‘New Jersey’s Anti-Masonic Party’

    

From the Proceedings of the Fourth Massachusetts Convention of Antimasonic Republicans, Boston, September 1833.
Click to enlarge.

We’ve had better days at New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education. I can’t write off yesterday’s meeting as a total loss—I mean, we held our nominations for elected office for the coming two-year term to make our December communication easier—but things could have been more encouraging.

First, attendance was slight. We don’t draw huge crowds to our activities (no research lodge does), but we typically are good for twenty guys, approximately. There were eight of us in lodge assembled at Freemasons Hall Saturday. Secondly, due to an absence, there was only a single presenter for the morning. A good speaker could carry a meeting, but that wasn’t to be. Worse, our speaker began by confessing he hadn’t completed his research, so that his presentation wouldn’t delve inside his main topic, but that instead, his introductory topic, for giving context to the keynote, would have to suffice.

Okay, that unprepared sorry speaker was myself. I didn’t budget enough time to tackle all the research I needed for this paper. The topic is the Anti-Masonic Party in New Jersey. That introductory topic was the abduction and possible killing of William Morgan in Upstate New York, the event that precipitated the anti-Masonic movement in many states between 1827 and 1840. Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of the kidnapping, which is why I aimed for this meeting to present a history of this local political party, but time ran out.

In my professional editorial work, deadlines are no problem. Of course there’s remuneration at the end of those jobs, so maybe that’s why, but what frustrates me about this research project is I know where to find the troves of information I require, but making time to go has been difficult. For example, the New Jersey State Library, located in Trenton, keeps banker’s hours; it’s open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., like a church thrift shop or something.

So, I focused on William Morgan’s life and alleged demise, relying on sources from Canada, which seem to me to be objective and rational. Much has been written about the “Morgan Affair,”  but I find a lot gets emotional and defensive. I wish I had Dafoe’s book. I never got around to buying Morgan: The Scandal that Shook Freemasonry, and now it’s out of print and copies are expensive. And, Masonic libraries are stingy with hours too.

Anyway, it’s an interesting story because simultaneously the anti-Masonic political party never accomplished anything in the state, but Freemasonry in New Jersey almost disappeared nevertheless. By 1840, when the smoke mostly had dissipated, there were eight lodges still operational, down from more than fifty in ’27. The fraternity had returned to its size at the founding of Grand Lodge in 1786. Long before 1840, the party, in the words of one historian, had “dwindled into insignificance” itself.

From The Antimasonic Party by Charles McCarthy, 1903 (the author’s doctoral dissertation). Click to enlarge.

In the 1832 presidential contest between Tennessee Past Grand Master Andrew Jackson and Kentucky Past Grand Master Henry Clay, the New Jersey Anti-Masonic Party inadvertently delivered their state to Jackson by denying Clay just enough votes in the tightest election in Jersey history. Clay had demitted from his lodge in 1824—never denounced the Craft, but gave up his membership—so the antimasons helped send a prominent and enthusiastic Freemason to the White House. They were that kind of political voice.

My desired conclusion for the talk was to be a humorous note about corruption in government courtesy of this one-issue party, but I need to grab more details first. I mean it’s funny in a dark way. If you know New Jersey politics, you know things never change when it comes to our beloved grifters in government, no matter the political party. (I used to work in professional politics. The official I answered to ended up in a federal penitentiary. They’re all garbage.)

I’ll get my eyes on the obscure papers I need eventually.

From Anti-Masonic Review, a monthly magazine by ‘renouncing Mason’ Henry Dana Ward, 1828. Click to enlarge.

After such a confused performance, I wanted to just quietly resume my seat and tell myself no one will remember this ignominious episode by the next time we meet. So what does Worshipful Master Don do? Has me exit the room. In my absence, the brethren—all seven of ’em!—voted to confer the lodge’s Distinguished Laureate Meritus honor on me. I didn’t even know meritus was a word.

We have too many honors at LORE. If you present five papers, we may elect you to Laureate Membership. Present ten, and maybe you’ll become a Distinguished Laureate. Do the ten and serve the lodge in other ways, and you could become this DLM. When the lodge was launched twenty-five years ago, just one honor was created: the one for ten papers. That’s enough. Ten papers, approved by the Editorial and Review Committee, is a ton of work. Could take a decade or more. Two members have preceded me here: Ben Hoff and Howard Kanowitz, both of whom have dazzled and entertained the lodge with their historical findings and engaging styles. (Don’t tell no one, but I’ve never written a Masonic research paper! I write in magazine feature article style. Same information, just in a different package.) But my thanks to the brethren for choosing me for this distinction. I rang the bell on that ten-paper minimum long ago, but never inquired into the honors because… we have too many honors in Masonry and it has to stop. It gets more ridiculous as the fraternity shrinks like a rayon shirt in the wash.

Our next meeting will be Saturday, December 12 for our elections & installation of officers and the new Master’s inaugural paper.

     

‘LORE 1786 to meet; transactions coming soon’

    

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786—known locally as LORE—is achieving a milestone: our first book of transactions in many years soon will go to press. Volume V will cover the eon spanning 2011 to 2022.

Eleven years is a long time between books, equaling  approximately forty-four meetings of the lodge (we missed one or two during the fake pandemic), and this book will relate material presented therein. We don’t have everything from all those meetings because we (mistakenly) brought to the lectern speakers who did not submit papers, and we cannot print digital visual slideshows in book form.

Yes, there will be ebook format, but also both hardcover and paperback books.

Congratulations to Secretary Erich on getting it done!

Our upcoming regular communication will be Saturday, September 12 at Freemasons Hall in North Brunswick. Lodge tyles at 9:30 a.m. Light refreshments before and lunch after. Two presentations on the bill:

Bro. Jerry, of Laurel Lodge 237, will discuss How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler, the late educator, author, and philosopher. The lodge trestleboard says this book is even more relevant today than when published in 1940. We’ll find out why.

The other presentation will come from myself. That weekend will be the precise bicentennial anniversary of the arrest and alleged disappearance of William Morgan at Batavia, New York. I’m not going to talk too much about that “Morgan Affair,” but instead will explain the resulting anti-masonic hysteria that nearly destroyed our fraternity in many states, focusing on the Anti-Masonic Party in New Jersey.

There’s history you might not expect—unless you study New Jersey politics, in which case these ridiculous people won’t faze you one second.

LORE meets on the second Saturdays of March, June, September, and December at Freemasons Hall, home of Union Lodge 19, in North Brunswick. It’s a research lodge, so we’re focused chiefly on Masonic history, but we’re open to other things deemed relevant to our mission. (We do not provide ritual instruction or welcome speculations on symbolism.)

     

‘Annual St. John’s/St. Alban’s gathering’

   

If you’re lucky, you look forward to all your Masonic gatherings. (The secret is to purge your calendar of events that don’t do “it” for you.) Saturday, the annual huddle of New Jersey research lodge guys happened at The Cranbury Inn, our usual haunt.

Invitations went out, but only four of us could make it for a square meal and brainy conversation. It’s our St. John Baptist Day Luncheon (I think of it as St. Alban’s Day Luncheon) for the stalwart supporters of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786. We went four hours, finally wrapping it up at five o’clock, as the dinner crowd began taking over the place.

The Cranbury Inn strives to display an adequate number of Washington portraits and firearms...

…and, in my opinion, they come fairly close.

Conversation ranged from lamenting the cancellation of this year’s John Skene Masonic Conference to upcoming conferences in California and Cambridge to the benefits of authors achieving a balance of historical overview and experiential knowledge of the Craft to the bizarre sexual content of a novel, supposedly based on the Hiramic Drama, penned recently by a New Jersey Mason. And a lot more. (Someone pitched the idea of Magpie Mason merch! So look for Magpie T-shirts, trucker hats, tote bags, pens, key rings, koozies, etc. in time for Christmas.)

Of itself, The Cranbury Inn says:

In the mid-1600s in the center of the colony of New Jersey by Cranberry Creek, a mill town began to develop along an old Indian trail that had widened into a road. This road connected the colonies and was becoming a main thoroughfare for colonial travelers. In 1697 Cranberry Towne received its charter from England. With increasing development, a need arose in central New Jersey for a place to eat and drink, get fresh horses, and spend the night; thus, in the mid-1700s (1750 and 1765) our taverns were built to meet these needs of the travelers passing through this area.

After the colonies declared their independence from the motherland, this business officially established itself in 1780. What is now The Cranbury Inn has been functioning as a place to eat and drink since the 1750s.

In the year 1800 Hannah Disbrow Dey & Peter Perrine were married in the Presbyterian Church across the street from The Cranbury Inn. Middlesex County Courthouse records tell us “they built as their home the house that is now The Cranbury Inn.” Their house was built across the front of our two original taverns built in 1750 and 1765, thus further developing and upgrading their business.

Rev. William S. Hall, their grandson-in-law, was a Quaker and a declared abolitionist, the time frame of which seems to coordinate well with the date the New Jersey state historian put on the conversion/remodeling of a flue space on the east wall of our oldest tavern. This converted flue space is an alleged slave hiding space from the days when what is now The Cranbury Inn was an alleged stop on the underground railroad...

Read more here.

It’s a lot of driving for all of us, but we really enjoy it. I wouldn’t mind if we added a St. Andrew or St. John Evangelist celebration.

     

‘Treason and reason in one of those busy weekends’

    

Yesterday, at New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, W. Bro. Gerald, of Congdon-Overlook Lodge 163, presents his findings on the history of a Pennsylvania lodge chartered in Colonial times at Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

I enjoyed one of those four busy weekends per year I get when there are three meetings squeezed into a 24-hour period: Scott Council on Friday night, New Jersey’s research lodge the following morning, then my AMD council last night. It’s a lot of driving, but it’s been a routine for decades at this point, so I feel obligated.

Scott Council 1, of Royal and Select Masters, meets every other month at Freemasons Hall, home of Union Lodge 19, in North Brunswick, New Jersey. Almost always a good time, and we benefitted from Light from the East, thanks to T.I.M. Michael. He presented a talk on Jephthah from the Book of Judges—his life and times, as well as his importance in Masonic theory and ritual.

In the morning, I was back in the same lodge room for New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786. (Maybe I should just stay the night in a local hotel.) If you want to celebrate America250 in New Jersey Freemasonry, the research lodge is the place to be!

Senior Deacon Glenn examined the treason of Gen. Benedict Arnold vis-à-vis the morality of our gentle Craft’s teachings, leading to a philosophical discussion of what does it mean to be a rebel disloyal to the rebellion. W. Bro. Gerald of Congdon-Overlook 163 (not a member of our research lodge—yet), presented “Basking Ridge #10: The Mysterious and First Masonic Lodge of the Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey.” This history of the origins and life of the lodge, which was located in Gerry’s town, illustrated how central it was to the New Jersey Masonic story.

Magpie file photo

This artifact is found inside the Museum of Masonic Culture at the Trenton Temple.

We segued from Solomon’s Lodge 1 to Haym Solomon to conclude the program portion of our meeting with a screening of the Oscar-winning Warner Bros. short film from 1939 Sons of Liberty. Starring Claude Rains, this was made by the director who would go on to direct Casablanca. The 20-minute biography of Haym Solomon told the story of how part of the Revolution came to be financed.

Charmingly corny, it also inadvertently gives us a look at how patriotism was expressed in an America that still was pro-America. The past is a foreign country, indeed.

Secretary Erich shared the progress being made in the publication of our first book of transactions in a dozen years.

Click to enlarge.

We talked about the Skene Conference coming in August. Buy your tickets already! The line-up of speakers is amazing, and you’re going to miss it? Are you serious?

We ended somberly, noting the death last Sunday of Gordon S. Wood. The Pulitzer-winning historian was an authority on the American Founding. Not a Mason (as far as I know), but he wrote of the Masonic Order of that era, describing its essentiality as a social network that united elites and nobodies in workshops of democracy, learning self-governance through practical local actions. Age 92. Hit by a car. Terrible.

And we were out by noon. A hearty lunch at a nearby restaurant ensued, but attendance was scant due to a variety of other events in the general area, from a ribs cookout to the Rosicrucian College’s convocation to a Third Degree.

I then headed to Hightstown for the quarterly meeting of J. William Gronning Council 83 of Allied Masonic Degrees. It was afternoon still, so I sat in the shade for a time and read the new Collectanea. In the meeting, I milked my Thomas Reid paper yet again, which seemed to have been well received. Reid was the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher whose words are heard in lodges today in our Middle Chamber Lecture. Sovereign Master Robert presented an overview of our actual allied Masonic degrees, explaining why AMD exists and where its role fits in the overall Masonic fraternity as a nexus of philosophy, scholarship, and research.

Looking to our September meeting, a degree will be conferred, which is always a good thing. Read all about it this summer in the Gronning Gazette.

Seriously, a lot of driving. It’s a good thing I like being a Freemason.

     

‘A Historic 1820s Table Lodge’

    

Ben Hoff has researched the period accuracy of the ritual to be employed in this table lodge, so expect something different from the usual.

Tonight’s convocation of Scott Chapter 4 in New Jersey was most enjoyable. I think I counted fifteen Royal Arch Masons in attendance for the occasion of the Official Visit of RE Michael Flaherty, District Deputy GHP.

We elected two Master Masons to membership by initiation, and two Royal Arch Masons to membership by affiliation. Companion Flaherty delivered an educational talk on the veils. Drawing from ritual, Scripture, and personal reflections, he explained meaningful symbolism of the banners to help us better understand what we Royal Arch Masons do in our chapters.

U.S. Mint

The Keystone State.

A good question was posed afterward: Why do chapters in New Jersey hang four banners, but chapters in Pennsylvania hang three? No one was certain of the exact answer. I kept my mouth shut—I’m learning!—because some people get cranky when I offer some information. Questions like this usually can be answered simply, as historical facts circumvent poetic interpretations. Long story short: Jeremy Ladd Cross wrote the four-banner arrangement into his book of 1819, therefore that is what the General Grand Chapter stipulates. New Jersey, being a member of the General Grand Chapter, consequently uses the four. Pennsylvania is not part of the GGC, and they use a ritual inherited from the Ancients of England. Just as Pennsylvania lodge ritual is distinct from everything else in America, their Royal Arch ritual too is different. It’s the Keystone State! Let ’em do what they want.

And, while I was there, I learned of this event coming next month.

Union Lodge 19 is our landlord—as it has been through most of our history since the 1850s—and its Master, W. Bro. Eric, is our Principal Sojourner in chapter. He told us about this table lodge.

I know the story of William Morgan is nothing to celebrate but, being how 2026 is the bicentenary of that disaster, which ignited the anti-Masonic panic of the 1820s and ’30s, we ought to teach each other about it. I’m always surprised when I encounter a Mason who knows nothing about the “Morgan Affair” and the resulting political turmoil in the Northeast, but not everyone knows.

So, the particulars are shown in the flier above. All I can add is Eric says the table lodge ritual is authentic to the period, as researched by Ben Hoff, New Jersey’s “go to guy” for the history of Masonic ritual. If Ben says this is the way they did it 200 years ago, you can toast with confidence. He is a Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, where he writes prodigiously about how Masonic rituals evolved over the centuries.

Keynote speaker Craig Applebaum is our immediate Past Master at the research lodge. While I haven’t heard this specific talk from him, I don’t doubt it will be informative and engaging.

Sorry to say I probably won’t be able to attend. My speaking engagement in Oklahoma will be St. John’s Day, and the cable tow stretches only so far. But you should go!

If this subject interests you, please add the research lodge’s meeting of Saturday, September 12 (9:30 a.m.) to your calendar. That’s when I will discuss the Anti-Masonic Party in New Jersey. I’ll talk about the Morgan Affair as a necessary introduction to the topic of the political movement in the Garden State that almost killed off the Masonic fraternity there. By the time the hysteria abated, there were only a couple of lodges and a few dozen Masons still standing. (And you thought there were problems now!) The lodge also meets at Union 19 in North Brunswick.

     

‘Masonry’s mistaken meaning of Music’

    

Bro. Howard Kanowitz presenting ‘What’s Wrong with the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences?’ this morning at New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 at Freemasons Hall in North Brunswick. He spoke of Music, but is not conducting an orchestra here.

I’ve always insisted lunch is the most important meal of the workday, and it’s essential to a daylight lodge as well.

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 met this morning at Freemasons Hall in North Brunswick for what turned out to be a pretty quick communication. Only ten were in attendance, which was unfortunate because our speaker was the inimitable Howard Kanowitz, doing his thing as only he can do. Some of our principal officers were absent, including Secretary Erich, who is in California speaking at the International Conference on Freemasonry. He sent me an email last night describing the debauchery few would believe is possible among Freemasonry’s celebrity intellectuals.

Click to enlarge.

Speaking of conferences, Past Master Bob, filling the loafers of absent Secretary Erich, updated us on the John Skene Masonic Conference coming in August. We already knew it will span the weekend of August 28 and will take place at the Grand Lodge of New Jersey’s Fellowship Hall (except for the Gravesite Memorial at Skene’s approximate final resting place). Now we know the speakers.

✓ Dr. Heather K. Calloway, Executive Director of University Collections at Indiana University.

✓ Robert L.D. Cooper, retired Curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and now co-host of the M.A.G.I. Podcast.

✓ Mark Tabbert, formerly of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial and now of the Masonic Service Association of North America, and author, and the other M.A.G.I. co-host, etc.

✓ The aforementioned Erich Huhn.

✓ And David Palladino, who is practically the lone champion of the humanities in New Jersey Freemasonry.

Other speakers are not confirmed yet but, trust me, they are authors from academia you know.

We received some sad news today—news to me anyway—as Len March, our research lodge’s inaugural treasurer, who manned that desk for many years, had passed away.

Also, it was noted how 2026 marks twenty-five years since MW David A. Chase set us to labor Under Dispensation. Vivat!

But lunch today—technically First Lunch, since we got to the restaurant before 11 a.m.—was a great time together. Junior Warden Dave, Senior Deacon Glenn, Bob, and I gabbed about Freemasonry over good grub and coffee. We chatted about things that could be improved in the field of Masonic education in New Jersey. Naturally, that topic could fill an immersive three-day conference of its own, so we circumscribed our desires and talked for a fast paced two hours about what we feasibly could affect. Lunch was longer than the meeting that brought us together in the first place.

Oh yeah, the meeting!

Howard presented “What’s Wrong with the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences?” Music is the short answer.

By that, he means the citation of music within the Middle Chamber Lecture of the Fellow Craft Degree is discordant. Here’s how New Jersey’s version of the lecture addresses Music:

Music is that elevated science which affects the passions by sound. There are few who have not felt the charms of music, and acknowledged its expressions to be intelligible to the heart. It is a language of delightful sensation, far more eloquent than words; it touches and gently agitates the passions; it wraps us in melancholy, or elevates us in joy; it melts us in tenderness, or excites us to war. It is truly congenial to the nature of man for, by its powerful charms, the most discordant passions may be subdued.

I’d say what Howard means is, grouped among the Quadrivium, Music—in this particular Masonic context—is incongruent. The lecture’s talk of the incitement of passions, melancholy, joy, etc. makes Music sound more akin to the Trivium’s arts of Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic, whereas Music would belong with Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy if we instead noted its nature as a science of sound. Naturally, he spoke of the Harmony of Spheres so we understood why Music is a sibling of Arithmetic and Astronomy. This is something I’d never thought about, possibly because of my failure to internalize and recite the lecture for the Second Degree when I should have as an aspiring lodge officer decades ago—or since.

As an aside, let me explain that Music-as-science is how it worked originally. The Music paragraph in William Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry (1775 edition) says:

Music teaches us the art of forming concords so as to make delightful harmony by a mathematical and proportional arrangement of acute, grave, and mixed sounds. This art is by a series of experiments reduced to a demonstrative science with respect to tones and the intervals of sound only. It inquires into the nature of concords and discords, and enables us to find out the proportion between them by numbers.

There’s a saying at New Jersey’s research lodge: Ben Hoff (our other eminent scholar) views Freemasonry through a microscope, and Howard views Freemasonry through a telescope, meaning Ben searches internally in his forensic studies of ritual evolution, and Howard scans a broad horizon to chart another direction Freemasonry can send us. Ben would’ve pointed out that Preston bit had he been there. Anyway, the world history Howard unspooled took us from Pythagoras and Martianus Capella to Brahe and Kepler, with stops in Prague and Vienna to visit Mozart and Beethoven. Really outstanding work, and presented without reading material—no paper nor notes, nothing, nada. An appropriate topic for π Day too.

Without revealing the substance of the private conversation during First Lunch, we groused about how few Masons can be motivated to come hear fascinating Masonic talks. Never mind conceiving, researching, and writing such pieces of architecture themselves, but just showing up to listen to one of the best in the field.

A new clock has been hung in the lodge room! I’ve been attending various meetings here for twenty years and I’d swear the previous clock was always off by fifteen or sixteen hours. This one correctly shows the division of time.

We will do it again on Saturday, June 13. I’ll be back at the lectern September 12 to recount a far less enchanting tale of Masonry’s past.

    

‘What’s Wrong with the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences?’

    

Philosophia et Septem Artes Liberales, (Philosophy and the Seven Liberal Arts), from the Hortus Deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg, 12th century.

I’ve been so busy plugging other research lodges here lately that I almost forgot New Jersey’s. Yes, New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 will meet this Saturday at Freemasons Hall in North Brunswick. The agenda:

 ▸ Howard Kanowitz will present his new paper “What’s Wrong with the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences?”

Have modern changes to our understanding of what science is hurt its original utility to our Craft? Howard will guide us in this question.

 ▸ Time allowing, there will be a general discussion about the semiquincentennial of the American Revolution.

Under lodge business, we have some catching up to do regarding obtaining lodge paraphernalia and organizing it in storage, and our replacement website. And we’ll hear an update on this year’s John Skene Masonic Conference! Thanks to Grand Master Omar Morris, this conference—the fourth annual, if I’m not mistaken—will benefit from support from the Grand Lodge of New Jersey.

Pre-meeting refreshments (coffee, orange juice, donuts, pastries), as usual, will be available around 8:45. Cost is just $1/per person. Luncheon: After the meeting, we will travel to the nearby Omega Diner.

As always, attendance is open to Master Masons. Attire is suit & tie with apron.

     

‘Breakfast with the research lodge’

    

Uniform typical of Capt. John Ross’ company, Third New Jersey Regiment, commanded by Col. Elias Dayton.

The next meeting of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 is less than three weeks off. We’ll get together in Freemasons Hall in North Brunswick for a hearty Saturday breakfast and a somewhat truncated Regular Communication. (I think everyone will want to get on the road because of the many lodge installations that day.) From the publicity on Faceypage:

Saturday, December 13–The Worshipful Master will discuss “The Upcoming 250th, Or Putting the American Revolutionary War into Context.” This will not be a recitation of the war’s events. Rather, we will go into the war’s origins, its historiographical background, and some different ways to study, understand, and appreciate it. The talk will wrap up with Don’s current personal research on four Continental Army veterans and Freemasons from New Jersey: James Giles, Joseph Bloomfield, Richard Howell, and Andrew Hunter, Jr. 

Business will include an update on the new website, and a recap of the John Skene Conference. Your 2026 dues payments will be accepted. Instead of a luncheon, we will gather at the lodge for breakfast.

Period painting of New Jersey militia man. Provenance unknown.

So, that’s breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and the meeting at 9:30. Master Masons are welcome. Attire: suit & tie, plus apron.

     

‘Shelby visits the research lodge’

    

RW Shelby Chandler, Past DDGM of Virginia’s Research District, visited New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 on September 13 as keynote speaker on the history of his lodge, Fredericksburg 4. (Low-light photography is dicey.)

Continuing the what I did on my summer vacation blogging, the weekend after the MLMA meeting (see post below) brought a special couple of days with Shelby Chandler of Virginia. He visited New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 to be our keynote speaker on Saturday, September 13, giving a talk on the history of his lodge, Fredericksburg 4—of George Washington, Hugh Mercer, et al. fame. Shelby also is a Past Master of George Washington Lodge of Research 1732 at Fredericksburg, and is a Past DDGM of the Grand Lodge of Virginia’s Research District, now six lodges strong.

Shelby traveled north the day before and was greeted by Worshipful Master Don who, in addition to getting Shelby squared away at the hotel, took him sightseeing to the Washington Crossing Historic Site, Princeton University, and elsewhere. (Note to self: explore feasibility of research lodges having reciprocal visits of speakers.)

About the lodge meeting: the research lodge stands at the forefront of New Jersey Freemasonry’s celebration of our nation’s 250th anniversary. Following our previous meeting’s discussion of John Paul Jones, on this day we learned about Fredericksburg Lodge, as Shelby walked us through its first 150 years. There’s a lot more history and historical giants than George Washington. Both the Revolution and the Civil War factor in that lodge’s story, with many colorful details about its members and its building. Read a little about that here.

Prior to that, Secretary Erich employed his talents as a historian to explain how Freemasons could (and should) make more sense of our history by using the techniques of academic historians, namely dividing the fraternity’s past into manageable epochs, from the mists of time pre-1717 to the “Pop Masonry” period of Dan Brown and National Treasure.

And before that, the Worshipful Master reviewed the book Histoire de la Franc-Maconnerie, which bloomed into an hourlong conversation among the brethren on the vexing vagaries of Freemasonry in France: multiple grand jurisdictions doing things we just find odd.

The following day, Don brought Shelby to the Princeton Battlefield, and we toured this truly hallowed ground. This January 1777 battle was as pivotal to the American Founding as the Declaration itself or the arrival of Rochambeau’s expeditionary army. Read about that here.

Photos of Princeton Battlefield State Park, including Thomas Clarke House:

Our guides at Princeton Battlefield State Park were terrific. That’s Will Krakower, at left, who led us around the grounds and unpacked the story of the battle. Sorry to say I cannot recall the name of the gentleman on the right. The table in the foreground displays a scale map of the field and the troop movements.

Map of the area displayed in Clarke House.

This is a descendant of the Hugh Mercer Oak. After being wounded in battle, it is said Gen. Mercer was laid under the tree that stood here to rest while the fighting continued. That tree remained until 2000, when it was felled by a storm, but the tree was genetically reproduced, and that’s what you see today.

Shelby at the marker placed near the tree.

Period pieces neatly displayed
inside Clarke House.

Get the Keno Brothers on the phone!

Gen. (and Bro.) Mercer died in this room. Not in this particular bed, but in the room.

I wonder what tobacco in the eighteenth century tasted like. I know there were makers of smoking tobaccos and snuffs in England (Kendal) around that time that employed techniques appreciated still today, but in the colonies? I assume it was pretty rough and rudimentary, with strong nicotine hits. Drying, aging, curing, etc. Did they know to do these systematically or at all? 

 

     

‘Rebuilding Jerusalem and retracing Jones’

    

Bro. Tom discusses John Paul Jones during the research lodge’s meeting yesterday.

Great meeting yesterday for New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786.

Getting into the building turned out to be a little tricky, but everything went smoothly from then. Attendance was terrific—not huge numbers, but several faces we haven’t seen in a while, and some in a really long while. Bro. Matt, erstwhile Secretary, who still keeps a hand in things by publishing our quarterly trestleboard, was there to the delight of those of us who’d been around long enough to know him. And Bro. Sal Corelli (they traveled together) was a sight for red eyes. Plus, Bro. Paul and Bro. Jay, who don’t get to our communications often enough.

We benefitted in profit and pleasure from three presentations.

Secretary Erich Huhn reviewed the Allen Roberts book Freemasonry in American History, which is the current selection of the book club jointly run by the research lodge and Jerusalem Lodge 26. (I admit to getting a chuckle out of their announcement of this title being the club’s first choice of reading material.)

His many books have value, but Roberts was a writer of popular history, not academic research works. Huhn, who is completing a doctoral dissertation on Freemasonry in nineteenth century America, explained that for a Masonic researcher, having sources that include citations is fundamental and essential. We simply need to know where the facts originate, and maybe sometimes we need to see the sources ourselves.

Amazon

Roberts, to his credit (as far as I know), did not traffic in Templar nonsense. Among his many Masonic roles, he once was president of the Philalethes Society; was inaugural Master of Civil War Lodge of Research 1865; was a big wheel generally in Virginia; and is the namesake of that Grand Lodge’s library today. I mean, if the choices are having Masons read nothing about their fraternity, or having them read Allen Roberts, then definitely go with reading Roberts, but don’t accept all of it as verifiable truth.

Next, Treasurer David Palladino, of Jerusalem 26, explained the process of saving that 208-year-old lodge and its 1920s temple from self-inflicted ruination. Laboring in (pardon the term) five-year plans, the goals of saving both the building and the body of Masons inside it requires Heracles’ strength and Job’s perseverance. Big money from the state for historic preservation is going into the temple, and a pointed vetting process for making Masons are just the groundwork of the rebuilding. “I have not yet begun to fight!” could be a motto there, I suppose.

Success in the meantime is seen in the lodge’s activities. Outside of its meeting nights, Jerusalem hosts its Academy of the Humanities. Informed by the education encouraged by the Second Degree of Freemasonry, this project gives good and wholesome instruction in areas varying from how to organize the mind to dining etiquette to philosophy and poetry and music and more. David mentioned Observing the Craft is an inspiration.

It sounds like the lodge I’ve always wanted so, naturally, my work schedule prevents me from ever getting there.

We had one research presentation on the agenda. Bro. Tom Thurber, not a member of the research lodge, but a Past Master of Audubon-Parkside 218, visited to tell us about “John Paul Jones’ Masonic Journey.”

There wasn’t much I knew about Jones other than he famously said “I have not yet begun to fight!” and he’s an ancestor of the Led Zeppelin bassist—and it turns out neither is true! Thurber unpacked an amazing and detailed story of where Jones’ maritime career intersected with Masonic lodges and their members. I can’t imagine there could be conclusive evidence of Jones and his Brother Masons colluding in his professional advancement, but our speaker connected dots that show Jones visiting lodges up and down the American colonies and walking away with employment arrangements. It seems to me that Jones, son of a gardener, probably would not have achieved great heights without some help.

For example, he arrives at the lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia one day in December 1774, presenting himself as a Brother in distress. He meets Bro. John Read and Bro. Robert Smith. Smith is the younger brother of the Mason who sponsored Jones’ petition at the lodge where he was made a Mason in Scotland three years earlier. What are the odds? Read, a nephew of Benjamin Franklin—and Franklin appears repeatedly in this story—gave Jones his commission in the Continental Navy when the shooting started in the American Revolution.

Jones became the first lieutenant in that navy—not a 1st Lieutenant, but the first to be ranked lieutenant in that service.

In other travels, he arrives in North Carolina where he meets Bro. Joseph Hewes (great name for a Mason!), signer of the Declaration and owner of a shipping company, who hires Jones. Incidentally, Hewes was born and died nearby in Princeton.

Copy of the bust
owned by The Met.

The Lodge of Nine Sisters in Paris, when Franklin was its Venerable Master in 1780, commissioned lodge Brother Jean-Antoine Houdon to sculpt a bust of Jones, a work that would prove useful in identifying our hero’s remains when the United States repatriated the same for final interment in 1905 at Annapolis. (A Masonic service there was not conducted until 2016.)

Did you know Jones’ frigate, Bonhomme Richard, was named for “Poor Richard,” Franklin’s pen name for authoring the beloved almanac at mid eighteenth century?

Thurber does not claim to be the first to chart Jones’ career, but to point out how the Masonic connectivity is an overlooked aspect of that history.

In other news, our research lodge will be busy in this two-year term. In September, the lovely and talented Shelby Chandler, himself of Fredericksburg Lodge in Virginia, will visit for discussion of things American Revolution. In October, we’ll visit a lodge way up in north Jersey to give talks and introduce the brethren there to what research lodges do. And a conference is being planned to delve into the history of Masons who were on the losing side of the Revolution, and who skedaddled to Canada for all the obvious reasons.

A new website is being developed, and other helpful improvements are coming together.

Next meeting: Saturday, September 13 at Freemasons Hall in North Brunswick.

     

‘John Paul Jones at Jersey lodge’

    

Magpie file photo

Randomly chosen photo of an apron displayed in the GWMNM. Has nothing to do with the meeting described below.

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 will meet Saturday, June 14 at Freemasons Hall in North Brunswick. The lodge will tyle at 9:30 a.m. All Master Masons are welcome.

We have a few business items to tackle before our presenters approach the lectern, but they will be:

● “Opening Q&A” — Bro. David Palladino will discuss his personal lodge-level education and restoration initiative, “Rebuilding Jerusalem.” If you are not familiar with what David does as Master of Jerusalem Lodge 26, this will inspire you.

● Bro. Erich Huhn, our Secretary, will review Allan E. Roberts’ Freemasonry in American History, the current choice of our Masonic Book Club.

● Bro. Thomas Thurber, of Audubon-Parkside 218, is the day’s guest speaker. His paper, titled “John Paul Jones’ Masonic Journey,” documents how Masonry assisted Bro. Jones’ naval career and opened up the world to him. Tom’s paper has been very well received in lodges throughout the state.

After closing the lodge, we will retire to a local restaurant for lunch ($22/person) and conversation, which is as enjoyable as the meeting itself. I always look forward to these Saturdays. (We just need to find a place to smoke.) Hope to see you there.

     

‘…but it’s a good tired’

    

Today was one of those four Saturdays per year when I have a research lodge meeting in the a.m. and an AMD meeting in the p.m. Both are far from home, but I can make it work because they are in some proximity to each other, although it does make for a long day.

At New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, we had a full agenda planned, but had to keep our poor Worshipful Master’s much anticipated paper on ice until June because we ran out of time. Much of the meeting was devoted to business, which sounds lame, but it was important stuff, so I’ll call it strategic planning. Among the key items were the lodge’s support of the John Skene Masonic Conference in August and a 2026 event that—if it comes together—will unite three grand jurisdictions in an exploration of early U.S. history during the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration.

The one presentation from the lectern for which we did have time was Senior Deacon Glenn’s review of his recent visit to Rosslyn Chapel. He snapped plenty of photos there and augmented his visual delivery with information from authors who have delved into the enchanting site’s past. (I’m afraid my own belief in a Masonic connection to Rosslyn is more like Bro. Lightfoote’s. IYKYK.)

Bro. Glenn shows us Rosslyn Chapel.

David, our new Treasurer, pulled double duty as our Organist. LORE hasn’t heard an Organist during a meeting since the late Tom Thornton was around—but I don’t recall Tom playing Pachelbel!

Do not adjust your monitor. That’s the matzoh ball in Bro. David’s soup!

The lodge has been searching for a post-meeting luncheon spot, and I think we found a winner at a local restaurant. Everyone seemed pretty happy there, and conversation was varied and lasted into the mid afternoon.

Then I had time to kill. Sometimes I am able to go to the movies before the AMD meeting, but it’s hard to find a movie made for adults who prefer coherent stories and human actors. I took a nap in the promising pre-spring sun, having forgotten to bring a pipe and pouch.

Then it was time for J. William Gronning Council 83 of Allied Masonic Degrees. I arrived a little early and got settled; skipped supper thanks to the lunch; and enjoyed the program for the evening: the Ark and Dove Degree. Expertly conferred! Not one ritualist needed a prompt through the whole thing!

A long day. Bedways is rightways now. Time for some spatchka.