Great Freemasons: Allen B. Wilson (October 18,1824 – April 29,1888)

Allen Benjamin Wilson (October 18,1824 – April 29,1888) was an American inventor famous for designing, building and patenting some of the first successful sewing machines He invented both the vibrating and the rotating shuttle designs which, in turns, dominated all home lockstitch sewing machines. With various partners in the 19th century he manufactured reliable sewing machines using the latter shuttle type.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_B._Wilson


(Harmony Lodge 42, Waterbury, CT)

Thanks, Obama

Great Freemasons: Willliam C. Menninger (October 15, 1899 – September 1966)

William Claire Menninger (October 15, 1899 – September 1966) was a co-founder with his brother Karl and his father of The Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, which is an internationally known center for treatment of behavioral disorders.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Menninger

Great Freemasons: Joseph Rucker Lamar (October 15, 1857 – January 2, 1916)

Joseph Rucker Lamar (October 15, 1857 – January 2, 1916) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court appointed by President William Howard Taft. A cousin of former associate justice Lucius Lamar, he served from 1911 until his death in 1916.


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


(Webb Lodge 166, Augusta, GA)

I am free because I say I am....

Happy Columbo Day!

Great Freemasons: Henry Dodge (October 12, 1782 – June 19, 1867)

Henry Dodge (October 12, 1782 – June 19, 1867) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, Territorial Governor of Wisconsin and a veteran of the Black Hawk War.

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


Louisiana Lodge 109 (MO)

Great Freemasons: Trent Lott

We cannot forget the little things we take for granted in America that remain the disdain of dictators and terrorists throughout the world.
Trent Lott

Chester Trent Lott, Sr. (born October 9, 1941) is a former United States Senator from Mississippi, who served in numerous leadership positions in both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate. He entered Congress as one of the first of a wave of Republicans winning seats in Southern states that had been solidly Democratic. He became Senate Majority Leader, then fell from power after praising Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist Dixiecrat presidential bid.


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


(Masonic Life: Shortly after completing law school and returning to the Gulf Coast, he had petitioned, been accepted and initiated an Entered Apprentice in Pascagoula Lodge No. 419 on September 18, 1967. However, the busy schedule of a congressional aide and freshman House member made advancement a challenge. Nonetheless, he was finally passed to the Degree of Fellowcraft on August 23, 1975, and raised a Master Mason on August 29, 1975. That October, Brother Lott took most of his Scottish Rite Degrees in the Valley of Gulfport, but did not receive his 32nd Degree until October 23, 1976. He subsequently received the K.C.C.H. in 1983 and was coroneted a 33° Inspector General Honorary on December 12, 1987. )

"Front Man" by Liam Brazier

h/t:
http://geektyrant.com/news/2013/10/8/wall-worthy-superhero-cubist-art-by-liam-brazier

Great Freemasons: Leonard Wood (October 9, 1860 – August 7, 1927)

Leonard Wood (October 9, 1860 – August 7, 1927) was a physician who served as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Military Governor of Cuba, and Governor General of the Philippines. Early in his military career, he received the Medal of Honor. Wood also holds officer service #2 in the Regular Army (John Pershing holds officer service #1). He was present at the 1906 First Battle of Bud Dajo.

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

(Anglo Saxon Lodge 137, NY)



(Art: "Leonard Wood - Maverick in the Making 1882-1921" (1860–1927) by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) oil on canvas, 1903 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.)

Albert Einstein quote

One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
Albert Einstein


(Art: The Question by Eddie Newell)

I am a Freemason.

Great Freemasons: Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (October 8, 1890 – July 23, 1973)

Aviation is proof that given the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.
Eddie Rickenbacker

Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (October 8, 1890 – July 23, 1973) was an American fighter ace in World War I and Medal of Honor recipient. With 26 aerial victories, he was America's most successful fighter ace in the war. He was also a race car driver and automotive designer, a government consultant in military matters and a pioneer in air transportation, particularly as the longtime head of Eastern Air Lines.


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


(Kilwinning Lodge 297, Detroit)

Metal

Great Freemasons: Matt Whitaker Ransom (October 8, 1826 – October 8, 1904)

Matt Whitaker Ransom (October 8, 1826 – October 8, 1904) was a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and a Democratic U.S. senator from the state of North Carolina between 1872 and 1895.


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

Here is "An address on the military and civil services of General Matt. W. Ransom, May 10, 1906" by WM. H. S. Burgwynn.



(Johnson-Caswell Lodge 10, NC)

Great Freemasons: Henry A. Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965)

The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.
Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965), from Democracy Reborn (New York, 1944), edited by Russell Lord


Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) was the 33rd Vice President of the United States (1941–1945), the Secretary of Agriculture (1933–1940), and the Secretary of Commerce (1945–1946). In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace was the nominee of the Progressive Party.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_A._Wallace
(Capital Lodge 110, Des Moines, Iowa)

Christian Bale

Based on a True Story....

Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires....

Furloughed...

Great Freemasons: Alexander Majors (October 4, 1814 – January 13, 1900)

Alexander Majors (October 4, 1814 – January 13m 1900) was a U.S. businessman, who along with William Hepburn Russell and William B. Waddell founded the Pony Express, based in Kansas City, Missouri.

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


(Golden Square Lodge 107, Westport, MO)

Great Freemasons: John Ross, Cherokee Chief (October 3, 1790–August 1, 1866)

“Our Hearts are Sickened”: Letter from Chief John Ross of the Cherokee, Georgia, 1836

By President Andrew Jackson’s election in 1828, the only large concentrations of Indian tribes remaining on the east coast were located in the South. The Cherokee had adopted the settled way of life of the surrounding—and encroaching—white society. They were consequently known, along with the Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw, as one of the “Five Civilized Tribes.” “Civilization,” however, was not enough, and the Jackson administration forced most of these tribes west during the first half of the 1830s, clearing southern territory for the use of whites. Chief John Ross was the principal chief of the Cherokee in Georgia; in this 1836 letter addressed to “the Senate and House of Representatives,” Ross protested as fraudulent the Treaty of New Echota that forced the Cherokee out of Georgia. In 1838, federal troops forcibly displaced the last of the Cherokee from their homes; their trip to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) is known as the “Trail of Tears.”

[Red Clay Council Ground, Cherokee Nation, September 28, 1836]

It is well known that for a number of years past we have been harassed by a series of vexations, which it is deemed unnecessary to recite in detail, but the evidence of which our delegation will be prepared to furnish. With a view to bringing our troubles to a close, a delegation was appointed on the 23rd of October, 1835, by the General Council of the nation, clothed with full powers to enter into arrangements with the Government of the United States, for the final adjustment of all our existing difficulties. The delegation failing to effect an arrangement with the United States commissioner, then in the nation, proceeded, agreeably to their instructions in that case, to Washington City, for the purpose of negotiating a treaty with the authorities of the United States.

After the departure of the Delegation, a contract was made by the Rev. John F. Schermerhorn, and certain individual Cherokees, purporting to be a “treaty, concluded at New Echota, in the State of Georgia, on the 29th day of December, 1835, by General William Carroll and John F. Schermerhorn, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and people of the Cherokee tribes of Indians.” A spurious Delegation, in violation of a special injunction of the general council of the nation, proceeded to Washington City with this pretended treaty, and by false and fraudulent representations supplanted in the favor of the Government the legal and accredited Delegation of the Cherokee people, and obtained for this instrument, after making important alterations in its provisions, the recognition of the United States Government. And now it is presented to us as a treaty, ratified by the Senate, and approved by the President [Andrew Jackson], and our acquiescence in its requirements demanded, under the sanction of the displeasure of the United States, and the threat of summary compulsion, in case of refusal. It comes to us, not through our legitimate authorities, the known and usual medium of communication between the Government of the United States and our nation, but through the agency of a complication of powers, civil and military.

By the stipulations of this instrument, we are despoiled of our private possessions, the indefeasible property of individuals. We are stripped of every attribute of freedom and eligibility for legal self-defence. Our property may be plundered before our eyes; violence may be committed on our persons; even our lives may be taken away, and there is none to regard our complaints. We are denationalized; we are disfranchised. We are deprived of membership in the human family! We have neither land nor home, nor resting place that can be called our own. And this is effected by the provisions of a compact which assumes the venerated, the sacred appellation of treaty.

We are overwhelmed! Our hearts are sickened, our utterance is paralized, when we reflect on the condition in which we are placed, by the audacious practices of unprincipled men, who have managed their stratagems with so much dexterity as to impose on the Government of the United States, in the face of our earnest, solemn, and reiterated protestations.

The instrument in question is not the act of our Nation; we are not parties to its covenants; it has not received the sanction of our people. The makers of it sustain no office nor appointment in our Nation, under the designation of Chiefs, Head men, or any other title, by which they hold, or could acquire, authority to assume the reins of Government, and to make bargain and sale of our rights, our possessions, and our common country. And we are constrained solemnly to declare, that we cannot but contemplate the enforcement of the stipulations of this instrument on us, against our consent, as an act of injustice and oppression, which, we are well persuaded, can never knowingly be countenanced by the Government and people of the United States; nor can we believe it to be the design of these honorable and highminded individuals, who stand at the head of the Govt., to bind a whole Nation, by the acts of a few unauthorized individuals. And, therefore, we, the parties to be affected by the result, appeal with confidence to the justice, the magnanimity, the compassion, of your honorable bodies, against the enforcement, on us, of the provisions of a compact, in the formation of which we have had no agency.

In truth, our cause is your own; it is the cause of liberty and of justice; it is based upon your own principles, which we have learned from yourselves; for we have gloried to count your [George] Washington and your [Thomas] Jefferson our great teachers; we have read their communications to us with veneration; we have practised their precepts with success. And the result is manifest. The wildness of the forest has given place to comfortable dwellings and cultivated fields, stocked with the various domestic animals. Mental culture, industrious habits, and domestic enjoyments, have succeeded the rudeness of the savage state.

We have learned your religion also. We have read your Sacred books. Hundreds of our people have embraced their doctrines, practised the virtues they teach, cherished the hopes they awaken, and rejoiced in the consolations which they afford. To the spirit of your institutions, and your religion, which has been imbibed by our community, is mainly to be ascribed that patient endurance which has characterized the conduct of our people, under the laceration of their keenest woes. For assuredly, we are not ignorant of our condition; we are not insensible to our sufferings. We feel them! we groan under their pressure! And anticipation crowds our breasts with sorrows yet to come. We are, indeed, an afflicted people! Our spirits are subdued! Despair has well nigh seized upon our energies! But we speak to the representatives of a Christian country; the friends of justice; the patrons of the oppressed. And our hopes revive, and our prospects brighten, as we indulge the thought. On your sentence, our fate is suspended; prosperity or desolation depends on your word. To you, therefore, we look! Before your august assembly we present ourselves, in the attitude of deprecation, and of entreaty. On your kindness, on your humanity, on your compassion, on your benevolence, we rest our hopes. To you we address our reiterated prayers. Spare our people! Spare the wreck of our prosperity! Let not our deserted homes become the monuments of our desolation! But we forbear! We suppress the agonies which wring our hearts, when we look at our wives, our children, and our venerable sires! We restrain the forebodings of anguish and distress, of misery and devastation and death, which must be the attendants on the execution of this ruinous compact.

In conclusion, we commend to your confidence and favor, our well-beloved and trust-worthy brethren and fellow-citizens, John Ross, Principal Chief, Richard Taylor, Samuel Gunter, John Benge, George Sanders, Walter S. Adair, Stephen Foreman, and Kalsateehee of Aquohee, who are clothed with full powers to adjust all our existing difficulties by treaty arrangements with the United States, by which our destruction may be averted, impediments to the advancement of our people removed, and our existence perpetuated as a living monument, to testify to posterity the honor, the magnanimity, the generosity of the United States. And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray. Signed by Ross, George Lowrey, Edward Gunter, Lewis Ross, thirty-one members of the National Committee and National Council, and 2,174 others.

Source: John Ross, Letter from John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Indians, in Answer to Inquires from a Friend Regarding the Cherokee Affairs with the United States (Washington, D.C., 1836), 22–24.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6598/


John Ross (October 3, 1790–August 1, 1866), also known as Guwisguwi (meaning in Cherokee a "mythological or rare migratory bird"), was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828–1866, serving longer in this position than any other person. Described as the Moses of his people, Ross influenced the former Indian nation through such tumultuous events as the relocation to Indian Territory and the American Civil War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ross_%28Cherokee_chief%29
(Lodge uncertain but likely of Cherokee Lodge 21, Tahlequah)

Great Freemasons: A.E. Waite (2 October 1857 – 19 May 1942)

BEHIND the veil of all the hieratic and mystical allegories of ancient doctrines, behind the darkness and strange ordeals of all initiations, under the seal of all sacred writings, in the ruins of Nineveh or Thebes, on the crumbling stones of old temples and on the blackened visage of the Assyrian or Egyptian sphinx, in the monstrous or marvellous paintings which interpret to the faithful of India the inspired pages of the Vedas, in the cryptic emblems of our old books on alchemy, in the ceremonies practised at reception by all secret societies, there are found indications of a doctrine which is everywhere the same and everywhere carefully concealed.
A.E. Waite

Arthur Edward Waite (2 October 1857 – 19 May 1942) was a British scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. As his biographer R. A. Gilbert described him, "Waite's name has survived because he was the first to attempt a systematic study of the history of western occultism—viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of proto-science or as the pathology of religion."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._E._Waite

(Marylebone Lodge 1305, London)

I'm with Walter.

Now that the government is shut down....

Great Freemasons: Bud Abbott (October 2, 1895 – April 24, 1974)

That's why so many stars are making pictures in Europe today. The tax guys are making thieves out of everybody.
Bud Abbott

William Alexander "Bud" Abbott (October 2, 1895 – April 24, 1974) was an American actor, producer and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.

(I can't find his Lodge, but evidently he was an active Mason and Shriner).

Government Shutdown

They said the government was shutting down...

Join the NSA's New Online Dating Service.

Really excited for the season finale....

One More Theory

Video: Robert Farrar Capon Retreat

Wonderful talk with the recently deceased theologian Robert Farrar Capon.

Thor Prefers Lattes

World's Finest International Coffee Day

Great Freemasons: Gene Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998

I`m not a good actor, a good rider or a particularly good singer, but they seem to like what I do, so I`ll keep on doing it as long as they want.
Gene Autry


Orvon Grover Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as a singing cowboy on the radio, in movies, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was also owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997.


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

(Catoosa Lodge No. 185, OK)

Happy International Coffee Day!

Great Freemasons: Roscoe Turner (September 29, 1895 – June 23, 1970)

Col. Roscoe Turner, seen here with Gilmore, his pet lion.

Roscoe Turner (September 29, 1895 – June 23, 1970) was an aviator who was a three-time winner of the Thompson Trophy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Turner


Here is some great video footage of him from a documentary:
(Corinth Lodge 116, Mississippi)

John Polkinghorne on the Friendship of Religion and Science

Great Freemasons: George W. Peck

Gents—If you have made up your minds that the world will
cease to move unless these "Bad Boy" articles are given to
the public in book form, why go ahead, and peace to your
ashes. The "Bad Boy" is not a "myth," though there may be
some stretches of imagination in the articles. The
counterpart of this boy is located in every city, village
and country hamlet throughout the land. He is wide awake,
full of vinegar, and is ready to crawl under the canvas of a
circus or repeat a hundred verses of the New Testament in
Sunday School. He knows where every melon patch in the
neighborhood is located, and at what hours the dog is
chained up. He will tie an oyster can to a dog's tail to
give the dog exercise, or will fight at the drop of the hat
to protect the smaller boy or a school girl. He gets in his
work everywhere there is a fair prospect of fun, and his
heart is easily touched by an appeal in the right way,
though his coat-tail is oftener touched with a boot than his
heart is by kindness. But he shuffles through life until the
time comes for him to make a mark in the world, and then he
buckles on the harness and goes to the front, and becomes
successful, and then those who said he would bring up in
State Prison, remember that he always was a mighty smart
lad, and they never tire of telling of some of his deviltry
when he was a boy, though they thought he was pretty tough
at the time. This book is respectfully dedicated to boys, to
the men who have been boys themselves, to the girls who like
the boys, and to the mothers, bless them, who like both the
boys and the girls,

Very respectfully,
GEO. W. PECK

George Wilbur Peck (September 28, 1840– April 16, 1916) was an American writer and politician who served as the 17th Governor of Wisconsin.

Peck was born in 1840 in Henderson, New York, the oldest of three children of David B. and Alzina P. (Joslin) Peck. In 1843, the family moved to Cold Spring, Wisconsin. Peck attended public school until age 15, when he was apprenticed in the printing trade. He married Francena Rowley in 1860 and they had two sons.

Peck became a newspaper publisher who founded newspapers in Ripon and La Crosse, Wisconsin. His La Crosse newspaper, The Sun, was founded in 1874. In 1878 Peck moved the newspaper to Milwaukee, renaming it Peck's Sun. The weekly newspaper contained Peck's humorous writings, including his famous "Peck's Bad Boy" stories.

In the spring of 1890 Peck ran for mayor of Milwaukee. A Democrat, Peck was elected despite a Republican majority in the city. The state's Democratic leaders took notice and made Peck the party's nominee for the 1890 gubernatorial race. Peck won the election, beating the incumbent William Hoard, and resigned as Milwaukee's mayor on November 11, 1890. He was reelected as governor in 1892, defeating Republican John C. Spooner, but lost a third term to William Upham in 1894. He ran again in 1904 but lost to the incumbent Robert M. La Follette, Sr.

Peck died in 1916 at age 75 of Bright's disease and was buried at Forest Home Cemetery. After his death, his "Peck's Bad Boy" writings became the basis for several films and a short-lived television show.

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

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25487/25487-h/25487-h.htm

(Wisconsin Lodge No. 13, Wauwatosa, WI)

Shiny...cute, too.

Great Freemasons: Jimmy McClure (September 28, 1916 - February 12, 2005)

Jimmy McClure (September 28, 1916 - February 12, 2005) was a champion table tennis player from USA. From 1936 to 1949 he won several medals in doubles, and team events in the World Table Tennis Championships


http://216.119.100.169/organization/halloffame/mcclure1.html

(Oriental Lodge 500, Indianapolis)

Herne the Hunter by Daniel Eskridge

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/daniel-eskridge.html

Great Freemasons: Sam Ervin (September 27, 1896 – April 23, 1985)

When people fear surveillance, whether it exists or not, they grow afraid to speak their minds and hearts freely to their government or to anyone else.
Sam Ervin

Samuel James "Samy" Ervin, Jr. (September 27, 1896 – April 23, 1985) was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A native of Morganton, he liked to call himself a "country lawyer", and often told humorous stories in his Southern drawl. During his Senate career, Ervin was a legal defender of the Jim Crow laws and racial segregation, as the South's constitutional expert during the congressional debates on civil rights. Unexpectedly, he became a liberal hero for his support of civil liberties. He is remembered for his work in the investigation committees that brought down Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954 and especially his investigation in 1972 and 1973 of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation in 1974 of President Richard Nixon.


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


(Catawba Valley Lodge 217, Morganton, NC)

Great Freemasons: Stephen Benton Elkins (September 26, 1841 – January 4, 1911)

Stephen Benton Elkins (September 26, 1841 – January 4, 1911) was an American industrialist and political figure. He served as the Secretary of War between 1891 and 1893. He served in the Congress as a Delegate from the Territory of New Mexico and a Senator from West Virginia.


NM Montezuma Lodge 109 (MO Charter)

Animals Have Feelings

Sign

I'd like to let you in....

I Gave That Lich a Phylactery...

Great Freemasons: Arthur Willard Pryor (September 22, 1870 – June 18, 1942)

Arthur Willard Pryor (September 22, 1870 – June 18, 1942) was a trombone virtuoso, bandleader, and soloist with the Sousa Band. He was a prolific composer of band music, his best known composition being "The Whistler and His Dog". In later life, he was an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey, who served on the Monmouth County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders during the 1930s.
 was a trombone virtuoso, bandleader, and soloist with the Sousa Band. He was a prolific composer of band music, his best known composition being "The Whistler and His Dog". In later life, he was an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey, who served on the Monmouth County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders during the 1930s.

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