The Builder Magazine

November 1927 - Volume XIII - Number 11

 

Masonic Charity in England

By BRO. GILBERT W. DAYNES, ENGLAND

THE subject of charity is one that should always be of perennial interest to every Freemason under whatever Constitution he may own allegiance. From the MS. Constitutions, or Old Charges, of the Operative Masons of mediaeval England we have ample evidence that the custom of granting relief to brethren, who were in want, had been in vogue for centuries before the dawn of the Grand Lodge era. Dr. Robert Plot, writing in the 17th century, alludes to this custom, as one of the predominant characteristics of the Craft at that time.

 

Coming to the period of Grand Lodge, in Anderson's Constitutions of 1723, we find it laid down in the Charges of a Free-Mason, under the heading Behaviour towards a strange Brother:

 

But if you discover him to be a true and genuine Brother, you are to respect him accordingly; and if he is in want, you must relieve him if you can, or else direct him how he may be relieved.  In the earliest lodge, and other, records in England, we find frequent testimony that the Freemasons contributed towards the "relief of indigent and decay'd Brethren." This relief, or charity, extending in scope as the organizations grew, has become systematized. in several different ways, in the United Grand Lodge of England, and in its subordinate lodges.

 

In 1724, a proposal was made in the premier Grand Lodge:

 

That in Order to promote the Charitable Disposition of the Society of ffree Masons and render it more Extensive and beneficiall to the whole Body a Monthly Colleccon be made in Each Lodge according to the Quality and Number of the said Lodge and put into a Joynt Stock.

 

Some years elapsed before anything materialized, but in 1729 lodges commenced making donations to Grand Lodge towards this Fund of Charity; and thus was begun, in as small and modest a manner as possible, a scheme to relieve distressed Freemasons. The Grand Lodge of the Antients, shortly after their formation in 1751, also inaugurated a Charity Fund, to which each member of every lodge had to contribute quarterly. Upon the Masonic Union of 1813 the general Funds of both Grand Lodges became united, a Board of Benevolence being constituted to dispense the Fund of Charity.

 

THE BENEVOLENT FUND

 

The Fund of Benevolence has been growing steadily throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and is augmented yearly by a contribution of four shillings ($1.00) from each subscribing member of every London lodge, and two shillings ($0.50) from each subscribing member of every Provincial and Military Lodge (1). District lodges are exempt from this payment. Each lodge makes this payment out of its general funds, and the brother's annual subscription to the lodge covers this outgoing. For the year 1926 the income of the Fund of Benevolence was 50,526 pounds ($252,631.02) and out of it, in addition to casual relief, grants were made amounting to 33,984 pounds ($169,922.50). At the beginning of 1927 the Fund stood at the sum of 257,469 pounds ($1,287,347.08).

 

THE CHARITIES

 

In the next place there are the three great Masonic Charities. They comprise the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, founded through the influence of Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini in 1788; the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys, founded by the exertions of members of the United Mariners Lodge in 1798; and the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution, which had its inception in 1835, although the Home at Croydon was not erected until 1850. The annual income of these three Charitable Institutions is derived principally from the result of their respective yearly Festivals. Once every year each Institution holds a Festival, and it is usually presided over by some distinguished brother, generally a Provincial Grand Master. This leads to a considerable amount of healthy competition, the brethren and lodges in the chairman's Province endeavoring by their donations to exceed the results achieved in previous years. This vigorous and stimulating rivalry has resulted in the augmentation of the Funds of the three Institutions to quite an appreciable extent. For each of these Festivals brethren from all over the country volunteer as Representative Stewards, and collect as large an amount as possible, both from lodges and from individual brethren, many of whom become Stewards on the lists of the Representative Stewards. As every Steward, whether a Representative Steward or not, has to contribute a sum of not less than ten guineas ($52.50) some lists assume substantial proportions, and there are generally several over 1000 pounds ($5000.00) at each Festival. It is customary, in the majority of lodges, to send up a Representative Steward yearly, each Institution being supported in turn. In such cases the Master, or some well-known brother, with especially persuasive powers, acts in that capacity. To help brethren who do not feel able to contribute, in one payment, the substantial sums required to enable them to acquire permanent voting power in the Institutions, Benevolent Associations are formed all over England, which make a regular collection from their members; and from time to time, when funds permit, ballot for the privilege of becoming a Life Governor, or Life Subscriber. In 1927 there were 19,669 Stewards for the three Festivals, and the total sum realized was 223,743 pounds ($1,118,719.25). This was exclusive of the Festival of the Mark Benevolent Fund, which resulted in a collection of 9,048 pounds ($45,244.10).

 

THE MASONIC HOSPITAL

 

Another Institution, which has the generous support of the Fraternity, is the Freemasons' Hospital and Nursing Home. This had its beginnings during the Great War, although mooted before then. Since 1919 it has, through the liberality of lodges and brethren, acquired an endowment fund of over 160,000 pounds ($800,000) besides paying its way so far as its annual income and expenditure is concerned. In connection with the Hospital there is also a Samaritan Fund, to assist necessitous brethren to defray the small hospital fees. This fund, for the year ending June 30, 1926, received by donations from the Craft the sum of 3,876 pounds ($19,380.91). Many Lodges of Instruction, for instance, have collection boxes for this Samaritan Fund, and at each meeting every brother is invited to place at least one penny in the box. It is surprising how these small, but regular, gifts mount up, besides giving each brother a really personal interest in the work of this Institution.

 

LOCAL CHARITIES

 

In addition to these Central Charities there are, of course, many others. All the largest Provinces, as well as many of the smaller ones, have their own local Institutions, most of them raised and maintained upon a most generous basis. These funds do not come into the Masonic limelight, but they nevertheless receive openhearted and liberal support, given in the true Masonic spirit; without thought of advertisement, or advancement in Masonry.

 

Then, one step further removed from the central organization, there is the charity provided by individual lodges. We have already seen how each lodge contributes towards the general Fund of Benevolence. In addition, annually, if its funds permit, it contributes to one or more of the great Masonic Charities already referred to, as well as endeavoring to augment its own Charity Fund, created to relieve, as far as possible, the distress of any of its members who may fall upon evil days. The amount required each year to satisfy these claims is obtained in many ways, and much depends upon the individuality of each lodge. In some cases frugal meals and simple refreshments enable substantial sums to be given to charity; in other cases the net fees from all initiates and joining members are placed in the Benevolent Fund; and in yet other cases collections are made at each lodge meeting for the same fund. This last method is almost universal, and brings nightly before the brethren the claims of charity. In some lodges this regular collection is made for some specific object, and not for the Charity Fund generally. I remember once in a lodge I visited an appeal was made for a Christmas present for the daughter of a deceased brother being educated in the Girls' School and a capital response was the result. In this way, too, local charitable objects, not Masonic, are assisted, sometimes occasionally, but often annually. From the Lodge Charity Fund any necessary casual charity can be dispensed, and it is from this fund that any deserving brother of the lodge, or his widow, or children, can be helped whilst awaiting the more permanent assistance from the Fund of Benevolence, or one of the Central Institutions, or it may be even in augmentation, if necessary, of any such assistance.

 

In most lodges, to assist in the proper disposal of the charitable funds, the Worshipful Master annually appoints an almoner. Besides looking after the distribution of casual charity he deals with any case of distress within the ranks of the lodge. This brother reports to the lodge his activities, and makes such appeals for help in money, or other assistance, as may be required.

 

Having briefly passed in review the various Charitable Institutions and Benevolent Funds organized by the United Grand Lodge of England, and its dependent lodges, which I think it will be admitted are wide reaching and ample in their scope, let us not in conclusion forget those individual brethren--the fount of these benevolent schemes--whose regular donations and subscriptions enable them to fulfill their objects. By brethren, when framing or revising lodge by-laws, making their annual lodge subscription sufficiently large to provide adequate funds for charity, by the regular contribution of brethren to the charity collection made each lodge night, and by the substantial contributions of brethren to the Central and Provincial Charity Institutions, such brethren have endeavored to carry out in practice those precepts, concerning the relief of the distressed, which are so forcibly illustrated within the lodge. These brethren have realized that what Freemasonry is to anyone depends upon what that person puts into it, whether in service or in money.

 

NOTE

 

(1) Amounts given in dollars are only approximate, the English pound is figured at $5.00, the shilling at 25 cents. The shillings and pence have also been ignored. [Ed.]

 

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The Roman Church and Marriage in Quebec

By BRO. F.G. VIAL, Canada

 

THE Old World tone to be found in New Orleans and in certain corners of the state of Louisiana represents a slight approximation to what is found in Quebec. Whatever of the romantic and bizarre survives on the lowest reaches of the Mississippi is overlaid by Americanism and can only be discovered by the curious in by-paths and out-of-the-way places. In Quebec, however, the life and manners of the people are obviously of a different kind from that which prevails in the rest of North America. It is a difference which, as it were, hits the traveler in the face. The inhabitants are for the most part French-speaking and very jealous for the preservation of their mother tongue, while their religion, an aggressive Romanism, is of the very texture of their individual and social life.

 

To appreciate this divergence from North American type it is necessary to study the history of the Province, and indeed the history of Canada. Quebec is virtually the survival of a Franco- American Empire. The sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witnessed a great colonial expansion from Europe. Spain, France (and in a measure, Holland) struggled with England to establish their own settlement and absorb those of their rivals. The remnants of the Spanish Dominions are found in the Republics of Central and South America. The English are found north of the Rio Grande. Where are the French? The answer is, in the Province of Quebec.

 

OLD FRANCE IN THE NEW WORLD

 

During the seventeenth century through the efforts of intrepid voyageurs, coureurs du bois, and missionaries, the French Empire extended in a vast and wavering semi-circle from the rocky shores of Cape Breton to the mouth of the Mississippi. But the vital part of this immense territory was on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Here was the heart of New France; the rest were sprouting limbs.

 

It was New France; just as the settlements on the northern Atlantic coasts were New England. Not new in the sense of a connection with modern France but new as an extension of Old Royal France, France of the pre-Revolutionary days. Thus by a paradox New France is Old France, a survival. In Canadian history the French period is described as the Ancien Regime, and the Ancien Regime in all essentials is with us now in the Province of Quebec. And it is maintained and fostered by the Roman Church. Consequently, it has no sympathy with modern Republican France. The France of today is the enemy of much that the French Canadian holds dear--his faith, his sacred traditions, his family life. This partly explains the French Canadian reluctance to fly to the succor of France in the Great War. Even the emigres priests from Old France are not popular. A recent writer says (1): "I have heard a French Canadian priest say in broken English to a Protestant from the Province of Ontario, 'I feel that I have more in common with you than I have with the French priests who are flocking into this country.' " There is a difference of spirit and of atmosphere.

 

Certainly the culture of Quebec is unique. French in speech--the speech of Racine and Bossuet; Roman Catholic in faith, half-feudal in organization: all this exists in a land, British in allegiance and with the outward apparatus of twentieth century civilization. The effect is picturesque--in the extreme. And what is it which has caused the persistence of a type which otherwise flourished only in the days of Richelieu and Colbert ? It is above all the influence of the Roman Church in the Province of Quebec. Nowhere perhaps in the world is that influence either more prevalent or on the whole more beneficent than in French Canada.

 

THE ROMAN CHURCH ESTABLISHED

 

And the Roman Church maintains its influence chiefly by guarding with jealous care the home Iife of the faithful. As far as possible the French Canadian is segregated from the social life of British Canadian fellow-citizens. Association with Protestants is reduced to a minimum. Inter-marriage is strongly deprecated and when it occurs its effects, inimical to the faith, are overcome by a consistent and sedulous policy. The Church is ever vigilant in protecting its children from the poisons of heresy and secularism. This can best be done by the prevention of mixed marriage; when this is impossible, or inexpedient, by nullifying its ill effects.

 

For the danger is a real one. There is a powerful minority in the Province of Quebec, mainly in the south and west which is British in origin, English in speech and reformed in faith. Nor does it stand alone; it is united by kinship, faith and manners with the rest of English speaking Canada. At the time of the conquest there was a dream of converting the French Canadian to the Church of England, and if priests of that communion in sufficient numbers and with special gifts had been available, no one can say what might have been the result. But the Quebec Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1774 A.D., blasted all hopes of Anglicizing the habitants. True indeed, the British criminal law was introduced but the civil law of the Ancien Regime was left unchanged. The Bill gave the Church the same privileged position it had enjoyed under French sovereigns. The whole ecclesiastical system which had irritated Frontenac was smiled upon and strengthened by the English administration.

 

Thus, fortified by the civil power the Church took measures to strengthen and safeguard its authority over its children. For a considerable time these measures were defensive. Aggression was inexpedient. In the case of "mixed" marriages, i.e., marriages between Roman Catholics and those of other faiths, the Roman clergy were generally acquiescent to a "fifty-fifty" arrangement. A marriage would be solemnized according to the rites of the bride concerned, there being "a gentleman's agreement," though sometimes in writing, that the male issue of the marriage should follow the father's faith; the female the mother's faith. Among the friends of the writer's boyhood there were several who came under the operation of such an understanding and from the social point of view it seemed to work very well.

 

THE OBJECTION TO MIXED MARRIAGES

 

But it was not satisfactory to the hierarchy of the dominant Church. Part of the issue of such unions was avowedly heretical; the other part was perniciously, though subconsciously, relaxed in its allegiance to the Holy Faith. .The results of such marriages were inimical to the authority of the Church. What was to be done? The answer in effect was, let such unions be tabu. When such marriages are contemplated let the parties concerned know well that they shall not have the blessing of the Church unless the non-Roman makes his (or her) peace and becomes a convert. If still recalcitrant insist that while the marriage cannot receive the full blessing of the Mother Church it may yet be solemnized in a hole- and-corner fashion by the priest in the sacristy or vestry, on the express stipulation that the issue of the union, whether male or female, is to be brought up in the Roman Church. Should the parties to the proposed contract be so rebellious as to have their union solemnized by some non-Roman minister then shall it be null and void. The parties to it are living in mortal sin; the issue of it is illegitimate--in the view of the Roman Catholic Church.

 

Now this attitude, which to many seems repulsively uncompromising, is quite logical and constitutional. It is the glory of British rule to give sects, orders and communities within its sovereignty full liberty to regulate their internal affairs and maintain their own discipline. Furthermore, the Roman Church in the Province of Quebec was given special recognition by the Quebec Act, and subsequent legislation, reaching down to the Act of British North America (1867). No civil authority, no powerful and clamorous faction, can take away rights and privileges so amply guaranteed and repeatedly re-enacted.

 

THE LIMITS OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY

 

Yes, indeed, the Roman Church has the right to regulate and discipline the life and conduct of its own members. Nor can any pressure from without affect this right. It is inalienable. Even when the Church, to take an example germane to our subject, declares null and void in its ecclesiastical courts a marriage of one of its members to a non-Roman solemnized by a minister of another faith, can anyone legitimately protest the procedure. It may be deplored; it may be viewed as intransigent and uncharitable, but it is a matter of internal discipline. True, the rights and liberties of a non-Roman are involved in this case, but it is unnecessary for him to be affected by it. Provided he stands by his guns the ecclesiastical decision does not affect his civil status. He is still in the eyes of the state a married man. If he can secure the complacence of his partner contracted to him by a process recognized as valid by the civil authority he may live happily ever after. The hierarchy may thunder in vain. The decision of ecclesiastical courts do not affect the civil status of citizens. They may, however, and generally do, lead to domestic infelicity, the breaking up of homes and final separation.

 

But here's the rub! So strong is the influence of the Church in the Province that its decisions gradually came to acquire quasi-civil authority. Fortified by the Ne temere Decree, the Roman hierarchy succeeded, or almost succeeded, in converting the civil courts into a rubber stamp for the registration of ecclesiastical verdicts. The judiciary of the Province of Quebec is a body of high-minded and learned jurists but most of them belong to and are sincere supporters of the dominant faith. Those who deal with matrimonial causes are almost invariably so. Under various acts passed by the highest legislature of the Empire, the rights and privileges, somewhat indeterminate yet vast, of the Church in French Canada had been restored and confirmed (2). It would require a lengthy and expensive legal process to define and de-limit such powers even in the matrimonial field. Until such definition and de-limitation can be secured, it were wise and expedient to adjudicate according to the well-known convictions, sometimes the recorded findings, of the ecclesiastical authorities. In making this commentary the writer is not attempting to read the motives of our learned judges; he is rather recording the impression conveyed by their verdicts.

 

The situation has caused a general feeling of uneasiness even among enlightened French Canadians, and naturally much more among English non-Romans. It did not seem right that the civil law of any part of His Majesty's Dominions should be over-ridden by the law of a foreign power (for that is what it amounted to) no matter how august it might be. The Law of the Roman Church in the Province of Quebec is with slight local and immaterial modifications the Canon Law of that vast international polity which has its seat, not in the Parliament House of Westminster, but in the Vatican at Rome. Was it equitable that the status conferred on a citizen by the law of the land should be abrogated at the behest of an authority which claimed to be independent of, and superior to, the state? According to British jurisprudence the subject is at liberty to contract a marriage with another provided he complies with the law, which is easily ascertainable and largely tolerant. The marriage thus contracted may be annulled for certain cogent reasons. There is no marriage if it can be proved that there was not mutual consent, that it fell within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, that it was bigamous, that there was inability to consummate the union in either party. This is annulment of marriage, not dissolution of it, not divorce. It is necessary to keep the distinction clear although the effects are practically the same. In the case of annulment the courts declare that the union does not, and never did, exist in law. There has been no marriage. In the case of divorce the courts recognize that the union did exist but on grounds which are sufficient to them they set aside the union which previously existed. In Canada, at least in Eastern Canada, there is only one ground on which divorce is granted, and that is adultery. The instrument by which a divorce may be obtained--I am speaking of Ontario and Quebec--is a Committee of the Federal Senate; the Provincial judiciaries do not deal with divorce although it is possible that Ontario will ultimately possess her own divorce courts. At present in both Provinces if relief is sought recourse must be had to this Committee of the Federal Senate, and I understand that the procedure is both awkward and expensive.

 

ANNULMENT FOR DIVORCE

 

In the civil court of the Province of Quebec appeals for divorce are never heard and therefore never granted. However, a practice has grown up of declaring marriage null and void ab initio; and that on a number of grounds other than those which are recognized in the rest of the Dominion and other parts of the Empire. These are based on Roman Canon Law and include differences of religion. Hinc illae lacrimae ! To many it seemed intolerable that in a British commonwealth a system of law should function which not only claimed independence of the civil law but on occasion controlled it.

 

Accordingly, some years ago a case of annulled marriage was carried from Canadian Courts to the Highest Court of Appeal in the Empire, the Privy Council. The annulment had been granted originally because the persons involved, nominally at least, Roman Catholics, had been joined together before some Protestant minister. The bond growing irksome to one of the contracting parties, conscience awoke. The claims and discipline of Mother Church, for a long time stilled, began to exercise the spirit of her erring son, and he at length took steps to terminate his life of sin. Under the influence of the ecclesiastical law above mentioned the civil courts of the Province declared the marriage null and void on the ground that, both parties being Roman Catholic, the marriage had been solemnized by other than a Roman priest. The case was clear-cut and definite in its challenge to the law of the state and, in the opinion of opponents to the growing practice of deference on the part of the Civil Courts to the ecclesiastical law, formed a proper subject of appeal. The ruling of the Privy Council, when it was finally delivered in a weighty and carefully worded report, was to the efect that a marriage solemnized before a duly appointed official and performed in a manner recognized as valid by the Civil Law was a true marriage. Its validity did not depend on the religious status of the parties contracting the union, nor of the ecclesiastical affiliations of the official performing the ceremony. Since the parties involved in the test case had complied in every way with the laws of the land, and were, under their regulation, united, theirs was a true marriage. The previous annulment was quashed.

 

It were interesting to follow the further development of this domestic tragedy, but the personal, the intimate human touch has been lost in the cloud of legal controversy out of which, on the farther side, has issued clearly a vindication of the civil law in its relation to one of its most important functions, that of marriage. And that was, and is, the danger point.

 

For although the principle of the independence and paramountcy of the Civil Law in relation to marriage has been theoretically vindicated, the courts of the Province still occasionally grant annulments of marriage for reasons other than those recognized by the state. In the background of the court's handling of such cases looms up the Canon Law of the dominant Church. However, all care is taken, since the decision of the Privy Council in the test case aforementioned, to avoid overt collision with the Civil Law. There is evasion, not open defiance. The decisions, or the influence, of the ecclesiastical courts are never in evidence. For instance, annulments of unions unsatisfactory to the Church are frequently obtained by a rigid interpretation of the regulation (in the case of minors) which calls for parental acquiescence; or by a liberal interpretation of what constitutes "undue influence," "duress," and lack of consent.

 

Therefore, in spite of the Privy Council's decision, the situation is by no means clear and unequivocal. The Provincial judiciary tries to apply the law of the land with scrupulous justice but its hands are tied and its imagination hypnotized by the mighty influence of the Roman Church which by the Quebec Act secured for itself the full enjoyment of its religious law, and the privilege which had been accorded to it under the Ancien Regime. There is the dilemma. The relation of civil and canon law within the Province of Quebec has yet to be thoroughly thrashed out and until it is, the possibility of dangerous collision is never absent. The only feasible method of clearing the ground is for each aggrieved party to appeal, and yet appeal, until every debatable detail has been settled. Few aggrieved parties have the patience, the courage, the public spirit, and the financial resources for such undertakings. The Church has. So there you are!

 

NOTES

 

(1) A Canadian Manor, George M. Wrong, p. 194. (2) After the conquest.

 

----o----

 

So long as the people of a country or a state are all of the same religion the distinction between civil and religious law does not become clearly apparent. The civil rulers will give religious requirements the force of law. It is not until different religions are strongly represented in the same political unit that the distinction will appear. The first method attempted is to recognize one religion and permit others under restrictions. But in the fact of the democratic ideal of freedom and self-government this position is anomalous, and eventually all religions have to be put on the same basis.

 

Marriage, in our present form of society, has a well defined legal aspect concerned with the rights of women and children, which is quite distinct from any religious requirements and is purely a matter of public policy. The tendency is to equate it with other forms of contract and to make it voidable by mutual consent. The churches have a perfect right to impose their own rules on their own members under the sanction of suspension or termination of membership, but such rules are additional to those of the state and not substitutes. No religious body can claim that its private rules shall have legal effect without claiming in effect a favored position. And to grant such a claim is to nullify the basis upon which democratic government rests.

 

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Pioneer Masonry in the Northwest Territory

 

The Story of Nova Caesarea Harmony Lodge, No. 2, Cincinnati

 

By BRO. HENRY BAER, Ohio

 

Public Notice

 

WHEREAS, many good citizens of the Territory, with a design to check the incursions of hostile Indians now at war with the people of the United States, have voluntarily entered into and subscribed their names to certain articles; each name having a sum annexed thereto, and have severally bound themselves, their heirs, etc., to pay the same as in the same articles are mentioned:

 

We, the subscribers, therefore being nominated and appointed to superintend the business of collecting and paying the money thus subscribed, hereby give notice that the following arrangement is made for the reward to be given for Indian scalps to be taken and produced within the period of the 18th day of April last past and the 25th day of December next ensuing, and within the boundaries following, to-wit: Beginning on the Ohio, ten miles above the mouth of the Little Miami, on a direct line then northwardly, the same distance from the said Miami, until it shall extend twenty-five miles above where Harmar's trace first crosses the said Little Miami, until it shall extend ten miles west of the Great Miami, thence southwardly, keeping the distance of ten miles from the said Great Miami to the Ohio; thence up the middle of the said River Ohio to the beginning; that for every scalp, having the right ear appendant, of the first ten Indians who shall be killed within the time and limits aforesaid by those who are subscribers to the said articles, shall, whenever collected, be paid the sum of one hundred and thirty-six dollars; and for every scalp of the like number of Indians, having the right ear appendant, who shall be killed within the time and limits aforesaid, by those who are not subscribers, the Federal troops excepted, shall, whenever collected, be paid the sum of one hundred dollars, and for every scalp, having the right ear appendant, of the second ten Indians who shall be killed within the time and limits aforesaid by those who are subscribers to the said articles shall, whenever collected as aforesaid, be paid the sum of one hundred and seventeen dollars; and for every scalp, having the right ear appendant, of the second ten Indians who shall be killed within the time and limits aforesaid, by those who are not subscribers to the said articles, except before excepted, shall, whenever collected, be paid the sum of ninety-five dollars.

 

Cincinnati-- Levi Woodward Darius C. Orcutt James Lyons

 

Columbia-- William Brown Ignatius Ross John Reily

 

Committee

 

Advertisement in the Centinel of the Northwestern Territory of .... 1794 Woodward and Rose were members of Harmony Lodge.

 

 HAD the Indians been watching the Ohio with their accustomed vigilance late in the year 1788, they would have beheld several covered flatboats descending in midstream, their sides pierced with loopholes to receive the ready rifle, bearing the first contingent of settler families to the Miami Purchase. This was a large tract of land in southwestern Ohio, purchased from our government by a group of Jerseymen headed by Judge John Cleves Symmes, a member of Congress, and was part of the great Northwest Territory.

 

But the savages were either in winter quarters or in a peace conference with General Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the Territory, at Fort Harmar, opposite Marietta, so this initial advance into the country was made in comparative safety. Marietta, over 250 miles upriver, had been founded on April 7, of this year, by pioneers from Massachusetts led by the redoubtable General Rufus Putnam, and was the first permanent white settlement in Ohio. The next was that on the Miami Purchase aforesaid, on Nov. 18, which was named Columbia. During the winter two other log hamlets sprang up within its limits, Losantiville and North Bend. All three fronted on the river; at their back stretched an unbroken forest, tenanted only by wild beasts and hostile Indian tribes.

 

Discovery of the beautiful Miami country is credited to Major Benjamin Stites, veteran frontiersman and Indian fighter of the Pennsylvania border, while leading a party of Kentuckians in chase of a band of Indian horsebhieves in 1786. This was the portion of the territory long known to the whites as the "Miami Slaughter House," by reason of their many bloody battles with the savages, following murderous raids of the latter into Kentucky. It was Stites who was instrumental in causing the purchase of this land by Symmes and who, together with Ephraim Kibby, his old trail companion, headed the first emigrant families to a settlement in southwestern Ohio. Both were early members of Nova Caesarea, or N.C. Harmony Lodge to use its abbreviated and more convenient form of title.

 

THE FOUNDING OF CINCINNATI

 

In 1789 Fort Washington was erected by soldiers at Losantiville, of which General Josiah Harmar, head of the army, assumed command. That it was here located is probably due to this point being considered the most exposed and dangerous, laying opposite the mouth ot the Licking, the favorite crossing place of Indian warbands on their way to raid the Kentucky towns. Fort Washington became the most important military post in the Northwest and was the base of all army operations for many years.

 

Kentucky, the "dark and bloody ground," was settled during the years of the Revolution, its occupation being attended by great loss of life, the savages resisting every step the encroachment of the whites on land that had long been their hunting grounds. Her earliest Masonic lodge, Lexington, No. 25 (now No. 1), was formed through Virginia authority, dated Nov. 17, 1788, at a time when fighting with the redskins had by no means ceased. This was the first permanently established lodge west of the Alleghenies. The Grand Lodge of Kentucky was founded in 1800, to become the mother of Freemasonry in the Mississippi valley.

 

To Losantiville, in January, 1790, came Governor St. Clair, arriving by boat from Marietta, to erect a county which he called Hamilton, and to locate here the seat of government for the territory. Historians relate that upon beholding from his craft the collection of rude huts and log cabins in the mud on the river bank, he queried in tones of disgust, "What in hell is the name of this place, anyway?" Being told, he promptly changed it from Losantiville to Cincinnati, after the famous society of the Cincinnati, of which he was a member, formed at the close of the Revolution by officers of Washington's staff.

 

INDIAN ATTACKS

 

All was remarkably quiet and peaceful for a year or more following settlement. Then with the movement of many of the pioneers to points far out in the wilderness, where they built their homes or else stockade stations that housed several families, the savages rose in all fury and began a war of cruelty and bloodshed which lasted for five years. Cabins were plundered and stations attacked, cattle and horses run off, scores of the settlers slain and scalped and numbers taken prisoner, until the less stout-hearted fled in terror to bhe safety of eastern homes or to large towns in Kentucky. A reprisal raid by General Harmar in 1790 was without much effect and the enemy harrassed the settlements with greater vigor than before.

 

One of the stations attacked was that of John Dunlap, the first afflliated member of N.C. Harmony Lodge, its handful of defenders withstanding for two days the onslaught of several hundred yelling demons under Blue Jacket and the infamous renegade white, Simon Girty. This fight, in January, 1791, was the fiercest and longest sustained in the history of Indian warfare in Hamilton county. Together with the numerous hand-to-hand encounters along the border, these were scenes that had long witnessed their counterpart in the "dark and bloody ground" of Kentucky.

 

THE FOUNDING OF HARMONY LODGE, NO. 2

 

In the midst of all, but a few months following the fight at Dunlap's station, Masonic brethren on the Purchase petitioned the Grand Lodge of New Jersey for a warrant to form a lodge at Cincinnati, then yet a tiny log village sprawled between Fort Washington and the river. Included among the signers of this petition were the distinguished soldiers, Generals St. Clair and Harmar. That such an attempt was made to erect the Great Lights of Masonry in a wilderness country, with the warwhoop of the savage resounding throughout the Ohio valley, bespeaks a love of the Order, determination and courage of the highest degree, and would almost surpass belief. This is perhaps the only, and certainly the first, instance where the formation of a Masonic lodge was attempted in the West, or anywhere, under similar conditions and circumstances.

 

The second expedition against the Indians was that led by Colonel James Wilkinson, an early member of the lodge. This occurred in the summer of 1791, and while far more successful than Harmar's, the enemy continued unabated their murderous attacks and forays along the border.

 

Sept. 8, 1791, is a date most memorable to Masonry in southwestern Ohio, for on this day the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, sitting at Trenton, acted favorably on the petition of their pioneer brethren and issued a charter under this date, which named Dr. William Burnet as Master, John Ludlow, Senior Warden, and Dr. Calvin Morrell, Junior Warden, of a lodge of Ancient York Masons ". . . in Hamilton County in the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio," to be known as Nova Caesarea (New Jersey) Lodge, No. 10. This body has since been styled Nova Caesarea Harmony Lodge, No. 2.

 

Dr. Burnet, who had made the long and dangerous journey to obtain this authority, was prevented from ever returning to the West by the death a month later of his father, Dr. William Burnet, Sr., chief physician in the Continental Army, and likewise a Mason. This unfortunate circumstance, with the Indian war, delayed the arrival of the warrant for more than three years.

 

Dr. Burnet, Jr., was Senior Warden of Newark Lodge, No. 2, of Newark, N.J., at the time he came to Ohio. Now resuming his place in its official line, he became Master in 1792. John Ludlow (1), named as Senior Warden in the warrant, an intrepid pioneer settler, had been a member of Royal Arch Lodge, No. 10, A.Y.M., of Baskingridge, N.J. He likewise found it impossible to serve the lodge when it was organized late in 1794, through having moved his home far out in the wilderness, an exceedingly dangerous undertaking. Of the Masonic history of Dr. Calvin Morrell, who came to the territory with Dr. Burnet, nothing is known. He was present, however, and in his station in the South as Junior Warden, at the institution of the lodge.

 

A TERRIBLE DISASTER

 

Following Harmar's ineffectual campaign, General St. Clair had assumed command of the military. With the usual complement of regulars, militia and volunteers, he started bravely forth from Fort Washington to vanquish the redskins. All went well until he reached a point about 100 miles north of Cincinnati. There his force of some 1500 was quietly surrounded by the enemy and in a battle which commenced at early dawn on Nov. 4, 1791, literally cut to pieces. The casualties exceeded 900, of which two-thirds were killed and scalped and the rest wounded. There were no prisoners, and as related in after years by Indians taking part, their arms were weary from wielding the tomahawk and scalping knife. Quoting from the graphic account of Jacob Fowler, noted hunter and a Mason, who turned for a last look as he fled from the scene of carnage: "The dead and dying laying around, their freshly scalped heads reeking with smoke in the heavy morning fog, looked like so many pumpkins through a cornfield in December."

 

St. Clair's was the worst disaster ever befalling the whites in the history of Indian warfare in America. Many of the Craft lost their lives on this bloody day, the list being headed by brave Major- General Richard Butler. Numbers of the settlers, who had accompanied the expedition as volunteers, were among the slain. From the fact that there were but seven brethren present at the organization of the lodge, and these not all resident on the Purchase during the years c the war, it is probable that of those killed some were Masons who had signed the petition to form a lodge; at Cincinnati.

 

With the situation now truly grave, General "Mad Anthony" Wayne (also a member of the Craft) succeeded St. Clair as commander. At the head of a new and carefully drilled and equipped army he started north after the savages, but, unlike his predecessor, with a band of experienced scouts in the lead. Finally coming in contact with the confederated tribes near Toledo, Ohio, on Aug. 20, 1794, in a brief but bloody battle known to history as "Fallen Timbers," he administered such a terrific beating to the redskins that the backbone and power of their confederacy was completely and forever broken.

 

THE INAUGURATION OF THE LODGE

 

Early in December of this year the charter of the lodge arrived from New Jersey and the brethren proceeded to their long delayed organization. This took place on St. John's Day, Dec. 27, 1794, when seven Master Mason pioneers made their way to the house of Jacob Lowe, who kept inn at the sign of "General Wayne." Those composing this little group were Dr. Calvin Morrell, J.W., John S. Gano, Elias Wallen, Patrick Dickey, James Brady, John Allen and Edward Day.

 

Wayne's victory, while decisive, had brought but a nominal peace. Danger yet lurked on the trails, with Indians who had passed the lines of his army hanging about and waylaying and murdering travelers. Conditions had become so bad in this year that there was inserted in the Centinel oJ the Northwestern Territory, the first newspaper at Cincinnati, an advertisement offering a premium for Indian scalps. Among its several conditions was the grewsome requirement that the right ear was to be appendant to each. It is interesting to note that of the six subscribers to the offer, two, Levi Woodward and Ignatius Ross, became members of N.C. Harmony Lodge. Not until August, 1795, when the famous Treaty of Greenville was consummated by Wayne, was there a reasonable assurance of safety. From this it would appear indeed likely that the seven brethren went armed to Lowe's tavern, which was situated, it is believed, in an isolated spot on the river bank west of the village.

 

Here the Great Lights were erected, illumined by tallow candles, which cast their flickering glow into the gloom of the wilderness, signalizing the coming of organized Masonry to a remote frontier and the beginning of a labor that has gone on unremittingly ever since. After effecting the usual temporary organization, tihe main business of the evening was the election of officers. This was held with the following result: Edward Day, Master; John S. Gano, S.W.; Dr. Calvin Morrell, J.W. (named in warrant); James Brady, Treas.; Elias Wallen, Sec'y; John Allen, S.D., and Patrick Dickey, J.D. The meeting was then closed in "good harmony."

 

Bro. Day, Master, was but a very recent arrival in Cincinnnati, having served until late in this year as Commissary-General under Washington in the Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion. He was Past Master of Joppa Lodge, A.Y.M., of Joppa, Maryland, and a zealous and highly skilled member of the Craft. In his travels Bro. Day had gained further advancement in Masonry and came to Ohio a Knight Templar, probably the first of that rank to cross the Alleghenies.

 

THE PROBLEM OF INSTALLATION

 

Installation of officers on Jan. 7, 1795, found the lodge faced with the embarrassment of having no spare brother qualified to act as installing officer. Fortunately, however, the difficulty was bridged by the timely appearance in the meeting of Captain Isaac Guyon, commander of Fort Washington and Master of the Army Lodge. With his able assistance and that of Bros. Wallen and Allen, who were Past Masters of lodges in northern Ireland, the ceremonies were satisfactorily performed.

 

How the brethren managed without the services of a Tiler in their first days is not known. It was not until the initial stated communication on Jan. 21, that another member was secured and made to assume this undoubtedly cold and lonely post. This was through the admission of John Dunlap, of Ireland, a redoubtable surveyor, at whose station had occurred the desperate fight with the Indians in 1791.

 

On this same night the first petition was received. This was signed by Captain Ephraim Kibby, veteran of the Revolution and noted scout and Indian fighter of the early West, who won especial fame as leader of Wayne's "Forty Famous Scouts." This band was recruited from among the best Indian fighters of Ohio and Kentucky and rendered valuable service to the American army on its march to victorious Fallen Timbers.

 

Both Kibby and Major Stites were fine types of the borderer, being tall, lithe and active and possessed of remarkable strength and endurance. Books doubtless could be written of their many strange and thrilling adventures and exploits, if indeed they had ever made them known. A few have come to hand and the writer is tempted to recount some of them, but space and the purpose of this article forbids. This much can be said, however, the company of both was sought for years by the red enemy, who would have liked nothing better than to have effected their capture. So eagerly did they covet the person of Kibby, that he was once chased for twenty-four hours, but succeeded in making his escape. For Major Stites, whom they blamed for the loss of their land, the Indians had an especially warm reception in store intending to burn him at the stake. But the wily old borderer eluded all their attempts at capture and lived to be initiated in the lodge, which was in 1799. What Boone and Kenton and Robertson and Sevier were respectively to Kentucky and Tennessee, so equally important and valuable, if less conspicuous, can be said to have been the services of these two sterling backwoods characters in the winning and settlement of southwestern Ohio.

 

THE LODGE BEGINS ITS LABORS

 

Working meetings of N. C. Harmony Lodge commenced on March 4, 1795, with Captain Kibby as one of the first to kneel at its rude altar. Among those initiated or admitted in this year were a number who had served in the Revolution, as well as in the Indian War. Quite singular to note, the services of one of these, Captain John Whistler (2), was with the mother country. An Irishman by birth, while fighting on the side of the British, he was taken prisoner at Burgoyne's surrender in 1777 at Saratoga. After the war he came again to America and enlisted in the U. S. Army, being severely wounded at St. Clair's defeat. Captain Whistler was the progenitor of a famous line of soldiers, engineers and artists, the celebrated painter, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, being a grandson.

 

An initiate of especial worthy mention was Captain Robert T. Benham, an old associate of Kibby and Stites on the Pennsylvania border. While serving in the frontier militia he was a principal in one of the most strange, thrilling and terrifying experiences ever recorded in the annals of the West, the full details of which are to be found in the "National Cyclopaedia of American Biography." This took place in 1779, on the Ohio, opposite Clincinnati, when a force of some seventy whites was ambushed by an overwhelming number of savages and, with the exception of Benham and a dozen others, butchered and scalped. Captain Benham was an early arrival in the village and saw service in all the Indian campaigns, likewise being badly wounded at St. Clair's defeat.

 

On June 24, 1795, was held the first celebration of St. John the Baptist Day. Among those to grace the festive board as visiting brethren were Governor St. Clair, Colonel Winthrop Sargent, Territorial Secretary, and Judge John Cleves Symmes, chief promoter of the Miami purchase. During the festivities "the usual number of Masonic toasts were drank" and the members entertained by a band of music "which played at intervals grand, majestic and harmonious sounds, and the whole evening spent with hilarity, which has ever clistinguished this social band of brothers.

 

Dec. 27, 1795, witnessed the initial celebration of the anniversary of St. John the Evangelist. During its course the following eleven toasts were drank:

 

1. Our Brother George Washington, the friend of Masonry and of man. 2. The Grand Lodge of New Jersey--may they continue to he respectable. 3. To all the fraternity around the Globe. 4. May this lodge ever be distinguished for Love, Peace and Harmony. 5. To all those who steer their course by the Three Great Lights of Masonry. 6. A proper subdivision and application of the 24-inch gauge. 7. The absent brethren of the lodge. 8. Every brother who maintains a constancy in love and sincerity in friendship. 9. May no Freemason wish for more liberty than happiness, nor more freedom than tends to the public good. 10. May the hearts of Freemasons agree, though their heads may differ. 11. May every society instituted for the promotion of virtue flourish.

 

Occurring in those early days, it is to be imagined that an analysis of the contents of the punch bowl into which the brethren dipped, would have shown an alcoholic content greatly exceeding that allowed by law today for beverage purposes. Saints John Day celebrations, which drew the attendance of all within reach of the settlement, were events of great moment in the lives of the pioneer Masons, who, in their lonely existence on the border, eagerly looked forward to the times twice each year when they could fraternize and enjoy the fellowship of a Masonic gathering. Hence, taken together, it is not to be wondered that at these functions the members attained to a certain degree of mellowness and sentiment.

 

That the lodge was kept quite busy in its first year is attested by the high mark of forty-four meetings held. In this time the membership grew from seven to forty-two, comprising a conglomerate and picturesque lot, there being soldiers, scouts and Indian fighters, surveyors, traders, tavernkeepers and ferrymen, with a sprinkling of doctors and lawyers--much the usual miscellany found in lodges of the early West.

 

COMMEMORATIVE SERVICE FOR GEORGE WASHINGTON

 

A minute of unusual note is found under date of Feb. 1, 1800, the brethren conducting a funeral ceremony for George Washington. At the head of a large procession, composed of troops from the fort, led by Captain Edward Miller, a member of the lodge and personal friend of the late President; the militia, civil authorities and citizens, they repaired to the "grave" of the deceased, conducted the ceremonies and rites of the Order in ancient form and returned to close lodge. Washington having died on Dec. 14, 1799, the holding of these obsequies more than six weeks later would strikingly illustrate the slowness of communication in those days.

 

Ohio was officially admitted a state in the Union early in 1803. To this time but two Masonic bodies were in operation within her confines, that at Cincinnati and American Union Lodge, of Marietta. This last was a famous traveling military organization of the Revolution, which had been reopened on Ohio soil on June 28, 1790, after having lain dormant since the war, by Captain Jonathan Heart, Master at the close of hostilities, who, again in the army, chanced to bring with him to Fort Harmar its old authority of establishment. This, in the form of a commission, under the name of John Rowe, Grand Master, was issued by Richard Gridley, Deputy Grand Master of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge (Moderns), in 1776. But one other of its original members was present, General Rufus Putnam, the balance assisting in the revival of this old army lodge being made elsewhere, but now immediately admitted to membership therein. Captain Heart, who again became Master, was so unfortunate as to be numbered among the slain at St. Clair's defeat in the following year. He was a gallant soldier, of long experience and wide learning in the Craft, and a skilled architect, as is here shown by his splendid drawing of Fort Washington, done in 1790.

 

FORMATION OF THE GRAND LODGE OF OHIO

 

From 1803 four other lodges sprang into existence in Ohio--Erie, No. 47, of Warren (G.L. of Conn.); New England, No. 48, of Worthington (G.L. of Conn.); Amity, No. 105, of Zanesville (G.L. of Penn.), and Scioto, No. 2, of Chillicothe (G.L. of Mass.). In 1807 it was proposed by Erie Lodge that a Grand Lodge be formed in the state. As a result, early in January, 1808, delegates from all six bodies met in Chillicothe, then the capital, and founded the M.W. Grand Lodge of Ohio, electing General Rufus Putnam as first Grand Master, "a fitting recognition of his services as a soldier, statesman and Freemason." He, however, was forced to decline the honor by reason of his age and infirmities. Thomas Henderson, Master of the lodge at Cincinnati, was chosen Deputy Grand Master.

 

When Ohio charters were issued and the lodges numerically designated in 1813, the latter body became known as Nova Caesarea Harmony Lodge, No. 2. The suffix "Harmony" is thought to have been acquired through adjustment by the Grand Lodge of an old difference among its members, although there is evidence of its being an unofficial designation from the beginning.

 

Upon American Union Lodge was bestowed the coveted Number 1. This, however, it did not receive until 1816. Immediately after helping to form the Ohio Grand Lodge, the brethren at Marietta defaulted from their agreement and operated as an independent body for a number of years. Finally, after being declared an irregular organization by the Grand Lodge in 1815, some of its members withdrew and petitioned for an Ohio charter and the formation of a new lodge. This was granted in January, 1816, in the style American Union Lodge, No. 1. There were now two lodges at Marietta bearing the same name, the majority membership, probably the army faction, continuing to labor under the original authority of 1776, which they stubbornly refused to surrender, claiming adherence to and the protection of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. This body, in 1819, after being appealed to by the latter, upon investigation were prompt to deny jurisdiction. As there is no further record that these old brethren ever ceased in their rebellious stand, in all probability they held the fort to the end.

 

The lodge chartered in Ohio as American Union Lodge, No. 1, was represented in Grand Lodge until 1825. For a period of nearly twenty years thereafter no delegates were in attendance at its communications. From 1830 the lodge was inactive for thirteen years, doubtless by reason of the anti-Masonic war. Then in 1843 its charter and other effects were restored by the Grand Lodge, and from 1845 American Union Lodge, No. 1, has been one of its most faithful and loyal constitutents.

 

From the foregoing it can readily be seen that the lodge at Cincinnati is not only the oldest body under Ohio charter, but has much the longest continuous history, being steadily in operation from the date of organization in 1794. That it rightfully should have been accorded the honored Number 1 is the opinion of the official historians of the Grand Lodge in their History of Freemasonry in Ohio. Elsewhere in this work is noted the following tribute to the Old Lodge at Cincinnati:

 

Loyal to Freemasonry under all the vicissitudes incident to a pioneer existence, and to the Grand Lodge while it was under the ban of fanaticism and persecution, N.C. Harmony Lodge never wavered in its fealty to or attendance upon the M.W. Grand Lodge of Ohio throughout the whole of the so-called "Morgan Excitement," from 1829 to a variable later date according to local influences prevailing at that period.

 

In days when duelling was a common practice, especially in the West, a land of free and independent spirits and fiery tempers, two early members of the lodge, Captain Thomas Ramsey, U.S.A., and John Sheets, became involved in disputes and sought settlement on the "field of honor." The first occurred in 1818, on Bloody Island, near St. Louis, a favorite duelling ground of the vicinity, when Captain Ramsey was shot and killed by Captain Wylie Martin, a brother officer (3). A few years later Bro. Sheets, while Grand Master of Indiana, engaged in mortal combat with another, and was so unfortunate as to take the life of his opponent. This, of course, ended his career in Grand Lodge and very likely caused his retirement from the Order.

 

HARMONY'S FIRST TEMPLE

 

For three decades N.C. Harmony Lodge met in rented quarters. Finally it was realized a dream of long standing when, on St. John's Day, Dec. 27, 1824, thirty years to the day after the lodge was organized, the brethren held their initial meeting in a temple of their own. This edifice, finished in 1823, is believed to have been the first of its kind erected west of the Alleghenies. It was situated on part of the large lot (100x200 ft.) at Third and Walnut streets, generously donated to the lodge in the will of Judge William McMillan, an esteemed early member. Built of brick, two stories in height and of the plainest design, its dimensions were about 35x70 ft., the cost of construction totaling nearly $2,500.

 

To Cincinnati and to the new meeting place of the lodge came, in the year 1825, the three most distinguished men and Masons of their time--General Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory," the hero of New Orleans, Past Grand Master of Tennessee and later President; Lafayette, the celebrated patriot of two countries, and the illustrious DeWitt Clinton, Governor of New York and Grand Master for fourteen years. Their respective visits to the lodge were each the signal for an immense turnout of the Craft, who came for many miles around in Ohio and adjoining states to assist in extending a fitting weleome and entertaining the renowned visitors. Especially was there an overflow crowd in evidence when the beloved Frenchman arrived and was introduced from the altar to those present. As a mark of esteem and regard in which he was held, coincident with his coming, a new lodge was formed and named in his honor, Lafayette, No. 81, which is still in existence.

 

This was the second local offspring of the "Old Lodge," as she was by now called, her first witnessing its birth in 1817. In years following she became the parent of quite numerous progeny, which grew up in health and vigor around her. This pioneer body was not only the incubator of Masonry in Hamilton county and adjacent territory in Ohio, but a veritable breeding ground for the Craft in the West, numbers of its members being found in the tides of emigration early sweeping past the city and traced as founders of first lodges.

 

A COMPANION IN ARMS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON

 

Minutes of Nov. 26, 1833, record a most sad but nevertheless interesting event. This was the conducting of the funeral of Colonel John McKinney, an aged veteran of the Revolution and War of 1812, who in bygone days had visited in N.C. Harmony Lodge. During the services it was made known, doubtless to the surprise of many, that Bro. McKinney had been "Senior Warden under Gen'l George Washington, by Whom he was Initiated." (Underscored as in minutes.)

 

Research disclosed McKinney, then a Lieutenant, as a charter member of Pennsylvania Union (army) Lodge, No. 29, formed in 1780 in the Pennsylvania line. Among others enrolled are noted the names of the then colonels, Josiah Harmar and Richard Butler. Bro. McKinney served throughout the war with the Pennsylvania troops and was probably a native of that state. However, if he was there made a Mason, his name has not been found in any of its Masonic records. From this the statement as to his induction by Washington might be true, but lack of written evidence would preclude its acceptance as conclusive proof. As to his serving under the latter as Senior Warden, after the war McKinney was long a government employe at the Capitol and it is possible that at some time he paid a visit to Washington's lodge at Alexandria, Va., and there was accorded the honor of taking the West opposite his old commander.

 

By 1845 the first temple had so far outlived its usefulness that a second edifice was built on the lot, the other being left standing. This was likewise of brick, but much larger, measuring 115x66 ft., and was of three stories, its cost approximating $32,000. It stood but for some dozen years, when it too was forced to give way before the march of progress and constant expansion of the Fraternity, and was razed, together with all other buildings on the property. In its place was erected a monster structure covering the entire site, which at its completion, in 1860, was considered the largest and finest Masonic temple in the land, costing, with its furnishings and equipment, about $185,000.

 

The lodge over a period of not quite four decades had built three temples, at an aggregate cost of nearly $220,000, hardly a trifling figure for those days. This is a record probably without parallel in the history of the Craft in America. It was not until 1923 that its brethren were able to balance their ledger, having been continuously in debt for 100 years. As aptly characterized by the speaker of the evening at the meeting of celebration when the last canceled mortgage was burned, it was "a debt honorably made and honorably paid."

 

ILLUSTRIOUS MEMBERS OF THE LODGE

 

The names of many men of distinction and renown adorn the membership roll of N.C. Harmony Lodge, such as Judge William McMillan, the first to step ashore at Cincinnati, Territorial Congressman, the benefactor of Masonry in Hamilton County by his bequest of the lot at Third and Walnut streets; Major-General John S. Gano, of the War of 1812, an original pioneer settler and member, Deputy Grand Master; General James Wilkinson, Commander-in- Chief of the U. S. Army; Judge Jacob Burnet, the mightiest figure in the Northwest Territory, U. S. Senator and Deputy Grand Master; Thomas Worthington, U. S. Senator and Governor of Ohio, said to have been its most constructive statesman; Alexander A. Meek and John Sheets, who helped found the Grand Lodge of Indiana and became Grand Masters; Dr. Alexander Duncan, U. S. Congressman for several terms; Theodore Sutton Parvin, initiated in 1838, father of Masonry in Iowa and Grand Master, a nationally known member of the Craft, Grand Secretary of Iowa for nearly fifty-eight years and founder of its world's renowned Masonic library; Samuel Reed, Grand Lecturer of Ohio, foremost Masonic scholar and lecturer of his time in the West; William B. Dodds, Grand Master of the state for two terms, 1854-5; his son, Colonel Ozro J. Dodds, distinguished soldier of the Civil War and U. S. Congressman, and Elam P. Langdon, "The Temple Builder," quiet and unassuming, a factor of inestimable worth in the erection and successful operation of the first two temples constructed by the lodge, and the most zealous and hardest working member ever on its roll, skilled writer and literary genius, who knew well Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison and others of the great.

 

The list of visiting brethren, exclusive of those already named, presents quite a notable array, with Colonel Return J. Meigs, hero of the Revolution; his son, Judge Return J. Meigs, Jr., famous war governor of Ohio; the illustrious statesmen and cabinet officers, Thomas Corwin, John McLean, Alphonso Taft, George M. Bibb and William T. Barry; General William Lytle, daring borderer and Indian fighter of early days, and many others. In addition are found the names of numerous Grand Masters and others of high standing in the Craft of Ohio and other jurisdictions, and those of visiting brethren from virtually every state in the Union, as well as from many foreign countries, who came to "sit in the Old Lodge."

 

In the matter of Masonically educating its members the lodge took early steps, there being inaugurated, in 1812, the first system of lectures and instruction. As soon as the fame of the accomplished Benjamin Gleason and Jeremy L. Cross, disseminators of the Thomas Smith Webb work, reached the West, their services were sought in Cincinnati, where each in a series of meetings lectured before the brethren. Then came the celebrated John Barney, of Ohio, followed by their own Samuel Reed, and the famous Cornelius Moore, Enoch T. Carson and others distinguished for their Masonic learning or skill as ritualists.

 

THE EXERCISE OF CHARITY AND RELIEF

 

Of its record for charity and relief dispensed over its long history, N. C. Harmony Lodge can well feel proud. Strange as it may seem, in days when the country was young and quite poor, until the War of 1812 scarcely a single notation of a call for assistance is to be found on the minutes. From this time on, however, appeals were without end for several decades. Especially was this the case when emigration began pouring down the Ohio, the main gateway to the West, in a never ending stream, with many families and individuals reaching the city without means of proceeding farther, this in days before organized relief bureaus existed. Deaf ear was turned to none found worthy, and no distinctions were drawn. Such a boundless limit naturally resulted in severe drains on the lodge charity fund and other resources. Often its treasury was depleted. At these times the members would take up a collection in the lodgeroom and, if necessary, canvass the town for subscriptions from others of the Order. For a lengthy period a regular system of payroll for needy widows and orphans was maintained, some of the names remaining thereon for a number of years. Calls for relief and charity continued to mount, the peak being reached in 1840 and 1841, when a total of nearly $2,000 was expended for such purposes in these years. This is a remarkable record when it is compared the purchasing power of a dollar in those days with that in the present--probably in the ratio of four or possibly five to one. Later, at times like the terrible cholera epidemic in New Orleans of 1853, the great Chicago fire, the disastrous Johnstown flood and San Francisco earthquake, to cite but major instances, the Old Lodge of Cincinnati upheld her reputation as a ready and liberal giver and contributed with the foremost to the relief of the Masonic distressed. And thus it has ever continued.

 

Naturally a lodge with such a long span of existence can boast an interesting and valuable collection of relics and antiques. Listing but the principal, there is its most prized possession--the original charter from New Jersey of 1791; a personal letter written and signed by George Washington in 1789, to Chief Justice John Jay; the commission of Judge William McMillan as U.S. District Attorney for Ohio, issued and signed in 1802 by Thomas Jefferson, President, and attested by James Madison, Secretary of State; a beautiful Masonic officer's apron, presented in 1784 to Dr. William Burnet, Sr., in New Jersey; the certificate of membership in Royal Arch Lodge, No. 10, Baskingridge, N. J., of John Ludlow, dated May 6, 1786; that of Elias Wallen in Rathmelton Lodge, No. 448, Rathmelton, Ireland, granted in 1789; the first document of similar character issued by N. C. Harmony Lodge to John Allen in 1795, and an old black Masonic chair, with square and compasses inlaid in gold, which tradition says was occupied by Lafayette on the occasion of his visit in 1825. Another interesting item is a daguerreotype portrait of Griffin Yeatman, who was actually the first initiate on the rolls of the lodge, though Capt. Kibby was the first to present his petition. Bro. Yeatman remained an active member on the lodge register from 1795 till his death in 1849. In addition to these reminders of the past, the lodge is fortunate in possessing a full set of minute books from the date of organization, and virtually every other record of importance, a rare boast for a Masonic body dating its inception back to eighteenth century days.

 

THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HARMONY, NO. 2

 

Seemingly no notice was taken of the fiftieth anniversary of the lodge. But its centennial birthday in 1891 was fittingly recognized in a monster celebration and homecoming at the old temple lasting two days, topped by an elaborate banquet on Sept. 8, attended not only by its own and the members and officers of local lodges, but Grand Lodge officers and distinguished Masons of Ohio and those of other jurisdictions throughout the country. The 125th milestone, in 1916, likewise was not permitted to pass unobserved and was quite a pretentious affair, nor did the 135th anniversary fail of fitting recognition. Not the least point of interest at these times was the display of relics, with the original charter of 1791, of course, the center of attraction. This ancient document, written on sheepskin, is still in a remarkable stage of preservation, and plainly shows the creases where it had been folded against the breast of its carrier, who rode horseback or walked the long distance from New Jersey.

 

Never striving for a large membership, by the close of the nineteenth century the roll of the lodge showed possibly 175 names. Conservatism in this regard, combined with its extensive property holding and a quiet existence, naturally had bred a reputation for exclusiveness and won for long the opprobrious title "Blue Stocking Lodge." However, with the new order of things of a later day and the impetus supplied by the World War, the membership has more than doubled, until now it stands at some 435, and the designation "Blue Stocking" become but a memory.

 

After meeting in temples on the same corner lot for exactly a century, the lodge in 1924 disposed of its third building and the ground site which it had so long possessed, for a consideration approaching a quarter of a million dollars. It still meets therein, however, and is patiently waiting the day when it can move into the mammoth new Masonic Temple, rapidly nearing completion in the heart of downtown Cincinnati, but a few squares distant from the old location. This magnificent structure, solely devoted to purposes of the Fraternity, is being erected by the various Masonic bodies and individual members of the Craft in the city, at a cost of $4,500,000. It covers a ground area greater than any other edifice of its kind in the land, and when finished promises to be the "last word" in Masonic temples of the present day, as was its predecessor in 1860.

 

Perhaps needless to state, in the matter of subscription to the above, N. C. Harmony Lodge widened the purse strings to their fullest extent and gave with the foremost. Some day, when the conditions of the sale of her property will have been met, she will assume rank among the wealthiest lodges of the United States. To this thanks alone are due one of her earliest members, Judge William McMillan, who, with vision to the growth and needs of the Fraternity in future years, thoughtfully bequeathed to his brethren the large lot at Third and Walnut streets, which at the time of purchase by him in 1795, for about $2, was probably used as a cow pasture. So closes the story of this pioneer Masonic organization, the first regularly chartered body through Grand Lodge authority in the Northwest Territory, but the high lights of which have been covered in the foregoing.

 

NOTES

 

(1) Thanks are due Bro. David McGregor, of New Jersey, for the information concerning the Masonic connection of Dr. William Burnet, Jr., and John Ludlow.

(2) This brother was captured at the surrender of Detroit, Aug. 16, 1812. He thus had what must surely be the almost unique experience of having been taken a prisoner of war first by the Americans and then by the British, in both of whose armies he had successively fought.

(3) For the particulars of Captain Ramsey's death by duelling, the writer is indebted to Bro. Ray V. Denslow's valuable work, Territorial Masonry.

 

An additional note may be in order in respect to the curious "scalp" advertisement. The Centinel of the Northwestern Territory was the first newspaper to be published in the territory. It was a weekly, the first number appeared in November, 1793. The period during which the committee agreed to pay the bounty on scalps ran from April 18 of 1794, but the advertisement did not actually appear till May 17--a month later. It appeared thereafter weekly until Aug. 20 or until Wayne's victory made the settlers feel more secure. Copies of this old journal are very rare and the only complete file, so far as is known, is now in the library of the Ohio Historical Society.

 

The author would also like to acknowledge his indebtedness to Bro. Bratton for his helpful kindness in making the drawings from which two of the illustrations have been taken.

 

The following additional information has been condensed from an article by Bro. Baer in the Tri-State Mason.

 

It is interesting to note that although easily the oldest of the more than twenty subordinate bodies under jurisdiction of the Parent Body the numerical designation "2" was bestowed upon N.C. Harmony Lodge. This point has long been debated and conjectured by those familiar with the histories of our two earliest lodges, an impartial review rather inclining the belief that No. 1 would have been its rightful designation. In this regard the historians who so ably wrote The History of Freemasonry in Ohio have this to say:

 

". . . Why it (N. C. Harmony Lodge) was not designated as No. 1, as it rightfully would seem to have been entitled, was doubtless in accordance with the resolution of the convention of 1808 that lodges should be numbered in their order 'beginning with the charter of most ancient date,' no defection then being anticipated. Another reason perhaps added weight thereto that it would be an inducement to American Union Lodge to become loyal to the Grand Lodge and thereby have the distinction of being designated as No. 1 on the roster of subordinate lodges."

 

American Union Lodge was a traveling Army Lodge chartered by the St. John's Grand Lodge of Boston, in 1776, several months prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This St. John's Grand Lodge was really a Provincial Grand Lodge constituted by the Grand Lodge of England in 1753.

 

----o----

 

FREEMASONRY AND THE CRISIS IN CIVILIZATION

 

By Bro. B.L. Frank, Vienna, Austria

 

THIS important article by a learned and philosophical Austrian Mason deserves careful reading and consideration. The idea of two separate and antagonistic strains in our civilization explains much that otherwise is obscure and chaotic. Evolution is as possible in the sense of degeneration as in that of progress, and the unethical traditions in civilization constantly influence communities and nations to take the lower path. Freemasonry is exhibited as one of the influences tending to true progress.

 

We are standing at a crisis in our civilization. The fact is not only observed by the foremost intellectual men of all nations, but every educated and thinking man feels that the cultural basis upon which his life has been founded is shaking. Serious apprehensions are aroused as to the welfare, both physical and spiritual, of the next generation.

 

The very foundations of the complex organization of our civilization are being attacked and torn down by hostile influences. The most solid institutions appear unsteady, many are falling, abysses are opening, differences enlarge and deepen between men and nations, the sources of development and prosperity seem to be drying up, a flood of immorality, social, industrial and political, overwhelms mankind, a torrent of discontent breaks the fetters of old unbearable oppressions, but also destroys the works and values of generations, and sweeps men into new tyrannies and despotisms. And in it all we see the trouble and difficulties increased by irrationality and wrong-headedness; just as when confronted by a physical emergency, fire or earthquake, a few only possess sufficient presence of mind to overcome panic, so the majority--often guided by unscrupulous leaders--rage against each other and make the evil worse. And many of the best stand aside inactively.

 

In such case can Freemasonry, the upholder of work and morality, look on idle and hopeless ? An immense field of action lies open before it; not a new one. Old and familiar tasks have become more urgent; ends that it was designed to serve throughout the course of centuries are concentrated in the short space of our own lifetime. Freemasonry cannot afford to await a future reconstruction, for it is itself a part of our endangered civilization; Freemasonry must save itself by helping to uphold the organism of our culture, threatened indeed, but in great part still standing.

 

But one question to begin with, what is culture ? Among the many definitions that have been offered I choose that of the eminent Swiss sociologist, Forel, as suiting best my purpose. He says:

 

Culture is the inherited and transmitted accumulation of human performance and values.

 

This description is adequate also in respect to the laws of evolution by which our entire spiritual and material life is ruled. C. F. Meyer, the poet, a compatriot of Forel, has compressed it into these brief words:

 

The Dead rule all Life.

 

We are, at the same time as we possess, the inheritance of our ancestors; thus life, and consequently culture, is an inheritance.

 

Forel's conception also allows discrimination, relatively of course, between good and bad cultures, corresponding to the ethical and relative conceptions of good and evil. We shall here be able to distinguish the ethical, social, useful and good from the unethical, nonsocial, noxious and evil as genuine contrasts. We cannot claim cultures or civilizations as positively bad or good, but only after considering their influence and the predominating elements of which they are composed; both good and bad components affect one another within their own circle and moreover act upon other systems of culture and reciprocally are influenced by them.

 

THE ROOT MOTIVES OF ANTAGONISM AND WAR

 

Antagonism and conflict between civilizations may generally be observed in world history, but Europe, and in especial Central Europe, has for many centuries been conspicuously the field of battle between alien cultures, which there have mingled and mutually penetrated each other. My own country Austria, and Vienna in particular, being situated in the very storm center between a number of cultures bears manifest marks of this conflict and interpenetration. The mere geographical situation of Central Europe determines its character as simultaneously the suffering object and the adjusting subject between not only East and West but North and South. Touching only the most salient points we have the conflict between German barbarism and Roman paganism, Asiatic savagery and European civilization, and consecutively or simultaneously the German, Roman, Greek and Judaic-Christian cultures. The effect of the struggles between these has turned European history into a mere enumeration of wars.

 

To the present day there has been no final adjustment or settlement between these alien and contrasting civilizations, and this fact alone is sufficient to explain our cultural disharmony. There is no doubt, for instance, that Greco-Roman culture had much to do with the development of the German race, distinguished by poets and thinkers from barbaric tribes, a race which still fosters humanistic learning and education more than any other nation in the world, but this is accompanied by the invigoration of pagan traditions (which of course also survive elsewhere) derived from the civilizations of Greece and Rome.

 

This pagan influence in Europe is combatted by Judaic-Christian Ethicism. As has been said by Prof. Ellwood of the University of Columbia, "A Society in which power and pleasure are openly avowed as the ends of individual and group action is pagan." So also was Rome with its imperialism and brutal individualism, Greece with its sensuous Aestheticism developed into the Sophistic doctrine of the good being identical with pleasure, and the Germanic tribes with their joy in fighting and plunder. These individualistic principles are easily and without argument to be distinguished as anti-social, and bad or evil in a Masonic sense. They are opposed by the fundamentals of Judaic-Christian Culture based on love and mutual assistance which are social and good.

 

THE DUAL ASPECTS OF OCCIDENTAL CULTURE

 

The cultural state of Europe is thus seen to be a temporary stage of the continuous conflict between the antique pagan and the Judaic-Christian cultures. The egoistic, anti-social (and therefore bad) system has been, and will be, in unremitting conflict with the altruistic, social and good. Europe is the field, and occidental civilization the object, of this everlasting struggle.

 

We may now note the characteristics of what for brevity may be called the "bad" culture.

 

Lust of power and plunder.

 

Commercialism and Materialism devoted to acquiring and possessing material wealth.

 

Trusts and Tariffs which injure the community for the benefit of groups and individuals, enhancing the cost of necessities and lowering the standard of living.

 

The worship of Mammon, of outward appearance, luxury, idleness, and immorality, economic, social and private.

 

Revenge, dueling, drinking, disregard of the beauty of nature, cruelty to the weak and to animals.

 

War, the perfecting of murderous weapons and equipment, militarism and imperialism aiming at the subjugation and exploitation of weaker groups and peoples.

 

The joint effect of these manifest themselves in war and class conflict. They sufficiently characterize the modern barbarian.

 

Together they result in despite of man.

 

On the other hand the good culture opposes to these horrors its own acquisitions.

 

The Arts and Sciences, and the technics which embellish and ameliorate human life.

 

Peace, mutual understanding and tolerance.

 

Improvement of health, eugenics and care for the coming generations.

 

Love of nature and animals.

 

Social sympathy and ethics, activities useful to the whole community.

 

Justice, kindness, tolerance, good-will and mutual assistance.

 

Together these result in the love of man.

 

This patent contrast between the good and the evil strains in civilization as a whole reached a point of tension that arrived logically at its discharge in the great war. The evil elements, commercial jealousy, lust of power, envy and vindictiveness between the nations and their leaders drove the world into the catastrophe long dreaded and even foretold by thoughtful students of sociology and history. But the electric tension was not neutralized nor the atmosphere cleared in the outbreak--this hope, this consolation in extremis with which men of insight had taken refuge, was cruelly deceived. The treaties of so-called peace have not solved one single problem, they have replaced old injustice by new wrongs. The four war motives mentioned above have not been replaced by motives of peace, but instead have been augmented by new dangers of conflict. The masses, pacific at heart, are not yet strong enough to enforce peace. Cultural disharmony in Europe appears to be increased to such a degree that we are forced to stand in fear of a repetition of the atrocious attempt to settle the conflict between the good and the bad in our culture by violence. This uncertain, unsettled, fluctuating state of affairs, calling for clarification and decision, keeping alive the worst fears and suspicions, is what I understand as the Crisis in Civilization.

 

THE IMMEDIATE CAUSES OF THE CRISIS

 

This Crisis originates immediately in the downfall of political powers and disturbance in economics. The old authorities in the defeated countries have been abolished, the new ones have not yet found safe anchorage in the public mind. Democracy has but a limited significance as an authoritative ideal, and the worshippers of the old idols are not yet converted to the new gods. Lost ideals have not been replaced by new, and this combined with material loss has brought them to despair.

 

But equilibrium has been lost in the victorious countries, too, the old authorities have lost their prestige --dictatorships, parliamentary crises, radical changes of government, debased currencies and strikes mark various degrees of this far-reaching disturbance; and these internal wars are also paid for in cultural values exactly as are external ones.

 

Culture is menaced, too, by the economic distress of the after-war period, because it depends to such a degree on material welfare. Like its implacable adversary, war, civilization needs money, that accumulation of material wealth which we call capital. Lack of money hinders the advance of science, makes research impossible and hampers art and literature, for artist and scientist must both live. All the higher and finer values of civilization suffer from a lowering of the standard of life. Culture flourishes only on a golden ground.

 

To discuss the possibility of a solution of these difficulties through war is so alien to Masonic thought that it need not here be touched upon, but it is obligatory to consider all peaceful possibilities. The best statesmanship is being directed to this end. Pacifism, Pan-Europeanism, Reconstruction of Religion, Socialism, these have all been suggested as remedies, whether as a pretended privilege of one party or as the spiritual property of all the well disposed of mankind, and finally, as I firmly believe and hope, Masonry, the most important intellectual interests of which are connected with all these movements in its quality as an element in the "good" culture.

 

We have nothing to do with party politics as Masons, and we have nothing to say about them here. We are all living in the world, we read the newspapers, we know what is passing, and we naturally do not accept llitical speeches, articles and manoeuvers without close scrutiny and criticism. But we should acknowledge and encourage every political idea that aims at internal and external peace, and consequently at the salvation of civilization. Such as, for example, the Inter-parliamentary League of Peace, the League of Nations, and the agreements summed up in the name of "Locarno" and more recently of Thoiry.

 

UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE TREATY

 

The dictated treaties of peace broke down the protecting walls formed by the Germanic Empires against Asia, both physical and spiritual. The Bolshevism now endangering Europe sprang, as did the conflict in European civilization itself, from Asiatic culture (or un-culture?) being influenced by a doctrine alien to its find, disposition, character and racial conditions; i.e. by Marxian Socialism. Europe having, for the sake of opportunistic motives, treated Russia as Eastern Europe instead of Western Asia, is now helpless and unprotected confronted by the results of its past political attitude.

 

While European statesmanship is searching for preventives against revolutionary attempts from the east, America in the west has an increasing influence toward mitigating our cultural crisis, official statements of nonintervention notwithstanding. The American people feels that the politics of the victorious powers must forcibly lead to war again. It does not agree with this turn of affairs and takes ostentatious pains to make it clear that the United States does not intend to meddle with European politics, because it does not feel disposed to become an accomplice in their consequences.

 

But there, nevertheless, exists an effective influence exercised by America. An ethical wave originating in the United States reaches our shores. Through the means of innumerable publications, lectures and visits both of idealists and practical men, American influence is felt. The Rotary Club, the Society of Friends, the Odd Fellows and other associations are spreading their principles in Europe, and scientists and literary men, and leaders of public and industrial life communicate their notions of ethical democracy to us.

 

It is clearly to be observed, also, how both science and religion are at work to educate the American people to fight the evil within the individual as well as to lead the community to a better state, to solve social questions from above by incessantly accentuating the duties of men, as holding possessions, as employers and in the family; and in many notable instances success is observable. The obvious means of such endeavors is to educate the public in social insight and knowledge. We know, too, that in this American Masonry takes a leading part.