Ben Franklin Mason

The genius of Franklin am overwhelming, and manifested in a wide variety of directions, that no short paper may even list his accomplishments the American Philosophical Society requires twenty large book pages basically to catalog his inventions, breakthroughs, achievements and also the occasions by which he was thoroughly concerned. Printer, author, editor, inventor, researcher, diplomat founding father of schools, postal systems, government ambassador, wit, speaker philosopher, politician and Freemason, he wasn't just the amazing intellect, the Voltaire of Colonial America, but probably the most complex and gifted males of occasions. He was the Francis Sausage of his age, far in front of the years by which he resided, and therefore, the topic of critique from individuals who didn't understand him. Certain details of his Masonic career stick out particularly it will be noted that Franklin wasn't basically a lodge member quite happy with might anything, however a Freemason intensely thinking about his Craft, prepared to give his enormous forces because of its welfare, and departing an indelible impress on its history within this country. His activities were so excellent and the Masonry so influential in the existence, there appears little reason behind historians to quarrel about matters of dates and “firsts” regarding the his revered title. We don't know precisely when Franklin was started it had been in 1731 and most likely in the Feb meeting of St. John’s Lodge in Philadelphia. Nor will we know when St. Johns’s Lodge was created. From a classic and extremely interesting account book, the famous “Liber B, ” we all know the Lodge was around as soon as December 1730. Whether or not this would be a “duly constituted Lodge” or perhaps a lodge meeting only underneath the authority of Ancient Custom, cannot here be mentioned. Many lodges in the past so met the Lodge at Fredricksburg, for example, by which Washington was started, didn't have charter until after he grew to become an associate, although dental tradition states it met under authority of Massachusetts.