U. S. MASONIC PRESIDENTS
by Grand
Lodge of Texas
Until 1971, both February 12 and February 22
were observed as federal holidays to honor the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln
(February 12) and George Washington (February 22). In 1971 President Richard
Nixon proclaimed one single federal holiday, Presidents' Day, honoring all past
presidents of the United States of America to be observed on the third Monday of
February.
While many Masons know about the Masonic
affiliation of Brother George Washington, thirteen other Presidents have also
been Masons. These fourteen Masonic Presidents span the history of the United
States from George Washington to Gerald Ford. February and Presidents’ Day
offers the opportunity for Masons to recognize the contributions of these
Brothers to their country.
The fourteen Masonic Presidents are George
Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, James A. Buchanan,
Andrew Johnson, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William
H. Taft, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Gerald
R. Ford. The following paragraphs provide a brief summary for each of these
Masonic Presidents.
George Washington, First U.S. President,
1789-1797
George Washington served as the first President
of the United States of America. He was inaugurated on April 30, 1789 and served
two terms as President. Born in 1732, Washington was initiated on November 4,
1752, passed on March 3, 1753, and raised a Master Mason on August 4, 1753 in
Fredericksburg Lodge, Virginia. He would serve as the Commander in Chief of the
Continental Armies during the Revolutionary War. In 1788, Washington was
appointed Charter Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22, Virginia during the
organization of the lodge and in December 1788, he was elected Master. There is
no evidence that he was ever installed or presided over any meetings of this
lodge. While President, he would act as Grand Master in leveling the cornerstone
of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on September 18, 1793. During his life,
Washington was somewhat active and supportive of Freemasonry. He died on
December 14, 1799, less than three years following his second term as President.
James Monroe, Fifth U.S. President, 1817-1825
James Monroe was born in Westmoreland County,
Virginia in 1758. Monroe attended the College of William and Mary, fought with
distinction in the Continental Army, and practiced law in Fredericksburg,
Virginia. There is some dispute regarding the Masonic affiliation of Bro. Monroe
due to the loss of lodge records. It appears that he was initiated on November
9, 1775 in St. John’s Regimental Lodge in the Continental Army. He later
affiliated with Williamsburg Lodge No. 6 in Williamsburg, Virginia. There are no
known records to confirm his advancement through the degrees but there is
evidence that Monroe was received as a Master Mason during a visit to a
Tennessee lodge in 1819. It is interesting to note that Bro. Monroe was not yet
eighteen when initiated indicating the concept of “lawful age” had not been
universally fixed at twenty-one at this time. Like Washington, Monroe would
serve two terms as President. He died on July 4, 1831 in New York.
Andrew Jackson, Seventh U.S. President,
1829-1837
Born in the backwoods settlement of Waxhaw,
South Carolina on March 15, 1767, Andrew Jackson received sporadic education.
But in his late teens he read law for about two years, and he became an
outstanding young lawyer in Tennessee. Fiercely jealous of his honor, he engaged
in brawls, and in a duel killed a man who cast an unjustified slur on his wife
Rachel. A major general in the War of 1812, Jackson became a national hero when
he defeated the British at New Orleans. The Masonic record of Brother Jackson
has not been located though there is no doubt he was a Mason. He appears to have
been a member of St. Tammany Lodge No. 29, Nashville, Tennessee, as early as
1800. The lodge name was later changed to Harmony Lodge No. 1 on November 1,
1800. Brother Jackson is officially listed as a member in the Lodge Returns to
the Grand Lodge of Tennessee for 1805. Very active in Freemasonry, Brother
Jackson was a Grand Master of Masons in Tennessee, serving from October 1822
until October 1824. Jackson served two terms as President from 1829 until 1837.
He died on June 8, 1845 at the Hermitage near Nashville, Tennessee.
James K. Polk, Eleventh U.S. President,
1845-1849
James K. Polk was born in Mecklenburg County,
North Carolina, on November 2, 1795. Studious and industrious, Polk was
graduated with honors in 1818 from the University of North Carolina. As a young
lawyer he entered politics, served in the Tennessee legislature, and became a
friend of Andrew Jackson. Brother Polk was initiated in Columbia Lodge No. 31 on
June 5, 1820 located in Columbia, Tennessee. He would be passed and raised in
this lodge though the actual dates are unknown. In 1825 he was exalted a Royal
Arch Mason in LaFayette Chapter No. 4 located in Columbia. Polk would serve as
the Governor of Tennessee from 1839 through 1841 prior to his election as
President of the United States. He would serve one term as President from 1845
to 1849. He left office in poor health and died a few months later on June 15,
1849 in Nashville, Tennessee.
James A. Buchanan, Fifteenth U.S. President,
1857-1861
Born in Cove Gap near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
into a well-to-do Pennsylvania family on April 23, 1791, James A. Buchanan, a
graduate of Dickinson College, was gifted as a debater and learned in the law.
Tall, stately, and stiffly formal, he was the only President who never married.
Brother Buchanan was initiated on December 11, 1816, passed and raised in
Lancaster Lodge No. 43 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He served as Master of his
lodge from 1822 to 1823. In 1824, he was appointed District Deputy Grand Master
for the Counties of Lancaster, Lebanon and York. His tenure as President was
fraught with controversy surrounding the issues of states rights and slavery.
Inaugurated in 1857, Buchanan retired from the Presidency after one term in
office and returned to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he died on June 1, 1868.
Andrew Johnson, Seventeenth U.S. President,
1865-1869
Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 29, 1808, Johnson grew up in
poverty. He was apprenticed to a tailor as a boy, but ran away. He opened a
tailor shop in Greeneville, Tennessee, married Eliza McCardle, and participated
in debates at the local academy. Entering politics, he became an adept stump
speaker, championing the common man. Johnson became a Mason in 1851 when he was
initiated, passed, and raised in Greenville Lodge No. 119 located at Greenville,
Tennessee. Following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, the
Presidency fell upon Vice-President Johnson, an old-fashioned southern
Jacksonian Democrat. Although an honest and honorable man, Andrew Johnson was
one of the most unfortunate of Presidents. Arrayed against him were the Radical
Republicans in Congress, brilliantly led and ruthless in their tactics. In 1867,
the House of Representatives voted eleven articles of impeachment against him.
He was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote.
While serving as President, he received the Scottish Rite degrees during 1867.
Johnson left the White House in 1869 after serving almost four years as
President completing Lincoln’s second term. Johnson died on July 31, 1875 in
Carter's Station, Tennessee.
James A. Garfield, Twentieth U.S. President,
1881
James A. Garfield was born in Cuyahoga County,
Ohio, on November 19, 1831. Fatherless at two, he later drove canal boat teams,
somehow earning enough money for an education. He was graduated from Williams
College in Massachusetts in 1856, and he returned to the Western Reserve
Eclectic Institute (later Hiram College) in Ohio as a classics professor. Within
a year he was made its president. Garfield was initiated on November 19, 1861 in
Magnolia Lodge No. 20 in Columbus, Ohio. Owing to Civil War duties, Brother
Garfield did not receive the Third Degree until November 22, 1864 in Columbus
Lodge No. 30 in Columbus, Ohio. On October 10, 1866, he affiliated with
Garrettsville Lodge No. 246 in Garrettsville, Ohio. Brother Garfield became a
Charter Member of Pentalpha Lodge No. 23 of Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1869.
Garfield was elected President in 1880 by a margin of only 10,000 popular votes
and was inaugurated on March 4, 1881. His Presidency was cut short when an
embittered attorney who had sought a consular post shot him on July 2, 1881, in
a Washington railroad station. Mortally wounded, Garfield died on September 19,
1881 from the gunshot wound.
William McKinley, Twenty-Fifth U.S. President,
1897-1901
Born in Niles, Ohio, on January 29, 1843,
McKinley briefly attended Allegheny College, and was teaching in a country
school when the Civil War broke out. Enlisting as a private in the Union Army,
he was mustered out at the end of the war as a brevet major of volunteers. He
studied law, opened an office in Canton, Ohio, and married Ida Saxton, daughter
of a local banker. McKinley was initiated, passed, and raised in Hiram Lodge No.
21 located in Winchester, Virginia during 1865. He affiliated with Canton Lodge
No. 60 in Canton, Ohio on 1867 and later demitted to become a Charter Member of
Eagle Lodge No. 431, also in Canton. McKinley was elected Governor of Ohio in
1891 and served two terms from 1892 to 1896. He was inaugurated as President in
1897 and was elected to a second term in 1900. McKinley’s second term as
President came to a tragic end in September 1901. While attending the
Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York he was shot by a deranged man.
McKinley would die eight days later on September 14, 1901, becoming the second
Masonic President to be assassinated.
Theodore Roosevelt, Twenty-Sixth U.S.
President, 1901-1909
With the assassination of President McKinley in
1901, Theodore Roosevelt, not quite 43, became the youngest President in the
Nation's history. He brought new excitement and power to the Presidency as he
vigorously led Congress and the American public toward progressive reforms and a
strong foreign policy. He was born in New York City on October 27, 1858 into a
wealthy family. Though he suffered from ill health as a youth, he was an avid
outdoorsman and conservationist. During the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt was
lieutenant colonel of the Rough Rider Regiment, which he led on a charge at the
battle of San Juan. He was elected Governor of New York in 1898, serving with
distinction. Assuming the Presidency in September 1901, Roosevelt received the
three degrees in Matinecock Lodge No. 806 in Oyster Bay, New York during the
year. He was very supportive of Freemasonry during the remainder of his life.
Following the completion of McKinley’s term, Roosevelt was elected to a second
term in his own right and served as President through 1909. Roosevelt died on
January 6, 1919 in Oyster Bay.
William H. Taft, Twenty-Seventh U.S. President,
1909-1913
William Howard Taft was born on September 15,
1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of a distinguished judge. He was graduated
from Yale and returned to Cincinnati to study and practice law. He rose in
politics through judiciary appointments earned through his own competence and
availability. Brother Taft was made a "Mason at Sight" within the Body of
Kilwinning Lodge No. 356 located in Cincinnati, Ohio on February 18, 1909.
Taft’s father and two brothers were also members of this Lodge. After the
ceremony, Brother and President Taft addressed the Brethren, saying, "I am glad
to be here, and to be a Mason. It does me good to feel the thrill that comes
from recognizing on all hands the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man."
Taft was a distinguished jurist and an effective administrator but a poor
politician. Large, jovial, and conscientious, Taft was inaugurated as President
in 1909, and spent four uncomfortable years in the White House caught in the
intense battles between the political factions of Washington. Taft’s term ended
in 1913 and, free of the Presidency, served as Professor of Law at Yale until
Brother and President Warren G. Harding made him Chief Justice of the United
States Supreme Court, a position he held until just before his death on March 8,
1930 in Washington, D.C.
Warren G. Harding, Twenty-Ninth U.S. President,
1921-1923
Warren G. Harding was born near Marion, Ohio, on
November 2, 1865. An active civic leader, he became the publisher of a
newspaper. He was a trustee of the Trinity Baptist Church, a director of almost
every important business, and a leader in fraternal organizations and charitable
enterprises. Harding was initiated in Freemasonry on June 28, 1901 in Marion
Lodge No. 70 located in Marion, Ohio. Because of some personal antagonism,
Brother Harding's advancement was hindered until 1920, by which time he had been
nominated for President. Friends persuaded the opposition to withdraw the
objection, and on August 27, 1920, nineteen years after his initiation, Brother
Harding achieved the Sublime Degree of Master Mason in Marion Lodge. Harding won
the Presidential election of 1920 by an unprecedented landslide of 60 percent of
the popular vote. By 1923 the post World War I depression was giving way to a
new wave of prosperity and newspapers proclaimed Harding as a wise statesman.
However, word began to reach Harding that some of his friends were using their
official positions for personal enrichment. This alarmed and worried Harding but
he feared the political repercussions of exposing the scandals. Looking wan and
depressed, Harding journeyed westward in the summer of 1923 carrying the burden
of revealing the corruption. Unfortunately, he did not live to find out how the
public would react to the scandals of his administration. On August 2, 1923,
Harding died in San Francisco of a heart attack.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thirty-Second U.S.
President, 1933-1945
Franklin D. Roosevelt was born on January 30,
1882 at Hyde Park, New York. He attended Harvard University and Columbia Law
School. On St. Patrick's Day, 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt. Roosevelt
entered public service through politics, serving in several state and federal
positions before being elected Governor of New York in 1928. In the summer of
1921, at the age of 39, he was stricken with poliomyelitis. Demonstrating
indomitable courage, Roosevelt fought to regain the use of his legs,
particularly through swimming. Roosevelt received the three degrees in Masonry
within Holland Lodge No. 8 located in New York City in 1911. During his lifetime
he was supportive of Freemasonry and somewhat active in the fraternity. He was
elected President in November 1932 to the first of four terms spanning the Great
Depression to World War II. His tenure as President was a period of great social
and political change in the United States. Assuming the Presidency at the depth
of the Great Depression, he brought hope to the American people as he promised
prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing
we have to fear is fear itself." When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941, Roosevelt directed organization of the Nation's manpower and
resources for global war. During this period he directed the war effort but also
contemplated the planning of a United Nations in which international
difficulties could be resolved. As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt's health
deteriorated, and on April 12, 1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of
a cerebral hemorrhage at the beginning of his fourth term as President.
Harry S. Truman, Thirty-Third U.S. President,
1945-1953
Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in
1884. He grew up in Independence, and for 12 years prospered as a Missouri
farmer. He went to France during World War I as a captain in the Field
Artillery. Returning, he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace, and opened a
haberdashery in Kansas City. A very active Freemason, Truman received his
Masonic degrees in Belton Lodge No. 450 in Grandview, Missouri in 1909. In 1911,
Truman and several other Masons organized Grandview Lodge No. 618 and Truman
served as the first Master of the Lodge. In 1940, Truman was elected Grand
Master of the Grand Lodge of Missouri and would serve as such until October
1941. Truman became a U.S Senator in 1934 and was active in monitoring the war
effort while in the Senate. Brother Franklin D. Roosevelt chose Truman to be his
Vice-Presidential candidate in the 1944 elections, which Roosevelt won. During
his few weeks as Vice President, Truman scarcely saw President Roosevelt, and
received no briefing on the development of the atomic bomb or the unfolding
difficulties with Soviet Russia. Suddenly these and a host of other wartime
problems became Truman's to solve when, on April 12, 1945, he became President
upon the death of Roosevelt. He told reporters, "I felt like the moon, the
stars, and all the planets had fallen on me." As President, Truman made some of
the most crucial decisions in history. Soon after V-E Day, the war against Japan
had reached its final stage. An urgent plea to Japan to surrender was rejected.
Truman, after consultations with his advisers, ordered atomic bombs dropped on
cities devoted to war work. Two were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese
surrender quickly followed in 1945. In 1948, campaigning against the backdrop of
crises in foreign affairs around the globe, Truman won a term as President in
his own right. Deciding not to run for a second term, Truman retired from the
Presidency in 1953 and returned to Independence, Missouri where he died on
December 26, 1972 at the age of 88.
Gerald R. Ford, Thirty-Eighth U.S. President,
1974-1977
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1913, Gerald R. Ford
grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He starred on the University of Michigan
football team, and then went to Yale where he served as assistant coach while
earning his law degree. During World War II he attained the rank of lieutenant
commander in the Navy. After the war he returned to Grand Rapids, where he began
the practice of law, and entered Republican politics. In 1948 he was elected to
Congress where he developed a reputation for integrity and openness. That
reputation made him popular during his twenty-five years in Congress where he
served as House Minority Leader from 1965 to 1973. Ford was initiated in
Freemasonry on September 30, 1949 in Malta Lodge No. 465 in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. In 1951 he received the passed and raised a Master Mason in Columbia
Lodge No. 3 in Washington, D.C. as a courtesy for Malta Lodge while Ford served
in Congress. When Ford took the oath of office as President on August 9, 1974,
he declared, "I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances.... This
is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts." It was
indeed an unprecedented time. He had been the first Vice President chosen under
the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate
scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign. President Ford won
the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1976, but lost the election to
his Democratic opponent.
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