‘Weird Fact Wednesday: A different kind of Masonic home’

     

Courtesy Freemason to Mansion

I remember reading about this several years ago in a news story, and recently I found a website chronicling the progress made in restoring this former Masonic temple in Indiana. A family from California relocated for the purpose of buying and renovating this building to make it a residence. A different kind of Masonic home, if you will.

Looking at the façade, I recognize similarities to the Trenton Masonic Temple in New Jersey, and I don’t doubt there are many others with the resemblance. This one dates to 1926, during the boom when the fraternity exploded in size. Through World War I and the decade thereafter, hundreds of thousands of men flooded into Freemasonry nationwide, so there was need for who-knows-how-many new buildings for lodges, chapters, Scottish Rite, Shrine, and the rest. That need has waned, to say the least, and consequently these properties are sold, but also sometimes abandoned for want of a buyer.

Courtesy Freemason to Mansion

In 2017, the Cannizzaro family changed their plans to acquire and inhabit some big chunk of farmland somewhere, and instead bought the 20,000-square-foot Huntington Masonic Temple, where Amity Lodge 483 had dwelled.

“It’s going to take us at least a year to get it the way we want it,” Theresa Cannizzaro told a local newspaper then. They’re still at it.

I’m not a big fan of Masonic lodges and other bodies putting all their energy and time into stubbornly trying to continue life in their hundred-year-old buildings. The roof, the elevator, the plumbing, the electric, the boiler, the everything cost too much to upgrade because there are too few Masons to shoulder the expenses. The Cannizzaros seem to know what they’re doing, and I wish them “profit and pleasure,” as we say.

Check out the steady updates of their progress on their blog. Actually, it’s not only the rehab; there are photos of the Masonic sights in the building, plus items they found here and there. Look them up on social media too.

Courtesy Freemason to Mansion

The stuff you find laying around.

     

‘Weird Fact Wednesday: The oldest Masonic Bible?’

     

Magpie file photo

The oldest Bible in Masonic use in the United States? I believe so. This is a Koberger, printed in Nuremberg in the 1470s. It is owned by mighty Peninsula Lodge 99 in New Jersey, which displays it on its altar for its installation of officers every December. I served as Master of Peninsula in 2005, and placed my hands upon the pages of this VSL when being obligated.

Something in a 1921 issue of The Builder magazine caught my attention a few weeks ago. It’s just a blurb shoehorned into the corner of a page:

THE OLDEST MASONIC BIBLE

Blair Lodge, Chicago, which is a representative body in the Fraternity and very successful in the administration of its affairs, owns one of the earliest imprints of King James’ version of the Bible, printed in 1615. It is asserted, according to the Illinois Freemason, that no Masonic lodge in America has an older Bible. During the tercentenary celebration of its translation a few years ago, this Bible was read from in several of the most prominent Chicago churches.

This Bible is nearly fifty years older than the one on which George Washington was initiated in Alexandria-Washington Lodge in Virginia, which latter was also used at the laying of the cornerstone of the national Capitol building in Washington. Up to about ten years ago, the tiler of Alexandria-Washington Lodge had represented to visiting Masons that theirs was the oldest Bible owned by any lodge in this country. None had disputed its honor until Brother Elmer E. Rogers of Blair Lodge brought him to further light.

Setting aside the glaring blunder of where America’s most famous Freemason had been initiated, this reads like a perfectly acceptable bite of Masonic trivia. It seems Blair Lodge is no longer extant, so I don’t know where this 1615 KJV is kept today. (I have an inquiry into Illinois Lodge of Research, and will update this post if I receive the info.)

Of course Washington was initiated in 1752 in the Masonic lodge at Fredericksburg, Virginia. The Bible used is owned to this day by Fredericksburg Lodge 4. It is a King James Version printed in 1668 (so The Builder erred also in its age, since it is 53 years younger than Blair Lodge’s KJV).

And you surely know of the other “Washington Bible,” that on which Washington took his first presidential oath of office in 1789 in New York City. That is a 1767 KJV, printed in London.

Reaching back in time to 1899, but coming closer to home, the Grand Lodge of New Jersey reported in its Book of Proceedings for that year that a Bible of even greater longevity was in Masonic use.

When this grand lodge held its 112th Annual Communication in Trenton on January 25-26 of that year, there was open upon the Masonic altar a very unusual Volume of Sacred Law. I don’t have that New Jersey Book of Proceedings, but thanks to the works of the Correspondence Committee of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, the story from Trenton is told in that Book of Proceedings of 1899:

An interesting episode took place during the session of Grand Lodge. The Bible used upon the altar was one furnished by Brother George B. Edwards, and said to have been printed before the discovery of America by Columbus, the date being November 10, 1478. The presence of this remarkable book was the means of calling out the Grand Chaplain, whose few remarks are in excellent keeping with the antiquated volume.

You’re probably thinking it’s a Gutenberg, but it is not. This Bible is a product of Germany, but its printer was one Anthony Koberger (sometimes Koburger or Coberger), born circa 1445 and died 1513, of Nuremberg.

It was on this Bible that my hands rested while being sworn during my installation as Worshipful Master of Peninsula Lodge 99 one chilly night in December 2004. The Bible is owned by this lodge. Bro. George Edwards was a member of one of Peninsula’s ancestor lodges, but I do not know which. A number of lodges from in and around Hudson County, New Jersey came and went since the mid nineteenth century before Peninsula was formed in 2003—to be the last one of that family tree.

Perhaps he had no heirs, but for whatever reason, Edwards had arranged for this fifteenth century Bible to be safeguarded by the grand lodge, which had it tucked away in storage for about all of the twentieth century. A past grand master, who was a member of Peninsula, nudged the lodge to take possession of it, possibly in advance of my installation, but maybe a little earlier—I just don’t recall—and so we did. Peninsula does not display this VSL on regular meeting nights, but I’m sure the brethren still use it for the annual installation of officers.

It’s a strange Bible, as compared to what we all are used to. It is bilingual: Latin and the German of that period, and it does not contain all the books of the Holy Bible. It’s been so long, I just don’t remember which books were included. Unlike Koberger Bibles you’ll see on the web, this edition has no art in its pages, so, throughout, the pages are all text in two columns. The lettering is Gothic, making it tough on the eyes. The impressive color woodcuts were added to printings of later years.

But the age is legit. While I do not recall seeing this specific date November 10, 1478 printed in this Bible, I do remember the 1478. Before Columbus. Before Luther. Before King James. Amazing.

One can’t help but wonder at the possible dollar value of such a piece, and I remember seeing an advertisement in the Sunday New York Times Books section, somewhere around 2005, that listed a Koberger at $40,000, but I don’t know the year or condition of that item.

I’m no longer a member of mighty Peninsula (I became a New York Mason in 2015), but I was its Master in 2005. A pretty rough ride, frankly. I still keep in touch with a bunch of the brethren; they are very kind to remember me because I ceased being active there practically the minute the Master’s collar was lowered onto my successor’s shoulders on another cold December night in 2005. By that time, I was enjoying myself in various lodges in Manhattan—a visitor not attached to any problems that may have been fermenting behind the scenes.

Courtesy Travis Simpkins

MW Gregory Scott

The current MWGM of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, Greg Scott, is from Peninsula Lodge, and that is the Koberger Bible seen in his official portrait, rendered by the talented Bro. Travis Simpkins.

Catholic Encyclopedia offers a useful write-up on the printer and his various Bibles. Koberger made Bibles into the sixteenth century. This Masonic lodge Bible is an early specimen of his, and later editions would improve in design and beauty over the years.
     

‘Weird Fact Wednesday: KST and geomagnetic dating’

     

Courtesy Biblical Archaeology

The Givati parking lot excavation site in Jerusalem.

A scientific study published earlier this month posits the charred findings remaining from the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar 2600 years ago helps today’s research into archaeomagnetic dating, and that the history of Solomon’s Temple facilitates the research.

Titled “The Earth’s Magnetic Field in Jerusalem During the Babylonian Destruction: A Unique Reference for Field Behavior and an Anchor for Archaeomagnetic Dating,” the peer-reviewed paper was published August 7, at which time Biblical Archaeology Review explained:

“…researchers revealed that they were able to determine what the Earth’s geomagnetic field was at the time of the destruction. This allows scientists to compare to the geomagnetic field of today, chart the changes that have occurred over a precise period of time, and potentially project geomagnetic changes into the future. Earth’s geomagnetic field provides stability to Earth’s atmosphere and protects the planet from outside particles. For scientists, greater understanding of how the geomagnetic field has differed from a precise time 2,600 years ago, may provide important insights.

“In the study, researchers analyzed hundreds of burnt floor segments from a building in the Givati parking lot excavation in the City of David. By archaeomagnetic analysis, They were able to establish that most samples had reached a temperature of more than 1100 degrees Farenheit, such that the material would demagnetize, then orient to the magnetic field in the cooling down process. They could also determine that most of the samples were from the second floor of the original building, which had collapsed when the beams holding it up had been destroyed in the fires of Nebuchadnezzar’s sacking of Jerusalem, an event that marked the end of the Iron Age in the Levant.”

Read this research paper here.
     

‘Weird Fact Wednesday: The Capitular cure for COVID-19?’

     
I knew the archives of Freemasonry would yield some kernel of information leading us toward a cure for the Chinese Virus, and I think I’ve got it!

“It is tobacco.”

Courtesy of the Illinois Royal Arch Companions, the “Report on Correspondence” within the 1913 Book of Proceedings of the Grand Chapter of California informs us of the surefire way to prevent cholera—and they knew a thing or two about pestilence back then, you betcha!

Excerpted:


And now comes forward a comforter for that much maligned and long-suffering Companion: the man who smokes in the Chapter room. It seems that Dr. Wenck, of the Imperial Institute of Berlin, has discovered an infallible preventive of cholera, and similar maladies. It is tobacco. He has demonstrated that cholera microbes will not survive more than half an hour when exposed to tobacco smoke, and that smokers are entirely free from the bacilli. Now, as you all know, the recent immigrations are mainly from cholera-infected countries. Hence, for hygienic reasons, smoking should be encouraged. You might cut this out and paste it on the Tyler’s door.

Note—The Professor further says: that genuine Havana is the best microbe killer, and that combinations of oakum and Michigan cabbage leaf are ineffectual. The Steward should bear this in mind when he purchases the ropes.


Cholera, of course is bacterial, whereas the Chinese Virus is, well, a virus, so my theory here isn’t foolproof but, as “Freemasonry is a progressive science,” I think this is worth investigating. While I’m not necessarily in favor of smoking in the Chapter (or Lodge) room, I suppose I could get used to it. If you insist.

(I personally abstain from Havanas, because they are made by slave labor.)
     

‘Weird Fact Wednesday: A Monument in Honor of a Great Artist’

     

Before I begin, happy 303rd anniversary!

Depending on where you are in the Masonic world, the Master Mason Degree ritual employed by your lodge might, or might not, include a quick discourse on the final resting place of our GMHA. I think the rituals lacking this explanation intentionally seek continuity with the overall point about the immortality of the soul, meaning the disposition of the body simply does not matter. The ritual of my lodge does include this bit of legendary history; I won’t quote that here, but instead will share the version found in the unauthenticated Duncan’s Ritual—which no regular lodge uses—even though my New York ritual has a better written telling of it. From Duncan’s monitorial text:


After prayer…the body was then carried to the Temple for a more decent burial, and was interred in due form.

The body of our Grand Master was buried three times: first, in the rubbish of the Temple; secondly, on the brow of a hill west of Mount Moriah; and, thirdly and lastly, as near the Sanctum Sanctorum, or Holy of Holies, of King Solomon’s Temple, as the Jewish law would permit; and Masonic tradition informs us that there was erected to his memory a Masonic monument, consisting of “a beautiful virgin, weeping over a broken column; before her was a book open; in her right hand a sprig of acacia, in her left an urn; behind her stands Time, unfolding and counting the, ringlets of her hair.”

The beautiful virgin weeping over the broken column denotes the unfinished state of the Temple, likewise the untimely death of our Grand Master, Hiram Abiff; the book open before her, that his virtues lay on perpetual record; the sprig of acacia in her right hand, the divinity of the body; the urn in her left, that his ashes were therein safely deposited, under the “Sanctum Sanctorum, or Holy of Holies,” of King Solomon’s Temple.

Time, unfolding the ringlets of her hair, denoted that time, patience, and perseverance accomplish all things.


Monuments are in the news lately, as statues and other public memorials have been defaced, smashed, toppled, and burned during many violent rampages across the United States and beyond. It’s not about the Confederacy or slavery or Black lives mattering. It’s about cultural revolution, which we can see plainly because plenty of the monuments targeted have nothing to do with the Confederacy. Statues of Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Grant, Miguel de Cervantes, and others have been ruined. Abolitionists, like John Greenleaf Whittier and Hans Christian Heg, have had their statues attacked. On May 31, which was the 123rd anniversary of its dedication, the Shaw Memorial, which memorializes the first African-American volunteer regiment of the U.S. Army in the Civil War, was vandalized with all kinds of graffiti by those claiming to be demanding justice for African-Americans, so don’t think for a minute this destruction has even a veneer of justice on it. It is about erasing history in a manner described by George Orwell in 1984.

But this edition of Weird Fact Wednesday concerns our monument found in certain MM° rituals. Why is it there?

The monument, as described in the drama, clearly would be an anachronism, as no such thing would have existed at that historical time and in that place. Even the book, as depicted in the monument, would not have been known then. So where did this symbol come from?

We don’t find it in Preston’s Illustrations, but being a Tiler myself, I am inclined to trust the judgment of Bro. Thomas Johnson, who served as Grand Tiler of the Grand Lodge of England when he published A Brief History of Freemasonry in 1782. Therein we find a “Design for a Monument, in Honor of a Great Artist.” This shows the three Great Lights, adorned with laurels, and an urn decorated with the letter G, with the sun and moon on the sides of the monument.

Two hundred years ago, long before Freemasons could obtain official—or other—ritual ciphers or monitors, there necessarily were competing forms of Masonic works spreading across the United States. Grand lodges had to investigate and determine for themselves which systems were most authentic and useful, which I think explains why some Third Degree rituals, but not others, include this monument discussion. One of the ritual systems to emerge in the early 19th century was that promulgated by Bro. John Barney of Vermont, who is credited with innovating the icon of the marble column and the weeping virgin and Father Time, with the open book, sprig of acacia, and urn.

No doubt you are wondering where Jeremy Cross, who I think deserves third billing with William Preston and Thomas Smith Webb for creating the rituals most of us Americans have today, fits into this. It seems Cross made that column into the Broken Column, denoting how one of the principal supports of Freemasonry has fallen.

     

‘Weird Fact Wednesday: The Last and Only Grand Master of America’

     

Joseph Montfort

This edition of Weird Fact Wednesday concerns the embryonic period of Freemasonry in the New World, that four-decade span straddling the mid eighteenth century when lodges were linked directly to the British Isles. In some cases, lodges here were chartered by grand lodges abroad, like George Washington’s lodge receiving its warrant belatedly from the Grand Lodge of Scotland. In other instances, the Grand Lodge of England would issue a deputation to an individual, naming him the authority for some impossibly vast tract of geography. The problems with this, I’m guessing, were two: a shortage of politically connected Freemasons who intended to relocate to the American colonies, and a general unfamiliarity with North America suffered by mother country people of this era. The latter obstacle surely changed when the shooting started in 1775, but before then I doubt many in, say, London could distinguish Boston from Philadelphia from Charles Town—much less the inestimable hinterlands beyond city limits.

Magpie file photo

Daniel Coxe

Daniel Coxe was the first of the appointees, being named Provincial Grand Master of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in 1730, but leaving no trace of any activity connected with that authority. That was a two-year appointment for a not-so-young man of 57, involving a territory spanning, by today’s borders, more than 109,000 square miles. But getting something going (at least one lodge is known to have existed in Philadelphia, not far from Coxe’s home in southwest New Jersey) and maybe delegating a little authority would not have been impossible. If he did anything, we do not know of it today.

The Grand Lodge of England would name other provincial grand masters, including John Hammerton for South Carolina in 1736; Francis Goelet in New York in 1751; John Rowe at Boston in 1768; and, in 1771, Joseph Montfort “of and for America.”

Montfort (pronounced Mumford) was born in England in 1724 and became a highly significant figure in the early history of North Carolina by the time he died in 1776. He held a variety of public offices, appointed and elected; was a noteworthy land-owner; and led Colonial troops. On the negative side, there were unflattering and unsolved mysteries about his professional life.

He was a Mason at labor in Royal White Hart Lodge in Halifax, North Carolina. On January 14, 1771, the Grand Lodge of England named him provincial grand master “of and for America.” Montfort even had a deputy, Cornelius Harnett, and together they did exercise authority, albeit limiting themselves to the province of North Carolina. The “of and for America” part of Montfort’s title was noted on the warrants he issued to local lodges. (He chartered ten lodges and helped six others get reorganized, making huge strides toward establishing the current grand lodge, which happened more than a decade after his death.) His headstone reads, in part: “Highest Masonic official ever reigning on this continent... the Last and Only Grand Master of America.”

How the heck did that happen?

I attribute it to that lack of understanding among Britons about the territories in the New World. I don’t doubt the average man in the street understood Jamaica was different from Nova Scotia, but there was some common confusion about the Americas.

What was “North America?” Did that name apply to the thirteen future United States, or did it also include the captured New France? Did it encompass anyplace else? Were the “Plantations” down south the same legally as “Colonies” up north? Did “New England,” of which Henry Price was made provincial grand master in 1733, refer to the whole of the continent (as Grand Master John Lindsay, Earl of Crawford, purportedly told Price), or only to the northern region, as we employ the name today? In terms of Masonic hierarchy, with the advent of a provincial grand master “of and for America,” what would be the dispositions of other PGMs, such as Sir John Johnson in New York?

Fortunately, there is a document clarifying it all. On February 6, 1771, Montfort received from the Grand Lodge his commission (he had to pay for it!) certifying his rank as “P.G.M. for No. Ca.” This hangs in the offices of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina today.

Montfort is memorialized in North Carolina Freemasonry in the form of that grand lodge’s top honor being named for him. The Joseph Montfort Medal is awarded by the grand master “to any Master Mason in good standing and recognized by the grand lodge who, in the opinion of the grand master, is deserving thereof because of distinguished service or achievement.” A grand master may award no more than three medals, and they all make use of the three availabilities. Carl Claudy received the honor in 1947. In more recent years, brethren you’ve read about on The Magpie Mason have been so honored, like Bill Brunk, Dave Hargett, and Allen Surratt.

Courtesy Find a Grave

Montfort is interred on property outside his lodge building. Royal White Hart Lodge 2 originally was known as Marsh Store Lodge; under circumstances unknown today, it became White Hart Lodge. In 1764, it received a provincial warrant that named it Royal White Hart Lodge, but four years later the Duke of Beaufort issued a supernally prestigious warrant, as he was the grand master of the Grand Lodge of England.

Courtesy Find a Grave

     

‘Weird Fact Wednesday: Jack White’s newly upholstered bench’

     

All images courtesy Third Man Upholstery

I’ve heard of “the furniture of the lodge,” but this is something else!

Third Man Upholstery

You know Jack White is a rock star, but did you know he is a master upholsterer and furniture repair expert too? I suppose it is wise to have something to fall back on.

This edition of Weird Fact Wednesday concerns the news of how White gave new life to a piece of former Masonic seating used inside a one time Masonic temple that today is an arts center. A few hours ago, CityBeat published the story, based on photos from White’s upholstery company’s Instagram account.

CityBeat says:


One of White’s most recent projects is a vintage Masonic bench, which he restored—and added a bit of creative flair to in the form of a built-in amplifier—as a gift to Johnny Wirick’s Masonic Sounds Studio inside of Dayton, Kentucky’s The Lodge, a century-old Masonic lodge that has been renovated into a bustling arts hub over the past decade.

When asked where he plans to put the bench, Wirick said White told him he had a “dream” it would go into The Lodge’s Blue Room (the Masonic Sounds Studio).

The lodge room seating, as it was.

The work in progress.

Et voila!

Click here to see all the photos White shared on his Third Man Upholstery Instagram page. Be sure to watch the brief video of White, armed with a Les Paul, demonstrating the amp inside the bench. Also, note the hilarious photo captions.

Click here for The Lodge in Kentucky (although it is right outside Cincinnati, Ohio).

Click here for the CityBeat story.
     

‘Weird Fact Wednesday: Solomon and the iron worker’

     

Iron Worker and King Solomon by Christian Schussele, oil on canvas, 1863. On display at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, near the Masonic Temple.

The subject of this edition of Weird Fact Wednesday isn’t genuinely weird, but there is a good story about it.

There is an artwork titled Iron Worker and King Solomon that you probably are familiar with. It originated as a painting by Christian Schussele of Philadelphia, who created it in 1863 for one Joseph Harrison, a renowned builder of railroads. (Schussele died in New Jersey in 1879.)

The 1996 edition of Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia says this painting is owned by Joseph’s great grandson, John P.S. Harrison, who was raised a Master Mason at Holland Lodge 8 in New York City on November 26, 1935. Without checking with the lodge’s secretary, I’ll assume Bro. Harrison is deceased.

But, in 1889, says Coil’s, “John Sartain, America’s most famous etcher, made a 25 by 36 inch etching of the picture for the Harrison family,” and “he did another 18 by 25 inches for William M. Bradley & Co. of Philadelphia, who sold prints for a number of years.” The Philadelphia Print Shop Ltd., which offers one today for $600, puts the date at 1876 and says:


“Harrison’s fortune was made in steel manufacturing, so the [painting’s backstory] had a special significance to him. The symbol of the iron worker was also an important one for the industrial northern states, whose heavy manufacturing capability allowed the North to win the Civil War and preserve the Union. This striking print is one of the best examples of John Sartain’s mezzotinting, and it is a classic American image.”


Later, the plate was sold to Macoy Masonic Supply Co. in Virginia, says Coil’s, “who continue to sell a great many prints.” I think this is how many of us today know the image. It also had been published, with a lighthearted modification, in the quarterly publication of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 for years. The Library of Congress makes a photo of the print available here.

So, what is the story conveyed by the painting?

Joseph Harrison, the steel and railroad magnate, compiled a book in 1868 for private circulation titled The Iron Worker and King Solomon. The copy the author personally inscribed and gave as a gift to the artist Schussele can be viewed in Google Books via the Pennsylvania State University library system, which itself received the book from the Class of 1932.

Harrison writes of a “Rabbinic legend” that tells the story of a blacksmith who crashes the celebration party thrown after the completion of King Solomon’s Temple. I have to admit I do not know the origins of this legend—maybe the Talmud—but this is the story on which the painting is based:


And it came to pass when Solomon, the son of David, had finished the Temple of Jerusalem, that he called unto him the chief architects, the head artificers, and cunning men working in silver and gold, and in wood, and in ivory and stone, — yea, all who aided in working on the Temple of the Lord.

And he said to them, “Sit ye down at my table, for I have prepared a feast for all my chief workers and artificers. Stretch forth your hands, therefore, and eat and drink and be merry. Is not the laborer worthy of his hire? Is not the skillful artificer deserving of honor? Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn.”

And when Solomon and the chief workmen were seated, and the fatness of the land and the oil thereof were upon the table, there came one who knocked loudly upon the door, and forced himself even into the festal chamber. Then Solomon the King was wroth, and said, “What manner of man art thou?”

And the man answered and said, “When men wish to honor me, they call me Son of the Forge, but when they desire to mock me, they call me Blacksmith; and seeing that the toil of working in fire covers me with sweat, the latter name, O King, is not inapt, and in truth I desire no better.”

“But,” said Solomon, “why comest thou thus rudely and unbidden to the feast, where none save the chief workmen of the Temple are invited?”

And the man replied, “Please ye, I came rudely because the servant obliged me to force my way; but I came not unbidden. Was it not proclaimed that the chief workmen of the Temple are invited to dine with the King of Israel?”

Then he who carved the cherubim said, “This fellow is no sculptor.”

And he who inlaid the roof with pure gold said, “Neither is he a worker in fine metals.”

And he who raised the walls said, “He is not a cutter of stone.”

And he who made the roof cried out, “He is not cunning in cedar wood, neither knoweth he the mystery of uniting strange pieces of timber together.”

Then said Solomon, “What hast thou to say, Son of the Forge? Why should I not order thee to be plucked by the beard, scourged with a scourge, and stoned to death with stones?”

When the Son of the Forge heard this, he was in no sort dismayed, but advancing to the table, snatched up and swallowed a cup of wine, and said, “O King, live forever! The chief men of the workers in wood and gold and stone have said that I am not of them, and they have said truly. I am their superior. Before they lived, I was created. I am their master, and they are all my servants.”

And he turned himself round and said to the chief of the carvers in stone, “Who made the tools with which you carve?”

And he answered, “The Blacksmith.”

And he said to the chief of the workers in wood, “Who made the tools with which you hewed the trees of Lebanon, and formed them into pillars and roof for the Temple?”

And he answered, “The Blacksmith.”

Then he said to the artificer in gold and ivory, “Who makes your instruments by which you work beautiful things for my Lord, the King?”

And he answered, “The Blacksmith.”

“Enough, enough, my good fellow”, said Solomon. “Thou hast proved that I invited thee, and that thou art all men’s father in art. Go wash the sweat of the forge from thy face, and come and sit at my right hand. The chiefs of my workmen are but men. Thou art more.”


And so the painting depicts the iron worker seated at the right of the king’s throne, the place of honor.

Anyway, Coil’s reports that Holland Lodge’s Harrison loaned the painting to the Union Club of the City of New York and that it is on display there. Last October, I asked the librarian there about it, but she says the club has no record of it. Turns out that Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts acquired it, I think in 1990, thanks to money donated by an anonymous benefactor. We can see it exhibited there.
     

‘Weird Fact Wednesday: from tomb to telephone box’

     
At the meeting of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 last month, Bro. James Campbell presented his paper “Sir John Soane and Freemasonry: A Reassessment Based on a Return to the Original Sources.” That’s not the weird part. Actually, this had been scheduled for last fall, but it didn’t work out. And that’s not the weird thing either. No, this week’s Weird Fact Wednesday concerns John Soane and the design of the now disappearing red telephone boxes of the United Kingdom.

Courtesy Internet Lodge 9659

This portrait of Bro. Soane, by John Jackson, hangs

in Soane’s home, now museum, at Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

Soane died in 1837, and what is weird is he inadvertently inspired the telephone box, which didn’t begin appearing until the 1920s.

I don’t know the contents of Bro. Campbell’s paper, but hopefully it doesn’t contradict what is known about Freemason Soane: He received the degrees of Freemasonry in 1813, and was named Grand Superintendent of Works of the Freemasons that same year. In 1826, he began designing Freemason’s Hall on Great Queen Street (the predecessor of the building we know today), and began its construction in 1828. I cannot confirm his lodge affiliation.

Soane’s wife Eliza predeceased him in 1815; he is said never to have transcended his grief. The architect of the Bank of England, various churches, and other famed structures, also built his wife’s tomb. It is this project, which later would serve as the Soane family tomb, that would inspire the design of the phone boxes.

The main tomb structure:

Courtesy Astoft

There have been different models, but here is a typical telephone box:

Courtesy liberaldictionary.com

The red telephone box has been rendered redundant by the ubiquity of cell phones, so they are disappearing from the streets of the United Kingdom, but in their day they were found everywhere from Manchester to Malta, from Brighton to Bermuda, from Great Queen Street to Gibraltar—you get the idea. Six months ago, The Guardian mentioned there still were 10,000 in existence, with some being repurposed as tiny public libraries, houses for defibrillators, and other uses. There is the adopt-a-kiosk system that saves many of them.

The red telephone box originally was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Battersea Power Station, the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool, and other notable sites. The influence of Soane’s tomb on Scott’s phone box is not obvious, in my opinion, but architecture historians attribute the former to the latter, so I side with them. Also, Scott was a trustee of the Soane Museum.

Originally, I was hoping to connect the Soane tomb to the TARDIS by way of the English police box, but maybe more research is needed to illustrate art imitating art.
     

‘Weird Fact Wednesday: Tassels’

     
I probably ought to move this feature to Tuesdays and dub it Trivia Tuesday or something like that, because, once again, here is a Weird Fact that I’m not sure is genuinely weird.

Okay, so we’ve all seen those twin tassels flanking the flaps of many aprons. To wit:

Courtesy masonicsupplyshop.com

Well, how did they get there? I’ve been told over the years by learned brethren how these ornaments bear all kinds of symbolism, such as representing the Pillars in the Porch. Personally, I favor the practical explanations of many things in Freemasonry. (I don’t know how many fluid ounces of post-meeting port have passed through my nostrils at the mention of Templar origins of Freemasonry, but I digress.)

It is sad that countless volumes of Masonic literature from earlier centuries have disappeared from sight. In some cases, largely because of dubious scholarship—which was the norm for those times, we must remember—that’s a good thing, but plenty of other cases are lamentable. In the encyclopedia department, we all have Coil’s, Mackey’s, and maybe Waite’s. And then there are dictionaries and other reference books. In the early 20th century, Edward Lovell Hawkins, of Quatuor Coronati 2076 and other accomplishments, published his A Concise Cyclopædia of Freemasonry or Handbook of Masonic Reference. (He also authored A History of Freemasonry in Oxfordshire.)

On the subject of tassels, he writes:


The silver tassels prescribed in the English Constitutions for the aprons of a Master Mason and of a Grand Steward have evolved in course of time from the two long ribbons by which the early aprons were tied on. These ribbons passed round the body and were tied under the flap, with the ends pendent in front. To give a finish to these ends, they were ornamented with a silver fringe. The ribbons would soon become creased with frequent tying, and considerable care would be necessary to get the pendent ends of equal length; so the next step was to sew the decorated ribbons to the apron, making them distinct from the actual tie, which would be concealed by the flap. Then came the strap and buckle now worn.


(The next entry in his cyclopædia is Templar, Knights!)

I’ve been asked a number of times by all kinds of Masons if the quadrangular shape of the Masonic apron and its triangular flap communicate rich symbolism—for example, with the four angles representing the Elements of our material world, and the three angles speaking to aspects of Diety. Nice try, I always say, but the modern apron was shaped by the Industrial Revolution. Prior to machines making our regalia, a Masonic apron had rounded edges and a rounded flap. Reality can fade the fun out of some things, but without it we wouldn’t know what really is exciting in symbolism.

What kind of apron do I wear? I very much would love to wear the regulation Grand Lodge of New York Past Master apron (I am a refugee from another jurisdiction where I actually served in the East of my previous lodge), but the $500+ price is prohibitive. But I am very content wearing my grandfather’s PM apron from 1976. Nevertheless, this will be the year I acquire a new apron, and I am thinking of one similar in all ways to what is shown above, but in purple instead of the blue. I’m still mulling that over.

Grand Lodge of New York Past Master apron.

     

‘Weird Fact Wednesday: Sir Walter Raleigh Lodges!’

     
It’s time for another Weird Fact Wednesday!

You know that some lodges constituent to the United Grand Lodge of England are “affinity lodges” (once called “class lodges”), meaning how, additionally to the center of union, the members share a commonality of profession, education, hobby, etc., but did you know there have been lodges comprised of Masons in the tobacco business? In a few cases, they adopted Sir Walter Raleigh’s name for their own!

Granted, that’s not statutorily a weird fact. I just like tobacco, and this is my website.

There was Sir Walter Raleigh Lodge 2432 in London. I stumbled across this information last weekend in a book from 1909 titled Sidelights on Freemasonry: Craft and Royal Arch: “We might have thought that the tobacco trade would have found itself at home in any Masonic assembly, but nevertheless they have a Lodge of their own, the Sir Walter Raleigh.”

Click to enlarge.

The January 1, 1896 issue of the trade publication Tobacco reports: “This lodge, which was established in 1892 for the convenience of gentlemen engaged in the tobacco business, held its fifth annual meeting for the installation of a new Worshipful Master on Thursday, the 26th ult., at the Inns of Court Hotel, London.”

The story continues in surprising detail about the installation of officers, presentation of a Past Master jewel, and the “customary loyal and Masonic toasts,” including to the visitors, to the Past Masters, to the Treasurer and Secretary, and to the Officers, before “the Tyler’s toast concluded a most enjoyable evening,” as it should.

This lodge was warranted June 3, 1892 and consecrated on July 28, according to Lane’s Masonic Records. Alack, an internet search a minute ago reveals the sad news that this lodge went dark and was stricken from the rolls by Grand Lodge three years ago. Another victim of the National Health, maybe.

Its meeting place was that aforementioned hotel in Holborn; I do not know if it is the very same location as the Fuller’s pub that goes by the same name today. Lodges in London now, I think, all are centralized inside Freemason’s Hall on Great Queen Street—and, really, who wouldn’t want to meet there?—just as we do at Masonic Hall in Manhattan. I can only wonder what it must have been like generations ago, when lodges were local to neighborhoods throughout those cities.

I suppose that term “tobacco trade” could encompass a number of endeavors including the agriculture of tobacco; import/export; making of pipe mixtures, snuffs, and cigarettes; wholesaling and retailing of the same; advertising; and maybe more. Which brings me to Sir Walter Raleigh Lodge 2837 in Liverpool.

Of course London, essential nexus of so much of what transacts on earth for centuries, would have been central to the commerce of tobacco, and Liverpool—another maritime power—is equally renowned for the tobacco goods it served the world. That city’s tobacciana heyday is long gone—both the Ogden’s factory/headquarters and the gigantic Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse are converted to residential uses—but a century ago, tobacco enjoyers knew Liverpool as a mecca. (St. Bruno and Gold Block pipe tobaccos are still available, but now are made by Mac Baren in Denmark.)

Sir Walter Raleigh Lodge 2837 was warranted November 5, 1900, was consecrated July 12, 1901, but was erased from the rolls of Grand Lodge March 8, 2000 due to “decreased membership,” according to Lane’s.

Volume 40, No. 1663 of The Freemason: The Organ of the Craft, a Weekly Record of Progress in Freemasonry, Literature, Science and Art, from 1901, reports the following:


“With the object of fostering an interest in Freemasonry among those connected with the wholesale tobacco trade in Liverpool, a new lodge was consecrated on the 12th inst. At the Alexandra Hotel, Dale-street, by Bro. the Right Hon. the Earl of Lathom, P.G.W., Prov. Grand Master of West Lancashire. Appropriately enough the title of the lodge is the Sir Walter Raleigh, this bringing the total of the lodges under the rule of the West Lancashire Province up to 127. The consecration ceremony was very numerously attended. The Prov. Grand Master presided, and at his request Bro. the Hon. Reginald B. Wilbraham, P.M. 2682, acted as I.P.M. Bro. J.J. Lambert, P.G.D. Eng., and Bro. P.T. Shann, P.J.G.W., occupied the Senior and Junior Wardens’ chairs respectively; and Bro. G. Harrison, P.P.G. Treas., discharged the duties of I.G.”

The story continues with a list of the eminent brethren who were present, both as founders of the lodge and as visitors. Too many names and titles to transcribe here. And then:

“At the conclusion of the consecration service, the Prov. G. Master proceeded to install Bro. Alderman John Houlding as the first W.M. of the lodge.

“In the course of a few observations subsequently, the W.M. mentioned that the lodge started under very favorable auspices. The founders and officers to be invested had presented the working tools and regalia, and they hoped by the end of the year to be not only out of debt, but in a position to hand something over to those magnificent Charities belonging to the Order.”

And in conclusion:

“At the close of the lodge, the brethren sat down to a banquet, when the usual loyal and Masonic toasts were honoured.

“Lord Lathom, in responding to the toast of ‘The Consecrating Master’ proposed from the chair, said he trusted that the Sir Walter Raleigh Lodge would prosper for many years to come, and that the members would look to their first Master for help and guidance. He also wished every success to the tobacco trade of the city with which, he understood, many members of that new lodge were connected.

“A capital musical programme was contributed by Bros. Geo. Platt, D.L. Davies, Henry Fairfield, H. Bayard Harrock, J. Lane, and C. Jones, and Master Guilbert.

“The collars, jewels, founders’ jewels, &c., were manufactured by Bros. George Kenning and Son.”


That first Worshipful Master of the lodge was a previous Lord Mayor of Liverpool, a Past Provincial Senior Grand Warden of West Lancs, a 33º Freemason, a brewer, a hotelier, and founder of Liverpool Football Club!

Another Sir Walter Raleigh Lodge, this one, No. 2958, is still extant in Devonshire. My query via social media to the Provincial Grand Lodge there about that lodge possibly being related to the tobacco trade yielded a more interesting answer: The legendary Raleigh himself was a Devonshire man! (A brother with St. John’s 328 says Raleigh drank at a pub in Exeter named The Ship.)

This lodge was founded in some commemoration of the 350th anniversary of Raleigh’s birth. (Warranted February 27, 1903 and consecrated April 28.) Its earliest meeting spaces were within Odd Fellows lodges. And the brother from the PGL there sent this photo of a book page:

Click to enlarge.

Brown and Williamson brought the classic pipe mixture named for Raleigh to market in 1927, and it is still available today, although now made by Scandinavian Tobacco Group, which seems to make just about everything in pipe tobaccos these days that Mac Baren does not. It remains a mixture of burley tobaccos from the United States.

One prolific reviewer of pipe tobaccos writes in 2012 how he has smoked Sir Walter Raleigh samples from the past 70+ years, and that the taste is consistent throughout. Higher praise I cannot imagine.

Raise your pipe or cigar or whatever is handy to the memory of Sir Walter Raleigh, who brought tobacco to England, and to all the brethren of these historic Masonic lodges.

EDIT: Bonus Fact—I just (July 2020) learned that Sir Walter Raleigh was Jim Tresner’s choice of pipe tobacco!