HOW I BECAME A MASON.
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CHAPTER II.
HOW I BECAME A MASON.
I was born in the town of Leicester, Mass., on the 7th day of February, 1788. My great grandfather, Thomas Greene, was the first Baptist minister
in that town, and through his agency the first Baptist meeting-house was built there. In my childhood, the country was just emerging from the
fatigue and burdens of the long war of the Revolution. It was the day of small things. Society was in a rude and simple condition, as compared
with the present. The means and opportunities of education were very inferior to those now enjoyed in New England. My education, during the
early years of my life, in consequence of this fact, as also because of the frequent interruptions of sickness, went on irregularly. But at the age of
fourteen I was set upon the study of Latin, at Leicester Academy, and was so far advanced in general education, that at the age of seventeen I
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was employed to teach a district school in the neighboring town of Oakham, I was examined by the parish minister, Rev. Daniel Tomlinson. I
was certainly not very well fitted for my new vocation by reason of the irregularities of my education; but some references which I made to
Latin, and Latin rules of grammar, rather impressed the minister with my youthful learning, and I found no difficulty in obtaining my certificate.
This Mr. Tomlinson was a quaint and original man, and some pleasant stories are told of him. He was a native of Connecticut, a graduate of Yale
College, and was settled in Oakham in 1786, where he remained for fifty years. If I mistake not, he is the man about whom the famous church story
of Oakham centres. In the time of a long and obstinate quarrel, when the members in church meeting assembled were accusing each other
variously, the minister finally rose and said, --
"Brethren, this must be stopped. If the Lord will have a church in Oakham, he must have it out of such materials as we have here." He is the
same man also to whom a church member once went complaining, and wanting a letter of dismission to the church in a neighboring town. Said
HOW I BECAME A MASON.
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the church member, '' There are so many Achans in the camp here, that I want to get away to another church." ''O," said the minister, "I guess
I wouldn't go. We can take care of the Achans here as well as they can anywhere."
The following winter I taught school in Thompson, Ct., and was examined and approved by Rev. Daniel Dow, the minister of the Congregational
church at Thompson from 1796 to 1849. He also was remarkable for his quaintness and keen wit, and was a man of much repute in the
ecclesiastical affairs of his state.
In the intervals of my teaching I was attending school at Leicester Academy, and in 1807, at the age of nineteen, I entered the Sophomore class in
Brown University. Here I remained for more than two years, when I was employed as assistant teacher in the principal school of Providence, and
took my dismission from college at the close of the first term of my senior year. And here, on the 29th of March, 1810, I was married to my first
wife, Miss Susan Gibbs.
I need not stop to detail the varied experiences of my life for the first few years after my marriage. In 1812 began the war with Great Britain. The
country was in a very depressed and uneasy
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condition. New England, especially, suffered during all that season. Dependent so largely as she then was upon her commercial enterprises, those
three years of war were with her years of sore discouragement and calamity.
In the year 1816 I prepared to remove, with my family, to Western New York. I had just before made a journey thither myself, and had concluded
to cast in my fortunes with the new and chaotic society then forming in that portion of the country. The only place of much importance in Western
New York had been Buffalo. That was burned in the war of 1812, and was now slowly rising again. The region far around was in a wild or half-broken
state. Accordingly, in 1816, I bought a horse, additional to the one I before owned, had a pole put into my wagon instead of the pair of thills, before
used, covered the wagon with a piece of sheeting, put in such things as were most necessary, took my wife and two little children, and started for
the west. It was a long and toilsome journey, of about five hundred miles, over a rough country. Twenty hours would now suffice to make the journey
along our great railroad tracks; but at that time it was a laborious enterprise, requiring weeks for its execution.
HOW I BECAME A MASON.
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Our first residence was at Pembroke, about twenty-eight miles this side of Buffalo, where, for a time, I kept a public house, and engaged in
various occupations, such as are natural in a new, rough, and sparsely-settled country. Previous to the war of 1812, and subsequently until the Erie
Canal was built, the merchandise and produce of the country were transported to and fro between Albany and Buffalo, a distance of between three
hundred and four hundred miles, in large covered wagons, with wheels of broad tire, drawn by teams of from four to eight horses. A number of these
teams would be owned by one m;in, who usually accompanied them as a general superintendent of the journey. He would travel with a single horse
in a light buggy, to give direction and assistance, in times of difficulty, to go forward and arrange stopping-places for the night, to see that hay and
grain were in readiness for the horses, and provisions for the men on their arrival. In such a country the tavern was a great institution. My house,
called the Brick Tavern, at Pembroke, was a convenient and natural stopping-place for these teams; and not unfrequently it would happen that from
fifty to a hundred horses must be provided for at my barns for the night, and the teamsters taken
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care of in the house. The life these men lived was a rough, hard, and adventurous one, and brought out the strong and sharp qualities of character,
rather than the refined and graceful. This was before the days of the temperance reformation, and no small part of the business of the tavern-keeper
was to provide suitable liquors for travellers, and for the dwellers around.
Many unique stories might be told of what transpired at my house during those years, illustrating the character of my guests, and also illustrating the
state of society around me. One night there arrived at my house some eighty horses, with a due proportion of teamsters. In company with them came a
foot traveller, with his knapsack, in which he carried the necessaries of life, victuals and drink. He had overtaken the teams a little way back, and inquired
of the men where they were intending to stop for the night. "At the Brick Tavern, Mr. Greene's," was the reply. "Well," says the footman, "I will stop there too."
These teamsters were good and generous customers. Their habits of life lifted them above all small and stingy ways. They had supper, lodging, and
breakfast, liquor and cigars, for themselves, and feed for their horses, all bought and
HOW I BECAME A MASON.
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paid for at the hotel. They did not attempt to carry any of these things along with them, though they might easily have done so.
On the other hand, all that this foot-traveller wanted was a good nice fire to sit by, and a bed to sleep in. He carried his food and liquor in his
knapsack, and ate his supper from this in my bar-room. I had at that time an energetic man who served in the double capacity of barber and
boot-black. In the course of the night this man gave a splendid shine to all the boots, the footman's included, as he had left them out for the purpose.
In the morning he rose and ate his breakfast in the bar-room, from his own knapsack, just as he had done his supper. At length the hour for
starting arrived, and the teamsters gathered at the bar to settle their bills. As the custom then was, I set out my decanters of different liquors,
that they might take a parting drink at their pleasure. After they had finished, up came the foot-traveller and inquired for his bill. "What have
you had?" said I. "O, lodging," said he (the boot-black standing by and giving a most significant glance at his shining boots). "Your bill is six
cents, then," said I, that being the customary charge at that time for a bed, in that part of the
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country. He paid the sixpence, and then, looking at me, said, "Landlord, can't you afford to treat?" "To be sure," said I; "what will you have?"
"I'll take a little brandy." I turned out a half-pint tumbler nearly full (the teamsters all looking on). He took it and drank nearly half of it. Then
stopping, said he, " In fact, I can't drink it all." "Haven't you a little flask you can put it into?" said I. He took out his flask, and I emptied the
remainder of the brandy into it. "Well," said he, turning to the teamsters, I don't wonder you stop here. It is the best tavern I ever saw. I shall
always stop here, landlord, when I travel this way." "Do," said I, "by all means." After they left my house the teamsters _run him_ hard upon
his meanness. They told the story all the way from Buffalo to Albany, and so advertised my house thoroughly, and gave me a fine run of custom.
In 1822 we removed from Pembroke to Batavia, eleven miles farther east, and near the centre of Genesee County. This was the county seat. Soon
after going there I opened the County House, as it was called, opposite the Court House. In about a year I admitted into the house a private female
school. The Presbyterian minister of the place was Rev. Calvin Colton, since well known by his
HOW I BECAME A MASON.
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writings. His wife, a woman of very superior education and character, had charge of the school that was kept in my house. My wife and I connected
ourselves with Rev. Mr. Colton's church, and our children were baptized by him. In 1823 and 1824 Mr. Colton's parish was engaged in erecting a
meeting-house; and when it is stated that this was the first real meeting-house built in Genesee County, it will help reveal the new and rude condition
of society in Western New York at that time. This house was a good one, and was furnished with a steeple and a bell. Batavia at that time had, perhaps,
two thousand inhabitants, and was a place of great importance, as the land office was there.
In Batavia was a Freemason's lodge, known as Lodge No. 433. Some of the principal citizens of Batavia were connected with it. The oldest deacon
of our church was a strong and enthusiastic Mason, and was wont to say that he should as soon think of speaking against the God of heaven as
against the institution of Masonry. Dr. Dibble, the physician in my family, was one of our church session. He was also an earnest Mason.
After accommodating the above-named school in my liouse for a time, I found that it interfered
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with my proper business of hotel-keeping; and so the school was removed. My house was known now as the Park Tavern, or County Hotel. The
building stood opposite the new park.
About this time an effort was made, in Batavia, to increase the interest in Masonry, and to gather new members into the lodge. Significant hints
and invitations were given me from time to time, and I was at length prevailed upon to allow myself to be a candidate for admission into the order.
Mr. Ebenezer Mix, the then surrogate of Genesee County, resident at Batavia, proposed me as a member, and I was admitted to Lodge No. 433 in
the month of December, 1825, taking the first, or entered apprentice's degree, and in a week more I took the second and third degrees the same
night.
Everything is so contrived in Masonry, that there shall be no going back when one is fairly launched upon the stream. There are many degrees in
Masonry; but the mischief is concentrated in the entered apprentice's oath. At the very outset, and before this oath is taken, the candidate is so
drawn in and entangled with promises of one kind and another, that he sees no possibility of turning back. He is put through a course
HOW I BECAME A MASON.
25
of preliminary nonsense, offensive to his moral sense, and degrading to his manhood; but he sees no chance of breaking away without raising about
him a scene which he has not at the time the courage to encounter.
Before the oath is taken, the candidate is divested of all his apparel, -- shirt excepted, -- and furnished with a pair of drawers, kept in the lodge
for the use of candidates; the candidate is then blindfolded, his left foot bare, his right in a slipper, his left breast and arm naked, * and a rope
called a cable-tow round his neck and left arm, in which condition he is conducted to the door, where he gives, or his conductor gives for him, three
distinct knocks, which are answered by three knocks from within, and a voice calls out three times, "Who comes there?" The poor fool on the outside
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* The masonic language, describing the general condition of the candidate about this time is as follows: --
Q. "How was you prepared?"
A. "By being divested of all metals, neither naked nor clothed, barefoot nor shod, hoodwinked, with a cable-tow about my neck,
in which situation I was conducted to the door of the lodge."
The reason given in general for putting the candidate in this condition, is that Masonry is something of extreme antiquity --
that it originated in a rough and primitive age, when the manners of men were rude, and they wish to preserve strictly the
"old landmarks."
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is then made to say, or his condnctor says for him, in answer to this momentous question, "A poor blind candidate, who has long been desirous of
receiving and having a part of the rights and benefits of this worshipful lodge, dedicated to God, and held forth to the holy order of St. John, as all true
fellows and brothers have done, who have gone this way before him." After a deal more of idle ceremony, including prayers and forms semi-religious,
the candidate is at last brought in a kneeling posture, with his left hand under the Bible, square and compass, and his right hand upon them, and in
this attitude, blindfold and half naked, and with the assurance that what he is doing shall not affect his politics or religion, he takes the entered apprentice's
oath, as follows: --
"I, A B, of my own free will and accord, in presence of Almighty God, and this worshipful lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, dedicated to God, and
held forth to the holy order of St. John, do hereby and hereon most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, that I will always hail, ever conceal,
and never reveal, any part or parts, art or arts, point or points, of the secrets, arts, and mysteries of ancient Freemasonry, which I have received,
HOW I BECAME A MASON.
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am about to receive, or may hereafter be instructed in, to any person or persons in the known world, except it be a true and lawful brother
Mason, or within the body of a just and lawfully constituted lodge of such, and not unto him or unto them whom I shall hear so to be, but
unto him and unto them whom I shall find so to be after strict trial and due examination, or lawful information. Furthermore, do I promise and
swear, that I will not write, print, stamp, stain, hew, cut, carve, indent, or engrave it on anything, movable or immovable, under the whole canopy
of heaven, whereby, or whereon, the least figure, character, mark, stain, shadow, or resemblance of the same may become legible and intelligible
to myself or any other person in the known world, whereby the secrets of Masonry may be unlawfully obtained through my unworthiness. To all
which I do most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, without the least equivocation, mental reservation, or self-evasion of mind in me
whatever; binding myself under no less penalty than to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the roots, and my body buried in the
rough sands of the sea at low-water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours. So
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help me God, and keep me steadfast in the due performance of the same."
In December, 1825, I took this oath, going through all the attendant nonsense. Until the oath was imposed upon me, I had no adequate
conception of its nature. Many a man, on going through these first ceremonies, has been utterly shocked and horrified at what he has done,
and at the frightful obligations he has taken upon himself. His first disposition is to draw back, and have no more to do with an institution which
uses such awful sanctions to cover and conceal what is of no real consequence to mankind. * His whole moral nature is shocked at such profane
and enormous trifling. Many who take this oath, as soon as may be, withdraw from all active participation in the affairs of the lodge, finding that
they have been deceived, and have embarked upon a course which their moral sense cannot approve. But it is difficult to do this at once, and
abruptly. Many men, however, who have no keen moral sense, who are, in fact, only boys of a larger growth, seem to find great delight in the foolery
of this institution. The big words and sentences, which
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* Appendix A.
HOW I BECAME A MASON.
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have to be mouthed over so often, exactly suit their taste. The endless forms and ceremonies, to be gone through with night after night, continue, to
their undiscerning eyes, to wear the semblance of a majestic greatness. As children find a certain delight in playing with edged tools, so they handle
these awful sanctions, these oaths and penalties, with a strange fascination. There is about the whole institution a certain barbaric glitter and pomp
exactly fitted to please swelling and half-developed men; and these will stay fast by the lodge, and make it the great glory of their lives to manage its
affairs, and mouth over its illustrious names and titles.
Of the thousands and tens of thousands, who, by one influence and another, are enticed within its folds, not many are at once launched upon such
a wild scene of excitement and terror as it was my lot to encounter. Little did I dream, when I took upon myself the entered apprentice's oath, what
was so speedily to follow; that then and there, in Lodge 433, was to take place that which would fill the whole land with intense excitement, moral
and political, and would bring the institution itself of Masonry almost to the verge of
destruction. By the act of that night in December, 1825,
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I had brought myself into the midst of a conflict of thoughts and feelings hard to be described, and where, at times, it was exceeding-ly difficult to
know what to do, or whither to turn.
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