Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-02-11
-.RuTE TO THE DEAD.
aSomOriaI Address to the Mem.
Org Of an odd Fellow.

session tnat DAY at san antonio, anC
a full report of which appears in the
Express of that city. The Memorial
Committee, through its Chairman, NJ
d, Herring, presented the following
which was adopted by rising vote:
Died, on the 18th day of December
A. d, 1881, Past Grand Patriarch and
Past Grand Representative to the
Sovereign Grand Lodge, Taliaferro
Preston Shaffner, aged 63 years.
Brother Shaffner became member
of Chosen Friends Lodge in Louis
VILE, Kentucky, in 1899, as soon as he
was eligible, and continued member
of this lodge to the day of his death
foIty-twO years. Soon after his initia-
ton he joined Mt. Horeb Encamp-
ment. He was elected by the Grand
Encampment of Kentucky Grand
Representative to the Grand Lodge of
the United States in 1843. This Office
he held until he was elected Grand
Patriarch by his Grand Encampment.
Both positions he filed with distin-
guished ability. His business connec-
tons with Morse, in establishing tele-
graphy in this country and in Europe,
interfered with his continued useful
ness in the highest councils of the
order in Kentucky and in the United
States. But his great love and fervent
zeal for Odd Fellowship were not over
slaughed by his business connections
in flashing light and knowledge
throughout the civilized world. In
his business enterprises in Greenland,
England, France, Russia, Persia,
Denmark, Iceland, the Farce Islands,
Labrador. Scotland Norway, Sweden
and other foreign countries, he was
the very embodiment of liberation, of
the Golden Rule, Faith, Hope and
Charity. And his foreign mission
accomplished, returned to his native
land and his adopted State with fame
and wealth, his mind still more i'm
bued with the great principles of our
order. He caused to be printed, at
his own expense, an outlay of $4,000,
his odd Fellowship Illustrated" a
book Of 400 pages, which he gratu-
itously distributed for the good of the
order. And in 1875, at Indianapolis,
after presenting a copy of it to every
officer and member of the G. l.. U. s.,
then in session in that city, he pro-
cured their autographs to ffty-four
copies, for presentation to the crowned
heads Of Europe, with most of whom
be was personally acquainted.
In 1877 he was again elected to rep
resent the Grand Enoampment OF
Kentucky in the G. L. y. s., and
from then until his death, he contlu.
ued member OF that grand body, and
the very head and front of the interest
of the Encampmeut branch. AS one
Of the Revision Committee, of which
he was leading member, this branch
was assigned to him, and it bears the
impress of his experience and erudi.
ton.
Viewed from the retrospect, Brother
Shaffner is a striking example of d.
vine interposition in shaping human
character, and in directing, preserv-
ing and overruliug it to wise md be-
nefcent ends. An obscure, penniless
orphan boy, he leaves his native home
in Virginia to work out his destiny in
the slow, hard and rugged pathway of
life among strangers in a strange land.
Destitute of education, as well as ex-
traneous advantages, he seeks and OBJ
tains employment with merchant in
Louisville, Kentucky. While he edu-
Gates himself in business his leisure
moments are applied to the acquisition
Of knowledge He studies law, and
becomes a promising and prominent
young practitioner in this honorable
profession. He makes the acquaint-
ance of Morse, the inventor Of teleg-
raphy, ridiculed as visionary fanatic.
His naturally acute and trained
intellect comprehended the utility and
practicability of this great invention,
and all the powers Of his great mind
were concentrated in its demonstra
ton. while his greatest legal
efforts in the courts of the country
were in the vindication and establish
ment Of Morse's rights against in.
Engagements of his patent. Thence.
forward, as a party in interest, his life
was devoted to the extension of teleg.
raphy, until Europe as we'll as
America was the recipient of its
benefits, and the two countries con-
nected by the submarine cable and
placed in communication as next-dooI
neighbors. While engaged in thi:
! work, he amassed fortune and acquired
fame and honor at home and abroad
As scholar, scientist, philanthrophist
and Christian gentleman, he
was courted by philosophers
courtiers, Kings, and Emperors
In continental Europe his name
was as familiar as those of Huxley
| Tyndall, Farriday and other scientific
lights All these distinguished hon
ors, his extensive and influential per
sonal acquaintance, his accumulated
wealth and the decorations of scien
tifc. physiological. photographic ant
royal societies he made subseI want t
the great, underlying principle of Ode
Fellowship, the fatherhood of Go,
and the brotherhood of man." Fo
the recognition of this principle, tn
suppression Of mans inhumanity t.
man, +" and the practical assertion o
the mild dominion of lore over tn
kingdom Of hate and the carnage 0
wsr-he published and distribute,
his attractive, impressive and faithful
"0dd Fellowship Illustrated" anon
the rulers and crowned heads of Eu
rope. What human prescience ca
, fortell the extent or effect Of this in
imitable book in the realization Of tn
universal law Of benevolenoe an
charity, which our order teaches, ulti
, mately bind in the links Of our broth
erhood, all nations, tongues and kin
dreds of earth.