To celebrate the latest release from HITM Press, both HITM Press and I are pleased to offer as a special bonus, a reproduction of the article “Freemasonry in San Diego County.” The material is well worth your time and consideration. It raises many interesting tidbits of information regarding the early days of the Craft in San Diego. The source for this piece, The San Diego Times, is unknown to me. Most likely, it is a Masonic or fraternal publication due to how the author is listed. Also, while no date is indicated in the original article, based on people mentioned and the offices they held as reported in the piece, I believe a strong argument can be made that this article is dated c.1934. Finally, a copy of the original article can be found in the Archives of the San Diego History Center under the entry: Cyrus Field Willard, “Freemasonry in San Diego County,” The San Diego Times, no date, “Masons” document file, San Diego History Center.
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Freemasonry in San Diego County
by Cyrus Field Willard, 32°
(From The San Diego Times, Circa 1934)
The history of Freemasonry in San Diego County is one that all Freemasons regard with pride. The first Lodges in the State were formed around San Francisco and the gold regions, where, the Masons coming from the Eastern states and foreign countries gathered together in their Lodges to assist each other in a strange land.
While San Diego was the place of beginnings on the Pacific Coast yet the Spaniards under Galvez and the Franciscan monks who established the mission of San Diego in 1769 before Father Serra came, were not Masons.
There was nothing much done here until the discovery of gold near Sacramento in 1848, after the breaking out of the Mexican war. It was a Mason, Commodore Sloat, a member of St. Andrew's Lodge No. 3 of New York City, who hoisted the American flag at Monterey and seized that seat of the Mexican government in California, in July 1846. On Dec. 5, 1846 the battle of San Pasqual was fought and Kit Carson and Lieut. Beale, both Brother Masons, crawled through a triple cordon of Mexican soldiers and reached San Diego where Commodore Stockton, also a Mason, had taken possession of the town. They sent a force of marines and sailors who rescued Gen. Kearney from the dangerous position in which he was after the battle, and turned defeat into victory.
Then came to San Diego in 1850, John Judson Ames, editor of the "San Diego Herald," which he established in this city in that year and first suggested the formation of San Diego Lodge, which is the oldest Lodge in California south of the Tehachapi with its first Master, William C. Ferrell, who had been sent out from South Carolina as the first Collector of the Port, by the Southern Democrats who then controlled the government. It was Lieutenant George H. Derby, an officer in the U. S. Engineer Corps of the Army, who, under the name of "John Phoenix" wrote "Phoenixiana" and the Squibob Papers, which gave him a great reputation before the Civil War. He was the originator of that American school of humor, of which Mark Twain, Bret Harte and many others were exponents and which is distinctively American. Derby was the acting Master of San Diego Lodge No. 35 for several years, as it did not receive its charter until May 6, 1853, on account of lack of knowledge of procedure and some friction of a nature which has never been disclosed. Derby as Army engineers, was sent down to San Diego to build the dike which diverted San Diego river from San Diego bay into False Bay, sometimes called Mission bay for some mysterious reason, as there is no Mission near it. He had been the Master of Temple Lodge No. 14 Sonoma, before he came down here and he acted as Master when the first elected Master declined to serve. Ames was his Senior Warden, who was 6 feet, 6 1/2 inches tall and weighed 240 pounds, while Derby was short and stocky–only about 5 feet 6 inches, which makes his story of his fight with Ames over his changing politics of the Herald all the more amusing
Other members of this Lodge were Philip Crosthwaite, a cattle-man who was the third Master, and was sheriff at one time and furnished the meat for the poor, blind starving Indians that the Lodge fed when the Mission of San Diego refused to help them. The Lodge paid the bill from July 1st, 1855 to Jan. 5th, 1857, after they had been left to starve. All the public offices at the time were filled with Masons. E. W. Morse was the energetic secretary of the Lodge and held many public offices. He helped to plant American institutions in the then Mexican town. Rev. John Reynolds was army chaplain at the barracks and preached the first Protestant sermon in San Diego in the Lodge room of San Diego Lodge No. 35, thus establishing religious toleration in Southern California. James W. Robinson, leading lawyer for years, had been Governor of Texas.
Ames had been sent down by Democrats of San Francisco to establish the Herald to advocate the division of the State into North and South California so the Slavery forces could get two more votes, as California had been admitted as a free State in 1850. It was the wife of Governor Robinson who proposed and insisted that we have free public schools such as we have had ever since. Another prominent man then was William Heath Davis, who was the principal owner of New San Diego, called by Derby after he came here in 1853, "Davis' Folly." Davis built the first wharf on San Diego Bay. There were quite a number of secessionists in the lodge at its inception, but after Derby came, he either made them ridiculous or converted them. There was Capt. J. Bankhead Magruder, who was afterwards General Magruder of Confederate fame, who fought a duel with Tibbetts and was made ridiculous by Derby, who made the bullets out of tallow candles and charcoal, one of which struck Tibbetts in the forehead and spattered all over his face. Tibbetts was a strong Unionist and landlord of the Gila House, Mayor of the City in 1852.
There was also John C. Cremony, founder of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, who came out with the Boundary Commission as interpreter. He had worked on the Boston Herald and later went to San Francisco to reside. When the Civil War broke out, he was appointed Major and commanded a body of troops, cavalry and Scouts, who guided the "Column From California" of 2,000 men, across the Colorado Desert under Command of Colonel James H. Carleton, also a Mason, without their losing a man. This column from California prevented a rebel detachment from capturing Fort Yuma and drove the rebels back from Gila Bend into Northern New Mexico and Northwest Texas, where Canby finally was joined at Santa Fe lifting the siege that had prevented him from doing anything to help Carleton, until the latter arrived and joined forces. It had been intended to send a privateer into San Diego harbor once the Fort at Yuma have been captured, and from here prey on the Commerce of the North, but Derby and other Unionists, and Masons prevented this. Louis Rose of Roseville and Rose Canyon was also an officer and early member of this lodge and a strong unionist, as were Col. J. J. Warner of Warner's Ranch, and J. F. Jaeger, who owned a ranch near the mouth of the Colorado river and was a member of this Lodge. He and Warner furnished the meat and hay that fed the men and horses of the column from California that saved California to the Union and gave the gold and silver to the Union that enabled it to buy its munitions of war. These facts are taken from War Department records. These men had been made strong in the faith by Lieutenant Derby, who was born at Dedham, Mass., and as a Northern man was naturally a devoted Unio0nist. At that time it was proposed, if the movement to divide the State of California was successful, to build a railroad from Charleston, S. C., right across the country to San Diego, Calif., and that was the reason Ferrell had been sent from Charleston, S.C., to be the first Collector of the Port. It was Derby who changed all this sentiment and brought many of the officers at the Fort into San Diego Lodge No. 35.
This is a brief, sketchy background to the reasons for forming San Diego Lodge No. 35 and which Derby changed into an instrument of good for his beloved United States, when the Civil War came.
In giving this short synopsis of the events attending the birth of San Diego Lodge, it is done for the purpose of relating the effect it had on all the Masons in the territory of Southern California, as it was organized a year before Los Angeles Lodge, and is the mother of some 18 or 19 Lodges in and around San Diego.
The eldest child of San Diego Lodge is South-West Lodge No. 283, which was chartered October 14, 1886 and of which Carl S. Owen is Worshipful Master for 1934. The next oldest is Silver Gate Lodge, chartered Oct. 10th 1889, of which Edgar Fergusson is master for this year. There are 580 Lodges in the State and the numbers thus show their seniority. Next is Fallbrook Lodge No. 317, whose charter was issued Oct. 11, 1893. Then comes Consuelo Lodge No. 325, of Escondido, chartered Oct. 11, 1895, with Leslie K. Wharton as Maser for 1934. Next is Oceanside Lodge, No. 381, charter issued 1906, present Worshipful Master is Courtland W. Shanick. Next is La Mesa Lodge No. 407, chartered October 13, 1910. Earl R. Clayton is Master this year. The Charter of Coronado Lodge No. 441 dates from October 15, 1914. Its present Master is Edward L. Pfieffer. Blackmer Lodge is No. 442, named after an old resident of San Diego, Col. E. T. Blackmer, and its master for 1934 is Charles B. Frailey. This Lodge is a joint occupant of the Masonic Temple, Fifth Ave. at Ash St. La Jolla Lodge, No. 518, chartered Nov. 4, 1922, is located at Masonic Temple, Gerard Ave., La Jolla, and its Master is Clarence E. Johnson.
East San Diego Lodge, No. 561, chartered Oct. 11, 1923, meets in Masonic Temple, 3879 43rd St., East San Diego, with John Gunsallus as Master. S. W. Hackett Lodge, No. 574, chartered October 11, 1923, meets in the same Temple as San Diego Lodge, at 5th and Ash, and Royal L. Parks is Master for 1934. It is also named for an old resident who was a Mason. Next is El Cajon Valley Lodge, No. 576, which meets in Masonic Hall, Bank Bldg., El Cajon, with Roy L. Fuller as Master. Santa Maris Lodge No. 580, chartered October 18, 1924, meets in Masonic Temple, Ramona, with Louis H. Baldwin as Master. Point Loma Lodge No. 620, was chartered October 15, 1925, and meets at Point Loma Masonic Hall, Newport Avenue, Ocean Beach, with William E. Nelson as Worshipful Master. Chula Vista Lodge No. 626, chartered October 15, 1925, meets in Masonic Hall, 3rd Ave. and F St., Chula Vista, with Charles M. Whitaker as Worshipful Master.
Normal Heights Lodge No. 632, was chartered October 14, 1926, and meets at 3339 Adams Avenue with Elmer Muhl as Master. Next is John D. Spreckels Lodge No. 657, which meets at Masonic Hall, 3919 Fourth Avenue, San Diego, with Horace H. Blair as Worshipful Master.
These 18 Lodges have all grown far beyond the expectations of those who started them. Most of them, except the older Lodges, are "neighborhood Lodges," near the members' homes, where they can drop in on an evening without being obliged to go a long distance. This is only a bare recital of the names of the various Lodges and their present Masters, while a much more detailed account might reveal many incidents of historical interest in the several localities in which they are located. All these Lodges teach the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man, without religious discussion which, as well as political matters, are expressly forbidden in the Lodge as a corollary of the idea of the Brotherhood of Man. Many charitable and benevolent acts can be credited to each Lodge as it is one of their cardinal principles to look after their own. The several Lodges have a board of Masonic relief and employment bureau whose offices are at the Masonic Temple, 5th Ave. and Ash Street, to which most of the Lodges mentioned send representatives to conduct it business. This Masonic Board of Relief looks after Masons from Lodges outside of San Diego County, and the Lodges in the County look after their own members. The Board of Relief spends from $15,000 to $20,000 every year on Masons from outside the County and State for distressed Masons who find themselves out of employment in San Diego. While it is a strict rule never violated, that no religious or political discussions shall be allowed in the Lodge while in session, yet no one can prevent men getting together in the ante-room, before or after the meetings and talking over candidates. Yet no concerted action could be taken as a Lodge without running the risk of their charter being taken away by the Grand Master when he heard of it. It is tradition in Boston Freemasonry that the tea was thrown overboard in Boston Harbor by men disguised as Indians, after St. Andrew's Lodge of that city had closed its meeting.
San Diego Lodge used to meet in Old Town until the county records were moved from there one night, when a descent was made on them and they were taken in 1872 by wagon to the New Town established by Father Horton, also a Mason. The Lodge then met in a Hall at the Southwest corner of Fifth and F Streets. After that, San Diego Lodge No. 35, met in the old Masonic Temple at the Northwest corner of Sixth and Market, until 1910, when it was moved to the present Temple at the Northeast corner of Fifth Ave. and Ash Street, which is now too small for the many activities conducted there. Nothing has been said of the many appendant or dependent orders which require a man to be a Mason before he can belong. Such are the Royal Arch Masons, the Royal and Select Masters, the Knight Templars, the Scottish Rite Bodies, the Shrine, the Order of DeMolay, the various Chapters of Eastern Star which are mainly composed of women with Masonic connections and which also admit husbands of its members. All of these conduct much philanthropic and altruistic work of which no mention is made outside the outer door of their meeting places.
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