A Short History Of The Craft

Institutional Masonic Charities

 

The following month, on November 4, [1754], a petition from a member and indigent Brother, John Spottswood, was read, and on motion of the Lodge, he was given one pound 12 shillings and sixpence "to relieve his necessity."
The Lodge at Fredericksburgh, p. 34
R. E. Heaton and J. R. Case, 1975

This is believed to be the earliest record of specific Masonic charity in Virginia and America.

Omaha Home for Boys

 

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Nebraska: Omaha Home for Boys

 

Medical research around the country is supported by Masons or Masoic organizatoins

 

Medical researcher

 

Ashlar Village Retirement Community, Wallingford Connicticut

 

Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, Dallas

The quintessence of Masonic charity is exemplified by a cord of firewood donated to a needy family, or by a quiet gift of cash to a distressed traveler, or by the cow given by Federal Lodge of Watertown, Connecticut, to a widow and her children. Needs of this sort were met (and are still being met) by local lodges letting the need be known at a meeting and then passing the hat. This ideal was perfectly expressed by Lawrence N. Greenleaf in his famous poem, "The Lodge Room Over Simpkins' Store." Several lines of the poem typify Masonic giving:

A widow's case-four helpless ones-Lodge funds were running low; A dozen Brethren sprang to feet and offers were not slow. Food, raiment, things of needful sort, while one gave a load of wood, Another shoes for little ones, for each gave what he could. Then spake the last: "I haven't things like those to give-but then, Some ready money may help out"-and he laid down a ten.

 

However, the evolution of American society and the geographic dispersal of lodge members have made needs of this sort less common and less easily recognized. To meet these changes, Masons began to turn to more organized forms of relief. The first Masonic home in the United States was established by Kentucky Masons in 1866 as the Masonic Widows and Orphans Home and Infirmary. In 1872 the Grand Lodge of North Carolina established the Oxford Orphanage in Oxford, and this action was followed in turn by Grand Lodges in other states. Today 39 state Grand Lodges maintain homes, and 11 still have orphanages, though the need for the latter has diminished. Most Grand Lodges without homes care for their needy through various endowments that support them in outside facilities.

A Masonic retirement home is very similar in operation to those maintained by religious and other organizations and will typically provide total life care for aged Masons and their widows. Some homes require a transfer of assets in return for perpetual care, while others allow their members to purchase life tenancies. Masonic orphanages were designed to meet all the needs of a deceased member's children until they graduate from high school. With fewer children of Masons needing orphanages, many of the remaining institutions allow local lodges to sponsor any needy child. In short, Masonic charitable institutions have changed their operations in response to the changing needs of their members.

Over the years, some tension has developed between Masons and their detractors about the propriety of Masonic philanthropy. On the one hand, as noted in Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia.

There has been some disposition on the part of Masonic writers and orators to exaggerate on this subject and carry us into the higher realms of Christian love and sacrifice for the benefit of all mankind, as if a Masonic lodge were almost a monastery of friars sworn to poverty and universal benevolence. (p. 23)

On the other hand, many anti-Masons accuse the fraternity of being little more than a mutual insurance society, teaching self-serving opportunism rather than true charity. The reality, as is nearly always the case, lies between these extremes. While indeed Masons maintain retirement homes and orphanages for their members and generously support their own youth organizations (which tend to serve their children), the fact is that well over one-half of their philanthropic dollars benefit society at large.

Also over the years, as with most human ventures, not all Masonic charitable endeavors have survived. In 1841 the Grand Lodge of Missouri began efforts to establish

 

a Masonic College, which continued with small success until 1857. Other states tried their hands at higher education, including Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Arkansas, and Georgia, but maintaining an institution of higher education proved more than Masons alone could do, and so they shifted their focus to serving others needs. In 1922 the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association was established in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but did not survive long due to financial problems. These well-meaning attempts illustrate the constant striving of Masons to help their fellowmen.

A significant change in American Masonic charities occurred in 1920 when the Shriners, part of the Family of Masonry, adopted a proposal to establish a hospital for children to be supported by a yearly $2 assessment from each Shriner. Local lodges and state Grand Lodges aimed their charitable efforts at local problems; being nationally organized, the Shriners could concentrate their philanthropy on needs that transcended state boundaries. The result today is a network of eighteen orthopaedic Shriners Hospitals, three Shriners Burns Institutes, and one hospital that provides orthopaedic, burn, and spinal cord injury care to children in need, absolutely free of charge.

The rules for Shriners hospitals are simple: any child can be admitted if the patient's condition can be substantially helped and if treatment at another facility would place a financial burden on the family.

Following the success of the Shriners, other national Masonic philanthropies began to flourish and to change the complexion of Masonic giving. Today, more than 65 cents of every dollar of Masonic philanthropy is directly spent on the American public. The list seems endless, but includes clinics, centers, and programs devoted to childhood speech, language and learning disorders, the Museum of Our National Heritage in Lexington, Massachusetts, the Peace Chapel and auditorium at the International Peace Garden on the U.S.-Canadian border in North Dakota, a foundation paying for sight-saving eye surgery, the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, dental care for the handicapped, and medical research in schizophrenia, cancer, arteriosclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and muscular dystrophy.

This partial list only scratches the surface, but the point it makes is deep: Freemasons are dedicated to the relief of mankind, and their works are a living testimony to their ideals.

 

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