Encyclopedia Masonica

Any Grand Lodge in Annual Communication assembled, and though it were composed of Masonic jurisconsults of the first water, would agree unanimously that no such Lodge as Kansas Lodge U. D. was possible ever had been or ever could be. Nevertheless the impossible Lodge existed; and the storv of it ought to be known wherever Masons meet because it proves that there is some secret in Freemasonry which transcends analysis. In 1854 there was a Lodge or two in the remote wildernesses of Washington "where rolls the Oregon"; two or three in Sew Mexico, a land as remote as the moon; two or three in Indian Territory; otherwise, and excepting for a few settlements around a few forts, and some thousands of Indians, there stretched an empty empire larger than Europe from the Missouri River west.

In 1854 three Wyandot Indians and five white men who lived in their midst, having made themselves Known as Master Masons and duly accredited, petitioned the Grand Lodge of Missouri, mother of Freemasonry in the West, for a Dispensation to establish a Lodge in a Wyandot Indian village in Kansas Territory. On August 4, 1854, the Dispensation was granted; on August 11 the Kansas Lodge U. D. opened for Work, and elected a missionary, the Rev. John M. Chivington, its Master. On the heels of this new Masonic birth two other Lodges followed; in 1856 whe three formed the Grand Lodge of Kansas. The second oldest Lodge was given the glory of No. 1; Ransas Lodge, though the oldest, was assigned No. 3, because "it was an Indian Lodge."

The Indians had come originally from Ohio, but somewhere in their enforced migrations had the institution of slavery forced upon them (a novelty to them) therefore they were slave-holders when their Lodge was formed; three of the white men were abolitionists; of the other two nothing is known. The White Man, the Wyandots used to say, is like a stick; he has two ends and they point in opposite directions; a footnote to that same effect is given by one of Kansas Masonry's historians, Bro. F. P. Strickland, Jr. in his brilliant treatise on page 485, Transactions, The American Lodge of Research; Vol. III; Number 3:

" In the bloody 1850's and the years of the Civil War, Kansas was continually torn by bitter strife, [over slavery] members of the two factions relentlessly hunting down and slaying each other. Yet, whenever enough Brethren, regardless of faction could be found they eagerly stood their guns against the nearest tree and began the erection of a Masonie altar. Enemies by day they met as Brothers at night."

The Encyclopedia Masonica exists to preserve the wealth of information that has been generated over the centuries by numerous Masonic authors. As Freemasonry is now Speculative and not Operative, the work of a Mason is now conducted in the quarries of symbolism, literature, history and scholasticism. Freemasonry encourages intellectual exploration and academic achievement in its members and many Masons over the years have taken up this calling. The result has been that an incredible amount of philosophy, symbolic speculation and academic insights have been created. However, as Freemasonry teaches, human knowledge is frail and fragile. It is easily lost in the turnings of the ages and unforeseen catastrophes can result in great setbacks to human knowledge.

For too long these great works have sat on forgotten shelves, gathering dust and concealing the light that could be shed on the darkness of our ignorance. The Encyclopedia Masonica has been created to act as an ark, sailing through time, to ensure that future generations of Freemasons have access to the same knowledge that inspired the Brethren that came before them. It will contain the works of such Masonic Luminaries as Albert G. Mackey, Manly Palmer Hall, G.S.M. Ward, Albert Pike and many others. The Encyclopedia Masonica is a living work and the volunteers of Universal Co-Masonry will continue to labor until the most comprehensive Masonic reference work the world has ever seen has been created. The Encyclopedia Masonica is open to any who wish to use it and will remain open so that the treasures contained within may increase the wealth of all those who seek its wisdom.