‘Welcome to these Eleven Gentlemen of Charleston’

     

Available from the SRRS. Click here.

Speaking of Masonic writers named Harris (see Tuesday’s post), the Scottish Rite Research Society’s new bonus book for members is Ray Baker Harris’ Eleven Gentlemen of Charleston, his collection of biographical sketches of the brethren who founded the Mother Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. It has been out about a month, and now is available for sale to everyone. Even autographed copies, signed by Arturo de Hoyos and B. Chris Ruli, can be had.

I am no longer a Scottish Rite Mason (buy me a beer sometime and I’ll tell you, &c., &c.), so this material isn’t as fascinating to me as it would have been earlier in life, but I maintain an appreciation for these founders. I’ve never really known anything about them, except that four were Jewish, which I consider to be a remarkable circumstance given demographics and, frankly, odds.

Originally published in 1959, Eleven Gentlemen was written by Harris while serving as Supreme Council’s Librarian. It must be nice to have the library and archives of the modern Southern Jurisdiction as your workplace. As you know, the original Supreme Council for the United States of America was established May 31, 1801 (this volume is part of the Supreme Council’s dodransbicentennial—look it up—anniversary celebration), but what you might not have known is how its archives were destroyed during the Civil War.

The Supreme Council was seated at Charleston, which suffered repeated devastations. The war began there in April 1861 with the attack on Fort Sumter, located on a man-made island in Charleston Harbor. That December, a fire destroyed much of the city. Through the war, the U.S. Navy heavily shelled Charleston. Near the war’s end in 1865, as Gen. Sherman’s army plowed through South Carolina, Confederate forces fled the city after setting fires to destroy more of it.

This book’s introduction quotes Albert Pike at the May 1878 Supreme Council session:

I am often asked why we do not publish our old Transactions, to which I am compelled to reply that we have none to publish. We have no record of the transactions at Charleston from 1801 to 1860. What minutes we had were destroyed, with many papers, pamphlets, and books of the Secretary-General during the war. I never saw any of them, and do not know how full or how meagre they were.

So, don’t feel inferior if, like me, you know little about Scottish Rite’s founding brothers.

Because I want you to enjoy, and profit from, the book, I won’t overshare its contents, but let me just name the founders and supplement the list with life dates and birth & death places:

    Abraham Alexander: born circa 1743 in London; died February 21, 1816 at Charleston.

    Isaac Auld: born February 25, 1770 in Pennsylvania; died October 1826 in South Carolina.

    Thomas Bartholomew Bowen: born circa 1742 in Ireland; died July 12, 1805 near Charleston.

    Frederick Dalcho: born October 1770 in London; died November 24, 1836 at Charleston.

    Moses Clara Levy: born circa 1749 in Poland; died March 1839 at Charleston.

    John Mitchell: born circa 1741 in Ireland; died January 25, 1816 at Charleston.

    James Moultrie: born September 1766 in Charleston; died there November 20, 1836.

    Le Comte Alexandre Francois Auguste de Grasse: born February 14, 1765 in Versailles; died June 10, 1845 at Paris.

    Jean Baptiste Marie Delahogue: born circa 1744 in France; died April 13, 1822 at Paris.

    Israel De Lieben: born circa 1740 in Prague; died January 28, 1807 at Charleston.

    Emanuel De La Motta: born November 2, 1760 on St. Croix, West Indies; died May 17, 1821 at Charleston.

Interesting to note six were born in the 1740s and the others between 1760 and ’70, showing two age groups in unity. Alexander and Mitchell died within weeks of each other in 1816; Dalcho and Moultrie died within days in ’36. Only two were born in what would become the United States. Eight died in or near Charleston, and Auld about forty miles away. The four Jewish brethren (Alexander, De La Motta, De Lieben, and Levy) are interred in the Coming Street Cemetery, the oldest Jewish burial ground in the American South. Yes, Moultrie was from the prominent Moultrie family. He was a nephew of the Revolutionary War general who designed my favorite flag of the war.

In typography, a ligature is a single character formed by joining two or more characters.

I close this edition of The Magpie Mason with praise for a style element you are sure to notice while reading. In its typography, Eleven Gentlemen features the Adorn font family. You see the ligatures—connected pairs of letters, like ct and st. For example, “Past Master” appears as “Past Master.” Something special for the typophiles. Here on this rude blog, you see their use disrupts line height, but the book is smooth reading.

   

‘The True Masonic Light’

  
Listen, when Brent Morris takes you aside twice in one night and tells you to post more often, you do what the man says. So here we go.

There actually is a lot of catch-up to do. Just in the past week or so was the Emulation ritual at Walkill Lodge, two of my nearly acceptable speaking engagements, the Scottish Rite symposium at Lexington, and — last, but certainly not least — The Bernie of 2012 on Monday night. I’m tired from just trying to remember it all. Magpie coverage of the above to come shortly, but first, because I posted this on ML a few hours ago unleashing the huge secret, is this bit of news.

Some weeks ago I mentioned there are things underway in New Jersey Freemasonry that portend a brighter future here. Well, I’m quarterbacking this one.

With a committee of six brilliant, audacious, and damned handsome visionaries, I am in the process of starting a new Scottish Rite Lodge of Perfection. If Supreme Council issues the requested charter, it would be named Architects Lodge of Perfection, inspired by the Grand Master Architect (12th) Degree of traditional Scottish Rite Masonry.

Click here to read a bit of Ill. James Tresner’s Vested in Glory, courtesy of the Valley of Bakersfield in California.

Its purpose would be to serve as a philosophical research society. It will not confer degrees, but instead would provide the academic study of Scottish Rite rituals, past and present, from Entered Apprentice to Royal Secret. The brethren would meet several times a year to discuss the rituals, symbols, and ideas. Readings of rituals, commentaries, histories, etc. would be assigned in advance with plenty of time to prepare for these meetings.

As the Master Architect Degree (A&ASR-SJ) says: “Wisdom is the True Masonic Light.” The degree synopsis in Ill. Arturo de Hoyos’ Scottish Rite Ritual Monitor and Guide says: “The ceremonies of this Degree are brief, but its significance is profound. Here you are taught the symbolic meanings of the Master Architect’s tools, the most important of which instructs us to solve the great problems presented by the universe, to know and understand the lofty truths of philosophy and to communicate it freely to others, particularly by our actions. Only the best and wisest in us and among us should rule. For if it be any other, the low and the ignoble will presume, and soon prevail.”

That summarizes the twin ambitions of this project. The tangible goal is to educate Scottish Rite Masons; the intangible aim is to build a generation of informed Scottish Rite Masons who should raise the standard of leadership for their Lodges, Councils, Chapters, and Consistories.

Membership would be open statewide to Sublime Princes in good standing in their home Consistories (although I can’t see us turning away brethren from other states if any want to participate).

The paperwork is well underway. If all goes smoothly, there could be a charter in August, which would lead directly to an inaugural meeting in September. I will post more about this in the meantime, but please wish us luck!
  

'Burns Night'

     

Robert Burns upon composing a poem to his love, Mary.

It is the 253rd birthday of Robert Burns, Poet Laureate of Canongate Kilwinning Lodge. Hope you had a great time at your Burns Suppers!

He is depicted here, sitting on a tree stump, along Literary Walk on the east side of Central Park. The massive bronze was created by Sir John Steell in 1880, and it was a gift to the city from New Yorkers proud of their Scottish heritage. (As you can tell from the leaves on the trees, this is not a recent photo. I shot this last August.)

Did you know the House of the Temple is home to the second largest collection of Burns literature in the world? I shot this photo three years ago. It shows only about a quarter of the entire collection.

Part of the Robert Burns collection at the House of the Temple
in Washington, DC.

According to Supreme Council:

During his lifetime, Bro. William R. Smith, 32°, former Director of the National Botanical Gardens in Washington, D.C., assembled one of the most complete collections of published works by and about Scottish poet Robert Burns. Recognized as one of the finest of all Burns collections, second only to the Burns Collection in Glasgow, Scotland, it was cataloged by Mr. William Thomson of the Public Library of Edinburgh, Scotland. The industrialist Andrew Carnegie, trustee of Mr. Smith’s estate, decided that because Robert Burns had been an ardent Freemason, it would be appropriate to place the Burns collection in the library of the Supreme Council, with the condition that it be housed in a special room available to the public and community of scholars.

One of my favorite grocers in Manhattan is Myers of Keswick on Hudson Street. I discovered this during my university days, thanks to an article in one of our literary publications, and I've been hooked since. Anyway, if you ever need a reliable source of genuine haggis, this is your place.
     

'210 in 2011'

  
Brethren, be sure to raise your glasses at some point today. (No time like the present!) On this date in 1801, the Mother Supreme Council of the Thirty-Third Degree was formed in Charleston, South Carolina.

And this year marks the 20th year of the Scottish Rite Research Society's labors. What better way to celebrate both milestones than to enroll in the SRRS?

Members of the SRRS who were
in good standing in 2010, are now
receiving both Volume 18
of Heredom, and Albert Pike's
Masonic Formulas and Rituals.

Grand Archivist and Grand Historian Ill. Arturo de Hoyos has published the fruits of his recent years of research and editing. Titled Albert Pike's Masonic Formulas and Rituals, this beautifully bound and hefty work of scholarship is a time capsule that transports us to the era before Albert Pike revised the Scottish Rite's rituals, creating the fraternity we know today. In its pages, we see what Pike and his contemporaries knew as their corpus of rituals, although we enjoy the benefits of modern publishing.

In addition, and in yet another instance of the SRRS serving the Craft at large, this book reveals the three lodge degrees (and more) of what was Adonhiramite Masonry, affording us a look into a French Masonic order of the 1780s wherein Adoniram was the architect and builder of King Solomon's Temple. This is almost archeological in perspective, considering the bloodbath of revolution that nearly would eradicate Freemasonry in France several years hence.

And that's not all! (Are ya following me, camera guy?)

There are early versions of York Rite degrees and orders, and the four degrees of the True Masonry of Adoption. Championed by some of the same French elites behind the Adonhiramite rite, this system of degrees brought women to see the light by which Masons work.

I don't claim to have read all of this already; I received my copy only a week ago. Whenever I receive a tome of this scope, my first action is to turn to the Rose Croix chapters (pun!) and see what's going on there, and then I try to begin at the beginning. I'll be gnawing on this for a number of months, so if you see me clutching this to my chest, it may be best to just wave hello from a distance. In the meantime, join the Scottish Rite Research Society.
  

‘A grave concern’

The committee charged with restoring the J.J.J. Gourgas gravesite memorial met today at the site to finalize the plans for the re-dedication ceremony to take place Saturday, October 17.

The progress achieved toward the re-dedication next month of the John James Joseph Gourgas gravesite memorial has been phenomenal. In less than a year, the final resting place of “the Conservator” of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite has been transformed from a forgotten, neglected thatch of weeds to its present state of restored dignity and quietude. And there is more work to come.

Gourgas died in 1865 in New York City, and because of a lack of burial space in the city, he was laid to rest in what now is called Bayview New York Bay Cemetary in Jersey City, New Jersey. The view from this gravesite at that time must have been very pleasing, as it faces New York Harbor and downtown Manhattan. In 1865 the spires of St. Paul’s Chapel and Trinity Church would have been the tallest visible structures; the Statue of Liberty was decades away from being assembled.

In 1938, the Supreme Council dedicated the current gravesite memorial. On October 17, 2009, after all the restoration has been completed, it will be re-dedicated. Supreme Council will open at Peninsula Lodge 99 in Bayonne that morning, and then we’ll take the short ride to the cemetery for the ceremony.

As above: The Gourgas gravesite memorial as it looks today.
So below: The site on August 5, 1938, when the memorial was dedicated.

Needless to say, The Magpie Mason will provide full coverage of the event, but in the meantime, all this restoration work must be underwritten. Pardon the brazen solicitation, but this is an expensive undertaking. If anyone cares to support this effort, please consider contributing a donation in any amount. Checks can be made payable to New Jersey Council of Deliberation, and mailed to:

Valley of Southern New Jersey
315 White Horse Pike
West Collingswood, NJ 08107
attn: David Herman

We welcome the financial assistance of not only individuals, but also lodges, grand lodges, Scottish Rite valleys, Councils of Deliberation, historical foundations and societies, and all like-minded conservators of American heritage and Masonic history.

A close-up of the memorial.

It is impossible to count all the Masonic headstones in this cemetary. Brethren from New York and New Jersey are interred here in great numbers, including past grand masters, Supreme Council active members, commanders-in-chief, and other dignitaries.

One of the more attractive headstones
sporting the Square and Compasses
(and the Odd Fellows links).

James W. McCarthy was Scottish Rite Deputy for New Jersey in the early 20th century. He was U.S. Attorney for New Jersey before becoming the U.S. District Court Judge for New Jersey. For many years, the Museum of Masonic Culture at the Valley of Northern New Jersey displayed a slightly larger-than-life bronze bust of this man, whose identity was lost to us until only a few years ago.