Freemasonry

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

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.

"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

Resources: 

^{Alvin O. Benton, History of Freemasonry in Sullivan County, New York and Monticello Lodge #532 F&AM, 1947, http://tomrue.net/history/lodge532/hx/benton/index.htm} 

^{Amy C. Schutt. "Along the Lenapewihittuck: Reframing Delaware Valley History." Commonplace: The Journal of Early American Life, Accessed March 24, 2024, https://commonplace.online/article/along-the-lenapewihittuck-reframing-delaware-valley-history/} 

^{George L. Marshall, Jr., Chief Joseph Brant: Mohawk, Loyalist, and Freemason, Accessed March 25, 2024, https://www.varsitytutors.com/earlyamerica/early-america-review/volume-3/chief-joseph-brant-mohawk-loyalist-and-freemason} 

"It would be a double honor", I told newly installed District Deputy Grand Master John Wells when asked to assist him during his two-year term by serving as Historian for the Sullivan Masonic District.

He told me the last man to serve as Historian for the Sullivan District was Bert Feldman, late of Mongaup Valley. Bert published numerous articles on the subject of local history. He was also a friend and sponsored my initial application to become a Freemason in 1992.

Most Masonic groups admit only men. Historically, this practice dates back to the Middle Ages, probably related to the traditional roles that men and women played in ecclesiastical vocations, professional guilds, and society as a whole.