‘An eminent New York Mason’

    

Ill. Peter J. Samiec, 33•
Sovereign Grand Commander
AASR-NMJ

Ill. Peter J. Samiec is an eminent New York Mason who labors honorably and diligently for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction. (He also is a member of the Masonic Society, having been with us almost from day one.)

I am not Scottish Rite, but I’m just generally of the opinion that New York Masons ought to be leading all the collateral groups in the Masonic family. No, seriously, if you study U.S. Masonic history, you find New York at the locus of practically everything. Heck, we were at the birth of American Anti-Masonry. That’s being thorough!

I don’t know what kind of policies to expect, but I would hope for the start of a conversation to merge the jurisdiction into the Mother Supreme Council.

     

‘2013 College of Freemasonry’

    
The flier below speaks for itself. This part of New York is too far north for this Magpie, but if you are in the area, you would do well to attend this event. To have all of these speakers together for a single day very well may be too much, but it is a good kind of too much.

Click to enlarge.

     

‘Daniel D. Tompkins remembered’

“The Best of the Rest of 2009” continues on The Magpie Mason. I’d better wrap this up before the end of the month, eh?


On Monday, November 9, the New York City Chapter of U.S. Daughters of 1812 hosted its service of commemoration and grave-marking to honor Daniel D. Tompkins (1774-1825). The U.S. Daughters’ interest in Tompkins stems from his service as Governor of New York, and Vice President of the United States, and as a crucial financier of the American war effort of 1812. This historical society had held a similar ceremony 70 years earlier, almost to the day, when it dedicated a bronze bust of Tompkins in the yard at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, where he is laid to rest.

Was Tompkins a Freemason? Not only was he a Mason, he was Grand Master of New York, and the first Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (Northern Masonic Jurisdiction).

Freemasonry became involved, if I understand it correctly, almost by accident. Bro. Isaac Moore of Mariners Lodge No. 67 in New York City happened upon Tompkins’ gravesite one day. Struck by the neglected condition of the burial place, he let the brethren know how this illustrious Mason’s final resting place could benefit from some rehabilitation. One of the Masons Isaac had spoken to was Cliff Jacobs, 33° of St. John’s Lodge No. 1 and the Valley of New York City. Ill. Cliff discovered the U.S. Daughters’ project to fix up the gravesite, and the Daughters welcomed the brethren into the endeavor.

The affair on November 9 was a very special and memorable occasion, as I hope these photos will convey.

The final resting place of Daniel D. Tompkins. Governor of New York. Vice President of the United States. Grand Master of New York. Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.

The Veteran Corps of Artillery, State of New York, founded in 1790, served as the color guard for the ceremony.

Freemasonry was represented in numbers that day. That is John Mauk Hilliard at left, accepting a presentation from Anne Farley, Mary Raye Casper, and Emily Malloy of U.S. Daughters of 1812. Also present were Peter Samiec, 33°, Deputy for New York; RW Vincent Libone, Deputy Grand Master of New York; W. Kenneth Lorentzen, Master of Tompkins Lodge No. 471; and several dozen others. Malloy was chairman of U.S. Daughters’ Tompkins Commemoration Committee.

Participants and guests gather outside the church at the gravesite for prayer and the rededication.

Left: Brian G. Andersson, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services, presented a proclamation from Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Right: Dr. George Hill is a descendant of Daniel D. Tompkins.

The Rev. Michael Relyea of St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery reflected on the life of Daniel Tompkins, crediting him with outspoken support of Abolition, scores of years ahead of the Civil War, which Relyea attributed to the reversals of fortune Tompkins suffered at the end of his life.

Ill. John William McNaughton, 33°, Sovereign Grand Commander of the AASR-NMJ, saluted his predecessor’s service to the American people and to Freemasonry.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery is located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Its yards contain the burial places of a number of early Dutch settlers of New York, most notably Petrus ‘Peter’ Stuyvesant, Captain General and Governor in Chief of Amsterdam in New Netherland (New York) and the Dutch West India Islands (1612-72).

New AASR blog and French site

There’s a new blog in town... and it addresses a long overlooked facet of Masonic education. Ill. Cliff Jacobs of the Valley of New York City released this announcement today:

Illustrious & Distinguished Brothers, Sublime Princes, Brothers All: The New York State Council of Deliberation, under the leadership of the Deputy for the State of New York, Ill. Peter J. Samiec, 33°, is pleased to announce the launch of a new site devoted to Masonic research: the New York State Council of Deliberation Blog. Although created as a blog, the site is not a forum for debate. Instead it will serve as the repository for Masonic research papers. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following: Freemasonry including both the York and Scottish rites, Rosicrucianism, Templarism, Kabbalism and Western Mystery Traditions. In order to avoid issues of copyright infringement, authors of papers submitted must be able to assert their moral right to be identified as the sole author of the created work. Reference material used in the creation of the work should be properly cited. Authors retain all intellectual rights over their research papers and shall indemnify the New York State Council of Deliberation from any third party claims resulting from the publication of articles on the website. Please e-mail your papers to: Ill. Clifford Jacobs, 33° Valley of New York waznojake2001 (at) yahoo.com Please submit text in the Word format and graphics in the JPG format. The first paper: “A Historical Perspective of the 29th Degree,” by Mete Talimcioglu, MSA, Commander-in-Chief of the Valley of New York. You can access the site by clicking here. Please be sure to bookmark! – “The game’s afoot...” Respectfully & fraternally submitted, Ill. Clifford Jacobs, 33° Valley of New York

The Magpie Mason has learned of this only from Ill. Cliff’s announcement moments ago, but on the surface it seems the inspired work of the Rose Circle Research Foundation, on whose board Cliff serves, is crossing over to New York Masonry. A good thing. ▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲ Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Bro. Guy Chassagnard, a researcher-author from Le Delta Quercy-Rouergue Lodge No. 1173 in France, also announced today on Masonic Light that one of his Scottish Rite brethren has created a bilingual website to serve as a public repository of Masonic documents and books.

I wish to let all the members of the list know that a French Mason (Scottish Rite from 1st Degree) has just opened a website which is to be a public Masonic library of books and documents. It may be used in French and in English. You may find and get documents (pdf) from the site. You may freely subscribe and have your own books and documents offered to other viewers. No fee, no censorship. I think it is a very good project to support. Have a look to the first 50 documents which may be freely loaded and get them if you want. Brotherly, Guy

Merci Frère Guy!