids are not terribly mature, but what better way to be exposed to maturity than in the body of the Craft? Indeed, the concept of education in the Craft must be reinforced.
A Lodge should be a place where one is exposed to exciting ideas, both Masonically and in terms of the general culture. It should be a place of civilizing discourse and enlightening deliberation. The Grand Lodge of California is sponsoring Adult Continuing Education and Self-Development Courses for its brethren. This extends Masonry's mission. This, I believe, is an extraordinarily valuable notion: The recitation of ritual should be not an end in itself, but a starting point and blueprint for a sweeping educational investigation of the many principles it embodies.
Who will transmit to the young the role models for productive fraternal communities if not the Ancient Craft? Our commitment to DeMolay, Jobs Daughters, and Rainbow extends the mission of the Craft into the World of the Young.
I propose that lodges should be permitted to open on and do business in the Entered Apprentice Degree (as is done in Great Britain) in order to establish a full sense of immediate Brotherhood between new candidates and lodge brothers. What better way to begin to educate and incorporate a man within the body of a community than to immediately insist on his sharing and exercising those responsibilities and obligations of membership and participation from his first exposure to that community.
We Masons dare not neglect our pastorial mission to minister to the needs of individual brothers. Here I speak not of the sick in body, but rather of those forgotten, dim figures that every Lodge loses sight of through reticence or neglect. To lavish attention upon the lonely in our ranks, to visit and succor the afflicted in body and spirit, to turn the light of blessed, genuine interest upon those brothers whose presence in the Craft has, from neglect or indifference to them, begun to fade, is and could be a major tool for our survival. To restore to the community the forgotten men in our ranks will bestow a fresh apprehension and sense of that potent bond that exists between all Masons, not only to the forgotten brothers who formerly languished in the twilight of the Lodge's ranks, but also to those brothers who seek them out anew.
We should constantly seek a variety of experience, background, and condition among our members. One of our most powerful Masonic concepts is that of the Traveler, the Sojourner, he who works and receives Master's Wages in a strange coin in faraway lands, the stranger who finds comfort and succor among those whom are met as strangers and parted as brothers. There are many ways and places where Masons may work and receive Master's wages, and the Craft needs to be there in all of them in order to offer the bonds of unity to the sojourner. To this end, we should broaden the concept of multiple memberships on the English model to enable brothers to involve themselves with as many lodges as they feel comfortable in supporting. We must form lodges at Colleges or Universities, and revive the practice for the military, and imbed The Craft as a living force in institutions like seminaries, space and sea colonies, and stations.
We cannot neglect the women's movement. I believe that single sex institutions are perfectly acceptable, in a truly liberated society. Men may enjoy the sole company of their sex, and women theirs, as indeed the feminists now discover with their "consciousness raising groups." But we dare not forget the androgynous tradition in Masonry which stretches from the 18th Century French "Lodges of Adoption" to modern co-Masonry and our own Rob Morris' Order of the Eastern Star. Please be open to this issue. The real power of the human race may indeed reside in the women. They can help us be open to the feminine, nurturent side and dimension of our own being.
More democracy in Grand Lodge structures would tend to make the Craft more responsive to the demands of change. We are the only institution I know which is so totally dominated by the "Old Boy System" - a Masonic oligarchy made up of Past Grand Masters, Past District Grand Masters, and a few other be-purpled figures dominates the life of Grand Lodges and their constituent districts. It is even worse in the appendant bodies. It has been so long since any Grand or Supreme Institutions in Masonry had a genuine franchise for their rank and file that democracy is virtually unknown on that level of the Craft. The problem does not really exist in the primary community, the Lodge itself, because the very immediate and intimate nature of the communal bonding makes for more immediate feedback and response when Masters or cliques attempt to abuse power. The immediacy of the Lodge situation makes for a more natural mechanism of check and balance in human relations.
The basic emphasis must be upon the Lodge, the primary community. Many will not agree with the changes or shifts in emphasis which I propose herein. I do not expect agreement, but I would welcome an acknowledgment that the concept of change is not alien to Freemasonry, but is indeed a major building stone in the structure of the Gentle Craft. Each generation has redefined the Craft to suit its own changing cultural context.
In the final analysis of our motif, the Builders must be as aware of the process of creation as they are of the act of completion, if indeed they are to do true work, and square work. The notion of man as imperfect and incomplete is the foundation of Freemasonry. The poet tells us "no man is an island, entire of himself." Man must change for it is only through change that past and future may be reconciled. Through the ages great men, from the Tao and Zen Masters of old, to St. Paul in his blinding vision, have realized that their kingdoms are not come, that continual adjustment, searching, discovery, loss and rediscovery is necessary to realize the human self. The house not made with hands requires all the craft and power and skill of the builder, if it is to withstand the rigor of time, space, and the human soul.
The ancient notion of oneness, of becoming complete by incorporating the worlds around us, both human, natural, and divine, is the true calling of our Ancient Craft. We are the Children of Hiram who search for that which is lost, that part of ourselves obscured by greed, lust, weakness, intolerance, power, or indifference; we search the bright corners of life and the dark shadows of the grave for the link with the infinite that makes whole our fragile, broken selves.
The Japanese Orientalist Kakuzo Okakura, at the turn of the century, once mentioned that in Japan there was an old saying that: " . . . a woman cannot love a man who is truly vain, for there is no crevice in his heart for love to enter and fill up." This is a powerful image, and tells much about the nature of love.
My brothers, there are in our hearts crevices aplenty, for so we are taught in the Sublime Tale of Hiram Abiff. Do we seek that which is lost? It is lost from our hearts. Let us pray to the Great Architect and to the memory of our Masters of Old, that together we may fill the crevices, the gaps, the emptiness of one another's hearts with all the potent tools of our ancient calling: Peace and Harmony, Love, Relief and Truth.
----o----
The Grand
Lodge of Kentucky
and the Civil War
by Charles Snow Guthrie, M.P.S.
Kentucky was a border state; consequently its sympathies were divided during the Civil War. This division sometimes put father and son on opposite sides; often it pitted brother against brother. And on occasion, these animosities extended into Freemasonry in such a manner that lodges and the Grand Lodge itself felt the bitterness resulting from the conflict. However, the Grand Lodge leaders were able to settle differences there amicably.
The Grand Lodge generally seems to have taken the attitude that the war was a political affair and that as an organization Freemasonry could and should remain neutral since its principles forbade political discussions in lodges and the Grand Lodge. Before the actual fighting began, Grand Master Lewis Landram issued a circular letter dated February 10, 1861: ".. Whilst the right of every Mason, as an individual, to enjoy and express, in a proper manner, his opinions upon all political topics is unquestioned, it is a manifest departure from the usage as well as from the policy of the Craft to enter the arena of politics as Masons or as lodges. . . "
Secession of the southern states began soon afterward and Lincoln was inaugurated in March. Fort Sumter, commanded by a Kentucky Mason, Major Robert Anderson, fell to the Confederates causing President Lincoln to request four regiments of Kentucky militia to help put down the incipient rebellion. This request was emphatically denied by Governor Beriah Magoffin, a Mason. Forces of both sides then entered Kentucky and late in the year an engagement at Camp Wildcat in Rockcastle County resulted in the repulse of Confederate General Felix K. Zollicoffer, a Mason.
On the same Grand Master Landram addressed the annual communication of the Grand Lodge in Louisville, noting that the meeting was being held " . . . with the hope our unhappy country may be restored to its once peaceful and prosperous condition. . . " at the same meeting Past Grand Master (1850-51) J.M.S. McCorkle, Grand Secretary, in reviewing the proceedings of other Grand Lodges noted that some Grand Masters had displayed a strong political bias. McCorkle echoed Landram's statement that as Masons there was no right to promulgate any political views whatsoever. At this meeting the Grand Lodge issued, free of charge, a dispensation for a military lodge to be attached to the brigade of Union General Lovell H. Rousseau.
Early in 1862 the Confederates were forced from the state but returned later that year and engaged Union troops at the Battle of Perryville October 8. Although neither side won a clear-cut victory, total casualties were in excess of 7,000. Practically the whole state was in a turmoil as a result.
The Grand Lodge met October 20. Because of the tumult attending the invasion and battle, only sixty-five representatives of lodges were present the first day. Several Grand Lodge officers were absent. Grand Master Hiram Bassett ruled that a quorum, according to the Constitution, required representatives of one third of the lodges. He adjourned the meeting until the next day when a total of eighty-four were in attendance. Although there were 316 lodges on the roll, fifteen had not paid dues for three years, nor had they been represented during that period. 123 other lodges had not reported for two years, for a total of 138. Two others had surrendered their charters. Thus there were technically 140 inactive lodges and 176 active. The Grand Master, on the advice of a committee investigating the matter, ruled that a quorum was one-third of 176, or fifty-nine. Consequently he opened Grand Lodge.
S.D. McCullough, of Lexington Lodge No. 1, presented a hotly-worded resolution condemning "treason" and resolving " . . . that we disown all such false brethren and leave them in the hands of the civil authority." Referred to a committee, the resolution was defeated and a substitute adopted stating that " . . . disloyalty and rebellion are violations of Masonic duty and propriety, and should be discouraged and discountenanced by all true Masons," but that punishment must be left to civil authorities. July 17, 1862, P.G.M. (1852-53) Thomas Ware was killed while fighting for the Union at the Battle of Cynthiana.
No invasion of the magnitude of that in 1862 occurred again in Kentucky, but 1863 General John Hunt Morgan, a Lexington Mason, and his famous raiders galloped through Kentucky in July and terrified the countryside. When the Grand Lodge met that year, Grand Master John B. Huston deplored the fact that harmony, good feelings, and brotherly love had been impaired or destroyed. I to recommended a "liberal and generous course of action towards" the lodges which had been unable to meet and carry out their duties on account of the war.
By the summer of 1864 the Confederacy was reeling. When the Grand Lodge met in October, Grand Master Thomes Sadler reported that many lodges were unable to meet, but that others were prospering in comparative peace. The war ended in April, 1865, and conditions gradually became more settled as ex-Confederates were pardoned and returned to their normal civilian lives.
Grand Master James David Landrum reported at the 1865 session of the Grand Lodge that he had received several inquiries concerning the eligibility of former Confederates and their sympathizers for Masonic funerals and of their widows and orphans for Masonic charity. He offered as his opinion that political differences causes no lessening of Masonic duties. Nine lodges had surrendered their charters during the war; seven more were unable to resume work and had theirs arrested. Two surrendered their charters at this meeting. Four had their dues from 1861 through 1864 remitted and resumed work.
During the Civil War the Grand Lodge suffered an invasion of its jurisdiction. Halleck Lodge, U.D., operated at Columbus under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, ostensibly as a military lodge. With a charge of $20 for the degrees, it reported 145 initiations and a total of 405 degrees conferred during the war. The master of this clandestine lodge reportedly had been imported at a salary of $100 per month. The lodge was reported as balloting for and conferring all three degrees on candidates in a week's time. Over 200 men passed through this degree mill. Apparently the Grand Lodge of Kentucky did little about it, nor could it probably have done much in the unsettled condition of the country.
Kentucky lodges and the Grand Lodge grew swiftly after the war's end. By 1868 there had been an increase of 150 lodges and 4,295 members over those of 1858, with most of the growth occurring after the war. In 1869 the Grand Lodge stood third in the nation in members (18,972) and in wealth. Animosities eventually were healed and the spirit of Masonry worked to reestablish harmony among a once divided people.
----o----
By L.L. Walker, Jr., M.P.S.
Freemasonry is an institution whose members are bound together by their mutual belief in and adherence to an identifiable body of ethical thought which some have called a system of morality. The word system must be used with care, however, lest it imply more than it properly should. Freemasonry is not systematic in the sense of some theologies, for example. It does not present its essential principles in any order of rational dependence so as to reduce its dogmas to a system. It does not codify or classify its teachings in accordance with any prescribed methodology. Freemasonry is "systematic" only in the most basic sense of the word. It does bring together a coherent body of ideas and principles.
These ideas and principles are not indigenous to Freemasonry itself. Freemasonry is not, and has never been, a philosophical school generating ideas and training disciples after the manner of the Greeks. Instead, virtually all of what we think of as being Masonic philosophy is derivative and, to a great extent, syncretic as well. Perhaps it is an anthology, a gathering together of many ideas without regard for the original contexts. Unlike a true anthology, however, there is no attribution of authorship or origin and consequently no awareness on the part of the individual Mason that all this did not come from a single mind or source at some time in the past.
One must marvel at the manner in which the ethical substance of Freemasonry has been put together. Despite the lack of any curial oversight, the philosophical essence has remained substantially unchanged for more than two and a half centuries. The esoterics have differed in detail from time to time and from place to place, and men have sometimes misconstrued the place of Freemasonry in their social orders, but to make "good men and true" seems to have been as much the reason for being at the advent of the speculative movement as it is today.
We have been able to move through the centuries without losing sight of the pole star of the good and the true. We must inquire as to the nature and source of some of the ideas and principles which have been used to set generations of men upon that course. Those ideas and principles have been derived from many sources, but I suggest many of them are derived from the mind and thought of the greatest teacher who ever lived - the immortal Aristotle.
There is no sure way of determining how much of the ethical substance of Freemasonry is attributable to this one man. So much of what he said has become the common property of Western thought that ideas attributed to one man are often found to be, upon careful analysis, the ideas of Aristotle in more modern dress. The Masonic teaching concerning the avoidance of excess as the key to the good life is derived directly from his teachings. Likewise, the use of the Cardinal Virtues to mark the corners of the life of equanimity is attributable to Aristotle, by way of his teacher, Plato.
Aristotle, very early in his Ethics, states what may well be taken as a guiding principle of Freemasonry: " . . . we are not concerned to know what goodness essentially is, but how we are to become good men." Then again, ". . . it is our actions that determine our dispositions."
Aristotle never contemplates a study of the individual's good apart from politics, the study of the good of society. Perhaps it is a reflection of this principle that Article II of "The Charges of a Freemason," should be entitled, "Of the Civil Magistrates, Supreme and Subordinate. "
Although he has said that we are not concerned to know what goodness essentially is, Aristotle must be concerned. Goodness is too nearly synonymous with virtue. Virtue is one of the words essential to his whole thought. It is a word which has come to Freemasonry from this source, and we must therefore consider what he has to say about it.
"We may now define virtue as a disposition of the soul in which, when it has to choose among actions and feelings, it observes the mean relative to us, this being determined by such a rule or principle as would take shape in the mind of a man of sense or practical wisdom." So he defines virtue. But it is typical of Aristotle's teaching that a definition should almost always include still another term which requires definition.
In defining virtue he has introduced the important term "mean." By way of explanation he says that virtue is called a mean condition as lying between two forms of badness, one being excess and the other deficiency. Thus, he says that moral excellence is a mean, and is so called because it aims at hitting the mean point in feelings and in actions, Then he goes on to say "This makes virtue hard of achievement, because finding the middle point is never easy. It is not everybody, for instance, who can find the center of a circle - that calls for a geometrician."
If this has a familiar ring to it, it becomes more familiar as he continues: "Thus, too, it is easy to fly into a passion - anybody can do that - but to be angry with the right person and to the right extent and at the right time and with the right object and in the right way - that is not easy, and it is not everyone who can do it. This is equally true of giving or spending money. Hence we infer that to do these things properly is rare, laudable and fine."
As for all of the virtues, or moral qualities, Aristotle lays it down categorically that, "It is in the nature of moral qualities that they can be destroyed by deficiency on the one hand and excess on the other." Moral qualities in man are not necessarily fragile of themselves, but they can most assuredly be destroyed by their exercise in excess, on the one hand, or by their neglect on the other. It is this insistence upon the "mean" in the exercise of virtue which characterizes Aristotle's teachings and which has caused succeeding generations to call this portion of his ethics the "Golden Mean."
He does not underestimate the difficulty of finding this mean, this point between excess and deficiency - "that calls for a geometrician," he said. Even so, he insists that man, in the exercise of his moral responsibility, has such a degree of freedom that he can both wish the ends and choose the means to those ends. He recognizes that our acts are not all voluntary, and distinguishes between these degrees. He asserts that both virtue and vice are attainable by our own efforts, and he says, ". . What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do." This is his doctrine of "deliberate choice."
He argues that it is at all times in our power to he good and to do the right and that, conversely, it is also in our power to be vicious. It is his judgment that, "if doing right or wrong is. . .the same as being good or bad ourselves, we must conclude that it depends upon ourselves whether we are to be virtuous or vicious.
Once one has, by his deliberate choice, chosen to be virtuous, he must by habit or practice cultivate the virtuous life. "The craftsman has to learn to make things, but he learns in the process of making them....By a similar process we become just by performing just acts, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions." Moral virtues are not produced in us by nature, he insists. Nature does indeed prepare in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit. He sees education as being responsible for the earliest formation of good habits, and he suggests that it makes "all the difference in the world" whether our early education confirms in us one set of habits or another.
According to Aristotle, the will to do good - to be virtuous - depends upon two things: first, upon one's deliberate choice; and, second, upon the cultivation of the habit of doing good. In his view, the doer must act out of the conscious desire to do good, without hope or desire of reward other than the pleasure of doing good, and he must act in such a spirit that he will not have cause to regret the act. Concerning these things, Aristotle comments: "It is in the course of our dealings with our fellow-men that we become just or unjust." He catalogues and discourses at great length upon a number of virtues. It is his intention that the delineation of these virtues should result in a recognizeable profile of the good man. It is impossible to comment even briefly upon each of these virtues, but there is one which should at least have our passing attention.
As he nears the end of his Ethics, Aristotle discusses at some length that virtue which we call "friendship." One portion of his comment is worthy of note:
"But it is only between those who are good, and resemble one another in their goodness, that friendship is perfect. Such friends are both good in themselves and, so far as they are good, desire the good of one another. But it is those who desire the good of their friends for their friends' sake who are the most completely friends, since each loves the other for what the other is in himself and not for something he has about him which he need not have. Accordingly, the friendship of such men lasts as long as they keep their goodness - and goodness is a lasting quality."
These words should have great meaning to Freemasons. Surely, they give new meaning to the motto, Virtus junxit mors non separabit, "Virtue joins us, death cannot separate us."
It seems to escape the understanding of men, even Masons, that Masonry is essentially a form of discipline; that it requires of a man not mere sentiments about virtue, but the practice of virtue. When the Working Tools are laid before the candidate in each of the Three Degrees they symbolize Freemasonry's acceptance of Aristotle dictum that a man is not born just but makes himself so by his deliberate effort in the practice of virtue, Aristotle wrote that, "moral goodness is a fixed state of the soul produced by habituation." It can be said that this is also a fundamental tenet of Freemasonry.
Aristotle reminds us again and again that it is not enough to know about goodness; we must endeavor to possess and to use it, and in some way to see to it that we become good in its use. A little reflection will suggest that the whole purpose of the symbolism and allegory of the Three Degrees is to lead men to this desired end by means of simple, attractive and hopefully unforgettable lessons.
We have alluded to Aristotle's exposition of the Cardinal Virtues, but there is not space here to discuss his teachings on this subject. We have only touched upon the most obvious of the teachings which bear upon Freemasonry: "the Golden Mean, " the doctrine of nothing in excess. There is much more to be said.
There is no point in asking when or how Aristotlian ideas came to be a part of the fundamental philosophy of Freemasonry. The philosopher's ideas have been too all-pervasive over the centuries, and the inception and development of our modern Order is historically too obscure to permit any worthwhile speculation. Ancient even in the day when men first turned their attention to what we know as Speculative Masonry, the philosophy of Aristotle was a part of the common fund of knowledge of Western man. Whether the men who laid down the foundations of our "system of morality" deliberately and intentionally went to the Ethics for their material, or whether they drew from their own minds that which had been implanted there by the educational system of their day, we do not know. We can be sure, however, that what they brought forth was a system of moral instruction making use of universal truths grounded in the philosophy of Aristotle.
----o----
Al Cerza Reviews Books of Interest to Masons
The public schools of the U.S. are one of the foundation stones upon which the American Way of Life rests. Recently published is Why Public Schools? by Henry C. Clausen, Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction. This illustrated volume with many color pictures presents the history of the development of public schools in the United States. It explains the importance of their work, and warns there are subtle attacks on the public schools by church-related schools campaigning for financial support and how success in securing such funds would undermine the public schools. Ably researched and well written it is an important contribution to patriotic literature.
Available at $5.00 a copy, from the Supreme Council, 33d, 1733 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.
* * *
In 1932 there was published Mozart, by Marcia Devenport, a biography of the composer who was a Mason. It has been reprinted in a paper-back edition.
Available at $4.25 postpaid from Avon Books Mail Order Department, 224 W. 57th St., 2nd Floor, New York, New York 70019.
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On September 15, 1979, Brother Harry Carr, famous English Masonic scholar appeared at a meeting of the Texas Lodge of Research, and spoke on "The Transition From Operative to Speculative Masonry." The talk has been printed in booklet form.
Available at $1.00 a copy, from Plez A. Transou, M.P.S., 10463 Coleridge, Dallas, Texas 75218.
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"Attentive Ears, Instructive Tongues, and Faithful Breasts," by Hugh Cole, M.P.S., is a brief history of Masonic ceremonies. The author for many years has been a member of the Illinois Grand Lodge Committee on Masonic Education. He has been active in the work of the Midwest Conference on Masonic Education.
Available at $1.50 a copy from Iowa Research Lodge No. 2, P.O. Box 302, Boone, Iowa 50036.
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"Knight Masons, a History," by Otis V. Jones, M.P.S., tells the story of a Masonic organization which had its origin in Ireland and is now working in parts of the United States. The author has been a devoted student of Freemasonry for many years.
Available at $1.50 a copy, from Iowa Research No. 2, P.O. Box 302, Boone, Iowa 50036.
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Brother Jean O. Heineman, M.P.S., Odinsgate 21, Oslo, Norway, informs us that Suomi Lodge No. 1, Helsinki, working under the Grand Lodge of Finland, has made a record under the title "Religious Music" containing twelve musical numbers of Brother Sibelius, most of them being Masonic in nature plus Finlandia. The record is identified as Decca Record SDLP 9007.
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Subscriptions to the Northern Light, official publication of the Scottish Rite for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, are available to Masons who are not members of the Rite in that Jurisdiction. The magazine is issued in January, April, June, September, and November of each year. The pages are 8 1/2 x 11, beautifully illustrated, with excellent articles of enduring value to Masons.
The subscription rate is $2.00 a year or $5.00 for three years, from the Northern Light, P.O. Box 529, Lexington, Mass. 02173. The editor is Richard H. Curtis.
Subscriptions to The New Age Magazine official publication of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction are available to non-members of this Rite. The magazine is published monthly and contains news items and articles on Masonic and patriotic subjects of interest to Masons.
Available at $3.00 a year or $17.00 for three years, 1733 Sixteenth St., N. W., Washington, D.C. 20009. The Managing editor is Aemil Pouler.
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Masonic researchers will be glad to hear that some valuable tools and original materials are being preserved at the House of the Temple, 1733 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. Brother Aemil Pouler over the years has made a detailed index of the contents of the New Age Magazine plus the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction, Proceedings and placed them on 3x5 cards. He has also classified all letters and original manuscripts and records in the building, processed them chemically to preserve them, and made special index of these items. All this valuable original material is being stored and preserve in a special room with humidity control. In the building there is also a fine library under the supervision of Inge Baum, librarian, collections of the material of Albert Pike, a Goethe collection, and a Robert Burns collection. The literary works of Grand Commander Henry C. Clausen are being prepared. This is a storehouse of Masonic material.
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Pictures, charts, and graphs can sometimes tell a story quicker than words. Brother C. DeJean Plercules 4640 Que St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20007, has utilized his professional skills to prepare eleven charts with information of interest to Masons. Here is a brief description of each of them with the postpaid price:
1. Progressive Erection; Masonic Grand Lodges of the Colonies of the United States, 1717-1967. $2.00
2. Grand Chapters Royal Arch Masons; Progressive Organization in the United States; 1806-1966. $1.50
3. Grand Commanderies of Knights Templar in the United States; how organized; 1816-1966. $1.50.
4. The Cryptic Rite in the United States; how organized; 1767-1967. $1.50
5. The Rite of Perfection of the Scottish Rite, both the Southern and the Northern Jurisdiction; how organized 1767-1967. $1.50
6. The Shrine; how organized; 1870. $1.50
7. America's First Lodges; the earliest lodges in each state. $2.00
8. The Rite Tree of Perfection. Growth of the Scottish Rite throughout the world. $1.50
9. Organization. The Origins of Masonry from the dawn of Civilization to the present time. (Price Unknown)
10. The Early English Lodges, the "Moderns", the "Antients, " and their successors. (Price unknown).
11. Square and Compasses; organizations chart showing jewels of various Orders, Degrees, and Bodies. $2.00
The prices differ because the Charts are of different sizes such as 16x20, 11x17, with some having printing on one side and others having printing on two sides. Each Chart is on heavy paper and is suitable for framing.
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by C. W. Coons M.P.S.
Concepts are not good just because they are old; they are old became they are good.
Why so much ritual?
In our compressed-scheduled lives, this question is often put forward by busy Masons.
There are many reasons, besides tradition, for the retention of full, complete rituals in the Masonic orders.
First, memorization is the most effective way to make working tools out of essential mental processes.
Teachers, priests, scientists, musicians, tradesmen, or craftsmen, all who depend on repetitive lore for the execution of their work or ideas, have realized from time immemorial that ritualized learning will best ensure the retention and rapid retrieval of needed concepts from that most marvelous of computers, the human brain.
"I before e, except after. . .", "Thirty days hath September. . .", addition and subtraction facts, multiplication tables, Euclid's theorems, religious catechisms (in hymn form or out), "left over right", or "the five points of fellowship which. . . " - all of these are ritualized memory aids. Brother Albert Woody has pointed out: Philalethes February, 1979, how much ritualized instruction is embodied, wordlessly, in proper rod work.
Mnemonics were indispensible to ancient guildsmen such as the builders, shipwrights, or merchants, especially in mathematics; mathesis was as essential to them as tool dexterity or management skills.
There were two reasons for this.
First-philologists believe that none of the elementary written communication systems (mainly pictographic) in use before 6,000 B.C. were sophisticated enough to accommodate calculations and formulae such as the "afore mentioned" guildsmen were using regularly. Recent excavations at Jericho show that, in one of its several re-buildings c. 7,000 B.C., that city had dressed stone constructions and other refinements such as an excellent, well-planned sewer system and an astronomical observatory. Although the mathematics for this type of building was understood and used by the craftsmen, they could not express it in writing. Therefore, that training, that knowledge, was, by necessity, transmitted mouth-to-ear by rote.
Second-the tradition of mouth-to-ear was fortified in later times - even when adequate writing systems were available - by the customary practice of guild secrecy. For the builder or shipwright guildsman, this secrecy was an all important necessity. The builders, particularly, had an unabashed phobia about cowans (see an unabridged dictionary) and eavesdroppers, for fear that an untutored operator might do work that could collapse and endanger not only the lives of people, but the reputation of the legitimate builders.
Even though we may admit that ritual, rote learning, liturgy, or whatever name we may apply to oral repetition, was and is a necessity for inculcating learning in the trades, in religion, or in the schoolroom, the question remains. . . is so much of it essential in the modern Masonic Lodge?
To answer this, we must inquire into the three reasons for using a ritual. They are:
1. to impart or receive knowledge or concepts,
2. to maintain, these readily at hand for immediate use, and,
3. to serve as a reminder in future procedures.
Our ancient brethren emphasized two areas of excellence, namely, craft skills and ethical behavior. Modern Masonry no longer involves operational techniques, but positive behavior is a passion with its devotees. These patterns of action, these morals, have been the mark of the builder guildsman from time immemorial, often in societies or civilizations which were essentially amoral.
These guildsmen found, as have religionists from the beginning of organized societies, that when dealing with human bergs with human failings, constant reminders were necessary to maintain behavioral standards. They found that they could best do this by incorporating those reminders directly into rote training rituals. Philalethes June, 1979.
So successful were the builders in this effort that when men of the Renaissance and Reformation began to realize the need of a moral awakening, they turned to the builders' guild and asked for honorary membership in order to demonstrate their belief in social ethics, and thus was born the modern Masonic Lodge in the 1700s.
It is doubtful that any Mason would suggest eliminating ritual in tote, but some feel that it is too involved, or at least too long.
We should ask those Masons, "Just which part of the ritual would you omit?"
We would probably get as many answers as there are objectors, and no two would completely agree. What are the possibilities?
Should we change the opening or losing of the meeting? - Most of us would feel that we were in a clandestine lodge if we saw such a pruning. Should we shorten the lectures? - They are already to much skeletonized; if anything they should be fleshed out with clarification. What about the charge? As it stands, it is the most potent and stirring section in all the degrees.
How should the catechism be changed? - Aside from the obligations, could we not just read them to the candidate and ask him to affirm theme Would it not be simpler to give him copies of the catechisms to read and digest at his leisure? - Aside from the horrified distress this would invoke in many Masons, there are several obvious reasons why these last truncations are impractical.
Historically, the catechisms are a bow to the traditional tests taken by guildsmen to allow them to prove suitable proficiency in training and accomplishment to permit them to progress to a higher level of guild activity. These were public examinations in which the answers had to be quick, clear, and accurate.
In the modern Lodge the (memorized, rote, ritualized) catechisms, usually presented in open lodge, are proof that the newly accepted brother has learned at least the basics of the preceding degree. If he has memorized their trenchant phrases, and can repeat them with (more or less) accuracy, we know that they have been imbedded in his mind.
That which a man hears or reads once or only a few times, even though he assures us that he understands it, will never make the same lasting impression on his mind - or his life - as a memorized recital.
If Masonry is the educational institution, the stabilizer of society, the stimulus for thought, which we claim it to be, we must retain the time-proven rituals which have perpetuated the existence of its concepts.
Furthermore ... if a candidate is unwilling to make the same effort to learn our precepts as have the men who have made our brotherhood what it is, would he make a very good Mason?
.........
Comments, pro or con, on these ideas from interested brethren are welcomed and will be treated in a future column.
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Send reservations and check for $15.00 for Assembly and Feast to:
S. Brent Morris
5449 Ring Dove Lane
Columbia, MD. 21044
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"Shittim Wood" Legend
by Gordon T. Hallmark & George Marshall, Jr., M.P.S.
At this time, Masons must be particularly careful as to the veracity of stories and legends purporting to be true Masonic history, or of objects of events popularly asserted as being connected with the Craft, or of great interest to it. Such unguarded statements concerning Masonic history and tradition which have been neither researched nor explored in depth have caused great mischief and confusion within the Masonic Temple and have given the profane world cause to hold the Fraternity as ludicrous and pompous in its claims. Witness, for example, the fantastic claims of Dr. Anderson, Dr. Oliver, and even the renowned Dr. Mackey as to the early history and origins of Freemasonry, its rites, and its symbols. Even today much of what has been disproven as false and fantasy by Gould, Haywood, Street, Voorhis and others is regarded by many as fact. Members of our Fraternity must learn to question allegations with a critical mind and hold in abeyance historical-type statements until an adequate proof or confirmation by knowledgeable authorities or scholars can be obtained. Language itself may or may not be accurate, and with the myriad of possibilities of spelling, pronunciation, translation, idioms, etc., serious errors can be introduced (often innocently) into the history itself.
A perfect example of such misinformation currently being foisted as fact upon Alabama Masons, whether by design or not, is the legend currently rampant that only on the slopes of a local prominence in Huntsville (Monte Sano Mountain) and in the Holy Land does the celebrated acacia, or shittim wood, tree grow. As you remember, this wood was used to build the Ark of the Covenant of Israel and is prominent in the Second Section of the Master Mason Degree.
This tale has caused gavels, squares, and other Masonic mementoes constructed of Huntsville area "shittim" wood to be highly prized across the state and elsewhere. The legend, as popularly broadcast in this area, is given in its entirety in Exhibit 1.
It is amazing that so many Brethren believe such stories without taking the trouble to make inquiry or research into their validity. Luckily, one such Brother, the late Volta S. Lewis of Lunar Lodge No. 918, Madison, Alabama, in 1957 did take the trouble and effort to investigate this myth thoroughly. The response to his letter of inquiry to the U.S. Forest Service in Exhibit 2 results in a devastating destruction of the current legend.
The third paragraph in the Forest Service's reply to Brother Lewis referred to a woodworking project of Brother Lewis, possibly a chessboard, and does not refer to the Shittimwood Legend. Note especially that Mr. J. Kryn, the botanist who signed the letter, has quite clearly differentiated the two trees, indicating that the Biblical tree is an acacia, and the Northern Alabama tree is a smoke tree and totally deferent from and unrelated to the acacia except for the orange-brown color of the wood.
Even with such evidence, the propagation of the error persists. The similarity of the colors of the two woods and the pronunciation of the common names, "shittimwood" and "chittamwood" probably accounts for the confusion which has become local legend. Also, the number of Brethren who are acquainted with the true facts is a very small group. This only serves to underscore the need for more Masons to become members of an organization such as the Philalethes Society which stresses fact and truth and the eradication of myth and error. We must more effi
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LEGEND OF THE SHITTIM WOOD
Referring to the Bible, we learn from Exodus, chapters 25 to 38 that when the Israelites came to the promised land and Moses came down from his retirement with God on Mount Sinai, he told the children of Israel to bring freewill offerings of gold, silver, gems, linens, furs, dried skins and Shittim Wood, for to be used In the building and furnishing of the sanctuary of God, or place of Worship, the Jewish Tabernacle. They were told to use Shittim Wood in building of the walls, pillars, tables and altars.
They were told to make the Ark of the Covenant of Shittim Wood and overlay it with pure gold Inside and out. side and to cast four rings of solid gold, one for each corner of the ark, or two for each side and make staves of Shittim Wood overlayed with gold, the staves to be put In the rings, one each side for the bearing of the Ark.
Shittim Wood was considered very precious and sacred The only wood mentioned as used in the Tabernacle.
It is close grained and hard, of a fine orange-brown color, and while it was very common in the peninsula of Sinai, it is not known to grow in any other country except on the mountains of North Alabama around Huntsville where the roots of the trees are used in making furniture, canes and other ornamental novelties. Believed to be a member of the acacia family.
Plant life authorities of the United States Government, in connection with the Federal Park development of Monte Sano, a small mountain at the southernmost tip of the Cumberlands chain, the area containing most of the specimens in Alabama, record this:
Shittim Wood, the rare tree which has brought so much attention to Monte Sano, is a small irregular tree, usually six or eight inches in diameter and 20 feet or more tall. It has a brownish scaly bark and a simple leaf, while its flowers are small, in feathery clusters, and it appears in spring about the time leaves are full grown.
The Shittim Wood tree is not particularly handsome, yet it often is cultivated for ornamental purposes. This is more as curiosity, however, than for anything else, as it is one of the rarest of trees. The Shittim heart wood is dark and durable. The fact that an orange dye can be extracted from it is said to have caused the destruction of the most accessible trees during the War between the States
ADDITIONAL HISTORICAL DATA
Alabama's Shittim Wood traveling gavel will become a museum piece on its retirement. In 1971 after traveling four years from its start at the 250th Anniversary of the Grand Lodge of England, mother Grand Lodge of the world, and has this additional historical connection.
Furnished as a courtesy of Hellon Lodge No. 1, Alabama's oldest Lodge at Huntsville, the sole habitat of the Shittah tree on this hemisphere and the only place it is found to grow outside of the Holy Land.
It was crafted by Guin O. McKinney who served for many years as Secretary of Hellon Lodge and was the first President of the Alabama Masonic Secretaries Association.
The project was designed by Gordon L. Evatt, Grand Secretary, Grand Master of Alabama at the time Hellon Lodge No. 1 celebrated its Sesquicentennial, the first lodge, of course, In Alabama to reach the significant milestone of 150 years.
It will be Introduced and its first year's course of visitation directed by Grand Master James W. Cooper whose residence and lodge is on the west side of the City of Birmingham as was the residence and lodge of Thomas W. Farrar, the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Alabama, the original part of Birmingham being the village of Elyton. Birmingham will observe its Centennial concurrent with the Grand Lodge's Sesquicentennial.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
FOREST SERVICE
FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY
Address Reply To
DIRECTOR
MADISON, WISCONSIN
And Refer To
RP - RL
GROWTH-CONVERSION
Identification
September 30,1957
Mr. V. S. Lewis
205 Gates Street
Huntsville. Alabama
Dear Mr. Lewis:
The leaves, bark, and wood enclosed with your letter at September 18 are Identified as the American smoketree or chittamwood (Cotinus obovatus Raf.). The tree is rare and local in the mountains of eastern to central Tennessee and northern Alabama and from southwestern Missouri to northwestern Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. It is common on the Edwards Plateau of Texas and is in Kentucky. A different, but similar species (Cotinus coggygria Scop ) grows from southern Europe to central China and the Himalayas. It is sometimes planted In the United States.
According to H.N. Moldenke in "PIants of the Bible,' 'the "shittimwood'' mentioned so frequently is a very different tree. It is an acacia, probably Acacia seyal or Acacia tortilis. These are the only timber trees of any size that grow on the Arabian desert. They differ in leaves and wood from the smoketree, although the wood is orange brown in color. The acacias are members of the bean family of plants and produce slender, curved pods. Several other trees have been named "shittimwood" in certain areas, but none but the acacia is the tree referred to in the Bible.
We suggest either holly (Ilex opaca Ait) or maple (Acer spp.) or birch (Betuta spp.) sapwood to contrast with black walnut. All of the woods mentioned are nearly white and would not require bleaching. We are enclosing our Report No. 1705, "BIeaching Wood."
We hope this information is helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to call on us at any time.
Very truly yours,
HAROLD L. MITCHELL, Chief
Division of Timber Growth and
Utilization Relations
By: J. KRYN, Botanist
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ciently publicize that truth abroad in order that myths such as the one considered in this article may be shattered.
It is hoped that this article has demonstrated that purported Masonic and Masonic-related "facts" need to be investigated with careful scrutiny and meticulous research before they are given out to the Fraternity and the world at large as absolute truths.
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by Jerry Marsengill, Editor
A couple of my friends tell me I have to brag on me, so here goes. At the last Supreme Council Session of the A&ASR SJ, I was honored by being awarded the rank and distinction of Knight Commander Court of Honor. Jack Watts, M.P.S., and GGM of the General Grand Council, was honored at the same time. Both Jack and I were pleased and proud to be recognized by our Scottish Rite bodies.
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While I was out in Phoenix, Arizona for their Grand York Rite Sessions, I was shown a number of mementos of Arizona Chapter No. 1's 100th anniversary. The chapter is selling these to raise money to contribute to the General Grand Chapter's R.A.R.A. Philanthrophy. The picture of the mementos and the price list is reproduced here. If you want something to collect and help a worthy cause at the same time, this might be your opportunity.
Arizona Chapter #1
100th Anniversary
Mementos
Order Form
Please send me the following:
(1) __ 16 oz. Stein $7.50 ea. $ ____
(2) __ 6 1/2 in. dia. Ashtray $6.50 ea. $ ___
(3) __ 8 oz. Mug $5.00 ea. $ ___
(4) __ 10 in. dia. Plate $20.00 ea. $ ___
(5) __ 12 oz. Glass $7.50 set at 6 $ ____
Postage and Handling $1.50
Send check or money order payable to:
RAM CENTENNIAL, P.O. 11993,
Phoenix, Arizona 85961
Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip
NOTE: All net proceeds to be donated to the Royal Arch research Assistance, a charitable endeavor al the General Grand Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, International.
(Please allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery. Thank you.)
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Zeredatha Chapter RAM of Laurel, Maryland has issued a set of four commemorative coins. If you are a collector they are well worth the price of $5.00. This is only $1.25 for each coin. Send your orders for these coins to S. Brent Morris, High Priest, Zeredatha Chapter, 5449 Ring Dove Lane, Columbia, Maryland 21044.
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I don't have a great deal of news about Andy Anderson right now. When I was in Maryland December 8, I went to see him at the hospital. He was unable to talk to me but I felt he recognized me. He is gaining and Brent Morris informed me on the telephone that Andy had said a few words. Keep sending him cards and letters. He appreciates receiving them and they brighten his day a little.
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Since I have changed jobs I am a little harder to get by telephone than I used to be. However, just keep calling and I will eventually be there. Usually, I am at hone by 10:00 P.M. Central Standard Time. The telephone number is 515/288-6451. If I am not in, give your number to Betty and I will call you as soon as I get home. My main problem is that I have to make a living.
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Send reservations and check for $15.00 for Assemble and Feast to:
S. Brent Morris
5449 Ring Dove Lane
Columbia, MD 21044
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We Need A Backlog
In any business a backlog of material must be in the inventory. If the firm cannot supply the orders of its customers, the customers will go some place else. It is necessary to have enough material on hand at all times to supply the demand. What the Philalethes Society needs is backlog of members. If we are to survive, we must keep enough new members coming in to replace those whom we lose from death, demit, or attrition. Printing and postage costs are up and will keep rising. We are just staying even in our membership. If our membership were built up we would be able to publish more material than we are presently able to do. If the membership of the society were 5,000 we would be financially secure. We need more members. Allan Parsons and Harold Bull have done a great job as the membership committee but they can't do it all.
Have you obtained a new member this year? Have you asked one of your Masonic friends to join the Philalethes Society? If not, why not?
Each of us is a one man membership committee. We aren't paid solicitors, but we must all work at getting new members if the society is going to grow. If you feel you can't get out and sign up new members why not get a few good ideas for getting petitions. Just drop a line to . . .
Allan D. Parson.
Chairman
2402 West Euclid
Arlington Heights, III 60005
Harold P. Bull
Co-Chairman
519 Country Lane
Glenview III 60025