About Freemasonry

Part Four: History and Culture

4.1 Where did Masons come from?

There is much debate regarding the origins of the Masonic order. The short answer is, nobody knows for sure. Many Masons and potential Masons make a long and rewarding study of the issue of Masonic origins. If you'd like to do so yourself, suggested readings are listed in section 4.8.

Although Lodges had existed for centuries, four of the old Lodges met in London on St. John the Baptist's Day, June 24, 1717, and formed the first Grand Lodge of England. Soon, the tendency of this Grand Lodge to favor upper social classes led to the formation of a second Grand Lodge, known as the Antients. For 70 years, the Antients and the "Moderns" (the 1717 GL) would remain rivals.

The colonial American Masonic organizations stemmed from these two rival Grand Lodges in England (and sometimes from Continental jurisdictions). The Grand Master of the Moderns appointed Colonel Daniel Coxe as Provincial Grand Master of New York, New Jersy and Pennsylvania on June 5, 1730, and Henry Price of Boston as Provincial Grand Master of New England in April 1733.

4.2 Were the Founding Fathers all Masons?

Masonic signers of the Declaration of Independence: Benjamin Franklin, Robert Treat Paine John Handcock, Richard Stockton, Joseph Hewes, George Walton, William Hooper, and William Whipple.

Masonic signers of the U.S. Constitution: Gunning Bradford, Jr., John Blair, Benjamin Franklin,David Brearley, Nicholas Gilman, Jacob Broom, Rufus King, Daniel Carroll, James McHenery, Jonathan Dayton, William Paterson, John Dickinson, and George Washington.

Thirty-three of Washington's Generals were Freemasons, including General Lafayette.

4.3 What U.S. Presidents have been Masons?

George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson (1º only), Gerald R. Ford

There is some evidence that Abraham Lincoln intended to become a Mason when he returned to Springfield after his second term in office, had he not been assassinated in 1865. The Masonic membership of Thomas Jefferson is disputed, although it is not disproven as many claim.

Many other leaders in government have been Masons. They have included fourteen Presidents and eighteen Vice Presidents of the United States; a majority of the Justices of the United States Supreme Court, of the Governors of States, of the members of the Senate, and a large percentage of the Congressmen. Five Chief Justices of the United States were Masons and two were Grand Masters. The five were Oliver Ellsworth, John Marshall (also Grand Master of Masons in Virginia), William Howard Taft, Frederick M. Vinson and Earl Warren (also Grand Master of Masons in California.)"

4.4 What other famous people have been Masons?

This is by no means a complete list.

FROM THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (other than Presidents): Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Paul Revere, John Paul Jones, Lafayette, Rufus King, James Otis, Baron von Steuben, Joseph Warren

POLITICAL LEADERS: Winston Churchill, Simon Bolivar, Edmund Burke, Benito Juarez, Edward VII, George VI, Bernardo O'Higgins, José de San Martin, Francisco de Paula Santander, José Rizal, José Marti,Pandit Nehru, Lajos Kossuth, Jonas Furrer, Guiseppe Mazzini,Eduard Benes, John A. MacDonald, Aaron Burr, George McGovern, Barry Goldwater, Estes Kefauver, Adlai Stevenson (not the governor of Illinois, but his father who was Vice President in 1892), Thomas E. Dewey, Alf Landon, Hubert H. Humphrey, Wendell Wilke, W.E.B. DuBois, William Jennings Bryant. Friedrich der Grosse

MILITARY LEADERS: Omar Bradley, John J. Pershing, Douglas McArthur, General Winfield Scott, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, General Mark Clark, General George C. Marshall

REPUBLIC OF TEXAS: Sam Houston, Stephen Austin, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William B. Travis (and, it should be added, General Santa Ana)

FINE ARTS: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (and his father, Leopold), Jean Sibelius, Franz Liszt, Josef Haydn, Irving Berlin, Gutzon Borglum, Charles W. Peale, Alfons M. Mucha, John Philip Sousa, Gilbert & Sullivan, George Gershwin, George M. Cohen, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Signmund Romberg, Friedrich der Grosse

ACTORS: John Wayne, Red Skelton, Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks, W.C. Fields, Will Rogers, Burl Ives, Roy Rogers, Harpo Marx, Danny Thomas, Ernest Borgnine, Oliver Hardy, Tom Mix, Audie Murphy, Gene Autry, Wallace Beery, Tor Johnson, Eddie Cantor, Michael Richards.

INDUSTRY & LABOR: Henry Ford, Samuel Gompers, Walter P. Chrysler, John Wanamaker, S.S. Kresge, J.C. Penney, John Jacob Astor, John L. Lewis

ADVENTURERS: Lewis & Clark, Charles A. Lindberg, Kit Carson, Roald Amundsen, Adm. Richard Byrd, Commodore Robert Peary

PHILOSOPHERS: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gotthold E. Lessing, Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet)

ATHLETES: Bob Feller, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, Paul "Dizzy" Trout, Harry Carey, Dell Rice, Jimmy Fox, Joe Tinker, Jack Dempsey, Arnold Palmer, Jack Arthur Johnson

ASTRONAUTS: Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr., Leroy Gordon Cooper, Donn F. Eisele, Virgil I. Grissom, Edgar D. Mitchell, Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Thomas P. Stafford, Paul J. Weitz, James B. Irwin, John Glenn.

WRITERS: Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Sir Walter Scott, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Burns, Wassily I. Maikow, Heinrich Heine, Jean P.C. de Florian, Leopoldo Lugoner, Antonio de Castro Alves, James Boswell, Alexander Pushkin, Arthur Conan Doyle, Johnathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Friedrich Schiller.

LAW: Roscoe Pound, John Marshall, Earl Warren, Thurgood Marshall

MEDICINE: Drs. Alexander Fleming, Jules Bordet, Antoine DePage, Edward Jenner, Charles and William Mayo, Karl and William Menninger

SCIENCE: Hans C. Orsted, Jons Jakob Frk. von Berzelius, Alfred Edmund Brehm, Luther Burbank, Johan Ernst Gunnerus, Albert Abraham Michelson, Gaspard Monge, C.F.S. Hahnemann, Pedro N. Arata, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, Alexander Fleming, James Smithson

...as well as Harry Houdini, Norman Vincent Peale, David Sarnoff, Thomas J. Watson, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Cecil J. Rhodes, Marvin Zindler, and many, many more.

4.5 What famous buildings in the U.S. have been consecrated Masonically?

The U.S. Capitol, The Smithsonian Institution, Jackson Hall, The National Education Association Building, The Army War College Building, House of Representatives Office Building, The Washington Monument, The George Washington Memorial.

4.6 What are the oldest Masonic Temples in the world? In the U.S.?

St. Mary's Chapel, Edinburgh, Scotland is said to be the oldest Masonic Temple in the world, built in 1736. The minutes for this lodge extend back to the early 1600s.

The oldest Temple in America is Masons Hall in Richmond, Virginia, erected in 1785. It is the home of Richmond Randolph Lodge № 19 and Richmond Royal Arch Chapter № 3. It was originally the home of Richmond Lodge № 10, the first wholly new Lodge chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia. It was also the first permanent home of the Grand Lodge of Virginia.

The oldest Temple in California is the original Benicia Masonic Temple, near the San Francisco bay area. It was consecrated in 1850, and is still used from time to time for degrees.

4.7 What about Masonry in fiction and film?

The Man Who Would Be King by Brother Rudyard Kipling. A good story, later made into an excellent film of the same title (Allied Artists Pictures, 1975), starring Michael Caine, Sean Connery, and Christopher Plummer. This movie shows how Masons may assist one other, but in a very fanciful context.

The Turmgesellschaft in Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister" novels is certainly of Masonic origin.

In Tolstoy's War and Peace, the Masonic initiation ritual of the character Pierre Besouchoff is described in great detail.There is also a modest body of Masonic poetry: Kipling's "The Palace" and "Mother Lodge," Burns's "Masonic Farewell," Goethe's "Mason Lodge."

4.8 What books would be good introductions to the Craft?

Albert G. Mackey. The Symbolism of Freemasonry. Original, 1869; Rev. Ed. 2009. An enduring classic, presenting the symbolism of the Craft in light of the traditions of ancient cultures.

MacNulty, W. Kirk. Freemasonry: A Journey through Ritual and Symbol. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991. This is a trim but colorful volume filled with impressive illustrations of Masonic lore, with insightful commentary by the author.

W.L. Wilmshurst. The Meaning of Masonry and The Masonic Initiation. Revised Editions, Plumbstone, 2007. A standard reference. Excellent meditations on Masonic symbolism from a deeply philosophical perspective, updated for American readers.

Stevenson, David. The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century 1590-1710. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. A scholarly treatise which contains many interesting facts about Freemasonry before 1717 when the order "went public." Fully documents the fact that there were indeed Masonic lodges before that time.

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