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| Most of the group yesterday at Civil War Lodge of Research 1865’s Installation of Officers at Babcock Lodge 322 in Highland Springs, Virginia. Bro. Keith Hinerman holds a photo of the lodge’s founders in commemoration of our thirtieth anniversary. |
I enjoyed the weekend with Civil War Lodge of Research 1865, which marked its thirtieth anniversary, in Virginia.
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| The East of the lodge room. |
CWLR is one of six(!) research lodges in the Commonwealth, having been set to labor on November 14, 1995 with Allen E. Roberts as its inaugural Master. We met Saturday at Babcock Lodge 322 in Highland Springs; this lodge building is the home of this research lodge, although CWLR travels about and outside Virginia in pursuit of its research into Freemasonry’s connections in the history of the War Between the States.
Membership in CWLR is open to Masons outside Virginia—ergo my presence—which makes for a diverse group (with sometimes a babelic approach to ritual!), but also can inhibit attendance due to the cable tow’s limits. So, for our anniversary celebration, I thought participation wasn’t what it should have been, although we elected four to membership—one of whom, Bro. Michael, immediately joined the officer line as a Steward!
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| A close-up of that photo of CWLR’s founders. Sorry for the glare. |
No papers were presented yesterday, but we installed our officers for 2026. Bro. Bill Hare of Maryland is our new Worshipful Master. Our new Wardens are RW Clifton White in the West, and Bro. Alan Hawk, of Maryland, in the South. In addition, Secretary Bennett Hart was invested with his jewel and warrant of office as the new DDGM of Grand Lodge’s Research District. (With six research lodges, it makes sense to organize them into a district.) Yours truly even had a small role as I served as the proxy for the installation of Bro. Gary Laing, of Delaware, as Tyler. The installation was conducted by Past (1997) Grand Master Alan Adkins, with the help of Bro. Keith Hinerman (our second WM back in 1996) and RW Hart.
Get well wishes to outgoing WM Creighton Lovelace, of North Carolina, who, with his wife, is out of commission due to COVID.
Civil War Lodge’s next communication will be a little different. On Saturday, April 11, we will open at Magnetic Lodge 184 in Stanley, Virginia; then visit New Market Battlefield; and then close at a second lodge (yet to be determined). We’ve been assured this can be done legally, even if it is odd.
Babcock Lodge’s home is a venerable Masonic temple in a residential neighborhood. Bro. Keith showed me around after discovering me inside the library. The main section of the building went up in 1914 and an addition in ’64. For whatever reason, it was easy for me to sense the memories of past glories inside. You can just tell there were momentous memorable occasions there—whether Masonic meetings and affairs or community gatherings. When I came to the door overlooking the parking lot, I half expected to see it full of early sixties Fords and Chevys. I’m sorry to report the lodge is nearing the end of life. There are too few members, many of whom are past age seventy, and there is real talk of selling the property. A sign of the times.
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| Souvenirs! |
He is shown here in a painting that hangs inside the lodge room. When Babcock vacates the premises, I hope the portrait finds a new home.
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| Where the Confederate fortifications stood at the Battle of Cold Harbor. |
After lodge, we visited Cold Harbor, a nearby National Battlefield Park. I got separated from the group, but I followed behind through the three key stops at the site. In late fall, with leaves covering the ground, there isn’t much to look at, frankly, and the dreary raw weather made it more drab. What impressed me is the small space. To think tens of thousands of soldiers blasted each other to pieces here—the Union side lost 12,000 men—is incomprehensible. I’m sure the present day park is much smaller than the land where they fought, but the preserved battleground looks like it could fit in a small college campus. Read some of the details here.
Yesterday was a long day, with brethren arriving at the lodge at eight in the morning and leaving the battlefield site at 3 p.m., so I wasn’t surprised to find myself alone at the restaurant at dinnertime. The food at Mexico in Sandston was okay. I had “street tacos” (steak) and a grande glass of cerveza (Dos Equis Amber). The group dinner Friday night at Roberto was far superior, especially for those of us who ordered the ribeye. Everything for the weekend—the hotel, the lodge, the restaurants, the historic site—was in close proximity and very easily reached, even for me with my ignorance of the area and poor sense of direction.
Bro. Keith gave me the gift of a copy of The Diamond Years, one of many inventoried in Babcock’s library. If you’re a Masonic history buff, you have encountered author Allen Roberts’ approach to historiography: kind of like playing noncompetitive darts. Here is one of his gems, found on Page 157:
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| Yikes. |
Keith also sent me home with a copy of Emessay Notes from June 2018 which tells of MW Dwight Smith, Grand Master in Indiana in 1945. Assuming I’d never heard of Smith, Keith enjoyed telling me about him. Usually terrible at sober conversation, I had fun reciprocating by telling Keith a little about the Knights of the North and our cultic devotion to Smith and his writings.
In related news, the Magpie Mason congratulates Bro. Andy Martinez of Maryland, who served as Master of CWLR for the 2020 and 2021 terms, upon his election as Worshipful Master of Maryland Masonic Lodge of Research 239. (Honestly, I thought I was the only one weird enough to serve in the East of two research lodges!) No word yet on a date of the installation, but I think it might be Saturday, January 17.
