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Freemasonry in 19th Century New York City

Freemasonry in New York City during the early 19th century involved its own episodes of internal strife and disarray. The already century-old Craft underwent change in the former British colony since the original charters of the Premier Grand Lodge of England disappeared into the wilderness of Nova Scotia with then New York Provincial Grand Master, Sir. John Johnson, in 1783. After a short period of uncertainty, exacerbated with a new British threat during the War of 1812, an American Grand Lodge of New York must now consolidate its lodges that have been scattered throughout the state. But there will be debate within this grand body, as the consequences of geographical issues, as well as the Grand Lodge’s preference for upstate lodges and controversies involving their Grand Visitor, would create strife from within. By the 1820s, New York Masonry saw itself in a pestering schismatic feud that ultimately created two grand bodies: The City Grand Lodge and the Country Grand Lodge.

These types of fraternal issues were just a part of the greater scheme of New York City’s growth trajectory into a thriving and expanding metropolis. The city’s harbors teemed of shipping vessels filled with valuable goods waiting to be sold or traded. The streets of lower Manhattan festered with commerce as merchants competed with each other under the dankness shadows of overcrowded tenements. America was bursting with economic prosperity, especially after eliminating the British monopoly on the new nation’s trade lines. With new lines of trade far reaching the competitive markets of the east, it was quite the lucrative venture for those in the mercantile, shipbuilding, or grocery business. New York City played host to these expanding professions and its thriving commercial ports also had their fair share of traveling professionals to.

City lodges, although still in their infancy, were venues for traveling Masons. These lodges, primarily located in the southeastern regions of Manhattan near the ports and marinas, served as havens. Masons traveling from all over the world sought refuge in the city lodges for there may be chance of a warm dinner, room, and board. Even the traveling Mason soldier found himself attaching and associating with some city lodges. Soon, there sprang up many lodges that lined the shores of the East River, mostly consisting of traveling brothers whose careers and business ventures were tied into the mercantile economy that flourished through the prosperous ports of New York City.

Early History of Mariners Lodge No.67

Within this type of atmosphere, it was with no wonder why ship master Bro. George Arnold graciously accepted a warrant from the schismatic City Grand Lodge of New York to institute Mariners Lodge #385 on September 7, 1825. As a sea-faring lodge with a fluctuating roster that only the keen-eyed secretary can keep track of, Mariners Lodge #385 was up and ready for business as the brethren installed its first line of officers and raised their first class of 16 fellow crafts. Bro. George Arnold was installed as the new lodge’s first worshipful master and functional space at Union Hall and Oliver streets, off of Henry Street, was acquired. Today, the Mariners Temple Baptist Church sits in this immediate area. According to their history, it was the European seamen who docked at the nearby East River that brought the institution to adopt its present-day name, a similar story such as ours. It was near this location, so close to the ports that inspired the coming of these traveling brothers, that Mariners Lodge #385 conducted business until May 1838. At this time, Union Hall was a popular venue used by other lodge’s that catered to traveling brethren as well.

Mariners Lodge #385 conducted business the second and last Wednesday of the month and originally performed two or three degrees in one single night. At the first meeting held on Wednesday, September 13, 1825, just 6 days after receiving dispensation, an entry in the minutes mentions a resolution “that we were to have 500 Hope and Anchor and 500 Ship and Pilot Masonic notices, and that we have a ship under full sail printed on the bibs of the aprons of this lodge.” Later on, an official lodge seal would depict a mythical scene that the Masonic Observer described as “a view of the sea, with a full rigged ship in full sail and Father Neptune with his trident towed in a shell boat by a pair of dolphins. It was executed in gold, with a circular margin of navy blue, within which were engraved the name and the number of the Lodge.” More versions of the seal have emerged over the years with some depicting a pair of hippocampus with human faces instead of the dolphins.

By 1827, both the City and Country Grand Lodges settled their differences and created THE GRAND LODGE OF THE MOST ANCIENT AND HONORABLE FRATERNITY OF FREE MASONS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. Although the two grand lodges co-existed without any interaction, both parties saw it was best to compromise and unite. The Country Grand Lodge did show membership numbers towering that of the City Grand Lodge, but it was the latter that possessed the historic records, resources, and funds, making unification a logical step towards progression. Mariners Lodge #385, along with the other city lodges, were incorporated into the single official grand body and by 1839, due to several lodges either being absorbed or disbanded, new lodge numbers were issued to those located in the city. On June 6, 1839, Mariners Lodge’s number was changed from #385 to #67.

Notable Members

Early members of Mariners Lodge have made their impressions in the institution’s collection of minutes. It was in the same year of the lodge’s inception when its first Junior Deacon, Bro. George Hazelton had lost his life when his ship went missing off the coast of Georgia. As the life of a traveling merchant will keep you out at sea to bear the elements, it was Bro. Hazelton’s demise that particularly hit home for Mariners.

This sad moment might have been the very first loss for the brethren as one can only imagine their sorrow. In 1827, the election for worshipful master was won by Bro. Samuel Morton. It would be the first time the lodge would install a preceding senior warden to the East. However, it appeared that WM Morton was no match for the lodge’s increasing enrollment and financial matters under his watch were insufficiently monitored. Therefore, a special election in December 1826 was held in which an overwhelming amount of votes favored another year for the lodge’s first master, George Arnold. Lists of Mariners Lodge past masters will never reveal Bro. Samuel Morton as Worshipful Master in 1827, unfortunately.

Mariners Lodge was also part of festivities and the unveiling of major public works. In January 1826, Mariners were in attendance of the cornerstone installment of the city’s first Masonic Hall, located at Broadway and Pearl Street. Although Union Hall remained to be headquarters for Mariners, it was a show of public support for ushering the new Masonic edifice. In 1842, they were also amongst the crowd at the Murray Hill Reservoir, now the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, when Manhattan first received its drop of fresh water from the newly completed Croton Aqueduct. Marking the first time the city receives much needed water to fight fires and curb the spread of prevalent diseases like tuberculosis and cholera, Mariners Lodge were at hand to witness the affair. Mariners also partook in public processions such as the St. John the Evangelist Parade with other lodges. Mariners wore black bands around their arms to remember their late Junior Deacon Bro. George Hazelton. In 1881, Mariners once again made their cameo at the installment of Cleopatra’s Needle in Central Park.

Throughout its years, Mariners Lodge #67 became part of New York City public life. As for the lodge itself, there have been more than enough of its members who have left lasting legacies in the annals of Mariners Lodge history. With some Mariners such as Brothers William Robinson and Silas Merrifield serving during the Civil War, it was worshipful masters such as Sewall Fisk who led the lodge in a time of national distress. Worshipful Master Fisk was in his 9th term in the East in 1863. He was a well-respected Mason with a lengthy career in the Craft. He retired from his profession in the produce commission a long time before his death in 1868. One of his last main titles was that of the Grand Tyler until his death. Worshipful Master Fisk’s funeral was a public spectacle, as crowds gathered in the front of St. Ann’s Church on 18th Street near 5th Avenue to get a glimpse of his casket.

As the lodge neared the end of the 19th century, its rosters bore names of other Mariners who have become quite prominent. In the 1880s, Worshipful Master Robert W. Pain developed the very first thirty-nine-note player piano for the famous piano makers Needham & Sons. He then produced a sixty-five-note player piano that was electrically operated. It was through the help of his efforts that the technology of Piano making in America had advanced in the 20th century. Another name that graced the rosters of Mariners Lodge was Bro. Daniel Carter Beard. Bro. Beard was known for his illustrations found in books such as Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and The American Claimant. He was also involved in pursuing the wonders of the frontier when he became editor of the noted publication Recreation and later founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905. Five years later, Bro. Beard merged the Sons of Daniel Boone with the then one-year-old Boys Scouts of America, thus creating the largest youth organization in the Nation.

Bro. Charles E. Wilson, raised in this lodge in November 1917, made a notable life of himself. Started off as a child employee of Sprague Electrical Works, a subsidiary of General Electric. Bro. Wilson worked his way through the corporation’s ranks to the presidency in 1939. During WWII, as the war effort kept up with high demands for the nation’s raw materials, Bro. Wilson left his position at G.E. to become vice-president in President Truman’s War Production Board. After returning to G.E. in 1944, Bro. Wilson once again found himself in Washington serving as chairman of the Civil Rights Committee under President Truman. By 1950, Bro. Wilson was director of the Office of Defense Mobilization, a position that some at the time joked was just as important as the commander in chief. He was awarded the Grand Lodge Medal for Distinguished Achievements, the Horatio Alger Award, U.S. Government Medal of Merit, and a recipient of 10 honorary degrees in Universities and Colleges. A Mariners Lodge dinner was held in his honor just a year before he died in 1972.

Some Mariners even found themselves in the upper echelons of Freemasonry. One Bro. Sylvester C. Berdan Jr, raised in October of 1958, was Worshipful Master of Mariners Lodge #67 twice before being elected as the Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of the Dominican Republic near the Grand Lodge of New York. Bro. Berdan spent time fulfilling different capacities in the lodge and was also member of numerous appending bodies. Other Mariners have already achieved fame by the time they were raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. French-born Bro. Philippe Petit was raised at Mariners Lodge #67 in March 1996. Bro. Petit achieved worldwide recognition in 1975 as a professional high-wire artist who walked a tight rope suspended between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Petit put on a show for 45-minutes with his 55-pound balancing pole as astonished spectators watched from below. The last office position Bro. Petit held at Mariners Lodge #67 was that of senior deacon in 1997. His walk across the twin towers earned him such acclaim, even inspiring an award-winning documentary titled “Man on the Wire” in 2008 and an upcoming 3-D biographical drama film titled “The Walk” with Joseph Gordon Levitt portraying the daring tightrope walker. These notable Mariners, plus a plethora of other names, have contributed to the fine historic legacy this institution continues to share with others.

History, my brothers, manifests itself by the second. The impacts we have made, and continue to make, in this precious institution should always be recorded in the annals of our history. It is imperative to refer back to historic content in order to fully appreciate our lodge’s heritage. Without the crafted guidance from lodge appointed historians, the crux of all our proceedings and work will be in vain. It is evident that the archiving of important moments and the perpetuance of a great institution’s age-old traditions cements its historic legacy for future generations. Historic preservation and dissemination of histories for great institutions such as ours is the key element of the organization’s existence. As time progresses, such historic records are almost always consulted for research, reference, or looked upon as sources that reflect an institution’s growth. Most honored institutions may have had turbulent moments during their history, yet, these moments are important because they serve as remnants of struggle and perseverance in a time of growth and adversity.

On September 13, 1825, just days after receiving dispensation from the schismatic City Grand Lodge of New York, Mariners Lodge No. 385 conducted its first meeting at a location called Union Hall. Although there aren’t many images of this location, details about its year of construction, or information as to when it was demolished, it is well documented that Union Hall sat on the corner of Oliver and Henry streets. An 1808 postcard of Fayette Street (now part of Oliver Street) shows us a row of two-story wooden clapboard-style structures that feeds the imagination. What we also know is that, according to Mariners Lodge Past Master and Historian Charles J. Bell, Union Hall was actually the second level of a tavern. In his 1925 essay A History of Mariners Lodge No. 67 on the Occasion of its Centennial Celebration, Bro. Bell explains that "'Twas now quite dark as the men entered and climbed their way up the creaky stairs to the Lodge room, where they were greeted by Brother William G. Henshaw, who had assumed the office of Tyler, entering a room dimly lighted by flickering smoky candles which cast wavering shadows as the men moved about, bent upon the business of the evening." He also quotes our Lodge’s first Worshipful Master, George Arnold, as saying “Union Hall has been engaged for the first meeting, the boys will be waiting for us. Come, cast off!” Although Bro. Bell may be taking a few liberties for dramatic effect, there is good evidence that Union Hall was a popular location for other sea-faring Lodges in the early nineteenth century, and as we know Bro. Arnold was a shipmaster.

Today, there are no remnants of Union Hall at the intersection of Oliver and Henry streets. The neighborhood has been absorbed and tucked into the hustle and bustle of Chinatown. Yet, there are clear reminders of the type of Freemasons that flocked to the sea-faring Lodges of the neighborhood, among the most prominent being the Mariners Temple Baptist Church. Its imposing and beautiful ionic pillars supporting a Greek revival facade adds a classical touch to the intersection. According to their history, it was the European seamen who docked at the nearby East River that prompted the institution to adopt its name, which of course is similar to the reasons our Lodge chose its name. There was even a Mariner’s Church not too far on Madison Street, another reminder of the ubiquity of mariners in that part of the city. It is now an interesting thought that Union Hall, a place revered by so many seafaring lodges, has became an inspiration for the later structures in the area. A neighborhood so close to the ports that inspired the coming of traveling Brothers where our beloved Lodge conducted business until May 1838, will forever remind us and future generations of our proud origins.