‘James Royal Case award this month’

         

Things Masonic sometimes are denominated in threes, and Connecticut’s Masonic Lodge of Research 401 has settled on its tertiary choice of date to present its James Royal Case award, which will be at its meeting this month.

W. Bro. Martin Ede, the highly regarded local historian, scholar, perennial Worshipful Master, etc., will be honored with the lodge’s wonderfully prestigious James Royal Case Fellowship at the New Haven Masonic Temple on Wednesday the 28th. The lodge will meet at seven o’clock, and the public award presentation will follow.

There is no cost to attend. If you had paid to book your seats for the previous two planned dates, expect a refund from the lodge.

Case (1895-1987) was, among other things, a Past Master and a Fellow of The American Lodge of Research. He was one of those mid-twentieth century American scholars in Masonry prolific in authoring books and research papers. He studied and wrote of histories outside the Masonic Order also, such as the Revolutionary War pertaining to Connecticut. His book titles include: 

 ▸ Tryon’s Raid on Danbury, 1777: The Battle of Ridgefield and Gen. David Wooster’s Career

 ▸ Fifty Early American Military Freemasons

 ▸ The Case Collection: Biographies of Masonic Notables, Volumes I and II (for Missouri Lodge of Research)

 ▸ Freemasons at the First Inauguration of George Washington, April 30, 1789 (for the Masonic Service Association)

 ▸ Thank You, Mr. Edwards: A Bicentennial History of the Grand Lodge, AF&AM of Connecticut

 ▸ A History of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in Connecticut

And, unsurprisingly, recent James Royal Case Fellows include familiar Masons, such as Dick Fletcher, Chris Hodapp, Tim Hogan, Arturo de Hoyos, Brent Morris, Roy Wells, and a lot of local talent, including Ron Goldwyn.

Somewhere I had a photo of Case standing in The ALR from, maybe, the sixties. Can’t find it.

     

‘James Mitchell Varnum at Collegivm Luminosvm’

    

Click to enlarge.

Collegium Luminosum, the research lodge in the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island, has an evening planned for next month when a local historian will discuss the life of a Revolutionary War general and Rhode Island Mason. The graphic above has the particulars.

The historic brother in question, James Mitchell Varnum, was with St. John’s Lodge 1 in Providence, but his military career naturally took him outside the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He fought here in New York, both at Long Island and White Plains, for example.

The lodge’s speaker on May 22, Mr. Geake, has authored a biography titled A Man of Uncommon Valor: James Mitchell Varnum, the American Revolution, and the Foundation of the New Republic, which will be published shortly.

The formidable James Royal Case, of ALR fame, in his Fifty Early American Military Freemasons, in 1955, writes:

James Mitchell Varnum

The first convocation of Masons in Ohio (of which there is any record) took place at the funeral of this distinguished brother at Marietta in January 1789. Cut off before his fortieth birthday, resident in the Northwest Territory less than a year, his life career had been a short but notable one. In military, Masonic and civic attainments he had, through sheer merit and unsought preferment, gone beyond his aspirations. The mourners in his funeral procession included a visiting delegation of Indian warriors, officers of the garrison at Fort Harmar, colleagues in the civil government, compatriots of the Society of the Cincinnati, and brethren of the Masonic fraternity. Ahead of the coffin marched four masters of ceremony bearing on mourning cushions appropriate emblems of his connection with the military, the judiciary, the Cincinnati, and the Masons. The latter acted as an occasional lodge for this ceremony, but the following year American Union Lodge was reopened at Marietta, marking the introduction of regular Freemasonry into Ohio.

Varnum was born at Dracut, Massachusetts in 1748 and was sent to Harvard to complete his formal schooling. Among those expelled following some disorder among the students, he transferred to Rhode Island College at Warren, of which Brown University is the present day successor. As a member of the first class to graduate, he took as a topic for his commencement oration the thesis that America should not be independent! He taught school for a year or two while he studied law with the attorney general of the state, following which he began his own law practise in East Greenwich. He was extraordinarily alert mentally, possessed great powers of concentration, and was a fluent and copious speaker. The Revolutionary War called him away from his legal pursuits for a while.

Possessed of a powerful physique, athletically inclined, an advocate of physical fitness and drill discipline, he became in 1774 colonel of the “Kentish Guards,” from whose ranks came many officers of the revolutionary army. Nathaniel Greene was an associate of those days. In 1775, Varnum commanded a regiment of state troops and was given command of the 9th regiment of Continentals in 1776. He served at the Siege of Boston and in the Battles of Long Island and White Plains.

Promoted brigadier general in 1777, he was entrusted with command of forts Mercer and Mifflin on the Delaware, defensive works for Philadelphia. Although he was eventually driven out by the British, he was commended by Washington for holding out as long as he did. His brigade was one of those which spent a miserable winter at Valley Forge, where the commander in chief said he was “the light of the camp,” perhaps with a special signification.

The following year found him fighting in his native state at Newport and for a few months in command of the department. However, his health had given way and, unable to endure the rigors of field duty, he resigned his commission. But there was no rest for the weary. He was sent to the Continental Congress in 1780 and served at intervals until 1787. He was appointed Major General of Rhode Island militia, and elected the head of the state Society of the Cincinnati. His law cases were many and notable in the history of the Rhode Island bar.

He became interested in the Ohio Land Company, was one of the original directors, and appointed to the bench as one of three judges for the territorial government to be established. Hoping to regain his health, improve his fortune, and advance in his profession, he went to Marietta on horseback in June 1789, leaving behind him a childless wife who was to survive him by forty-eight years. He began his new duties hopefully and happily enough but within the year he was dead. About all he had found time to get done was a code of laws.

Although his lungs were weakening, his voice was still strong and his mind was keen. His reputation as a public speaker was considerable and must have preceded him, as he was only in Marietta a week before he was chosen by the citizens and the Cincinnati to deliver the principal address at the first Fourth of July exercises ever held in Ohio. At home he had been much in demand as orator at Masonic gatherings, one notable occasion being the observance of St. John the Evangelist Day at Providence in December 1778. Major General John Sullivan was the guest of honor and dozens of military officers were present as visitors. Varnum was a member of old St. John’s Lodge in Providence, which is numbered among those few in America rounding out their second century of existence.

Read more about Varnum here at the website of the Varnum Armory Museum in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. And the Varnum House Museum is here.

     

‘Research lodge’s diamond anniversary in the emerald month’

    

May 9 has the potential to be an utterly entertaining, albeit exhausting, day.

That second Saturday of the emerald month will see The American Lodge of Research sojourn to Saugerties for a joint meeting with Ulster Lodge 193. I’ll be there. Later that afternoon, Connecticut’s Masonic Lodge of Research 401 will gather for a celebration that I want to attend also.

At about 100 miles apart, I’d have to drive like one of them new “California” truckers to reach New Haven on time, but I feel motivated. Maybe stay off the Thruway and 84 if you can.

Masonic Lodge of Research 401’s day is advertised in the March trestleboard of Quinta Essentia Lodge 500 as an awards ceremony and dinner. Both lodges meet at New Haven and, unsurprisingly, share some members in common. One of those is W. Bro. Martin Ede, the highly regarded local historian, scholar, perennial Worshipful Master, etc., who will be honored with the lodge’s wonderfully prestigious James Royal Case Fellowship that day. This research lodge was founded May 6, 1966, so I’m assuming this event also will be a sixtieth (diamond) anniversary bash.

Case (1895-1987) was a Past Master and a Fellow of The ALR, and that lures me too. He was one of those mid-twentieth century American scholars in Masonry prolific in authoring books and research papers. He studied and wrote of histories outside the Masonic Order also, such as the Revolutionary War in Connecticut. His book titles include: 

 ▸ Tryon’s Raid on Danbury, 1777: The Battle of Ridgefield and Gen. David Wooster’s Career

 ▸ Fifty Early American Military Freemasons

 ▸ The Case Collection: Biographies of Masonic Notables, Volumes I and II (for Missouri Lodge of Research)

 ▸ Freemasons at the First Inauguration of George Washington, April 30, 1789 (for the Masonic Service Association)

 ▸ Thank You, Mr. Edwards: A Bicentennial History of the Grand Lodge, AF&AM of Connecticut

 ▸ A History of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in Connecticut

And, unsurprisingly, recent James Royal Case Fellows include familiar Masons, such as Dick Fletcher, Chris Hodapp, Tim Hogan, Arturo de Hoyos, Brent Morris, Roy Wells, and a lot of local talent, including Ron Goldwyn.

Somewhere I had a photo of Case standing in The ALR from, maybe, the sixties. Can’t find it.