Masonic Trivia

It's time for a little Masonic Trivia

Here are 15 things you may not know about your fraternity and your brothers...

Brother "Jimmy" Doolittle earned the Congressional Medal of Honor flying missions to Japan able to go that distance only by high octane aviation fuel he had himself invented.

The Liberty Bell cracked while tolling the Death of Chief Justice John Marshall, Past Grand Master of Virginia.

A Masonic Lodge, Henry Knox Lodge of Massachusetts, was constituted on the ship USS Constitution, also known as "Old Ironsides," on March 17, 1926.

The military bugle call "Taps," written by Brother Daniel Adams Butterfield, was originally called "Butterfield's Lullaby."

Abraham Lincoln petitioned the Masonic Lodge in Springfield, Illinois, but did not join, thinking it would look like he was doing so for political purposes.

Brother Richard Gatling invented the Gatling Gun believing it was such a terrible weapon fear of using it would actually save lives.

Brother Charles Lindbergh, known for his historic flight across the Atlantic, once had his picture on the cover of Time Magazine for inventing what was called an artificial heart.

Brother Harland Sanders started his huge Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise empire with nothing more than a single Social Security Check.

All four presidential candidates in 1948, Republican Thomas Dewey, Progressive Henry Wallace, Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond and the eventual winner,

Democrat Harry Truman, were Freemasons.

From its founding as a state in 1890 until the mid-twentieth century, every governor of Wyoming was, with one exception, a Freemason. That exception was Nellie Tayloe Ross, the first woman governor in the United States, a member of the Eastern Star.

In 1953, the Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Texas was a Brother named Hiram Abiff Boaz.

Gerrymandering, the rearranging of voting districts mainly for political purposes, is named for Brother Elbridge Gerry, fifth Vice President of the US.

Brother Charles P. "Chic" Sale once wrote a best-selling book about outhouses.

The oldest building in the US built specifically for Masonry is Mason's Hall on Franklin Street in Richmond Virginia. It was saved from destruction during the Civil War because Union troops guarded it, ordered to do so by a General who was a Mason.

And Finally, did you know there is only one city in the world known to be purposely laid out on a Masonic theme? Think it's Washington, DC? Think again. In 1816, Hector Kilbourne, a surveyor and member of the first Master of Science Lodge #50, laid out the original plat of Sandusky Ohio. He designed the city on a grid of equal-sized squares and rectangles representing an open Bible, with a square and compasses located in the center. He named many of the streets after famous Masons.

Stephen Austin and Anthony Butler

Anthony Butler (1787–1849) was a lawyer, a politician, a diplomat, the ward and friend of Brother Andrew Jackson and, yes, a Freemason. Brother Jackson, when President, thought highly enough of Butler to appoint him United States chargé d'affaires in Mexico City. He also appointed him his secret agent in a surreptitious plan to purchase Texas for the United States.

Some say Butler was dedicated to the point of ruthlessness in carrying out this plan.

Brother Sam Houston, who had more than one encounter with Butler in the United States' effort to purchase Texas, was not an admirer. "Such men as he is," said Houston, "would destroy a country, but take my word for it, he will never gain one!"

Stephen F. Austin (1793-1836) had known Butler in the US and, although Masonic Brothers, they were far from friends. Many, including Austin, felt President Jackson's plan to purchase Texas was nothing more than a scheme to secure Texas' public lands at a pittance, without regard to the well-being or future of the territory. Austin refused to go along with the deal. Butler, in return, offered Austin a one million dollar incentive (some might call it a bribe) to change his mind, but Austin would have no part in it.

Butler remained in the area attempting to gain Texas for the US despite Austin's opposition. While there, he became interested in and began courting the daughter of a prominent Mexican family. Austin was a friend of the family. Upon hearing what Butler was up to, he exposed him as a man who had a wife and three children back in the US.

Exposing Butler no doubt won the gratitude of his friends but it also sealed Butler's animosity. Butler was delighted when the Mexican government imprisoned Austin for sedition in 1833. Andrew Jackson, however, was not at all pleased when he learned of Austin's arrest. He wrote letters to Butler asking him to act as a United States agent and to use his influence to secure Austin's release.

Rather than ignore Jackson's letters, Butler so despised Austin he made the perilous journey to Mexico City to visit Austin in jail and taunt him with them. During that visit Butler read the letters to Austin and told him the only way he would work for his release would be if Austin gave him large land grants back in Texas. Austin refused and Butler, ignoring President Jackson's request, left him to rot in the Mexican prison. Austin gained his own release eight months later.

The men remained adversaries for life. Austin's place in history is well-known. Although he died at a young age he is revered in Texas for his pioneering efforts... but whatever became of Anthony Butler?

Although he definitely engaged in some questionable behavior, Butler may not have been quite the scoundrel some claimed; or, at least he may have in some measure redeemed himself. As a Freemason he was well-regarded enough to serve as Grand Master of two states, Kentucky (1812 - 13) and, indeed, Texas (1840 - 41). Then, in 1849, the 62-year-old Butler was a passenger on an ill-fated riverboat that exploded and sank on the Mississippi River. Butler died as he swam into the burning wreckage in an attempt to save fellow passengers.

When Mark Twain Met Carrie Nation

The bar was a magnificent stream of mahogany extending the width of the room. Behind it, a gold-embossed mirror reflected a piano player. He thrashed around the keys, pumping out a new ragtime tune — not so loud as to drown out the constant din and not so well as to make it recognizable. To his right, six men played poker at a table beneath a picture of a reclining, half naked, painted woman imagined to be of dubious moral character. Other women, more fully clothed, no less painted and of moral character unknown, circulated through the room encouraging men to order another drink.

There were a few Freemasons in the crowd, even in this obscure saloon in western Missouri... or maybe it was eastern Kansas. Most in the crowded room hadn't given that much thought and most weren't sober enough to care. Drunk or sober, however, the Masons, along with everyone else in the crowd, were certainly aware of the presence of a very famous Brother that evening.

In the back of the room, Samuel Clemens — better known as Mark Twain — held court surrounded by several amused patrons. It was long before the 18^th Amendment ushered in prohibition in the U.S., but even at the turn of the century, the battle lines were drawn and the debate was heated. Given the setting, Twain had selected that as his topic for the evening.

"I don't think prohibition is practical," he began. "The Germans, you see, prevent it. Look at them. I am sorry to learn that they have just invented a method of making brandy out of Sawdust. Now, what chance will prohibition have when a man can take a rip saw and go out and get drunk with a fence rail? What is the good of prohibition if a man is able to make brandy smashed out of the shingles of his roof, or if he can get delirium tremens by drinking the legs off his kitchen table?"

As the crowd roared, Twain stoked the fire, "Temperate temperance is best. Intemperate temperance injures the cause of temperance, while temperate temperance helps it in its fight against intemperate intemperance. Fanatics will never learn that, though it be written in letters of gold across the sky. What marriage is to morality, a properly conducted licensed liquor traffic is to sobriety. In fact, the more things are forbidden, the more popular they become. It is the prohibition that makes anything precious..."

The mirror behind the bar suddenly shattered as if someone had thrown a bomb at it. The piano playing stopped and the hushed crowd watched in horror as an angry woman smashed bottles, tables and chairs with a small menacing ax. Ranting about the evils of demon rum, she turned the mahogany bar into splinters.

Furious, Twain stomped to the bar. The two glared at each other, nearly breathing fire. For a few seconds each said nothing; they just stood, meeting for the first and only time in their lives, face to face — Mark Twain and Carrie Nation.

"Madam," hissed Twain, "This is insanity."

She shot back, "Drinking is insanity."

"Women like you drive men to drink as the only way to be sane," he sneered.

"I married a fine man... a doctor," she wailed, "He was a pillar of the community, until he started drinking. It ruined him and led him to an early grave."

Twain asked, "A doctor married you?"

"Yes," she replied.

"He must have been looking for a cadaver."

Their meeting was short, but auspicious. As usually happened during Carrie Nation's escapades, the authorities came and took her away, screaming about the alcohol-flooded road to ruination.

"And exhibiting," thought Twain, "exactly the same ugly behavior you might expect from some poor sot who was falling down drunk."

Disclaimer: Accounts of Brother Twain's encounter with famed teetotaler Carrie Nation are, at best, sketchy. All reports of the incident appear to have the same source, making corroboration difficult. It is likely a meeting of this nature took place. While Twain's words about prohibition are his own, the remaining details above are... enhanced... under the authority of liberal use of the doctrine of licentia poetica.

Benedict Arnold

The name Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) has become synonymous with the word "traitor." Arnold was an active member of Hiram Lodge 1, New Haven, Connecticut and is known to have visited other lodges as well. Having been a commander in the American Revolution Arnold became disgruntled when, in 1777, the military promoted several lower ranking officers ahead of him. During the next few years, Arnold fell on hard times financially, and came to need a substantial amount of money to pay debts he had incurred. Although finally promoted and given command of West Point, the American fort on New York's Hudson River (and also the future site of the Armed Forces military academy), Arnold's resentment and debts continued to grow.

Now in charge of West Point, Arnold contacted the British with an offer to surrender the fort in exchange for the enormous sum of £20,000 and a significant position in the British military. He sealed the pact with British Major John Andre but the plot was foiled when Andre was captured and executed. This turn of events exposed Arnold, who fled to the British side, where he commanded a few battles, and then returned to England. In return for his actions, the British made Arnold a Brigadier General, gave him a pension and an additional sum of £6,315 (They did not pay the full amount since the plot failed). He died in relative obscurity some twenty years later.

After the West Point incident Arnold became a despised figure among colonists and remains known today as a vile traitor to his country. Even his own Masonic Lodge and other Lodges he had visited had his name stricken from the records.

Prior to the events leading to his act of sedition, however, Benedict Arnold had been an inspiring soldier. At the very outset of the war, he helped Ethan Allen capture Fort Ticonderoga. He then led an unsuccessful campaign to capture Quebec but rebounded and commanded troops that stopped another British invasion. He also stopped the British in the Mohawk Valley, and forced British General John Burgoyne's surrender.

Arnold was severely wounded in his effort to seize Quebec and again at the Battle of Saratoga. His left leg was shattered in both instances. He was wounded a third time in the same leg at the second battle of Saratoga in October, 1777. The third wound was so severe it nearly killed him, Arnold himself saying it would have been better if he had been hit in the chest. After the third injury Arnold refused to have his leg amputated and the crude repairs to his wound left the leg two inches shorter than the other. Seven months later in May, 1778, Arnold went back to service at Valley Forge and made a heroic entrance to the wild cheers of the troops who had served under him at Saratoga.

It was only after Benedict Arnold's battlefield successes, heroic actions and severe wounds at Saratoga that his financial and military troubles started. Without question, had that final leg wound he received at Saratoga been fatal, he would today be remembered as one of America’s greatest revolutionary heroes instead of its most notorious traitor.

Masons at Sight

On December 3, 2011, Most Worshipful Brother Terry L. Seward, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, exercised an authority unique to Grand Masters and made Brother Clifton Truman Daniel a Mason at sight. Brother Daniel is the oldest grandson of Most Worshipful Brother Harry S. Truman. It has happened many times before to dozens of men who have become "true and faithful" Brothers among us. Milton Eisenhower, Charles W. Fairbanks, Andrew Mellon, Booker T. Washington, William Howard Taft... all were made Masons at sight. A couple of years ago basketball standout Shaquille O'Neal and Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss became Masons at sight. It might be said a full list of Masons at sight reads like a Who's-Who of Masonry. Yet many Masons have reservations about the practice, feeling it dilutes the experience of becoming a Freemason and somehow indicates the Mason at sight Brother somehow lacks enthusiasm for or knowledge about the fraternity.

The conventions for making a Mason at sight, as most everything else in the Craft, vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In some jurisdictions, including mine — Missouri, the making of a Mason at sight is prohibited. In general, however, the procedure employs some form of ritual and obligation and has guidelines for how many Brothers must be present. According to Mackey, "The mode of exercising the prerogative is this: The Grand Master summons to his assistance not less than six other Freemasons, convenes a Lodge, and without any previous probation, but on sight of the candidates confers the Degrees upon him, after which he dissolves the Lodge and dismisses the Brethren."

Of course, not everyone does things according to Mackey. Still, some Brothers hold the general conception that the process of making a Mason at sight is almost literal: The Grand Master snaps his fingers and, voilà! A new Mason. It doesn't work that way. "In this case," said MWB Seward, "it means there was no petition, no investigation and the ceremony was slightly shorter. I made every effort to ensure Brother Daniel was comfortable doing things this way because I didn't want him to miss anything and didn't want him to feel he wasn't getting the full experience."

And so it was. Brother Clifton was obligated in the Entered Apprentice and Fellowcraft degrees and received an impressive and full Master Mason degree. Whatever he missed he could easily pick up by viewing the first two degrees. The entire ceremony was solemn, well-orchestrated and beautifully conducted — far more than a snap of the fingers.

The group of Brothers who witnessed Brother Daniel's raising were virtually unanimous in complimenting the ceremony after it was over. They overwhelmingly congratulated the Grand Lodges of Illinois and Missouri for the work. And Brother Clifton expressed the same sentiments.

To look at it from another point of view, every one of those fortunate to be in attendance in that packed Lodge room in Joliet can now say something very few can claim, "I saw the making of a Mason at sight."

The Great Philadelphia Confligration

There is a parking lot at 713 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia at an address which has been the home of two grand Masonic temples as well as the home of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.  The second of those buildings was built from the shell of the first after it burned and eventually served as storefronts and a location for civic events.

Legendary architect William Strickland designed the first building, an ornate structure with a marble and stone exterior and a distinctive three-story steeple-shaped tower rising from its center.  Construction began in 1809 and took two years  when it became the home of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania as well as serving as a Masonic Lodge.

A magnificent building for its time, the Philadelphia Masonic Hall was one of that city's landmarks until March 9, 1819.  On that evening, as Washington Lodge 59 was meeting there, a chimney fire swept through the building, completely destroying it.  No one was hurt, and Lodge members saved some property by carrying it out of the building, but much was lost as the fire erupted into what was described as "a great conflagration."  Reports say the inferno became so intense it was visible in New Castle, Delaware, 32 miles away.  A letter from Rebecca Gratz, a well-known 38-year old Philadelphia socialite who lived next door, describes the incident in detail.  In it, she makes it clear the building might have been saved but for the fact that the volunteer firemen who came to fight the fire were drunk!  As the evening progressed and it became clear the Masonic Hall was lost and Ms. Gratz' house was safe, the event became almost festive as Ms. Gratz added fuel to the fire — pun intended — by serving alcoholic beverages to the fire fighters.

David Rice Atchison: President of the United States for One Day

Riding along the winding backroads of northwest Missouri, about a half-hour form my home, I sometimes stop at an old cemetery just outside Plattsburg. Right inside the entrance is a series of arrows pointing to a specific grave. That grave has a compelling brass marker which proclaims the man buried there was "President of the United States for one day ~ Mar. 4, 1849." After stopping at the cemetery I sometimes roll into Plattsburg where the townsfolk have erected a towering statue to the man, also proclaiming his presidency. On occasion, I've even gone on up the road, across the Missouri river and visited "The World's Smallest Presidential Library," which was built in his honor. The library is located in Atchison, Kansas, which was named after the man, David Rice Atchison.

Senator David Rice Atchison, a member of Platte Lodge #56 in Missouri, was President pro tempore of the United States Senate when Zachary Taylor was elected president. Inauguration day in 1849 fell on a Sunday and the devout Taylor refused to attend his swearing in on the sabbath, rescheduling it for the following day. Taylor's Vice President, Millard Fillmore, followed suit and James K. Polk's term had expired the previous day, technically leaving the presidency vacant. Constitutionally, Atchison was next in line for the office.

Hearing this quirky bit of news, Atchison's friend, Judge Willie Magnum, and a group of others descended on Atchison's house and tramped up to his bedroom in the middle of the night. There, with the confused Atchison in his nightgown, Judge Magnum administered the oath of office. Brother Atchison went back to sleep and spent the bulk of his "presidency" resting and reading in his home. He later said this about his auspicious day:

"It was in this way; Polk went out of office on the third of March 1849, on Saturday at twelve noon. The next day, the fourth, occurring on Sunday, General Taylor was not inaugurated. He was not inaugurated until Monday the fifth, at twelve noon. It was then canvassed among senators whether there was an interregnum (which means a time during which a country lacks a government). It was plain that there was either an interregnum or I was the President of the United States, being chairman of the Senate, having succeeded Judge Magnum of North Carolina. The judge waked me up at three o'clock in the morning and said jocularly that I was President of the United States and he wanted me to appoint him as Secretary of State. I made no pretense to the office, but if I was entitled in it I had one boast to make, that not a woman or child shed a tear on account of my removing anyone from office during my incumbency of the place."

Historians almost universally agree that Atchison was not officially the president. It is also true, however, that neither the outgoing president James K. Polk, nor Taylor were president on March 4. Duly inaugurated, who better than Brother Atchison to fill the gap? If you're not willing to agree that he was at least ex-officio President, just don't mention it around Atchison, Kansas or Plattsburg, Missouri.