The copper era. (Clifton, Graham County, Ariz.) 1899-1911, 1910-03-03
MASONS MONUMENT
FOR WASHINGTON.
Will Raise $1,000, 600 to Erect and Main
tain Memorial.

The movement to erect a perma-
neut Masonic memorial to George
Washington took it's first definite
turn on February p when General J..
M. Dickinson, secretary of war, and
the grand masters of many Masonic
lodges met in Alexandria, Va, with
other distinguished men of the
fraternity to form a National Ma
sonic Memorial association. Perhaps
no Masonic celebration ever held
anywhere in America has been more
elaborate.
In this quaint old town of ivy-cov-
cred walls and rambling gardens, up
on a street laid out by the young
surveyor. near the spot where in 1854
Braddock's young colonel quartered
his troops before the fraternal
march to the Ohio; near the historic
old lodge where he was a master and
in the midst of a field rich in the
events of his life and memory, it will
be the purpose of this association to
erect a temple to George Washing
ton, a Mason. Set apart in the
structure will be a hall of fame in
which space will be allotted to all
the grand jurisdictions in the coun-
of their distinguished sons.
The memorial would stand on Wash
ington street. Close by is the old
Christ Church, where, in his mature
years, Washington served as a YES
trymau. lr ieid ret far off he
held his last l-...i,a!y L, view. Across
a shaded green in the stately old
court house he cast his last vote and
there his will is filed.
Alexandria, by undisputed consent,
is the natural site for the memorial.
Washington moved to Mount Vernon
when he was sixteen with his half
brother, Lawrence, and until the
chill, raw day of his death it was his
home and Alexandria was his home
town. He became a member of its
council, represented it in the house
of burgesses, endowed its schools, es-
tablished its fire department and was
master of its lodge.
The men who will form the asso-
citation met in the same Alexandria
Washington lodge room, where
Washington occupied the masters
chair. While no fixed plan could be
announced prior to the assembly of
all the grand masters, it is in short
the purpose of the lodge to raise ST.
900, 900 to build and endow the memo
rial, The institution will be unique
among the memorials of the world
and will permit every grand juris-
diction to honor evesy Mason it es-
its hall of fame, photograph and
biography:
The gathering of such men of
prominence in the old lodge was i'm
pressive. Alexandria-Washi
Lodge No. % made Washington its
worshipful grand master in 178S. At
his request in 1871 it laid the corner
stone of the District of Columbia and
ten years later assisted in laying the
corner stone of the national capitol.
In 1893 it performed the Masonic
ceremonies at his funeral.
In its halls, crowded with precious
mementoes, his memorial was organ
lied. There hangs the old charter
granted by Edmund Randolph, grand
master of Masons in Virginia, in
1888. Close By, its pendulum cord
cut and its hands pointing to twenty
minutes after ten in the evening
the hour and minute of his death
stands the old bed chamber clock.
No money could buy this silent tale
bearer. Nearby in a case is the lit
tie trowel he used at laying the Capi-
tol cornerstone. In another are his
wedding gloves, his pocket compasses,
spurs, a piece of his tent used at
Yorktown, his old fashioned medi-
cine scales and an eloquent token of
his reverence for his mother-a lit
tie knife she gave to him as reward
for his obedience and which he treas
ured for fifty-six years.
The William picture, painted from
life in 1874, hangs on another wall.
|
Ii uch unlike the accepted likenesses
of Washington. 1t shows the man
in his extreme old age and is the
only original life picture extant, in
Masonic regalia. His Masonic apron,
embroidered in gold with French and
American flags entwined, presented
to the lodge in 1912, by his nephew,
Lawrence Lewis, hangs nearby. The
only original painting of Lord Fair
fax, Washington's early patron and
friend, is also there.
The masters chair, occupied by
General Washington in presiding
over the lodge, stands in a glass
case, from which it is removed only
on extraordinary occasions. 1t is 122
years old and was in constant use for
III years. Scores of other things of
his day. the old chairs and benches of
, the lodge are still in use. The front
door key of the bastile, presented in
1925 by Lafayette, which have come
from relatives and friends, are valued
beyond estimate.
There had been a sentiment
against choosing a new site for the
memorial, but for great many rea-
Al. ~,