Famous Freemason J.C. Penny
Founder of JCPenney, J.C. Penny, was a Master Mason.
Initiated: April 18, 1911, P. May 19, 1911, R. June 2, 1911
Lodge: Wasatch Lodge No. 1 F&AM Utah
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FAMOUS INDIAN MASON Ely S. Parker
FAMOUS INDIAN MASON
Ely S. Parker, a full-blooded Indian chief, was the grandson of Red Jacket, a close friend of George Washington. He was a Union Brigadier General in the Civil War, and served as General Grant’s secretary. He was raised in Batavia Lodge No. 88, Batavia, New York, and later affiliated with Valley Lodge No. 109. He demitted and became a founder and first Worshipful Master of Akron Lodge No. 527 of New York. Ely Parker Lodge No. 1002 of Buffalo, New York. is named after him.
Famous Masons Harry Houdini
On March 25, 1874, Ehrich Weiss was born in Budapest. The man who became famous as Harry Houdini joined St. Cecile Lodge #568 in New York in 1923, shortly before his death in 1296.
A couple of items I found interesting was while in Cologne, Germany he sued a police officer, Werner Graff, who claimed he made his escapes via bribery. Houdini won the case when he opened the judge’s safe (he would later say the judge had forgotten to lock it). He also copyrighted some of his acts such as “Houdini’s Upside Down” for which he would sue imitators if they used his trick.
One of Houdini’s most notable non-escape stage illusions was performed at New York’s Hippodrome Theater when he vanished a full-grown elephant (with its trainer) from a stage, beneath which was a swimming pool.
Now for some Masonic information. Harry Houdini was initiated in St. Cecile Lodge No. 568, N.Y., July 17, 1923, Passed July 31, and Raised August 21. In 1924 he entered the Consistory. Houdini gave back to the Masonic fraternity of which he was so proud, including giving a benefit performance for the Valley of New York which filled the 4,000 seat Scottish Rite Cathedral and raised thousands of dollars. In October 1926, just weeks prior to his untimely death on that Halloween, he became a Shriner in Mecca Temple. In truth, there were two Houdinis, Harry Houdini, the performer as the world saw him, and Bro. Ehrich (Eric) Weiss, the man and Freemason, a personality obscured from view by the public persona. His success allowed him to be amazingly generous and thoughtful of retired or destitute magicians or their families, often paying their rent or otherwise extending aid. He also gave benefit performances at charity hospitals and orphanages. His generosity, while often kept in the shadows, was legion. Possibly he felt he, too, would someday be in need, possibly he was simply implementing the Masonic tenets of Brotherly Love and Charity, or perhaps it was a bit of both.
On October 22, 1926, during an engagement at the Princess Theater in Montreal, a first-year college student asked permission to test the entertainer’s abdominal muscle control and strike the magician. This was often a part of his act, so Houdini, accepted the challenge and mumbled his assent, but the student struck before Houdini could tense the necessary muscles, obviously a critical requirement. Houdini ignored later stomach pains in the tradition of “the show must go on.”
Arriving in Detroit the next day, he was diagnosed with acute appendicitis but again insisted on performing. Finally, with a temperature of 104, he was taken to Grace Hospital where a ruptured gangrenous appendix was removed, but peritonitis had unfortunately set in. Despite medical predictions of imminent death, his strong will to live was such that he held on almost a week. On the afternoon of October 31, 1926, Halloween Day, at the age of 52, he finally succumbed. Halloween was perhaps a symbolically magical date for his final curtain.
Last rites for Bro. Houdini were held November 4, 1926 at the Elks Clubhouse in New York with some 2000 people in attendance. Services were conducted by Rabbi Tintner who joined in the Elks “Hour of Remembrance,” a tribute was delivered by Rabbi Bernard Drachman and eulogies by Loney Haskell of the Jewish Theatrical Guild and Henry Chesterfield of the National Vaudeville Artists, a Broken Wand Ceremony by the Society of American Magicians, and concluded with rites by the Mt. Zion Congregation and the Elks, and Masonic Rites by St. Cecile Lodge No. 568. Burial was then in Machpelah Cemetery, Brooklyn, a site Houdini had personally selected.
By researching this man, I found that even before he was a brother, he practiced the Masonic life which is emphasized by this quote I found which reads: A Mason is not necessarily a member of a lodge. In a broad sense, he is any person who daily tries to live the Masonic life, and to serve intelligently the needs of the Great Architect.
What about secret handshakes, ritual, and passwords?
What about secret handshakes, ritual, and passwords?
Freemasonry, often called the “Craft” by its members, employs metaphors of architecture. Following the practice of the ancient stonemason guilds, Freemasons use special handshakes, words, and symbols to not only to identify each other, but to help, as William Preston said in 1772, “imprint upon the memory wise and serious truths.”
Although every Freemason takes an obligation — and vows to keep the secrets of Masonry — it doesn’t matter to him that you can find the secrets in print; what matters is that he keeps his promise. And the secrets he is protecting are only used to help Masons become better men; and there’s certainly no secret surrounding what it takes to be good and true.
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts
Famous Masons Voltaire
Yesterday on April 4 in 1778, Voltaire was initiated in “Les Neuf Soeurs” Lodge in Paris. His conductors were Benjamin Franklin and Count Gebelin
Freemasonry
Voltaire was initiated into Freemasonry the month before his death. On 4 April 1778 Voltaire accompanied his close friend Benjamin Franklin into Loge des Neuf Soeurs in Paris, France and became an Entered Apprentice Freemason.[51][52][53]
François-Marie Arouet (French: [fʁɑ̃.swa ma.ʁi aʁ.wɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire(pronounced: [vɔl.tɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate, despite strict censorship laws with harsh penalties for those who broke them.[clarification needed] As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.
Legacy
Voltaire perceived the French bourgeoisie to be too small and ineffective, the aristocracy to be parasitic and corrupt, the commoners as ignorant and superstitious, and the Church as a static and oppressive force useful only on occasion as a counterbalance to the rapacity of kings, although all too often, even more rapacious itself. Voltaire distrusted democracy, which he saw as propagating the idiocy of the masses.[54] Voltaire long thought only an enlightened monarch could bring about change, given the social structures of the time and the extremely high rates of illiteracy, and that it was in the king’s rational interest to improve the education and welfare of his subjects. But his disappointments and disillusions with Frederick the Great changed his philosophy somewhat, and soon gave birth to one of his most enduring works, his novella, Candide, ou l’Optimisme (Candide, or Optimism, 1759), which ends with a new conclusion: “It is up to us to cultivate our garden”. His most polemical and ferocious attacks on intolerance and religious persecutions indeed began to appear a few years later. Candide was also burned and Voltaire jokingly claimed the actual author was a certain “Demad” in a letter, where he reaffirmed the main polemical stances of the text.[55]
Voltaire is also known for many memorable aphorisms, such as: “Si Dieu n’existait pas, il faudrait l’inventer” (“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him”), contained in a verse epistle from 1768, addressed to the anonymous author of a controversial work, “The Three Impostors“. But far from being the cynical remark it is often taken for, it was meant as a retort to the atheistic clique of d’Holbach, Grimm, and others.[56] Voltaire is remembered and honored in France as a courageous polemicist who indefatigably fought for civil rights—the right to a fair trial and freedom of religion—and who denounced the hypocrisies and injustices of the Ancien Régime. The Ancien Régime involved an unfair balance of power and taxes between the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobles), and the Third Estate (the commoners and middle class, who were burdened with most of the taxes).
Voltaire has had his detractors among his later colleagues. The Scottish Victorian writer Thomas Carlyle argued that, while Voltaire was unsurpassed in literary form, not even the most elaborate of his works were of much value for matter and that he never uttered an original idea of his own.[citation needed] Nietzsche, however, called Carlyle a muddlehead who had not even understood the Enlightenment values he thought he was promoting.
He often used China, Siam and Japan as examples of brilliant non-European civilizations and harshly criticized slavery.[57] He particularly had admiration for the ethics and government as exemplified by Confucius.[58]
The town of Ferney, where Voltaire lived out the last 20 years of his life, is now named Ferney-Voltaire in honor of its most famous resident. His château is a museum.
Voltaire’s library is preserved intact in the National Library of Russia at Saint Petersburg, Russia.
In Zurich 1916, the theater and performance group who would become the early avant-garde movement Dada named their theater TheCabaret Voltaire. A late-20th-century industrial music group then named themselves after the theater.
Astronomers have bestowed his name to the Voltaire crater on Deimos and the asteroid 5676 Voltaire.[59]
Voltaire was also known to have been an advocate for coffee, as he was purported to have drunk it at least 30 times per day. It has been suggested that high amounts of caffeine acted as a mental stimulant to his creativity.[60]
His great grand-niece was the mother of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a famous philosopher and Jesuit priest.[61][62]
Famous Masons Mozart
Who is this musically minded Freemason born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria?
For the last seven years of his life Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a Mason. The Masonic order played an important role in his life and work.
Mozart’s lodges
Mozart was admitted as an apprentice to the Viennese Masonic lodge called “Zur Wohltätigkeit” (“Beneficence”) on 14 December 1784.[1] He was promoted to journeyman Mason on 7 January 1785, and became a master Mason “shortly thereafter”.[1] Mozart also attended the meetings of another lodge, called “Zur wahren Eintracht” (“True Concord”). According to Otto Erich Deutsch, this lodge was “the largest and most aristocratic in Vienna. … Mozart, as the best of the musical ‘Brothers,’ was welcome in all the lodges.” It was headed by the naturalist Ignaz von Born.[2]
Mozart’s own lodge “Zur Wohltätigkeit” was consolidated with two others in December of 1785, under the Imperial reform of Masonry (the Freimaurerpatent, “Masonic Decree”) of 11 December 1785, and thus Mozart came to belong to the lodge called “Zur Neugekrönten Hoffnung” (New Crowned Hope).[3]
At least as far as surviving Masonic documents can tell us, Mozart was well regarded by his fellow Masons. Many of his friends were Masons.
During his visit to Vienna in 1785, Mozart’s father Leopold also became a Mason.[4]
Famous Masons Phil Collins
Phil Collins “The World is in Your hands, now use it”
Phil Collins “The World is in Your hands, now use it”
Famous Masons “Tim” Horton
Miles Gilbert “Tim” Horton (January 12, 1930 – February 21, 1974) was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman. He played in 24 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Buffalo Sabres. He was also a businessman and a co-founder of fast food chain Tim Hortons. He died in an automobile crash in St. Catharines, Ontario, in 1974 at the age of 44.
