The Family Masonic Bible

There have been countless times when I have been sitting at my desk in the lodge room looking up and down the sidelines wondering where my grandfather used to sit during meetings. It is a connection that I have with my grandfather despite never having the chance of getting to know him while growing up. Lodge is something that we have in common and I am always reminded of that when I see his ring on my finder and, now, when I look at the family Bible which I have been using recently for my genealogy research.

When I was raised just over three years ago, my mom pulled me aside and handed me my grandfather’s Masonic ring. She knew that I would appreciate and take care of it. She also knew that I was one of the few people in the family who would actually use it as there are not many masons in my family. The ring meant a lot to my grandfather, it means a lot to my mom, and it certainly means a lot to me. Now, just over three years later, my mom again pulled me aside and told me that she wanted to give me my grandfather’s Masonic Bible. The ironic thing is that my grandfather was presented his Bible just over three years after being raised and now I am being presented with that same bible just over three years since I was raised.

Not only was this the Bible presented to him by his lodge but it has also served as the family Bible with my grandparent’s marriage having been recorded in its pages and my grandmother having recorded many of the births and deaths throughout her life. Between the covers there are names across many generations from the death of my great great grandfather all the way through the birth of my niece... my name can be found in these pages too. All written in my grandmother’s hand.

I remember seeing my grandmother with the blue binding on her lap flipping through the book and pulling out the papers tucked between the pages. This became a more and more regular occurrence toward the end of her life. It was also one of the few things that my mom wanted to hold on to after my grandmother passed away. I know how much this Bible meant to my grandmother and I know how much it means to my mom. I am being entrusted with its safe keeping and it is not something I take lightly. After all, this is not just an item that resonates with me as a mason, it is a connection to my grandfather, my grandmother, and my mom.

Different But Similar

There have been several occasions when I have heard people compare the first meeting with a candidate with that of a sales meeting. I wholeheartedly disagree with this premise. Meeting with those men interested in becoming masons should never involve any kind of sale whatsoever and should never come across as such. Meeting with a candidate for the first time should be a time to answer questions and start and interesting conversation. At no point during such conversations have I had the goal of getting a petition signed… my objective has always been to have a great conversation.

By approaching the process in this way it allows all the cards to be put on the table. The potential candidate gets to know me and I get to know them. We find our similarities and, sometimes, we discuss our differences. While I do my best to answer any questions they may have about freemasonry and give a very broad overview of the lodge, the fraternity, and the process of becoming a mason, it is a very open and broad conversation as a whole. Right or wrong, this is how I approach these opportunities to meet interesting people from the community.

This was the case last night as I had previously coordinated a time to meet with a prospective candidate last week. After a brief introduction and welcome, we made our way into the hall and sat at one of the dining tables to simply have a conversation and to get to know one another. Over the course of the evening there were a number of other brothers who introduced themselves and joined the conversation and by the end of the night we had discussed a wide range of topics. However, the most important part of the evening was that we were able to learn a little about him and he was able to learn a little about us as individuals, the lodge, and freemasonry in general.

As we talked about our families and the reasons why freemasonry piqued our interest there were a number of commonalities in our perspectives and in our lives that wouldn’t necessarily be evident to someone who would simply see the two of us talking. The reasons for our interest in the fraternity are nearly identical and we are both interested to learn about our grandfather’s lives within freemasonry. However, he did surprise me by the end of the night by immediately completing a petition on the spot. This surprised me both because I didn’t expect him to do so (I never go beyond handing someone a petition and asking them to think about it) and because it is the same way that I would have reacted had I been given the same situation.

Again, I walked toward the parking lot reinvigorated by the night and excited to have another good man interested in joining our lodge and becoming part of this fantastic fraternity. I consider myself very lucky for having witnessed that same passion and excitement so many times in so many good men over the years (especially over the last several months). There is a lot to be thankful for and a lot to look forward to during the second half of the year.

Sunday Search: Connections Through Occupations

There is a wealth of information that can be found in the census. Some of those facts prove to be quite useful when trying to pull the pieces together in order to learn about a distant relative. And while there are a number of things that should be checked and double checked, there is one piece of information in particular that seems to be regularly reliable… occupation. While the spelling of names, use of nicknames, and inaccurate dates abound in these national reports, the occupation of the individual is something really hard to mess up unless the census taker is told the wrong information on purpose.

While most of my family can be found listed as farmers and homemakers, there are the occasional outliers that catch my attention. Not because they are of any extraordinary profession but because it is simply something different than the norm and it makes me think about what that job must have been like at the time. After all, while the basic functions and responsibilities associated with a particularly line of employment, the means by which the tasks are completed are vastly different from that of over 100 years ago. There are exceptions to that rule as well.

Of course, what is even more interesting to me is the interplay between the different lines of the family tree. Sometimes there are other common connection both in geography and occupation that makes you wonder if ancestors in question ever ran into one another. This is where the intrest is really piqued and when the imagination can sometimes wander in to the realm of possibility regardless of how improbable it may have been. Let’s just take the 1900 Census for example.

In 1900 and at the time of his death in 1902, my great great grandfather on my dad’s side, Samuel Ardis, was a clerk for the railroad most likely the Pennsylvania Railroad which, at the time, was headquartered in Philadelphia (my three times great grandfather was a messenger for the railroad as well). Who knows, maybe he ran into my great great grandfather on my mom’s side, William McKannan, who was a Railroad Night Caller in Trenton. While he may have lived and worked in Trenton, there was still a lot of family that remained in Philadelphia. It is interesting to think about the duties and responsibilities that they each had and whether there was a possible connection between the two families over 70 years before my parents got married.

Another interesting consideration is the fact that at the turn of the 20^th century another one of my great great grandfathers on my mom’s side, John Uttley, was a Philadelphia Police Officer in Ward 5 (Roxborough). For good reasons or bad, I wonder if he ever ran into some of the other members of my family years before the trees would merge. You simply never know if there was ever an introduction among the families before the actual connections were made years later.   

And this is just one year of the census, one family, and one geographic location. There are undoubtedly times when you will see different families within the same page or two of the census but it is fascinating to look back decades before the families would eventually merge to find the possible points of contact and connection that may or may not have existed at the time. In a dedicated passion that requires facts, sometimes it is nice to think about the possibilities despite the lack of evidence. I guess you could say that this is part of the process as well. After all, you never know what you might find.

A Little Extra

As you have rad time and again on this blog, lately I have been trying to push for participation from my fellow brothers and each time they have come through. Last night thy came through again. This should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with freemasonry but

Last night was, in my opinion, the most important of all the meetings and events to ensure that things continued to move forward as scheduled. Last night we welcomed a new brother into the lodge. That’s right, it was another degree conferral and the official beginning of a new brother’s masonic journey. It is the meeting that started us all and that I particularly enjoy being a part of… in many respects this applies to all of the degrees as they are the same each and every time. We all start at the same place regardless of our name, bank account, occupation, etc. It all begins with the same identical step.

Each time I witness a degree conferral I learn a little more. Sometimes it is as simple as retaining some of the information recited while other times I find myself thinking about the reasons I chose to become a mason and the reasons I now enjoy being a masons and being involved in the lodge. Last night, I was reminded, once again, of the fact that we are brothers and we make the time to support one another no matter if we are taking our first steps or we are 65+ years into our journey.

I also found myself glancing at the ring on my finger, my grandfather’s masonic ring. While he wasn’t the most active mason (as I have been told) he did take pride in the fact that he belonged to this fraternity and our lodge. Of course, I feel like I am bringing him with me to every meeting just by wearing his ring. I guess you could say that I am keeping him involved whether he likes it or not.

Overall, these nights are not as well attended as the stated meetings but, when you think about it, these meetings are more critical to the life and future of the lodge. One of the best parts of being secretary is playing a role in the making of a mason. From the initial petition to the degrees to embracing our new brother as a Master Mason. But my role is only a small one as without the rest of the lodge these degrees and meetings would not be possible. The lodge cannot rely on just one brother, the lodge can only operate with the support of the brethren.

Reflections On Father’s Day

My dad with my grandfather (my mom's dad) from before I was born.

Today I was once again out of the apartment. Usually I don’t like to be out and about two days in a row but there was a darn good reason to get back on the road. This time it was a short trip to my parent’s house about 15 minutes down the road so that I could spend time with the best man I have ever known, my father.  

Father’s Day is commonly seen as a compliment to Mother’s Day and the history of the day expounds upon that progression. A good summary, as is commonly the case, can befound on Wikipedia which outlines the history of Father’s Day in the following way:

Father's Day was inaugurated in the United States in the early 20th century to complement Mother's Day in celebrating fatherhood and male parenting.

After the success obtained by Anna Jarvis with the promotion of Mother's Day in the US, some individuals, such as Sonora Dodd, wanted to create similar holidays for other family members, and Father's Day was the choice most likely to succeed. There were other persons in the US who independently thought of "Father's Day", but the credit for the modern holiday is often given to Sonora Dodd of Central Methodist Episcopal Church, who was the driving force behind its establishment.

Father's Day was founded in Spokane, Washington at the YMCA in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd, who was born in Arkansas. Its first celebration was in the Spokane YMCA on June 19, 1910. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there. After hearing a sermon about Jarvis' Mother's Day in 1909 at Central Methodist Episcopal Church, she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday honoring them. Although she initially suggested June 5, her father's birthday, the pastors did not have enough time to prepare their sermons, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. Several local clergymen accepted the idea, and on 19 June 1910, the first Father's Day, "sermons honoring fathers were presented throughout the city."

However, in the 1920s, Dodd stopped promoting the celebration because she was studying in the Art Institute of Chicago, and it faded into relative obscurity, even in Spokane. In the 1930s Dodd returned to Spokane and started promoting the celebration again, raising awareness at a national level. She had the help of those trade groups that would benefit most from the holiday, for example the manufacturers of ties, tobacco pipes, and any traditional present to fathers. Since 1938 she had the help of the Father's Day Council, founded by the New York Associated Men's Wear Retailers to consolidate and systematize the commercial promotion. Americans resisted the holiday during a few decades, perceiving it as just an attempt by merchants to replicate the commercial success of Mother's Day, and newspapers frequently featured cynical and sarcastic attacks and jokes. But the trade groups did not give up: they kept promoting it and even incorporated the jokes into their adverts, and they eventually succeeded. By the mid-1980s the Father's Council wrote that "(...) [Father's Day] has become a Second Christmas for all the men's gift-oriented industries."

A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak in a Father's Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized. US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress. In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus "[singling] out just one of our two parents". In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.

More and more there are moment in my life when I notice that I am beginning to sound or act like my dad (not in the Harry Chapin sort of way) and I couldn’t be happier about that fact. It throws my wife off every once in a while when she notices these things but whenever she points them out I just smile, nod, and think to myself how appreciative I am of that fact. Even the times when my dad and I discuss things we seem to think along the same lines and the discussion progresses quickly… we can summarize the problems of the world rather quickly when we get on a roll.

I wouldn’t trade any of the moments that I have had with my father for anything and I am grateful for all that he has taught me both when instructing me in how to do something, supporting me when things aren’t going well, and the lectures he gave me when I screwed up (I know, your shocked that I’m not a perfect angel). While it may not have been obvious at the time, each of those kinds of moments shaped me into who I am today. Not perfect but much better off for having such a mentor in my life.

While I don’t expect to ever accomplish all that my father has in his life I am trying every day to at least come close. Of course, I doubt that this will ever happen as he still works hard every day and, for the most part, refuses to retire. I just wish that he would stop working one of these days and enjoy all that he has worked so hard for in his life. With that said, I don’t plan to ever stop working either. So, I will end this simply by saying Happy Father’s Day Dad. Thank you for all the help and support that you have given to me over the years without ever asking for anything in return.

One Ring In The Tree

A couple of months ago I came across a question posed in one of the Freemason groups that I belong to on LinkedIn which asked “How many of you wear a Masonic ring at your professional work place?” A very simple yes or no type question but there is much more to it than that. It has been interesting following the responses that occasionally trickle into my inbox. Not surprisingly, the majority of the answers, like mine, have been in the affirmative but there has been a variety of stories behind the answers.

Obviously, all of the answers I have read have made me think about the reasons why I chose to wear mine. By proudly displaying my affiliation on my finger I am not just representing Freemasonry, my lodge, and myself I am honoring my family as the ring I wear twenty four hours a day, seven days a week is the same one my grandfather wore from the time he became a Mason to the day he died. It is a way to connect with my grandfather who I never knew as he passed only a month after I was born.

My grandfather was not a wealthy man in a financial sense so instead of a wedding band he wore his Masonic ring. While I don’t wear it as a wedding ring as my grandfather did, it still serves as a reminder of my commitment not just to my brothers but also to my family and my heritage. It is a tactile motivation to learn more about the craft and also to learn more about my family especially the ones I never had the chance to know.

It keeps me connected to the past, hopeful for the future, and pushes me to do what I can to make sure that I do something worth remembering with my life. It doesn’t have to be anything spectacular or influence the lives of many, as long as I accomplish something worth passing down I will be happy. I guess that’s why I am so motivated to keep this blog going day after day. It is not about getting a certain amount of views (although that is nice), it is not about making a profit (I don’t make anything), it is about providing a simple record of an ordinary life.

As I wrote about yesterday, the most commonly overlooked person on a family tree is the one that is compiling the information. I guess you could consider this blog as part of my genealogical record. Whereas we have documents, newspaper articles, family stories, and heirlooms such as my ring, I have my words and, like my grandfather’s ring, I hope to pass this on to future generations not only to keep the tree alive but to make sure it flourishes.