Grand Lodge of New York Masonic Lodge Histories Lodge Nos. 201-230

Arbuthnot, Stephen

Lex, William D.

Lynch, James H.

Smith, Thomas H.

Steward, James

Vanderbeck, John [York No. 197]

Winnie, Hiram P. [Benevolent No. 28]

Yeatmanee, Garrett

The first candidates were James M. Brown and John M. Armstrong, intiated 6 May 1851.

The Lodge continued to work under the dispensation until the annual meeting of the Grand Lodge in June 1851, when a warrant was granted.

An important event occurred in 1860 which, for a time, created trouble and unrest to the Lodge. By some means the Master of the Lodge was induced to pass and raise an entered apprentice of Polar Star Lodge No. 215. For this offense charges against the Master were preferred by Polar Star Lodge, and the Deputy Grand Master, John W. Simons, arrested the warrant 18 Apr 1860.

A commission was appointed to try the case, which resulted in the explusion of the Master, and the Senior Warden was suspended for six months. On June 20 the warrant was returned and place in the care of the Junior Warden.

In is charitable work the Lodge has been generous and given with unstinted measure. An orphan girl protected, supported and provided with every comfort for over seven years; a brother who was ill was sent to California and carefully provided for until his death. After the close of the Civil War in 1865, when business was depressed and the poor were unemployed, the Lodge opened a Mission House in what at that time was known as the “Five Points,” and sold to the poor and needy coal, wood, flour and other necessities at cost price, thus to some degree alleviating the distress of the people.

At one of the fairs held for the purpose of securing funds the Lodge published a daily paper – “The Spirit of the Fair” – which netted nearly $1,000 to the fund. It also conducted a skating rink which still further added to the fund.

Meeting Places:

The first meeting place was at No. 274 Grand Street. The next was on the corner of Broadway and Bleeker Street; afterward at No. 207 Bowery, where it remained until May 1861, when it moved to the Gibson Building, corner of Broadway and 13th Street, remaining here until Sep 1966, when it moved to No. 594 Broadway. On 1 May 1867 it moved into Eastern Star Hall, corner of Third Avenue and Seventh Street, where it remained until Jan 1890, when it moved into the Masonic Hall of 23rd Street. In Sep 1909 it moved to its present quarters in the Msonic Hall on 24th Street.

A sketch of Eastern Star Lodge would be incomplete without due reference to its oldest member and Seniior Past Master, R.’.W.’. Emanuel Lowenstein, who was raised in the Lodge 4 Apr 1860. For fifty years he has been an active, zealous and faithful member of the Lodge. He was Grand Librarian in 1895-96. Since Jun 1906 he has been a member of the Committee on Foreign Correspondece.

Men in Public Life

James H. Lynch, Assemblyman Fernando Wood, Mayor Christian C. Wehrum, Member, Board of Education

Masters

1851 Stephen Arbuthnot

1852 Stephen Arbuthnot

1853 John Mitchell

1854 Samuel D. Wilson

1855 Samuel D. Wilson

1856 John J. Kuhn

1857 Benjamin F.Wells

1858 David McLellan

1859 Thomas H. Smith

1860 John Mitchell

1861 Stephen Arbuthnot

1862 Stephen Arbuthnot

1863 Stephen Arbuthnot

1864 Stephen Arbuthnot

1865 William F. Dubois

1866 Thomas H. Smith

1867 Walter H. Shupe

1868 John J. Finn

1869 Thomas A. Granger

1870 Thomas A. Granger

1871 Joseph C. Gillmore

1872 John J. Finn

1873 Benjamin Carr

1874 Emanuel Loewenstein

1875 Emanuel Loewenstein

1876 William McCaffil

1877 William F. Dubois

1878 John H. Meyerholz

1879 John Peabethy

1880 John Peabethy

1881 Benjamin Hawkins

1882 Benjamin Hawkins

1883 John J. Finn

1884 John J. Finn

1885 Benjamin Hawkins

1886 Samuel K. Johnson

1887 Samuel K. Johnson

1888 Joseph Frankfort

1889 Joseph Frankfort

1890 William Hevenor

1891 William Hevenor

1892 William Hevenor

1893 George A. Wood

1894 George A. Wood

1895 Arch K. Robinson

1896 Robert R. Richards

1897 Robert R. Richards

1898 Charles W. Shaw

1899 Charles W. Shaw

1900 Benjamin Richards

1901 Robert L. McCready

1902 Robert L. McCready

1903 Winifred H. Snyder

1904 Winifred H. Snyder

1905 Abraham White

1906 Frank H. Boyle

1907 Cornelius J. Craft

1908 Alfred K. Smith

1909 George J. Doln

1910 Frederick G. Barrett

1855 Masonic Register

EASTERN STAR LODGE, NO. 227.

City of New York.

Date of Charter, June 20th, 1851.

Meets on every Thursday, at the North-west corner of Broadway and Bleeker street.

Samuel D. Wilson, Master,

John J. Kuhn, Senior Warden,

Joseph B. Hawkins, Junior Warden,

John Hanua, Secretary,

Joseph D. Torrey Treasurer,
N. B. Kuckuck, Senior Deacon,

Wm. F. Dubois, Junior Deacon,

Littleton Joynes, Tiler.

PAST MASTERS.

John Vanderbeck, Sen., John Mitchel, Stephen Arbuthnot.
A standard history of freemasonry in the state of New York ..., Volume 2, by Peter Ross, page 280.

http://books.google.com/books?id=kWYiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA280&lpg=PA280&dq=%22emanuel+loewenstein%22&source=bl&ots=YojBvYDN3j&sig=_Yh5zRebeFXDggdt93oXWgeFKsc&hl=en&ei=kgK7TtTQFMnt0gG015TYCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22emanuel%20loewenstein%22&f=false
Emanuel Loewenstein - In the city of New York R.’. W.’. Emanuel Loewenstein, Masonic Editor, is one of the most popular members of the fraternity. He has been a diligent worker in the quarries for more years than he cares to remember, has acted a brother's part times without number, has filled many honorable positions and filled them well, and by his connection with the Masonic press has materially aided every progressive movement in the last quarter of a century, and has done much to bring about the wonderful popularity which the craft at present enjoys.

Brother Loewenstein was born in Marienbad, Bohemia, 6 Jan 1836, came to the United States in 1852 and for many years was engaged in a large number of mercantile establishments. For twelve years he held a position in the finance department of the city of New York, and in that, as in every other employment in which he was engaged, won an honorable record.

In 1860, or thereabouts, he was made a Mason in Eastern Star Lodge No. 227. He has held all its offices, and in 1874 and 1875 held the office of its Master. In 1862 he made his acquaintance with Royal Arch Masonry, when he received the Capitular degrees in Empire Chapter No. 170. To this branch he has paid most devoted attention, and he steadily rose through the usual subordinate offices until he was elected High Priest, in 1878 and in 1879. He was recalled to fill that high office in 1887, and in 1888, and took a prominent part in the work of the Grand Chapter, and was the Representative of the Grand Chapter of North Dakota. In Cryptic Masonry he took a particular interest ever since, in 1864, he passed beyond the ninth arch in Adelphic Council No. 7, R. & S. M. In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite he has received tne degrees up to and including the 32nd, and is a member of the New York Consistory of the Northern Jurisdiction. His connection with this beautiful and impressive Masonic system dates from 1860.

In the Grand Lodge he has held the office of Grand Librarian, to which he was appointed by Grand Master John Stewart, and he held the office for two years. During his tenure there is no doubt he worked hard to make the library more worthy than ever of the great branch of the Masonic family to which it belongs. He made many valuable additions to its literary treasures, while he enhanced the attractiveness and popularity of the reading room by many devices. But his best work was that of cataloguing the contents of the library. That had been done by many of his predecessors in a fragmentary way, presenting each year a section of the collection, which was duly printed in the proceedings of the year as a part of the Grand Librarian's report, and quickly forgotten. To a great extent the usefulness and variety of the Masonic lore contained in the shelves were unknown even to the regular habitues of the room. Discarding the previous spasmodic efforts at cataloguing, Brother Loewenstein started the work afresh and succeeded in completing the task. As a result he placed in the library a complete and up-to-date card catalogue, and had ready for the printer a complete manuscript catalogue which would have been of infinite service not only to every Masonic student throughout the jurisdiction but throughout the world, for few are aware of the richness of the contents of New York's library. His retirement from the office of Grand Librarian appears to have deferred the printing of the catalogues, but the card index remains, an invaluable reminder of two years' honest work.

But although thus active for years in Lodge and Chapter, and although he came prominently forward before the fraternity while holding the office of Grand Librarian, it is because of his newspaper work that Brother Loewenstein has become so widely and so favorably known throughout this great jurisdiction and beyond it. For many years he was one of the steady contributors to the Masonic pages of the "New York Dispatch," a paper which under the editorial care of such accomplished Masons as Robert D. Holmes and John W. Simons had come to be the recognized, though unofficial, organ of the craft in New York. For the four years preceding "Uncle John" Simon's death Brother Loewenstein took full charge of his Masonic department, and without fee or reward, without desiring any, carried it on to the satisfaction of the veteran editor and of the numerous readers of that once influential sheet. When M...W. '.Brother Simons departed Brother Loewenstein established a Masonic department in the Hebrew Standard and for several years that paper was as widely quoted in the craft as the Dispatch had been. But the general scope of that sheet necessarily made it appeal to a limited class of Masonic readers, or rather, its name made it appear to be sectional in its tone, and recognizing this fact Brother Loewenstein looked around with a view to securing room for his Masonic work in some of the great New York dailies. This he finally accomplished, and, for some two years the New York Commercial Advertiser, the oldest existing newspaper in the city, issued weekly a Masonic department. In that paper the work of Brother Loewenstein appeared to considerable advantage, and the venerable sheet added greatly to its circulation and usefulness. On the withdrawal, however, of the late Colonel and Brother Cockerill from the editorial control of the paper, Brother Loewenstein found himself brought into connection with people who had no sympathy with his work,—a class of commonplace newspaper paragraphists and bohemians whose literary tastes were of the shallowest and whose silly notions of newspaper work speedily undermined the magnificent structure which Col. Cockerill had built up at so much cost to his health and personal comfort. So he decided to withdraw from the Advertiser, and after a while made arrangements with the management of the Tribune, and this Masonic page was a weekly feature for over three years of that splendid newspaper, the best edited and most pronounced literary organ of public opinion in America.

In presenting his weekly budget of Masonic news and comment through such mediums, Brother Loewenstein is performing for the craft an invaluable service. Of course a purely Masonic paper might perform the same service so far as the presentation of news is concerned, but in connection with the great dailies of this city that particular news is read weekly by thousands of men who do not belong to the fraternity and who thereby become interested in it. It is often remarked that few of the old families of New York are now represented in the craft, that the one-time familiar names of Goelet, Livingston, Astor, Barclay and Hoffman have passed away and have no modern representatives. If such old families are ever again to be represented on our rolls we can conceive of no better way of bringing it about than by making their present-day representatives acquainted with the doings of Masonry, and with its aims and objects, through the columns of such newspapers, which are among the glories of American journalism.

Such is the work Brother Loewenstein is engaged upon at present, and we trust he may long continue to be so engaged. We might mention that he is a member of the New York Press Club, the Craftsman's Club and various other social and benevolent associations, but his business as well as his solace is in his literary work on the great daily press of this imperial city, and among his brethren of the great Masonic fraternity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Wood




Fernando Wood b. 14 Jun 1812; d. 14 Feb 1881, was a politician of the Democratic Party and Mayor of New York City; he also served as a US Representative (1841–1843, 1863–1865, and 1867–1881) and as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means in both the 45th and 46th Congress (1877–1881). A successful shipping merchant who became Grand Sachem of the political machine known as Tammany Hall, Wood first served in Congress in 1841. In 1854 he was elected Mayor of New York City. Reelected in 1860 after an electoral loss in 1857 by a narrow majority of 3,000 votes, Wood evinced support for the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, suggesting to the New York Council that New York City secede from the Union and declare itself a free city in order to continue its profitable cotton trade with the Confederacy. Wood's Democratic machine was concerned to maintain the revenues (which depended on Southern cotton) that maintained the patronage. Following his service as mayor, Wood returned to Conress.

Wood was born in Philadelphia, PA. His Spanish-sounding forename was chosen by his mother, who found it in an English gothic written by George Walker, The Three Spaniards (London, 1800). He moved to New York, where he became a successful shipping merchant. He was chairman of the chief young men's political organization in 1839 and was a member of the Tammany Society, which he used as a vehicle for his political rise. As a member of the Democratic party, he was elected to Congress in 1841 and served until 1843.

In late 1854 Wood was elected Mayor of New York CIty. The state legislature created the New York Municipal Police in 1845, and Wood continued the efforts of his predecessor Mayor Jacob A. Westervelt to fight the massive corruption of the force, during his first term as Mayor (1855–1857). He was defeated for re-election in 1858 by a narrow majority of 3,000 votes, even though the New York gang the Dead Rabbits combed the city's cemeteries for names to add to the voter rolls.

In the 1856-57 session, Republicans in control of the Legislature at Albany shortened Wood's second term of office from two years to one, and created a Metropolitan Police Force, with Frederick Talmadge as superintendent, to replace Wood's corrupt Municipal Police. Talmadge demanded that Wood disband the Municipal Police, but Wood refused, even in the face of a May 1857 decision by the Supreme Court. Superintendent George Washington Matsell, 15 captains and 800 patrolmen of the Municipal Police backed Mayor Wood.

Captain George W. Walling pledged his loyalty to the new Metropolitan Police and was ordered to arrest Mayor Wood. Wood refused to submit and when Captain Walling attempted force, New York City Hall was occupied by 300 Municipal policemen, who promptly tossed Captain Walling into the street. Fifty Metropolitans in frock coats and plug hats then marched on City Hall with night sticks in hand. The Municipals swarmed out and routed the Metropolitans. Fifty-two policemen were injured in the New York City Police Riot.

The Metropolitan Police Board called out the National Guard, and the 7th Regiment surrounded City Hall. A platoon of infantry with fixed bayonets marched into City Hall and surrounded Mayor Wood who then submitted to arrest. Mayor Wood was charged with inciting to riot, released on nominal bail and returned to his office.

The feud continued on through the summer of 1857, with constant confrontations between the rival police forces. When a Municipal arrested a criminal, a Metropolitan would come along and release him. At the police station, an arresting officer would find an alderman and a magistrate from the opposing side waiting. A hearing would be held on the spot and the prisoner released on his own recognizance.

The gangs of New York had a field day. Pedestrians were mugged in broad daylight on Broadway while rival policemen clubbed each other to determine who had the right to interfere. Soon the gangs were looting and plundering without interference, but turned on one another in turf wars, which culminated in the Fourth of July gang battle. The Dead Rabbits and several other Five Points gangs marched into the Bowery to do battle with the Bowery Boys and to loot stores. They attacked a Bowery Boys headquarters with pistols, knives, clubs, iron bars and huge paving blocks, routing the defenders. The Bowery Boys and their allies the Atlantic Guards poured into Bayard Street to engage in the most desperate and largest free-for-all in the city's history. The Metropolitans attempted to stop the fighting but were severely beaten and retreated. The Municipals said the battle looked like a Metropolitan problem and was none of their business.

Fernando Wood served a second mayoral term in 1860-1862. Wood was one of many New York Democrats sympathetic to the Confederacy, called 'Copperheads' by the staunch Unionists. During his second mayoral term in January 1861, Wood suggested to the City Council that New York secede and declare itself a free city, to continue its profitable cotton trade with the Confederacy.

Wood's Democratic machine was concerned to maintain the revenues (which depended on Southern cotton) that maintained the patronage. Wood's suggestion was greeted with derision by the Common Council. Tammany Hall was highly factionalized until after the Civil War. Wood headed his own organization named Mozart Hall, not Tammany Hall. New York City commercial interests wanted to retain their relations with the South, but within the framework of the Constitution.

Wood's brother Bemjamin Wood purchased the New York Daily News in 1860, supporting Stephen A. Douglas, and was elected to Congress, where he made a name as an opponent of pursuing the Civil War.

Subsequent to serving his second mayoral term, Wood served again in the House of Representatives from 1863 to 1865, then again from 1867 until his death in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

On January 15, 1868, Wood was censured for the use of unparliamentary language. During debate on the floor the House of Representatives, Wood called a piece of legislation "A monstrosity, a measure the most infamous of the many infamous acts of this infamous Congress." An uproar immediately followed this utterance, and Wood was not permitted to continue. This was followed by a motion by Hanry L. Dawes to censure Wood, which passed by a vote of 114-39. Notwithstanding his censure, Wood still managed to defeat Dr. Francis Thomas, the Republican candidate, by a narrow margin in the election of that year.

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