Amid the recent reports of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Route 695 in Baltimore, one email I received from USA Today pointed to the database (see National Bridge Inventory) documenting the condition of bridges throughout the country. Filtering for my own neighborhood, my attention was caught by the description of a small bridge in Narrowsburg around the corner from where I live and work.
History of Freemasonry in Sullivan County, NY
Upon recognition of R.W. George J. Dexheimer for 70 years of service to the Masonic Fraternity
Liberty Masonic Building, 7 Eagle Drive, Liberty, New York
Tuesday, March 26, 2024, 6:30 pm dinner, 7 pm meeting
by W.: Tom Rue, Historian for Sullivan Lodge #521
Most Worshipful Grand Master and Grand Lodge officers, Worshipful Master, and assembled brethren and friends, together my beloved partner Jill:
It is my privilege to share a bit about the history of our craft in the former Sullivan Masonic District at this event honoring RW George Dexheimer who has lived more Masonic history in his 75 years as a member of this ancient and honorable fraternity than anyone else in this room. Now 94 years of age, initiated, passed, and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason during the fall and winter of 1954 in Liberty Lodge #561. Our brother George served as Worshipful Master and all of the line offices in his blue lodge, including Tiler, Lodge Brotherhood Chairman, and now serving as Chaplain of Sullivan Lodge #521. Like that of Brother Dexheimer, the history of this fraternal order is made up of the accumulated stories of millions of men who have met for centuries in a place like this representing the unfinished Sanctum Sanctorum of King Solomon’s Temple in order to engage in civil discourse without politics or religious doctrine to divide, bound by shared oaths and society.
Having been raised 30 years ago in Monticello Lodge No. 532, I ask the forbearance of the Orange and Rockland contingents of the Orange-Rockland-Sullivan District. I suspect it is entirely true in all three of our counties that Freemasonry has been engrained and carried on in the local culture from long before the founding of our republic. I point you to the portrait of Wor. Bro. David Starr, the first Master of Monticello Lodge No. 532. His image formerly hung in the Tyler's room of the Lodge Hall in Monticello, and is now suspended above the Junior Warden in the West in this worshipful lodge this evening.
The earliest recorded lodge in Sullivan County was Sullivan No. 272, warranted at Monticello, January 2, 1817. This Lodge and Bloomingburg Lodge No. 310, which was warranted June 24, 1818, both existed during James Monroe's "Era of Good Feeling" and enjoyed prosperous days until the Morgan affair and Anti-Mason groups caused membership to dwindle and interest to wane, to the extent that Sullivan Lodge failed to report to Grand Lodge after June of 1829. Four years before, Bloomingburg made its last report. Grand Lodge was patient and waited until June 1835 before it passed a resolution for forfeiture of the Sullivan charter, and June 1833 before it took similar action with the Bloomingburg Lodge.
These were the only lodges to exist in Sullivan County until 1858 when Lodge 460 (the one to which Monticello Lodge No. 532 is the successor), was chartered. They were: Callicoon Lodge No. 521; Mongaup Lodge No. 816 (which two lodges merged to form Liberty Lodge No. 521). Delaware Lodge 561, Livingston Manor Lodge 791, and Fallsburg Lodge No. 1122 all originated since that time. Monticello, Liberty, and Fallsburg lodges merged in 2019 to form Sullivan Lodge #521.
Monticello Lodge #532 began meeting in that village during the year 1862; immediately succeeding Sullivan Lodge No. 460 which was chartered in 1858. The area's initial Masonic Temple, atop the old Curley Hotel (also known as the Victoria Hotel) at the site of the former Nowhere Bar across from Village Hall (Broadway and Pleasant Street), housed Sullivan Lodge #272, upon which construction commenced in 1805 -- only months after the first house here was completed. The first Temple, demolished in the blaze of 1909 which took much of the village, was replaced by the present structure that same year. According to what our late friend and brother, the venerable former Historian of the Sullivan Masonic District, Bert Feldman, told me, there is an inscription around the foundation. I searched the northeast corner of the outside of the building for one but did not find it.
Bro. Joseph Brant
Chief Joseph Brant, formerly in the Masonic Lodge in Hudson, NY, now in the DAR offices there. (Photo by Kenneth Skyer.)
One notable Masonic figure was the Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant (1703-1843), one of the most famous and renowned Native American chiefs in the 18th century, a Mohawk military and political leader based in present-day New York and, later, Brantford, in what is today Ontario. Chief Brant was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. Chief Brant was received by King George III in 1775 at St. James's Palace. While in public, he dressed in traditional Mohawk attire. He was accepted into freemasonry and received his ritual apron personally from King George. Permit me to share an excerpt from "Chief Joseph Brant: Mohawk, Loyalist, and Freemason" by George L. Marshall, Jr.:
"We now turn to two incidents which are often cited by Masonic writers in reference to Brants association with Freemasonry--his saving the life of Capt. John McKinstry and his attempt to save the life of Lt. Boyd.
"After the surrender of the American forces at the Battle of the Cedars on the St. Lawrence River in 1776, Brant exerted himself to prevent the massacre of the prisoners. In particular, one Capt. John McKinstry, a member of Hudson Lodge No.13 of New York, was about to be burned at the stake. McKinstry, remembering that Brant was a Freemason, gave to him the Masonic sign of appeal which secured his release and subsequent good treatment. He and Brant thereafter remained friends for life, and in 1805 he and Brant together visited the Masonic Lodge in Hudson, New York, where Brant was well received and on whose wall his portrait now hangs.
Gen. John Sullivan, Freemason and namesake of Sullivan County
"The American general Sullivan, also a Freemason, ambushed the Indians and Loyalists at Newtown, New York in 1779, resulting in the flight of the Indians and a march across the state by Sullivan to the Genesee Valley, destroying the Indian villages and the power of the Indian confederacy. During this campaign, a certain Lt. Boyd, a young Freemason and scout for Sullivan, was ambushed and captured along with a soldier named Parker. In the words of John Salmon, who was a friend and fellow-soldier of Boyd, the incident continued as follows: "...When Lieut. Boyd found himself a prisoner, he solicited an interview with Brant, whom he well knew commanded the Indians. This chief, who was at that moment near, immediately presented himself, when Lieut. Boyd, by one of those appeals which are known only by those who have been initiated and instructed in certain mysteries, and which never fails to bring succor to a distressed brother, addressed him as the only source from which he could expect a respite from cruel punishment or death. The appeal was recognized, and Brant immediately, and in the strongest language, assured him that his life should be spared."
Thank you.
W.: Thomas Rue Lodge Historian, Sullivan #521 Liberty, New York
Benjamin Homan is said to have been the first European to set himself up in Narrowsburg in the early 1770s. Overlooking the narrowest and deepest spot on the river which the Lenni Lenape, the original stewards of this valley for countless generations, called Lenapewihittuck. Homan renamed the spot "Homan's Eddy" in honor of himself. That name didn't last.
By TOM RUE
NARROWSBURG - Now in its 38th year the Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (UDUUF) remains a vibrant and spiritually diverse liberal religious congregation committed to the celebration of human potential and to encourage meaningful connections among its members and outward in service to the community, its website (uduuf.com) says.
The fellowship is open to all who support the aims and programs of the local group and the principles and purposes of the Unitarian Universalist Association (uua.org). UUA was formed in 1961 by the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association, established in 1825, and the Universalist Church of America, which dates to 1793. The UDUUF first met in August 1987 at the home of the late Rev. Ray Pontier then of Narrowsburg (who died 1994). Pontier had then recently retired from full-time UU ministry in Lakeland, New Jersey, when he wrote a letter to the editor of The River Reporter inviting local readers who shared common UU values of justice, equity and compassion in human relations to meet. A handful showed up.
"I believed in the need for a liberal religious group in this strongly conservative region," Rev. Pontier said in a letter the next year. "When I first organized the Fellowship I stated that it would have a future only if enough people really wanted it -- and if it developed the leadership to carry on by itself," he added.
Enough apparently wanted it because the UDUUF is still here. Many believe it still has a future. After that 1987 meeting in the Pontier living room, the group met Sunday mornings at the Innisfree recreation hall in Milanville, use of which was donated by Bud and Ann Rue. On March 13, 1990, they filed a certificate of incorporation with the NYS Secretary of State and soon thereafter officially affiliated with UUA. Later, the group moved to the Beach Lake Community Center and in recent years has continued to meet at the Narrowsburg Union and online.
From its inception, fellowship members committed their collective energy to supporting human services, education, healthcare, in a society where all are welcomed, while emphasizing concepts of bodily and personal autonomy and choice, human rights, and "an atmosphere in which each person will be able to share convictions, express doubts, and explore new dimensions of truth and reality."
When a local parents' group asked for help starting a parent-run Montessori elementary school in 1991, they met with the UDUUF board of directors and negotiated articles of agreement under which the UDUUF gave corporate sponsorship to "The River School", providing the unincorporated parents with exemption from taxation and government regulations for schools to operate, also at Innisfree, for a few years. The fellowship continues to look for ways to support like-minded charities in furtherance of spiritual ideals of human freedom, health, learning, and equality.
The early UDUUF's organizers often met before weekly services for Sunday program planning. Once summer morning, Bud Rue urged a fund-raising effort to benefit local human service agencies. The fellowship resolved to hold a walk-a-thon from Narrowsburg to Milanville, the first of which was held on October 24, 1993. Rue suffered a heart attack during that first walk and died the same day. Members have carried on the tradition of an annual eponymous charitable appeal, currently the Bud Rue Memorial Fund for Social Justice. From 1994 to the present, the fellowship has awarded grants to included a host of local and international organizations.
Great news for the area that The Farmers’ Market on the east end of Monticello’s Broadway - now called Lou’s Produce - is reborn with the fiscal backing of local business leader Joe Rea.
The reopening of this landmark maintains a well-known retail outlet for nutritious locally sourced produce under the new ownership and management of Lenny Williams with his decades in the field, while also lightening the burden of food insecurity in our community.
After shopping at The Farmers’ Market for more than 30 years, I think we should all be pleased at this development. I’ve also bought several cars from Rea Ford-Lincoln Inc. over the years and know and respect Joe. He invests well and keeps his word. It’s great to see an old-time business surviving.
Tuesday, April 24, 2018, Opioid Addiction Strategies and Successes panel: Chatham Police Chief Peter Volkmann, Sullivan County Sheriff Michael Schiff, Supreme Court Justice Hon. Stephan Schick, Tom Rue of Choices Mental Health Counseling PLLC, Martin Colavito of Catholic Charities Community Services.
The trauma of being violated by unwanted or non-consensual sexual contact can be deep and lasting. This should not need explaining, but in our culture it still does. Sexual abuse and rape are central issues in the current presidential campaign. One of the candidates has allegedly been a serial sex offender over the course of many years, openly boasting of his attacks on women. The loyalty of his partner in standing by her man is understandable at a human level, as she defensively sees his victims as liars, describing his vile behavior as that of a "boy" more a follower than of a leader.
Benjamin Homan is said to have been the first European to set himself up in Narrowsburg in the early 1770s. Overlooking the narrowest and deepest spot on the river which the Lenni Lenape, the original stewards of this valley for countless generations, called Lenapewihittuck. Homan renamed the spot "Homan's Eddy" in honor of himself. That name didn't last. 
