‘Roosevelt Pilgrimage at Oyster Bay’

    

Bro. Roosevelt never was a Past Master.
He was asked to pose for this photo.

I’ve never been able to get to one of these—and I probably won’t this time either, but at least it’s on my calendar—but the 77th Annual Theodore Roosevelt Pilgrimage is scheduled for next Saturday. That’s April 27 at Matinecock Lodge 806 in Oyster Bay, Long Island. (Wednesday the 24th will be the anniversary of his MM Degree in 1901.)

Everyone will gather at 9 a.m. for refreshments and a look at the museum, followed by the ceremony at ten. After the program, the group will undertake the pilgrimage to Bro. Roosevelt’s final resting place, about a mile and a half away, at Youngs Memorial Cemetery for the wreath-laying ceremony.

Check the images below for the details. Maybe I’ll see you there.

     

‘Boston cops: Paul Revere’s tombstone vandalized’

    

Lowell Sun

Boston Police said a homeless man was arrested during the morning of Sunday, November 26, after a lengthy vandalism spree victimizing a number of properties—and gravesites, including that of Founding Father and Freemason Paul Revere.

“Around 10:44 a.m., officers responded to the Granary Burying Ground, located in the area of Tremont Street and Bromfield Street, for a vandalism report,” a police report stated. “Officers were advised that multiple tombstones on the property had been vandalized, including Paul Revere’s. A total of fourteen tombstones were vandalized by being pulled from the ground or broken into pieces.”

(I have been unsuccessful in finding a photo from local media of Revere’s headstone. I’ll update this if I find one.)

Boston Herald

Lawrence Hawkins

For reference, that’s less than half a mile from Grand Lodge.

A man identified as Lawrence Hawkins, age 46,  described as homeless and said to have a history of mental illness, drug abuse, and arrests, was arrested. The suspect allegedly smashed the windshield of a police car, broke a window at the New England Holocaust Memorial, and damaged several businesses. Between the Granary Burying Ground and the King’s Chapel Burying Ground, a total of twenty headstones were damaged, many from the Colonial period. Police say one stone had been “pulled from the ground or broken into pieces.”

Lowell Sun

Hawkins was charged with multiple counts of destruction of property, and destruction of a place of worship. He was arraigned Monday on three of the alleged incidents, WCVB (local channel 5) reported. “A judge set bail at $7,500 for each of those three incidents he heard Monday morning, and ordered Hawkins to be seen by a doctor for a dangerousness hearing. In court it was revealed that Hawkins previously spent time at Bridgewater State Hospital. Hawkins at times during Monday’s arraignment was swearing, talking about the FBI and had to be told several times to listen to the allegations against him. Hawkins’ defense attorney said after court that Hawkins client suffers from psychiatric and substance abuse issues, which makes it difficult for him to speak with Hawkins.”

Of course he pleaded not guilty.

Three other acts of the alleged vandalism involved federal properties, and Hawkins will be arraigned for those incidents separately.

This sad news comes weeks before the city’s and the fraternity’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

Bro. Paul Revere served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts from 1794-97. Thursday was the 253rd anniversary of his installation as Worshipful Master of St. Andrew’s Lodge (that’s St. Andrew’s Day).

Boston, founded in 1630, is today at the mercy of woke politicians, like District Attorney Kevin Hayden, who does all he can to keep criminals on the streets, employing “restorative justice” and other tactics to promote the interests of criminals.

     

’Dubbing Joseph Warren a Tea Party Architect'

    

The brethren in Massachusetts have more commemoration of the Boston Tea Party’s 250th anniversary planned. Primarily there will be this next month, but on November 22 (easy to remember: the date both Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis died in 1963) there will be a dual graveside observance of relevant historical personages. From the publicity:

The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, Revolution 250, and the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in Massachusetts are partnering with Forest Hills Cemetery to place commemorative markers at the graves of Boston Tea Party participant Joseph Lovering and Boston Tea Party organizer Dr. Joseph Warren.

The ceremony will take place at Forest Hills Cemetery (95 Forest Hills Avenue in Jamaica Plain) on Wednesday, November 22 at 11 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Joseph Warren will receive the first of three special markers, indicating him as an “Architect” of the Boston Tea Party. The ceremony will begin promptly at 11 at the grave of Joseph Lovering, and will proceed to the grave and memorial to Dr. Joseph Warren.

Guests may park along the roads inside the main entrance along Forest Hills Avenue. From there, it will be a 12-minute walk to the grave of Joseph Lovering by following Mulberry Avenue, taking a right onto Red Oak Avenue, and then a right onto White Oak Avenue. Lovering’s grave is in the section on the left. After we place the marker, we will proceed to the grave of Dr. Warren, which will be a 10-minute walk.

In the event of rain, the speaking program will be moved to Forsyth Chapel, just inside the main entrance to Forest Hills, and guests have the option to walk to place markers afterward.

Speakers:

• George Milley, President, Forest Hills Cemetery: Welcome, Opening Remarks on behalf of Forest Hills Cemetery.
• Evan O’Brien, Creative Manager, Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum: Remarks on Joseph Lovering, involvement in the Boston Tea Party, and 250th initiatives.
• George F. Hamilton, Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts: Remarks on Dr. Joseph Warren, Freemasonry in the Boston Tea Party.
• Jonathan Lane, Executive Director, Revolution 250: Remarks on Community Involvement in the Early Revolution, Revolution 250.

After the speaking program at each grave site, a ceremonial marker will be placed by a costumed interpreter at the grave of Joseph Lovering, and by Grand Master George F. Hamilton at the grave of Dr. Joseph Warren, followed by Amazing Grace, played by a Masonic Piper.

There will be time for photos, questions, and interviews following the placement of the marker and the piping at Warren’s grave. We are pleased to be joined by a descendant of Dr. Joseph Warren, his sixth great-granddaughter, Sarah Hamilton; and the Henry Knox Guard, which will present colors at both graves.

     

‘Tompkins remembrance next Friday’

   

Magpie file photo

Daniel D. Tompkins bust at the church.

The brethren of Tompkins Lodge 471 will visit Daniel D. Tompkins’ burial place next Friday for their annual memorial ceremony.

With the Tompkins Historical Society, which will hold a meeting at McSorley’s after the event, the lodge will gather at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery on East Tenth Street at 6 p.m. on Friday the second for the service.

Daniel D. Tompkins was made a Mason at Hiram Lodge 72 in Westchester County. He became Grand Secretary of our Grand Lodge, and he served as the first Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Northern Masonic Jurisdiction. He seemed to have eked out some existence outside the fraternity, having served as:

• Assemblyman, State of New York (1804)
• Associate Justice, State Supreme Court (1804-07)
• Governor of New York (1807-17)
• Vice President of the United States (1817-25)

Magpie file photo

Tompkins’ grave at St. Mark’s Church.

Tompkins bankrupted himself raising and equipping troops to fight England in the War of 1812. He died at his home in Staten Island on June 11, 1825. The Masons of the lodge named for him seem to do this about that date each year. I recommend checking it out. St. Mark’s is a historic church worth visiting in its own right. And, again, McSorley’s is just a few blocks down.

For some background on what the first such service was like, click here. And try this one for more Daniel D. Tompkins info.

     

'Remembering John Skene from Aberdeen'

      

Bob Howard photo

The Masonic Kitties of New Jersey were well represented at this memorial. The Kilties is a degree team that confers the Second Section of Master Mason Degree, upon request, and does so in Scottish regalia and with bagpipes. A memorable experience, I can tell you.

I have to catch up on my reporting of a few terrific events here and there recently. The following is a recap of a celebration of Masonic history that took place in New Jersey on August 27.

Brethren from around New Jersey and beyond converged on the Peachfield historic site in Westampton on the afternoon of August 27 to honor the memory of the first Speculative Mason to arrive in North America.

Bro. Robert Howard

The elaborate ceremonies were arranged by RW Bro. Bob Howard, Past Grand Historian and Past Master of the research lodge, acting on behalf of Eclipse Lodge 67 in Rutherford; Beverly-Riverside Lodge 107 in Riverside; and the Masonic Kilties of New Jersey. John Skene was made a Mason in his native Aberdeen, Scotland, a fact recorded in the lodge’s archives one of the very few things known of his life—and he emigrated to West Jersey in 1682. What we know today as New Jersey was at that time two English colonies, West Jersey and East Jersey. Burlington was the capital of West Jersey, and it was there where Skene settled. The reasons for his leaving Scotland are not recorded, although he was a Quaker who left religiously inhospitable Scotland and made a home in an area inhabited by many Quaker families, very near the sect’s stronghold in Pennsylvania.

“Coming of age when religious turmoil was the norm, John Skene’s membership in the Society of Friends provided him anything but the peaceful and pacifist existence that we associate with Quakerism today,” said Bro. Erich Huhn, of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 and a candidate for a doctorate in history at Drew University. “The Friends were persecuted throughout his childhood, and, as Skene reached adulthood, he held true to his convictions. As a Quaker, he was persecuted and imprisoned throughout his life in Scotland. In the typical ebbs and flows of seventeenth century religious turmoil, he faced various periods of imprisonment, freedom, house arrest, and discrimination.”

A wreath was sent by Skene’s lodge, still at labor in Aberdeen.

Yet, the seventeenth century also was the age of the Accepted Mason, when lodges of operative builders began welcoming men who had no connection either to the art of architecture or to the trade of stone construction. Robert Moray in 1641 and Elias Ashmole in 1646 probably are the best known, but lodge minutes from 1590s Scotland also record the making of Speculative Masons. Skene was initiated into the lodge at Aberdeen approximately in 1670 possibly on account of his being a merchant and a citizen prominent enough to be made a burgess there. His being a Quaker raises the question of his taking a Masonic oath, but again history is silent on details.

Bro. Bob Cooper

Among the distinguished visitors to New Jersey that day was Bro. Robert L.D. Cooper, recently retired as curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland’s museum and one who has been frequenting New Jersey lodges this year delivering talks on early Scottish Freemasonry. Cooper said he is aware of correspondence being exchanged between West Jerseyan Skene and his family in Aberdeenshire, likely urging emigration to the colony, but availability of any letters cannot be ascertained. Skene’s lodge isn’t as mysterious, however. Cooper described it as a “mixed lodge” consisting of “stone masons and dukes and porridge-makers.” As for life in West Jersey, Cooper said that Skene, as a businessman, partnered with the second Mason to reach North America, Bro. John Coburn, a stonemason, in a construction enterprise that might even be credited with some of the oldest buildings on Staten Island.

Arriving in West Jersey, Skene purchased 500 acres from Governor Edward Byllynge and founded his plantation, which he named Peachfield. Not long thereafter, Byllynge appointed Skene the Deputy Governor. Seventeenth century colonial records being what they are, it is not known how Skene earned the appointment, but the land acquisition preceding it could not have been meaningless. Another quirk of history emerges when Byllynge was succeeded as Governor by Dr. Daniel Coxe, the father of Provincial Grand Master Daniel Coxe, who was appointed by the Grand Lodge of England in 1730 to govern Masonic affairs in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Dedicated in 1984 by the grand lodge, this stone stands on the land John Skene owned, Peachfield. A different calendar was in use during the seventeenth century, so to commemorate Skene's death, you have to play along.

After Skene’s death circa 1690 (accounts of the year vary), his widow gradually sold off tracts of the Peachfield plantation. All that remains today is a stone house built 1725-32, which was damaged by fire in 1929 and restored in the early 1930s, situated on 120 acres. The property is only three miles from the Masonic Village at Burlington. In 1984, the local grand lodge dedicated a headstone memorializing this historic Brother Mason. The exact location of his burial place is unknown, but August 27, 1690 is the date of death engraved in the stone.

Bro. Mark and Bro. Glenn.
Look for them on YouTube.

The event on August 27 featured many participants. Assisting emcee Bob Howard was W. Bro. Christian Stebbins. Leading prayers were RW Glenn Visscher and RW Eugene Margroff, with RW Mark Megee reading from Scripture. Bro. David Palladino-Sinclair of the Kilties serenaded the group with his bagpipes, performing “Flower of Scotland,” “Scotland the Brave,” and “Amazing Grace.” A wreath was placed at the gravestone by Cooper and the Worshipful Masters of both Eclipse and Beverly-Riverside, Patrick Glover and Frederick T. Ocansey, respectively. In his closing remarks, RW Bro. David Tucker, Deputy Grand Master, told the assemblage that looking to the past for role models helps take our focus off ourselves, and that it is fitting to salute John Skene for being the earliest Freemason who deserves credit for helping establish the fraternity in New Jersey.

Bro. David Palladino-Sinclair

Also traveling some distance was Mark Tabbert of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Virginia, who told us of the Scottish Freemasons in America conference there in November.

The celebration of Skene was not over yet. The group caravanned to Mt. Holly Lodge 14 for a catered dinner replete with Masonic toasts following a tour of the historic building.

Peachfield is owned and operated by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of New Jersey, which makes the site its headquarters. Tours, including for groups, can be arranged by phoning 609.267.6996.

     

‘Washington statue repair starts’

    

St. Mark’s-Vestal Lodge 435

Last December I shared with you the news of a New York lodge’s desire to have a local Masonic George Washington statue rehabilitated, and today came word of the start of that project.

Bro. Washington stands over the section of Vestal Hills Memorial Park that is owned by St. Mark’s-Vestal Lodge 435 in the Town of Vestal. At age eighty-five, the statue needs a new foundation.

Click here, and hopefully the video of the bronze sculpture being lifted off the stone plinth will open for you.

     

‘Restore a Founding Father’s foundation’

    

Nearly 200 miles northwest of Masonic Hall is the Town of Vestal, New York, in the vicinity of Binghamton, and home to St. Mark’s-Vestal Lodge 435. Our brethren there aim to raise $10,000 to make necessary repairs to the statue of Masonic George Washington that watches over the lodge’s section of Vestal Hills Memorial Park, a renowned cemetery that reached its ninetieth year in 2021.

In need, specifically, is a replacement foundation for the statue, the original stone plinth and its wide, stepped base having suffered substantially since its installation in 1937. Click here for media coverage that shows the damage.

Titled “Washington As a Freemason,” the monument renders our historic brother wearing an apron and wielding both trowel and gavel; a large bronze tablet gives the dates of his progress through the Craft degrees at Fredericksburg, Virginia.

While Washington always was revered in a younger America, the 1932 bicentenary of his birth was a massive cultural event that spanned that decade, encompassing everything from his likeness being added to the quarter-dollar to countless local commemorations such as, I surmise, this statue. (Grand Lodge acquired DeWint House in 1931, something in which my lodge played a part that I have to research one day.)

Of course this isn’t the optimal moment to request money for non-emergency contingencies, but the lodge uses GoFundMe to reach the ambitious goal. Perhaps you or your lodge or the lodge’s charity fund or other Masonic bodies could assist. Basically, thirty cents from each New York Mason would capitalize the project fully.

Not to distract from the point of this worthy cause, but it should be understood that statues of Washington (and plenty of others) that stand on public lands will be made extinct in our lifetime, and maybe even sooner than I suspect. Those monuments erected on private properties can survive, assuming they’re not attacked by mobs, and it is imperative they always be preserved and protected to demonstrate how Americans care about their heritage and their posterity. End of lecture.

Then Grand Master Bill Sardone leads a remembrance ceremony where also the initiative to rehabilitate the George Washington statue was announced, September 11, 2021. (Photos courtesy of St. Mark’s-Vestal Lodge 435.)

Maybe you could share the link to GoFundMe and the burden of reviving this statue can be shared by more than only the local Masons out there.

      

‘Celebrating a historic grand master’

     

Magpie file photo

Bust of Daniel D. Tompkins at the church.

I didn’t know this was an annual tradition, but the Freemasons of Tompkins Lodge 471 in Staten Island do conduct a graveside memorial service at the final resting place of their lodge’s namesake, Daniel D. Tompkins, marking the anniversary of his birth—and they will do so today.

Daniel D. Tompkins was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York; Governor of the State of New York; the first Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite; and the sixth Vice President of the United States.

Click here for more information and photos of a past commemoration.

Today’s event will be led by Worshipful Master Justin Mack, with lodge brethren, beginning at 6 p.m. at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, located at 131 East 10th Street in Manhattan.

Magpie file photo

The gravesite of Daniel D. Tompkins.

Tompkins was born June 21, 1774 in Scarsdale, New York, and died June 11, 1825 in Tompkinsville, New York.
     

‘Don’t miss this monumental event!’

     
Don’t miss this monumental event!

M.W. Anthony W. Montuori,

Grand Master of New Jersey

- and -

M.W. William J. Thomas,

Grand Master of New York

Will Dedicate the New Headstone

of M.W. Jepthah B. Munn,

Grand Master of New Jersey, 1820-23

Sunday, April 3 at 11 a.m.

Madison Lodge No. 93

170 Main Street

Madison, New Jersey

For many years, the headstone of M.W. Munn had been in dire need of the skill of a master stonemason. Finally, thanks to donations from generous Freemasons, a new headstone is ready to be unveiled in honor of this unique Grand Master who played a fascinating role in Freemasonry in both New Jersey and New York.

Light refreshments to be served after the ceremony.

Attire: Staff Uniform, or business suit, with apron and jewel.

Parking at the lodge is reserved for Grand Lodge senior officers and those with physical need. All others shall park at Madison Junior School, behind the lodge.

For more information: R.W. Moises I. Gomez or R.W. David R. Berger.
     

‘Morbid Manhattan Monday, Obscura Style’

     

Courtesy atlasobscura.com

I am baffled to no end over not having seen this headstone before, but with all the hours I’ve spent over the years inside Trinity Church and on its grounds, actively seeking Masonic clues on headstones and elsewhere, the final resting place of Bro. James Leeson eluded me until Bro. Isaac shared it on Facebook a little while ago. The credit goes to Laetitia Barbier, writing today on the Atlas Obscura website of her experience visiting Trinity. Barbier is a student at the Sorbonne working on a dissertation about the artist Joe Coleman (or perhaps has completed it already).

What is Atlas Obscura? I think that is answered best by the group’s three-part philosophy spelled out at the bottom of its website:

     1. There is something NEW under the sun, every day, all over the world.
     2. Around the corner is something that will SURPRISE the hell out of you.
     3. Atlas Obscura is for people who still believe in DISCOVERY.

(Earlier this year, a group of Atlas Obscura folks visited Masonic Hall to see the Livingston Library.)

Anyway, click here to see Ms. Barbier’s reportage. She does a great job of explaining the Masonic significance of the headstone, especially what is sometimes called the Masonic alphabet. We’ll forgive her for not addressing the Pot of Incense, a symbol not very well known outside the Craft. And check out Atlas Obscura too, which I am sure you will find to be worth your time.
    

‘Vacation’

  
If you define a vacation as the act of taking off several days (at least) from work, traveling a notable distance – and one outside your usual orbit – and settling in at one location (at least) for recreation and nothing but, then last week I took my first vacation since the summer of 1994. (Yeah. I know that’s 18 years.)

Provincetown, Massachusetts was my family’s vacation spot every August in the 1970s when I was a child, and it was there I returned for 72 hours of sightseeing, seafood dining, beer tasting, and cigar smoking. The sightseeing included visiting several places of Masonic interest right in the middle of town.

The first stop was obvious: Masonic Place, the address of King Hiram’s Lodge, chartered in 1795 by none other than Paul Revere, Grand Master.

In Provincetown, street signs can be found wherever.

Had I arrived a day earlier, I could have visited the lodge.

Every square foot on Commercial Street is valuable... and occupied. Retail shops, art galleries, inns, restaurants, and other entities are crammed into every possible lot, separated by a network of alleys, driveways, byways, snickelways, and paths. As you can see, King Hiram Lodge has retail space in its frontage, and there is a club in the rear. This Buddhist monk appeared by pure happenstance.

Constructed in the first decade of the 20th century, the Pilgrim Memorial Monument towers over Provincetown from its hilltop perch. Its construction began with a Masonic cornerstone-laying ceremony in 1907, and ended with a Masonic consecration in 1910.

The Monument stands 252 feet. On the way up, you will see dozens of markers placed by sponsoring societies, municipalities, and others who made construction of the landmark possible. Here is that of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

Also on the grounds of the Monument is the Provincetown Museum. Among the artifacts on display are ephemera concerning Masonry’s role in bringing the Monument to fruition. Here is the printed program for the cornerstone-laying ceremony of August 20, 1907.

A time capsule was enclosed in the Monument construction. Among its contents is a book of Grand Lodge proceedings from 1907.

An outdoor marker on the grounds of the Monument.

As above, so below.

While surveying the scenery from the top of the Monument, I spotted a cemetery. Visiting Provincetown Cemetery, I did not find any grave markers from the 17th or 18th centuries, as I had hoped, but I certainly did come across a number of Masonic headstones, and some of these were notable.

Bro. McIntosh had the Keystone of Mark Masonry
engraved into his headstone.

Bro. Francis P. Smith has a monument illustrated with the Beehive, the Square and Compasses, and the three-link chain of Odd Fellowship. The Odd Fellows of Marine Lodge No. 96 were an important force in the social and philanthropic lives of Provincetown.

Close-up of the emblems.

Bro. Joshua P. Atkins has the S&C inside the Mark Master Keystone.

I do not know if Capt. Ira B. Atkins was a relation
or only a Masonic brother.

This one could not escape notice.

Bro. Reuben Ryder also has the links of Odd Fellowship with his S&C.

I photographed other stones, and there were others still that I did not stop to shoot, but you get the idea.

I left town on Friday morning, taking the scenic route for a while, and when passing through Sandwich, I happened across Dewitt Clinton Lodge, instituted in 1885.

The lodge building was a church constructed in 1847.

The brethren will host an open house on October 20.
The lodge is located at 175 Main Street.

I cannot help but wonder how a street earns the name
Good Templar Place, but there it is in Provincetown.