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The October trestleboard of The American Lodge of Research is out, and in its pages is a pitch to the lodge to assume as a side project the resurrection of New York City’s defunct chapter of The Grand Order of the Sword of Bunker Hill.
The Grand Order was founded in Illinois in 1912 “to perpetuate the principles of American liberty, and to indelibly impress upon the minds of each generation the sacrifices made by our Masonic forefathers in forming and establishing the United States of America,” says its website. The founder was Bro. Frank G. Taylor, superintendent of schools in Oregon, Illinois. It confers the Order of the Sword (an order, not a degree), which refers to the sword of Gen. Joseph Warren, Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts, who was killed in action during the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The Grand Order’s local chapters are known as Orders, and New York City’s former Order was named for Robert Livingston. That was founded in 1951, by Taylor’s son, Frank, Jr.
So The ALR proposes to its members the task of reviving Robert Livingston Order to give the lodge one ritual activity, and one that carries some historical meaning too. It also is possible to create a new Order, but the website says reviving a dormant Order is feasible.
There is a ritual online, unofficially, but I don’t know if it’s a current version. If it is, it’s not difficult work.
Our next meeting will be October 29, and maybe the brethren will express some interest in the idea.
Also mentioned in this trestleboard is a proposal to reorganize Knickerbocker Chapter of the Philalethes Society, which I wrote about here.
