from the secretary's desk
Worshipful Brother Rick Conn
Lodge Secretary & Director of Work
Grayson Lodge website, webmaster
Grand Commander in Chief Order Sword of Bunker Hill State of Ga.
Brethren, The Annual Election of Officers was held on the 13th of December at Grayson Masonic Temple at 7:30pm. The following Officers were elected and appointed:
Worshipful Master: Charles Grady
Senior Warden: Mike Baker
Junior Warden: Hugh Woodruff
Treasurer: Steve Carson
Secretary: Rick Conn
Senior Deacon: Tim Dove
Junior Deacon: Adam Oglesbee
Senior Stewart: Bradley Farmer
Junior Stewart: Caleb Wilson
Tyler: Paul McInnish
Director of Work: Rick Conn
Ambassador to Childrens Home: Steve Carson
Trustee to the Widows Fund: Bill Lord
Meal at 6:30 pm with the meeting to follow. Come and join the fellowship.
GWINNITT COUNTY MASONIC ASSOCIATION
The GCMA Officers for 2023 are:
President- Victor McKelvey
1st Vice- Eric Puchstein
2nd Vice- Mitchell Brannan
Treasurer- Bill Lord
Secretary- Rick Conn
LODGE OF RESEARCH
The Georgia Lodge of Research meets on the months with a 5th Friday at Kennesaw Masonic Lodge #33 at 7:00 p.m. 2023 Officers are: Master WB Jack Bell, Sr Deputy Master WB Jay Finch, Jr Deputy Master WB Brent Griffin, Secretary-Treasurer WB Rick Conn, Chaplain WB Jim House.
YORK RITE MASONS
Chapter/Councils are meeting. Dave H Keever Sr Chapter/Gwinnett Council meets at Mountain Park Lodge #729. Chapter meets on the odd months; Council meets on the even. Taylor Chapter/Pirkle Council meets at Buford Lodge #292. Arnold de Troye Commandery meets at Buford Lodge #292 on the 3rd Thursdays at 7pm for meal 8pm for the meeting.
YAARAB SHRINE
We have several Shrine Clubs around our area if you want to become a Shriner and get involved in helping Burned and Crippled children. The Shriners Hospitals for Children are the best in the world and are all totally Free of charge for the patients and their families. See any Shriner for more information and a petition. We have three in our local area, Gwinnett Shrine Club, Tri-County Shrine Club, and Loganville Shrine Club.
Circus time is drawing near, this year it will be held at the Fairgrounds in Cumming Ga. Beginning on the 22nd of May and runs till Memorial Day the 31st.
VETERANS
NATIONAL SOJOURNERS, FORT MCPHERSON CHAPTER #60
The National Sojourners are a group of Military Masons made up of Brothers who support the National Defense, promote Patriotism, defend the Constitution, support the ROTC program, both High School and College levels and the Youth Leadership Conference held at Valley Forge every year.
We meet at M & J Restaurant on 78 in Snellville on the 4th Wed night of each month at 1800 hours for the meal with the meeting to follow. We support the "Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge" by sending a youth each year to the Youth Leadership Conference held every July. Youths from the local JrROTC, DeMolay Chapter, Rainbow Chapter, or Boy Scout Troops are used in our selection. If you are a Veteran and a Mason, come and check us out and join if you like. The next scheduled meeting will be held on Wednesday the 26th of October 2022, 1800 Hours for chow, meeting to follow.
There are 10 Sojourner Chapters located around the State. They would be glad to have you. and you can get a petition for membership if you like what you see.
TO ADD ANY CONTENT TO THIS WEBSITE PLEASE CONTACT THE GRAYSON LODGE WEBMASTER, WB RICK CONN. Just go to the CONTACT US button on the top left of this page and leave your information.
OR you can email direct to me at: [email protected]
THANK YOU.
Lodge Secretary & Director of Work
Grayson Lodge website, webmaster
Grand Commander in Chief Order Sword of Bunker Hill State of Ga.
Brethren, The Annual Election of Officers was held on the 13th of December at Grayson Masonic Temple at 7:30pm. The following Officers were elected and appointed:
Worshipful Master: Charles Grady
Senior Warden: Mike Baker
Junior Warden: Hugh Woodruff
Treasurer: Steve Carson
Secretary: Rick Conn
Senior Deacon: Tim Dove
Junior Deacon: Adam Oglesbee
Senior Stewart: Bradley Farmer
Junior Stewart: Caleb Wilson
Tyler: Paul McInnish
Director of Work: Rick Conn
Ambassador to Childrens Home: Steve Carson
Trustee to the Widows Fund: Bill Lord
Meal at 6:30 pm with the meeting to follow. Come and join the fellowship.
GWINNITT COUNTY MASONIC ASSOCIATION
The GCMA Officers for 2023 are:
President- Victor McKelvey
1st Vice- Eric Puchstein
2nd Vice- Mitchell Brannan
Treasurer- Bill Lord
Secretary- Rick Conn
LODGE OF RESEARCH
The Georgia Lodge of Research meets on the months with a 5th Friday at Kennesaw Masonic Lodge #33 at 7:00 p.m. 2023 Officers are: Master WB Jack Bell, Sr Deputy Master WB Jay Finch, Jr Deputy Master WB Brent Griffin, Secretary-Treasurer WB Rick Conn, Chaplain WB Jim House.
YORK RITE MASONS
Chapter/Councils are meeting. Dave H Keever Sr Chapter/Gwinnett Council meets at Mountain Park Lodge #729. Chapter meets on the odd months; Council meets on the even. Taylor Chapter/Pirkle Council meets at Buford Lodge #292. Arnold de Troye Commandery meets at Buford Lodge #292 on the 3rd Thursdays at 7pm for meal 8pm for the meeting.
YAARAB SHRINE
We have several Shrine Clubs around our area if you want to become a Shriner and get involved in helping Burned and Crippled children. The Shriners Hospitals for Children are the best in the world and are all totally Free of charge for the patients and their families. See any Shriner for more information and a petition. We have three in our local area, Gwinnett Shrine Club, Tri-County Shrine Club, and Loganville Shrine Club.
Circus time is drawing near, this year it will be held at the Fairgrounds in Cumming Ga. Beginning on the 22nd of May and runs till Memorial Day the 31st.
VETERANS
NATIONAL SOJOURNERS, FORT MCPHERSON CHAPTER #60
The National Sojourners are a group of Military Masons made up of Brothers who support the National Defense, promote Patriotism, defend the Constitution, support the ROTC program, both High School and College levels and the Youth Leadership Conference held at Valley Forge every year.
We meet at M & J Restaurant on 78 in Snellville on the 4th Wed night of each month at 1800 hours for the meal with the meeting to follow. We support the "Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge" by sending a youth each year to the Youth Leadership Conference held every July. Youths from the local JrROTC, DeMolay Chapter, Rainbow Chapter, or Boy Scout Troops are used in our selection. If you are a Veteran and a Mason, come and check us out and join if you like. The next scheduled meeting will be held on Wednesday the 26th of October 2022, 1800 Hours for chow, meeting to follow.
There are 10 Sojourner Chapters located around the State. They would be glad to have you. and you can get a petition for membership if you like what you see.
TO ADD ANY CONTENT TO THIS WEBSITE PLEASE CONTACT THE GRAYSON LODGE WEBMASTER, WB RICK CONN. Just go to the CONTACT US button on the top left of this page and leave your information.
OR you can email direct to me at: [email protected]
THANK YOU.
civil war brotherhood among soldiers
A Brother in Savannah, Georgia reported this story of Civil War soldiers from his Masonic lodge records.
It was a time not long after Fort Sumter, and the War of Northern Aggression was well underway. The Yankees, as they all still wont to do, had promptly flocked to Hilton Head and Tybee Islands, the barrier islands on opposite sides of the mouth of the Savannah River. The Savannah folks didn’t mind much that the Yankees had stolen the good beaches, for the water was still a bit cool for Southern preferences and, besides, they knew the gnats and mosquitoes would teach the Yankees a lesson they’d never forget. So, the Southerners, as Southerners all wont to do sometimes, just waited.
They didn’t have to wait very long before the Yankees on Hilton Head sent out a messenger under a white flag. It seemed that the Yankees had among them a young fellow who had passed through the Fellow Craft Degree before shipping out. The Yanks were just sitting around slapping gnats when it occurred to one of them that, just maybe, there was a nearby lodge that could test him in the Fellow Craft Degree, and raise him to that of a Master Mason.
As luck would have it, there was indeed a lodge in Savannah that would soon be having a Masters Degree. One morning, not too many days later, a detail of Confederate Cavalry slipped across the Savannah River into South Carolina and traveled through Bluffton to the shore opposite Hilton Head island.
From there they escorted one Fellow Craft Mason and, I believe, a number of Master Masons of the Northern Persuasion, safely through the Confederate Lines, and back through about 35 miles of Confederate defenses to Savannah, where the candidate and his witnesses were delivered into the lodge.
The records note that this Brother was indeed proficient in the Fellow Craft Degree, and he was raised to the Degree of a Master Mason. That night another detail of Confederate Cavalry, no doubt Brothers to a man, slipped back across the Savannah River and safely escorted their Brothers back to Hilton Head.
This story clearly demonstrates that, at the darkest period in our Nation’s history, when brothers were killing brothers, Brothers could still be Brothers.
Sources:
Georgia Masonic Messenger article by John Hohenstein, Zerubbabel Lodge No.15,
Savannah, Georgia; reprinted by Southern California Research Lodge in August 2008;
published online by Sanford Holst on www.MasonicSourcebook.com, 5 February 2009.
If you pass this piece of history on to others, please credit the
sources.
Circular Letter Addressed to the Governors of all the
States on the Disbanding of the Army, June 14, 1783
The Prayer below was written by Washington at Newburgh, New
York, at the close of the Revolutionary War on June 14, 1783. It was sent to
the thirteen governors of the newly freed states in a "Circular Letter
Addressed to the Governors of all the States on the Disbanding of the
Army."
I have thus freely declared what I wished to make known, before I surrendered up my public trust to those who committed it to me. The task is now accomplished. I now bid adieu to your Excellency, as the chief magistrate of your State, at the same time I bid a last farewell to the cares of office and all the employments of public life.
It remains, then, to be my final and only request that your Excellency will communicate these sentiments to your legislature at their next meeting, and that they may be considered the legacy of one, who has ardently wished, on all
occasions, to be useful to his country, and who, even in the shade of retirement, will not fail to implore the divine benediction on it.
I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for brethren who have served in the field; and finally that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind,
which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.
George Washington
York, at the close of the Revolutionary War on June 14, 1783. It was sent to
the thirteen governors of the newly freed states in a "Circular Letter
Addressed to the Governors of all the States on the Disbanding of the
Army."
I have thus freely declared what I wished to make known, before I surrendered up my public trust to those who committed it to me. The task is now accomplished. I now bid adieu to your Excellency, as the chief magistrate of your State, at the same time I bid a last farewell to the cares of office and all the employments of public life.
It remains, then, to be my final and only request that your Excellency will communicate these sentiments to your legislature at their next meeting, and that they may be considered the legacy of one, who has ardently wished, on all
occasions, to be useful to his country, and who, even in the shade of retirement, will not fail to implore the divine benediction on it.
I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for brethren who have served in the field; and finally that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind,
which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.
George Washington