At one time, Golden Lodge #5, in Stanstead, Canada occupied a lodge room, which straddled the boundary between Canada and the United States. There were entrances on both sides of the border.
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In 1872 the commissioner of U.S. Patents held that the Masonic emblem could not be used in a trademark or trade name for commercial purposes. Yet, funnily enough - Montana's first livestock brand was a square and compasses and is still in use today. It was registered by Pointdexter Orr of Beaverhead County, Montana in 1872 - only just preceding the Patents office decision to prohibit such an action.
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In Hammer v. State, 173 Indiana, 199 (1909), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was a criminal offence to wear the emblem of any society or organization of which one is not a member. The court based its decision on the fact that the membership in such societies is the result of fitness and selection and that the wearing of such emblems by non-members is a deceit and false pretence.
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In Robinson v. Yates City Lodge, 86 Illinois, 598 (1877), a court ruled that an expelled Mason was not entitled to the return of his degree fees. The court held that the plaintiff voluntarily paid the fees and the expulsion under the provisions of the rules of the organization does not constitute the rescission of a contract under which the fees were paid.
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In 1860 in Limerick, Ireland, there was found a stone in a small chapel, dated 1517, with the following inscription: "I will serve to live with love & care, upon the level, and by the square." Interestingly this is some 200 years prior to the foundation of the first Grand Lodge in England.
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Francis Stephens, the Duke of Lorraine, received the first two Masonic degrees in 1731 in a special lodge convened at The Hague, Holland, becoming the first known royal freemason. Later he received the third degree in England. In 1735 he renounced his Masonic title.
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Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotine was a member of Concorde Fraternelle Lodge of Paris and a member of the French Assembly. He obviously invented the device that bears his name and was later executed with one of his own inventions.
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The Rev. William Dodd, first Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of England, was hanged for forgery on June 2nd, 1777 - despite a prolonged public campaign for a Royal pardon supported by a 37 page petition with over 23,000 signatures. One of his last published works was (appropriately enough) "The Convicts Address to his Unhappy Brethren".
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Dr. Edward Jenner, in 1789 discovered the vaccination process against smallpox. He was worshipful master of Faith and Friendship Lodge #270 in Berkeley, England at the time.
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July 2, 1751, Ferdinand VI of Spain issued an edict against Freemasonry. Father Jose Torrubia secured a special dispensation from the Pope, joined a lodge, secured the names of its members, and proceeded to have them arrested. Hundreds were arrested, persecuted, and imprisoned.
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In Fascist Spain under Franco, it was a crime to be a freemason. Masons convicted had to serve prison terms equal in years to the number of Masonic degrees possessed. Master Mason =3 degrees = 3 years imprisonment. (Better not to have been a Knight Templar!!)
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Between 1737 and 1779 two sailing ships of interest operated off the U.S. eastern seaboard, "Freemason" and "Master Mason". The Freemason caught fire and sank in Marblehead Harbor, Massachusetts in 1779.
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On November 10, 1928, the Grand lodge of California held a special communication at Culver City, to lay the corner stone of the Masonic temple. The lodge room was so crowded that the Grand Lodge officers were unable to enter. They retired to the Ladies' powder room to open the grand lodge for the ceremony.
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In 1801, Czar Alexander I of Russia banned the Craft. In 1803 he rescinded the order and became a Freemason. But in 1822 he again ordered Freemasonry banned in Russia after he became disillusioned with the failure of a number of social reforms he had introduced and his own safety was threatened by a number of secret societies (non-Masonic) that he believed were plotting against him.
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In 1799, Barton Lodge in Upper Canada accepted "good merchantable wheat" in payment of lodge dues.
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In 1892, the tallest building in the world was the Masonic Temple at Randolph and State Streets, Chicago, USA.
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Brother William Brockmeier (1866-1947) of St. Louis conducted 5586 Masonic funeral services.
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On June 7, 1921, Mystic Lodge #21 of Red Bank, New Jersey USA conferred half of the MM degree on Brother Lyman C. Van when the power went out. He didn't receive the rest of the degree for several weeks, making him for a time, a "two and half degree" mason.
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On August 23, 1879, Lodge #239 of France held a meeting in a balloon flying over Paris, at which time a brother was initiated.
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On his famous solo flight across the Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh wore a square and compasses on his jacket as a good luck piece. He was a Freemason.
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Richard E. Byrd and his pilot Bernt Balchen, both Freemasons, dropped Masonic flags over the north and south poles. Brother Balchen also tossed his shrine fez on the South Pole.
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Gordon Cooper, in his Mercury space capsule, carried a Masonic coin and a blue Masonic flag on his 22 orbit flight, which he later presented to his mother lodge.
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President Lyndon Johnson (36th US President) took the first degree of October 30, 1937 but never progressed any further. This was the same year he entered politics being elected as a Texas representative in the US House of Representatives.
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Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the US House of Representatives took his first degree on August 7, 1922. He died in 1961 without receiving the second.
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Warren G. Harding (29th US President) was initiated on June 28, 1901 and it took him 19 years to complete the other two. He died in office after a short illness - perhaps only completing his Masonic journey prior to his final voyage.
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Hiram Abiff Boaz, born Dec. 18 1866 in Murray, Kentucky USA (any chance his father was a Freemason??) He received his degrees in 1922 before an unusually large crowd and later served as Grand Chaplin in Texas in 1953. At the same time he was the Methodist Church Bishop of Texas.
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In 1951, while serving as President Harry Truman (33rd US President) also served as Worshipful Master of his lodge - maybe he wasn't quite as busy at his day job as LBJ must have been.
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Angelo Soliman, was born in Africa in 1721 and brought to Europe as a slave at the age of ten. He was educated, married, and became a favourite in the royal court in Vienna. Somewhere before 1771 he became a Freemason. When he died 1776, the Emperor had his body stuffed and mounted in the natural history museum, becoming not only the first black of African birth to become a mason, but the also the first mason to be stuffed, mounted, and displayed.
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John Aasen of Highland Park Lodge No. 382 in Los Angeles, CA was the largest known Master Mason ever raised. At the time he was 8.5 feet tall and weighed 536 pounds.
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At the other end of the scale - Charles Stratton, a.k.a. (General)Tom Thumb, was 89cm high (2ft 5 inches) and weighed 16 pounds when initiated as an EAF on 3 October 1862 - on the same night the Lodge initiated a second candidate who was 191cm (6ft 3 inches).
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