Edgar Guest, The People's Poet

American Poet Edgar Guest, Ashlar Lodge 91 of Detroit, was known as the "People's Poet."  Unlike many poets who starve and wallow in obscurity, Brother Guest was labled the "foremost poet of the 20th century," and made a very comfortable living with his works.  He was so prolific, he penned over 15,000 poems by writing a poem a day for over 40 years!

First In Flight

The brothers who "invented" flight were not the Wright Brothers.  They were Jacques Etienne and Joseph Michel Montgolfier, both members of the famed Lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris.  Always fascinated by flight, Joseph had an epiphany one evening watching smoke rise from a fire and immediately fashioned a model hot air balloon.  Based on the model, the brothers built a functioning full sized balloon which, after several experiments, they demonstrated before King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, with a sheep, rooster and duck on board.  Upon seeing the demonstration the king declared the Montgolfier family to be royalty.  Their invention carried the first human in free flight on November 21, 1783.

Tower Of London

Originally built as a royal residence, the infamous Tower of London is better known as a gruesome prison.  At various times the Tower imprisoned Freemasons (e.g., American Revolutionary statesman Henry Laurens) and at other times was managed by our Brothers (e.g., Paul Sanford, 3rd Baron Methuen and Frederic Augustus Thesiger).  In a unique event on June 3, 1938, while its members were guarding the Tower, Lodge Glittering Star 322, an Irish military Lodge, conferred a first degree there.

Wyoming Governors

From its founding as a state in 1890 until the mid-twentieth century, every governor of Wyoming was, with one exception, a Freemason. The Exception? Nellie Tayloe Ross, the first woman governor in the United States. Ms. Ross' husband, however, was a Freemason. In fact, he was William B. Ross, who preceded her as Governor. When her husband died in office, supporters urged her to become a candidate to replace him. Although Ms. Ross refused to campaign, she was elected by a wide margin. Born near St. Joseph, Missouri, Ms. Ross was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star.

William McKinley

President William McKinley decided to become a Freemason when he saw acts of compassion by a Union soldier toward Confederate prisoners during the Civil War.  The Union Brother who extended the kindness told McKinley, "It makes no difference to me; they are Brother Masons in trouble and I am only doing my duty."

"If that is Masonry," replied McKinley, "I will take some of it myself."

At that, McKinley petitioned for membership.  Even though he was a Union Major at the time, he was initiated in a southern Lodge with a Confederate chaplain officiating as Master.

Calvin Coolidge

President Calvin Coolidge was not a Freemason, but while Governor of Massachusetts he had this to say about the fraternity when he addressed the Grand Lodge there: "It has not been my fortune to know much of Freemasonry, but I have had the great fortune to know many Freemasons, and I have been able in that way to judge the tree by its fruits. I know of your high ideals. I have seen that you hold your meetings in the presence of the open Bible and I know that men who observe that formality have high sentiments of citizenship, of worth and of character. That is the strength of our commonwealth and nation."

Old Ironsides

After the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") was restored and moored in Charlestown Naval Shipyard (Boston), a Masonic Lodge, Henry Knox Lodge of Massachusetts, was constituted there on March 17, 1926.