Herbert Hoover and Freemasonry

A few accounts claim certain famous men who were not Freemasons intended to join the fraternity but circumstances did not permit them to do so. Notable among these are Dr. Martin Luther King and President Abraham Lincoln. Some reports say King was to have been made a Mason upon returning from his tragic trip to Memphis. Lincoln actually petitioned Tyrian Lodge No. 333 in 1860, but decided not to join until after his presidency, thinking becoming a Mason would look like he was doing so for political purposes.

There has never been any doubt about President Herbert Hoover's Masonic status. He was not a Freemason. History nor Hoover himself have never had much to say about why… he just wasn't.

In the memoirs of prolific Masonic author Ray V. Denslow, however, we learn there is more to the story. Former Secretary of Agriculture, Arthur M. Hyde, lived in Trenton, Missouri, near Denslow's home. After his presidency had ended, Hoover visited Hyde at his home and a few guests were invited to the affair. Denslow and his wife Clara were among those fortunate to receive an invitation and he gave the following account:

"Mrs. Denslow and I were both invited to the Hyde home to meet both Mr. and Mrs. Hoover. The evening proved to be in the nature of a reception. I had opportunity to talk privately with Mr. Hoover for a time and to study him and his wife at close range. Mr. Hyde said to him 'this is the young man I spoke to you about.'

I never did learn what he was speaking about, unless it was that Mr. Hyde told me once that Mr. Hoover would petition the Masonic fraternity if he thought he could get in. The inquiry came before campaign time and I assured Mr. Hyde that he knew, as well as I, that any attempt to present a petition at that time might be regarded as campaign propaganda. He said Mr. Hoover wouldn't consider it in that event and the matter apparently dropped.

Another interesting thing Mr. Hyde said to me, was that when Hoover attended college in California he was not a member of any college fraternity. Several fraternity men attempted to keep him from going with Miss Lou Henry, later his wife, who was a sorority girl; this angered him to such an extent that he always regarded fraternities with a questionable eye. Not until after his experiences in Europe and this country did he assume a favorable attitude towards them."

Hoover's situation, then, was somewhat similar to Lincoln's — political reasons may have prevented him from becoming a Freemason. What's more, he may have put off thoughts about joining until it was too late due to a prior negative experience with fraternities. It's not clear how seriously Hoover may have thought he wouldn't "get in," but it is a near certainty he would have been elected to receive the degrees had he done so.

Lincoln, King, Hoover and probably many others have considered knocking at the outer door but for whatever reason just didn't take that first step; and in the vast majority of cases it's a shame. The craft most certainly would have been all that much better having them as Brothers.

X-Rated Freemasonry

Freemasons — those never kiss-and-tell pillars of society always adhere to the values of ethics and high-morals, observing the promises of their obligations.  Well... almost always.  There have been instances where society, depending upon the social mores of the day, may have judged Brethren harshly for "crossing the line."  Some of those occasions by today's standards may seem as tame as a sleeping kitten while others might raise the eyebrows of the most iniquitous among us.  Read on, and judge for yourself.

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American Gothic

Brother Grant Wood (1892-1942), of Mount Hermon Lodge 263, Cedar Rapids, painted the acclaimed American Gothic. Released in 1930, the painting shocked many when Wood said it was a portrait of a married couple.  The scene depicts an elderly man holding a pitchfork standing next to a much younger woman.  The age difference caused the scandal, so Wood eventually said the woman represented the man's daughter.  He would, in fact, change that story and say she was his wife, depending on how he perceived the audience would react.

Four Too Many

Brother Tom Mix, a member of  Utopia Lodge 537 of Los Angeles was one of the earliest film superstars.  In an era where moviegoers were unaccustomed to some of the antics of Hollywood actors, they were shocked at what one might call his practice of "serial monogamy." Mix had five wives — at a time when that number was considered just about four too many.

Bare Facts

After visiting the Soviet Union Brother Will Rogers wrote a book entitled, There's Not A Bathing Suit In Russia, And Other Bare Facts.  Suggestive by the standards of the day, the publisher declined to put the second part of the title on the book's cover.

Stephen Austin's  Nemesis

Anthony Butler (1787–1849) was a lawyer, a politician, a diplomat, the ward and friend of Brother Andrew Jackson and, yes, a Freemason.   Jackson appointed Butler his secret agent in a surreptitious plan to purchase Texas for the United States.  Upon arriving in Texas, Butler crossed swords with Brother Stephen F. Austin who was establishing colonies there.  While there, Butler 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., thwarting the plan to purchase Texas and fueling a lifetime of animosity between the two Masonic Brothers.

The Bestseller

Charles P. "Chic" Sale (1885-1936), Urbana Lodge 157 (IL), was an actor and humorist in vaudeville and a character actor in movies.  He never achieved a great amount of fame, however, until he became an author and published The Specialist.  The book sold 200,000 copies in three months and went on to be a million-seller.  Its subject: outhouses.  Considered risqué for its time, the book was nearly banned, but Brother Sale chose his words just carefully enough to avoid having it censored.

A One-Glove Striptease

Glenn Ford, a member of Riviera Lodge 780 in Pacific Palisades, California, got his big break when Humphrey Bogart turned down the role of Johnny Farrell in the 1946 blockbuster, Gilda.  In one scene his co-star, Rita Hayworth, was to take swing at him.  She misjudged the distance between them and broke Ford's jaw.  That was only the beginning of the scandal the film generated.  In it, Hayworth performed a strip-tease in which she removed nothing more than one glove.  That and a rumored affair between the two co-stars nearly caused censors to ban the movie.

Sin-Suffer-Repent

Brother Henry Lieferant (1892-1968), Lodge unknown, was a Polish-born and educated immigrant to the US who became a prolific author with several books and magazine articles to his credit.  As Editor-in-chief of True Story magazine, he was responsible for its rise to popularity — and reputation as an "off color" magazine — when he developed the story format whereby a heroine "violates standards of behavior, suffers as a consequence, learns her lesson and resolves to live in light of it, unembittered by her pain."  True Story magazine still survives using Brother Lieferant's tried-and-true, if not slightly salacious format known as "sin-suffer-repent."

Panty Raid

A Grand Lodge of California account from the mid-1960s describes a crime in which a Brother had been convicted of the theft of clothing, including 181 pairs of women's undergarments.  The official police report described the incident as a "panty raid," stemming from the popular (and self-explanatory) hi-jinx occurring on college campuses at the time.  The Brother came up on Masonic charges.  In order to distinguish his serious crime from some youthful indiscretion, the Grand Lodge of California Proceedings for that year included the following: "We do not wish to be misunderstood as overemphasizing the gravity of that specification against the accused in which he is charged with a ‘panty raid.' Indulgence in such conduct by boys of college age for the purpose of displaying either skill or courage, if that be the purpose, differs from the conduct of the accused here, in that the theft of 181 pairs of ladies pants is not merely a playful prank."

Unchristian Conduct

The Presbyterian Church in 1831, sanctioned Nathaniel Beverley Tucker (1784-1851), second Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Missouri, for shocking "unchristian conduct." Certain parties, it seems, claimed he "partook of the amusement of dancing" on three occasions. There is no record of any action taken against him, but shortly thereafter MWB Tucker became an Episcopalian.

Keeping It In the Family

Brother Will Rogers asked his wife Betty to marry him in 1906.  Betty, apprehensive about a life in show business, turned him down.  A year and a half later the persistent Rogers changed her mind and they married.  In the meantime`, Rogers dated every one of Betty's six sisters.

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Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said of obscenity, "I can't define it... but I know it when I see it."  That might apply to each of these little scenarios.  As you form your opinion about their appropriateness, you might do well to drag your Bible off the shelf and read Matthew 7:1-3;  And, while you're at it, ask yourself if the title of the article piqued your interest.

The Artificer

Every Sunday school student knows Cain was the son of Adam and Eve. Beyond Cain Biblical genealogy is well-defined, but not such common knowledge. For the record, the sons of the generations following Cain were Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methushael, and Lamech.

Lamech, was the first known polygamist. His first wife was Adah and his second was Zillah, with whom, he had a son and a daughter. Their daughter's name was Naamah.

Naamah's brother was a man who gets sparse mention in the Masonic ritual, yet who is familiar to all Master Masons. His name was Tubalcain, an eighth generation descendant of Adam himself.

So who was this man we've all heard about? There are several ideas about the origin of his name. Some believe the second part of his name merely suggests his lineage in the line of Adam's son Cain. Others claim the first part to be derived from ybl (Y-B-L), meaning "to produce." The second part stems from the Aramaic qainaya (Q-A-I-N-A-Y-A ) meaning "metalworker." There are other suggested origins, but these seem most likely since they refer to his occupation, that of working with metals.

Living up to his name, Tubalcain became a metalworker, forging tools out of bronze and iron. He is said, in fact, to have been the inventor of the forge, indicating he was the first skilled artificer in metals. The Bible also says he was an instructor of other metal craftsmen.

Tubalcain's father Lamech was a follower of Cain's wicked and murderous ways. Genesis 4:23-24 tells us a young man committed a seemingly small offense against him and Lamech not only killed him but bragged about it to his wives. Knowing God marked Cain with a sign and promised seven times vengence on anyone who killed Cain for murdering Abel, Lamech boasted God would likewise protect him seventy times seven, a claim which, unlike with Cain, did not come from God, but from Lamech's bloated ego.

Any vengance upon the wicked sons of Cain, including Lamech, did not pass to Tubalcain, who significantly impacted history with his discoveries in the art of metalworking. His cultural contributions are said therefore to be an illustration of the grace of God at work.

Tubalcain… you might simply say he was the eighth man from Adam, and the first known artificer in metals.

For the Whence Came You podcast, this is Steve Harrison with the Masonic Minute.

They Paved Paradise

Masonic education is all the rage with the crowd I run with; and this is, by the way, a good thing. I seem to hear more about Masonic education now than ever before ("ever before" being defined as since I joined the Craft 19 years ago).

We may not always stop to think that "Masonic education" is a broad term that can take many forms. It can be a deep, spiritual, esoteric subject that, frankly, sometimes winds up being over my head. Or it can be something lightweight – maybe an account of something a Brother did or even a funny anecdote. Usually the subject falls somewhere in between. Doesn't matter. Whatever form it takes, Masonic education is the hot topic du jour. Hallelujah. When we are new to the degrees and are asked what it is we want, we respond that we want light, and progressively more of it. In other words, our Masonic journey is a search for enlightenment; and the path for that journey is education. Keep it coming.

However, I hear a lot of dissent about some of the other things we do: "Oh, man, not another bean dinner," or "what's with all the service projects, what are we, the Rotary?" (No offense meant to the Rotary, a fine organization, but different than the Freemasons).

See, I like those things, too. The bean dinners, the meals before the meetings and all the social events give me a chance to get together with my Brothers and informally kick things around. Those conversations usually aren't very heavy but they're enjoyable. The social interaction we have with our Brothers is an important part of what our fraternity is. We don't want our organization to be all joking and no substance but I also wouldn't want to exclude it. All work and no play makes Hiram a dull boy.

Also, there are the service projects. In my area we help with the Child Identification Program (MoCHIP) which, in the past decade has helped return at least eight missing or abducted children to their homes, out of about a quarter million registered. That and other projects give the Brothers a sens of fulfillment. You know, it's the old, "it is better to give than receive" thing. Community service – let's have more of that, too.

So, recapping, when we get together as Brothers, we're doing a broad range of things: We have social interaction at our events; we help make our communities better places through our service projects; and we seek enlightenment.

Freemasonry needs all of these. In fact, couldn't we call our social interaction Brotherly Love, our community service Relief and our quest for enlightenment a search for Truth? Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth. Where have I heard that before?

We are more than Masonic education, and that is outright blasphemy to some. During this scary epidemic when we sit cooped up in our houses held hostage by a tiny unseen enemy, that fact may be more apparent than ever before. We have books and Internet and can have just about as much Masonic education as we want to dig out on our own. Those Lodge service projects are more or less on hold; and those social events, apart from a few online meetings for some, are non-existent. What is truth without its close companions brotherly love and relief? And now, at least temporarily, those companions are out of reach. We miss them. As the song says, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone?"

Meet, Act, and Part — Denslow

My appearance on the Meet, Act, and Part podcast April 6, 2020:

A Tipping Point

Several months ago I wrote a piece for the Midnight Freemasons blog entitled, "The Meeting." In that article I speculated what it would be like in the future to visit my Lodge and attend a meeting in a virtual reality setting. There I saw old friends who were doing the same thing from afar, and for our Masonic education that night we got nothing less than a walking tour of the Loge des Neuf Sœurs as it appeared when Benjamin Franklin was in attendance. While some of the technology needed to do that is available today, it's not at the level I discussed in the article. We'll have to wait awhile before we can do things like that… or will we?

Unless you just landed on earth from a trip to the planet Neptune or some other far off place in the galaxy, you know that we are living in a strange, historic and even scary time as this Covid-19 menace, the Coronavirus, circulates among us. Many of us live trapped in our residences as we practice "social distancing" to ward off the disease.

We've become a nation of hermits. Every in-person Masonic meeting has been postponed or canceled. The week before this all came to a head I personally had five – count 'em five – Masonic meetings and that, in the following days abruptly became zero. You may have had the same experience and now we're all going through our own series of withdrawal pangs. What to do?

Well, we're a fraternity of intelligent guys who are well-aware of ways to keep up with events, check on our Brothers, friends and their families. This is, after all the age of social media. We also know ways to keep up with our Masonic education with a number of online facilities like the podcast you're listening to, the Masonic Roundtable, and a host of others.

Of course many of these tools put us in a position of practicing our Masonic craft in isolation. Sometimes this is a good thing, but other times, a little goes a long way. In our quest for Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth, the Brotherly Love aspect can fall behind if we can't get together.

So what about that little foray into science fiction I wrote about a couple years ago? Brothers, we're just about there. Oh, we didn't take a group tour of the loge des Noeuf Soeurs but just the other night I sat down in my office in my own home and attended a meeting hosted by the Scottish Rite in St. Louis.

Twenty-nine of us got together and heard a presentation and had a discussion about the Seventh Degree. It wasn't just one Brother presenting and the rest listening. It was all of us participating. We may be trapped at home but there are creative ways for us to get out and share that brotherhood we crave. My hat's off to my St. Louis Brothers for doing this. I understand they plan to make it a regular thing and I think this kind of thing will catch on.

Not only that, this may be a tipping point. I'm guessing these online discussions facilitated by technologies like Zoom and others, will be here to stay as yet another tool in our quest for Masonic education. The technology is there, it's fairly simple to use. Check it out. Set up your own meetings. It's a good alternative as we weather the storm. Stay safe, Brothers, and let's use everything technology offers to keep the social aspects of our fraternity alive for the duration.

St. Patrick's Day

Every school kid learns March 17 is the day we celebrate the life and deeds of Maewyn Succat, the second Bishop of Ireland, who is better known as Ireland's Patron Saint, St. Patrick. Those same school kids also learn Patrick's great triumph was chasing the snakes out of Ireland. It's true, there are no snakes in Ireland; however, that's more likely because there have never been any snakes on the isolated island.

Captured and taken into slavery as a youth, Maewyn, a.k.a. Patrick, escaped to the European mainland. While a slave he had converted from paganism to Christianity, and once on the continent, he sought refuge at Marmoutier Abbey, a French monastery. There, he accepted his calling, which was to convert other pagans to Christianity. With that, he returned to Ireland and became very successful at making those conversions. In a manner of speaking, the "serpents" he figuratively chased from Ireland were the pagan Druids, not actual reptiles.

After a successful ministry, Patrick retired to County Down, where he died on March 17, 461 A.D. Although never officially canonized by the Catholic Church he is, in fact, recognized as a saint; and today we celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick, or St. Patrick's Day, on the anniversary of his death.

However, even in Ireland prior to the late 18^th century, St. Patrick's Day was not that big of a deal. The same was true in North America, where the churches in Boston, with its large Irish population, didn't recognize the day until 1737.

"So, what," you may ask, "does this have to do with the Freemasons?"

About twenty years later, during the French-Indian War, a young Masonic Colonel recognized the morale among his troops was low and decided they needed what today we would call some "down time." It was March, at the end of a long, brutal winter and many of the troops were Irish. It didn't take the Colonel long to figure out the best day to declare a general holiday would be St. Patrick's day.

Several years later, that same Freemason, now a general in the American Revolution, faced a very similar problem. Billeted at Morristown, New Jersey, his troops were discouraged after a long winter of devastating fighting and losses. On top of that, the preceding winter of 1779-80 was brutally cold. That General, George Washington, again had many Irish troops under his command and once again he saw the opportunity of celebrating St. Patrick's Day to boost morale. With that, Washington issued the order giving his troops their first day off in over two years, “The General directs that all fatigue and working parties cease for to-morrow the SEVENTEENTH instant, a day held in particular regard by the people of [Ireland].”

The respite from the ravages of war and winter went over well with the troops, some of whom were said to celebrate with a "hogshead of rum." Washington is credited with establishing the first instances of a secular celebration of St. Patrick's day, a tradition which caught on and has grown to become a major event today, with the hogshead of rum long replaced by freely flowing green beer.