Bisbee daily review., 1907-10-26
RECALLS STORY Of
 PIKE
Was Great Explorer, Warrior, Poet and High Degree Ma son-Fonmed the Santa Rita Lodge of Perfection,
CTucson Star.)


 Colonel Albert Pike, the really great man who instituted Santa Rita Lodge of Perfection in Tucson more than a score of years ago, was poet, explorer, Indian fighter. lawyer. news Daper man. soldier and Scottish Rite Mason of particular note. There are few here now who have personal knowledge Of Pike in the days when he took a class of seventeen through the local lodge, and still less is the number who are left of that class. but among them are Governor Hughes. George J. Roskruge and NJ. P. Free man of Tucson, H. D. Underwood of Los Angeles. and Ex-United States Marshal Tidball. now in the City of Mexico.
 Pike was born in Boston and at the age of sixteen entered Harvard, bUt being short of funds became a coun- try school teacher Tn the spring of 1S31 he started for the Southwest, and at St. Louis gathered forty ad- venturous spirits together for a trip to Mexico. For a year he remained at Santa Fe, and late in 1882 left Taos with a party of trappers, visit ing and exploring the headwaters of the Red and Brazos rivers.
 He then with four companions left the trapping party and made for Fort Smith. Ark. 500 miles away, which was reached after many hardships and constant danger from hostile In dians. From 1883 to 1S35 he edited the Arkansas Advocate at Little Rock with great ability, and some time dIr- ing that period was admitted to the a4 p.,1xr sT,Vn G tive practice of the law there, hlt re- vised the Arkansas statutes in IS3e. In the Mexican war Pike mt only served with distinction as a private. but commanded a squadron at the battle of Buena Vista ani in 1S4T received the SUIT sndec ot Mapimi During the Civil war hE assImeJ a | spectacular part. organ, u,zipg a body ot l Cherokee Indians said to have nuin- 1 bored 1000 and :cught with them on the Confederate side at Pea Ridge and in other battles. He later be
 came a brigadier general. After the war Pike went to Washington and practiced law for a time, and in 1867 l drifted to Memphis and edited and managed the Memphis Appeal, |. newspaper that under his guidance 1 e8eTleu GHOFS Il4H ASudl lullutHNS- During all this time General Pike was dabbling in literature, the term being
 used as something different from newspaper writing. His Hymns to the Gods" contained many literary gems, and gained for him reputa- ton as a poet. This was published
 way back in '59, and followed his Prose Sketches and Poems" His battle hymn, Dixie burns with in | tense patriotic ferVor.
 His work along Masonic lines was ceaseless, in the lodge room, in pure ly ritualistic work, and in his history of Scottish Rite Masonry. He held many high offices in the order, and in 1 1859 gave to them Statutes and Laws of the Ancient Scottisk Rite" When Colonel Pike died his various works or Masonry had reached the astonish- | ing number of thirty. When the col oneI was Q well known figure in Tue son. with his military bearing and ex ceedingly long white hair, he was 1 looked up to as the man of unusual ! talent, force and brilliancy that he really was, and his friendship es- | teemed correspondingly. When in | the near future Tucson becomes the ] home of the Consistory and Council of Kadosh, Colonel Pike's name will
 be much heard, and his brilliant qual- | ities as frequently mentioned.