Great Freemasons: Red Skelton (July 18, 1913 – September 17, 1997)

If by chance some day you're not feeling well and you should remember some silly thing I've said or done and it brings back a smile to your face or a chuckle to your heart, then my purpose as your clown has been fulfilled.
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton (July 18, 1913 – September 17, 1997)

(Newly made Shriners Roy Rogers, Potentate Harold Lloyd, Red Skelton, and Dick Powell)

Ever the patriot, here is a great video of Brother Skelton explaining the meaning behind the Pledge of Allegiance:

Red Skelton was an American entertainer best known for being a national radio and television comedian between 1937 and 1971. Skelton, who has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, began his show business career in his teens as a circus clown and continued on vaudeville and Broadway and in films, radio, TV, nightclubs, and casinos, all while he pursued an entirely separate career as an artist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Skelton


(Vincennes Lodge No. 1, Vincennes, Indiana, in 1939. He also was a member of both the Scottish and York Rite. He was the recipient of the General Grand Chapter’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Service in the Arts and Sciences.

On September 24, 1969, he received the highest honor in the Scottish Rite when he was coroneted an Inspector General Honorary 33°. He was also a Shriner at the Al Malaikah Shrine Temple in Los Angeles, California).

http://toddecreason.blogspot.com/2013/06/famous-freemason-great-red-skelton.html

Great Freemasons: Elbridge Thomas Gerry (July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814)

What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. Now, it must be evident, that, under this provision, together with their other powers, Congress could take such measures with respect to a militia, as to make a standing army necessary. Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.
Elbridge Thomas Gerry (July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814)

Elbridge Thomas Gerry (July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American statesman and diplomat. As a Democratic-Republican he was selected as the fifth Vice President of the United States (1813–1814), serving under James Madison. He is known best for being the namesake of gerrymandering, a process by which electoral districts are drawn with the aim of aiding the party in power, although its initial "g" has softened to /dʒ/ from the hard /ɡ/ of his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbridge_Gerry

(It is believed that he was a member of Philanthropic Lodge of Marblehead, MA, but the records of this lodge are missing from the period 1760-78 when he logically would have been initiated.)

What If I Told You....

Great Freemasons: Samuel Holden Parsons (May 14, 1737 – November 17, 1789)

Samuel Holden Parsons (May 14, 1737 – November 17, 1789) was an American lawyer, jurist, general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and a pioneer to the Ohio Country. Parsons was described as "Soldier, scholar, judge, one of the strongest arms on which Washington leaned, who first suggested the Continental Congress, from the story of whose life could almost be written the history of the Northern War" by Senator George F. Hoar of Massachusetts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Holden_Parsons

( St. John's Lodge 2, CT)

Great Freemasons: Manley P. Hall (March 18, 1901 – August 29, 1990)

Great Freemasons: Rev. Josiah Henson (July 15, 1789 - May 15, 1883)

Rev. Josiah Henson
July 15, 1789 - May 15, 1883
After he escaped to Canada on 28 October 1830, it is said he aided more than 600 slaves to freedom.
Widely considered the inspiration for Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriett Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), the Rev. Josiah Henson is buried in the Dresden, Ontario cemetery. On the monument erected to his memory—where "his abused and honoured bones lie"—the square and compasses are engraved in the Fellowcraft position.
There is no mention of freemasonry in either his 1858 or 1877 autobiography, nor in his entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
In 2003, Wallace McLeod writes: "Apparently he was made a Mason in Boston during one of his visits there. On his return to Canada he joined Mount Moriah Lodge No.11., Dresden (Prince Hall Affiliation), and is listed as its Secretary in 1866."
The confusion about his year of birth originated in his autobiography, published in London in 1877, where he states, "I was born June 15th, 1789".
Member : [Initiation date unknown]
Mount Moriah Lodge No. 11. Dresden, Ontario

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/henson_j/henson_j.html

Calvin Coolidge