Uncategorized – Freemason blog

Digging Up the Past at a Masonic Cemetery

This year, the Grand Lodge of California is working to uncover more local history contained within the small Jamestown Masonic Cemetery. Built in 1854, it served the membership of St. James № 54 until 1875, when the lodge disbanded. Today it’s one of two GoldRush-era cemeteries owned by Grand Lodge, which has set out to clean up and make repairs to the site, and to catalogue all known and unknown remains there.

So far, the effort has included using a canine forensic team to locate unmarked burials, developing boundary and topographical reports, and engaging a team of researchers to dig up the stories behind the burials including the mausoleum of John Pereira, one of Jamestown’s leading figures.

An early miner in the area, he later distinguished himself as an orchard owner, winemaker, and a real estate magnate. He built the Jamestown Hotel, where President McKinley once stayed, and helped establish the Sierra Railway depot, transforming Jamestown from a humble mining camp into a proper little city.

Read more at: californiafreemason.org/jamestown

Fall Issue of California Freemason: Masonic San Francisco

Read the Fall Issue of California Freemason

Masonry has played a crucial role in almost every stage of San Francisco’s development—from its earliest days as a remote Mexican settlement through the Gold Rush era, the 1906 earthquake, and its growth into a cultural, political, technological mecca.

Consider: Practically every one of the boldface names associated with the founding and growth of city was a Mason. So too were many of its great builders, along with its financial tycoons and political leaders. Before San Francisco had a proper City Hall, it had 14 Masonic lodges—including one working in French. By 1860, just a decade after the Gold Rush began, there were nearly 1,000 Masons working under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of California in the “instant city.” In that way, Masonry has had a massive influence on San Francisco, from its attitudes to its laws to its physical layout.

Fast-forward 170-something years, and the city is still the place where the echoes of Masonic history ring loudest.

Read more about the history of Masonry in San Francisco in the latest issue of California Freemason Magazine.

Unpacking Masonry’s Relationship to the Great Architect

Questions abound about Masonry and religion. Unpacking Masonry’s relationship to God, the church, and the Supreme Architect of the Universe.

Is Freemasonry a religion? What religion are Masons? Can Catholics be Masons? What’s the Masonic bible? Are Mormons Masons? What’s the deal between Freemasonry and Catholicism? Questions about the relationship between Masonry and religion are among the most frequent inquiries we receive.

The question of the connection between Freemasonry and religion is not an easy topic to tackle. On the one hand, Masons are adamant that Freemasonry is not a religion, and not a substitute for religion. It encourages its members to be active in their own faith community but does not favor or promote any particular faith.

On the other hand, Freemasonry requires that all its members have a belief in a God. It begins and ends its meetings with prayer. Members take their promises as Masons on sacred book, often a Masonic Bible. Its rituals have frequent references to God. Their meeting places are often called Masonic temples. So if it isn’t a religion, why is religion such a feature of Freemasonry?

The History of Masonry and Religion— and Why Any Religion Can Be a Mason

It would be easy just to say that requiring a belief in God is a part of our Masonic heritage, and a part of the fabric of Freemasonry. It is, but it is also something more.

The Judeo-Christian tradition was a crucial influence in the early days of modern Freemasonry. That can be seen in the many references to Christian religious iconography in its ritual, from the story of Solomon’s Temple to St. John the Baptist (one of two patron saints of Freemasonry), and the bible as one of the “three great lights” of Masonry.

When the first Grand Lodge was organized in London in 1717, its leaders asked one of its prominent members, a Presbyterian minister named James Anderson, to write a set of rules to govern the new society, called “charges.” His “Six Charges” became the standard interpretation of the craft and still remain an important source for understanding the fundamental principles of our institution.

His first charge, “Concerning God and Religion,” was probably the most important. It read, “But though in ancient Times Masons were charg’d in every Country to be of the Religion of that Country or Nation, ’tis now thought more expedient to oblige them [Masons] to that Religion in which all Men agree, leaving the particular Opinions to themselves; that is, to be good Men and true, or Men of Honour and Honesty, by whatever Denominations or Persuasions they may be distinguish’d…”

In other words, the fraternity would not be divided by religious differences.

Are Masons Christian?

As we’ve seen, Anderson’s careful language started a new chapter in Freemasonry—one of religious tolerance, and one that that stated plainly that the fraternity was open to men of any faith. (Although they had to be men of some faith.)

While Masonry is and has always been open to men of all religions, 18th century Britain was a predominantly Christian world. Historian David Hackett has written that while Anderon’s First Charge was a radical change, he was probably thinking more about uniting Unitarians, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Anglicans, and Catholics—in other words, various Christian denominations.

As a result, Masonic rituals retain many elements and symbols of Christianity. Perhaps most important is the fundamental mythology of Freemasonry, the Biblical story of the building of King Solomon’s Temple. Even today, Freemasonry bears the marks of the era in which it was founded.

That said, Masons today belong to practically all world religions. People of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, and many other faiths are welcomed as members.

Why Is St. John the Patron Saint of Freemasonry?

Freemasonry has two patron saints: St. John the Evangelist and St. John the Baptist.

The reasons for this connection go back centuries—and remain shrouded in mystery. What we know for certain is that it isn’t strange that during the Middle Ages, many societis and guilds were dedicated to a particular saint. That figure received special devotion from the members of the society, and, in turn, he would offer its members special protection and favor. At some point in, the two St. John figures became known as the patron saints of Freemasonry. When and where that happened remains a mystery.

From the Masonic perspective, we can understand the balanced dualism of John the Baptist on one side and John the Evangelist on the other. Together, they represent two sides of a coin: the passionate zeal of the baptist and the knowledge of faith of the apostle. A Masonic lodge dedicated to the two patron saints of Freemasonry can be seen as a space to both reflect on and channel our passions. Taken as an abstract compilation of symbols, they represent a well-balanced path toward enlightenment. Even more, their feast days are closely associated with the summer and winter solstice—underscoring the symbolic duality of the two figures.

Masons recognize St. John the Baptist’s Feast Day on June 24 with a large dinner celebration, and St. John the Evangelist on December 27.

Can Catholics Be Masons?

Catholicism’s relationship to Freemasonry continues to confuse many people. That’s been the case all the way since Pope Clement XII in 1738.

The short answer is that Yes, Catholics can be Masons. Many Masons throughout history and today have been practicing Catholics. But over the years, the Catholic church has issued several statements on Masonry that have muddied those waters.

In 1738, a Papal Bull from Rome announced that attending a Masonic lodge would be punishable by death. That condemnation of Masonry has been reiterated by at least seven popes over three centuries. They rest largely on the grounds that the fraternity adheres to an idea described as “religious indifferentism,” according to at least one Catholic publication. The most recent missive was issued in November 2023 in a letter sent from the dicastery to a bishop in the Philippines, reiterated that membership in a Masonic lodge warrants an automatic excommunication that can only be lifted by the Holy See.

However, at other times, the church has appeared to walk back those rules. In the wake of the Second Vatican Council, in 1974, a letter from the Vatican’s prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith seemed to imply that Catholic laymen were able to join Masonic lodges, provided the lodges were not intrinsically anti-Catholic. The letter suggested that Catholics were simply forbidden from joining “associations which plot against the church.”

However, just a few years later, in 1981 (and again in ’83 and ’85), the same Vatican office reversed course, reiterating that the removal of Masonry by name in its Code of Canon Law did not change its position on the fraternity. However, in the U.S. and elsewhere, confusion has lingered.

In the end, Catholic Masons are left with a deeply personal question, just as they are with countless delicate matters. Arthur L. Salazar, the 2024-25 Grand Master of California, who is Catholic, says his deacon presented him with a piece of advice that he passes along to others in a similar position: “He said if I’m ever a member of any organization and feel like it’s not aligned with my moral compass, that’s when it’s time to walk away.”

Masonic Ritual Takes the Stage

Behind the doors of every Masonic lodge, something profound unfolds—something few outside the fraternity will ever witness. It’s not broadcast or written down. And yet, for those who’ve experienced it, it’s unforgettable.

This is the power of the Masonic ritual: a centuries-old tradition performed with precision, reverence, and secrecy. It’s a play of sorts—with high drama, poetic language, and powerful symbolism—delivered for an audience of one.
What happens in that darkened room has been passed down, unchanged, from generation to generation. It connects today’s Masons with the likes of Mozart, Bolívar, and Churchill. And within that ritual lies the heart of Freemasonry—the mystery, the meaning, the bond that unites brothers across centuries and continents.

Read more in the latest issue California Freemason: californiafreemason.org/masonic-ritual

Learn About Freemasonry Symbols

Learn more about Freemasonry at: freemason.org/freemasonry-symbols

An introduction to the symbols, signs, and emblems of Masons and Masonic lodges.

Maybe you’ve heard rumors about the “Freemason pyramid” on the dollar bill, seen the square and compass logo on buildings around town, or wondered about the meaning of emblems like the Masonic trowel. What’s the history behind Masonic symbols, and how do they factor into what happens in a lodge?

Why Does Masonry Use Symbols?

From soaring architecture to dime-sized lapel pins, symbols adorn every part of the Masonic experience. Why? Symbols allow people to communicate quickly, and to transcend language barriers. When you see a green light or a circle with a line through it, you know what it means. Likewise, Masons use metaphors from geometry and the architecture of stonemasonry to inform their continuing pursuit of knowledge, ethics, and leadership skills.

From the Square and Compass to the Letter G: The Meaning of Masonic Emblems

When speculative Masonry began in the 17th century, it adopted the stonemason’s tools as symbols to illustrate life lessons. Freemasonry’s symbols today remain remarkably true to the first stonemasons’ working tools.

Here are some of the best-known Masonic symbols:

Apron: Known as the “unique badge of a Mason,” the apron is the most recognizable item of a Mason’s attire. Masons wear aprons while at lodge, and at certain public events. The tradition dates back to the fraternity’s operative days, when stonemasons wore protective work aprons.
Square and Compass: The Masonic square and compass is probably the most common symbol in Masonry, used to represent Freemasons and Masonic lodges around the world. Ancient stonemasons used the tools to create 90-degree angles and test the accuracy of their stones. In “speculative” Masonry, the square is an emblem of morality. The compass represents the relationship between the individual and society.
The Letter G: The letter G is often seen in the center of the square and compass symbol. It stands for geometry, the basis for stonemasonry—and, symbolically, for modern Freemasonry.
Plumb and Level: In stonemasonry, the plumb and level ensure surfaces are vertically and horizontally flush. For today’s Freemasons, the plumb is a symbol of justice, rectitude, and the importance of living in an upright manner, while the level is a reminder that all men are equal. You may have heard the phrase, “To meet on the level and part on the square.” That’s where it comes from!
Trowel: One of a stonemason’s most important working tools is the trowel, used to spread mortar that binds stones together. In Freemasonry, the trowel is used to spread the “cement” of brotherly love to unite a sacred band or society of friends.
Rough and Perfect Ashlars: The ashlars are two stone cubes placed near the master’s platform in the lodge; one is rough-edged, delivered straight from the quarry; the other is smooth and ready for building. The rough ashlar represents man in his crude form, while the perfect ashlar represents the man, who, through the teachings of Masonry, has become more polished. We never become a perfect ashlar, but we work toward it.
Columns: Every Masonic lodge has representations of two pillars, replicas of the two columns that flanked the entrance to King Solomon’s temple. The pillars are said to represent strength and establishment.
Winding Staircase: The winding staircase is another symbol inspired by King Solomon’s temple, referring to the steps leading from the entryway to the middle chamber of the temple. It’s an allegory for a member’s progress from Entered Apprentice to Fellow Craft.
Other Masonic symbols include: The beehive, the acacia tree, the 47^th Problem of Euclid, the Ark of the Covenant, the anchor, cable tow, sheaf of corn, gavel, and blazing star. Here’s a resource explaining some less-well-known Freemasonry symbols.

What’s the “Freemason Pyramid?”

Hollywood blockbusters like National Treasure and bestsellers like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol have done much to sensationalize Freemasonry’s symbols. A lot of the time, they contain more fiction than fact.

Take, for example, the image of the eye and the pyramid on the dollar bill. The pyramid does not appear in regular Masonic ritual or symbolism. The all-seeing eye, sometimes called the eye of providence, is used by Masons to represent the omniscient eye of God. But in the 18th century, when the U.S. was designing its Great Seal, the symbol was common among non-Masonic groups, too.

So what should we make of the rumors that Masons designed the dollar bill, or that the Great Seal of the United States is a Masonic emblem? They’re false, and false. According to Masonic historian S. Brent Morris, the only known Mason on the design committee was Benjamin Franklin, and his ideas didn’t make it into the final design. Artist Pierre Du Simitiere, a non-Mason, contributed the design for the eye. Another non-Mason, Francis Hopkinson, contributed the pyramid.

Fall 2024 Issue Out Now: The Heroes of Freemasonry

Fall 2024 Issue Out Now: The Heroes of Masonry

What’s the best part of being grand master? I’m asked that often as I crisscross the state visiting as many lodges as I can. It’s certainly not the travel, which can be exhausting.

The simple answer is that the best part of this job is the people I’ve been blessed to meet on this journey. No matter where I go, I’m always impressed by the commitment of California Masons to one another, to their communities, and to our craft. I get to see brotherly love, relief, and truth put into practice in a million different ways—some big and dramatic, some small and close to home. But in every case, I know when I come to a Masonic lodge, I’m going to meet brothers who are taking the values and teachings of Freemasonry and putting them into action.

This issue is a celebration of those people, those lodges, and those ideas. It’s through their actions that we make Freemasonry come to life. It’s when we’re interacting with our neighbors, strengthening our community, or helping elderly members get the support they need that we most truly embody the Masonic spirit and push our craft forward.

G. Sean Metroka
Grand Master of Masons in California

Underwater, Reminders of a Forgotten Masonic Cemetery

Read the After Life issue: californiafreemason.org/aquaticpark

In San Francisco, an underwater reminder of a century-old battle over the fate of the city’s dead.

By Ian A. Stewart and Tony Gilbert

Aquatic Park is one of the most picturesque vistas in all of San Francisco, a city of postcard views. A tiny, sandy cove ringed by Ghirardelli Square, Beach Street, and the historic Hyde Street Pier, the park is one of the most reliably sunny spots in town. Most weekend days, you’ll see a stream of swimmers, kayakers, and rowers pulling their way across its protected waters. Beyond them, sailboats navigate the choppy bay against the backdrop of the majestic Golden Gate Bridge.

But the charming, jewel box scene belies a more lurid chapter of the city’s history. It’s invisible to all but the most carefully trained eye. Yet clues of the city’s distant past are there in the seemingly mismatched stones that form the sweeping breakwater.

It wasn’t long ago that names could still be read on these stones. But with each wave that laps the seawall, the memory of how the municipal pier was born—as well as many other of the city’s large urban projects of the early 20th century—is further erased. These are the tombstones of Aquatic Park, dug up by workers clearing the city’s cemeteries a century ago and unceremoniously deposited around San Francisco.

They aren’t the only ones. Grave markers can be spotted by the jetty at the Golden Gate Yacht Club, at Ocean Beach, and at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. Even a walking path in Buena Vista Park is lined with old tombstones, some still visible today. During major building renovations, Gold Rush–era caskets were found beneath the Asian Art Museum, the Legion of Honor, and countless private homes. The city is practically brimming with these morbid reminders from yesteryear.

Like so many other aspects of California history, Freemasonry plays a key role in the story.

A Final Resting Place

At the turn of the last century, San Francisco was a city practically full of cemeteries—by one count, as many as 30 within the city’s seven-by-seven-mile square. There were graveyards for deceased Chinese, French, German, Italian, Greek, Native American, Japanese, Scottish, and Scandinavian people. There were cemeteries for Jewish, Catholic, and Chinese Christian parishioners, among many others. There were plots for orphans, seamen, firefighters, and members of the typographical union. But perhaps the most elaborate of them all was the 38-acre Masonic Cemetery on Lone Mountain.

The land for the Masonic Cemetery was purchased in 1854 on what is now the University of San Francisco’s grounds. It opened a decade later, eventually serving nearly 20,000 souls. Together with the nearby Odd Fellows Cemetery, Calvary Cemetery, and Laurel Hill Cemetery, they made up the “big four” graveyards of Lone Mountain.

Built at the height of the so-called “beautification of death” movement, which ushered in a much more theatrical approach to mortuary work, like ornate casket furnishings and elaborate monuments to the deceased, the Masonic was by some estimations the finest of them all. The San Francisco Morning Call newspaper in 1887 described it as “elaborately beautified in floral design, and contain[ing] many handsome monuments.”

The entrance to the park was marked by a large castellated tomb; other decorations included a white marble obelisk topped by a statue of Grief, and monuments to preeminent San Francisco Masons including the sugar magnate Adolph B. Spreckles and Munroe Ashbury, an early champion of Golden Gate Park and the namesake of Ashbury Street (of the famous Haight-Ashbury district). Other notable figures buried there included Etienne Guittard, the famous French-born chocolatier; Jacob Neff, the Gold Rush mining kingpin elected lieutenant governor in 1899; and the city’s most beloved eccentric, Emperor Norton I, a charter member of Occidental Lodge № 22.

An 1880s tourist guidebook went so far as to recommend the cemetery for sightseeing: “The broad, serpentine walks, the fountain playing in the center, the profusion of flowers, and the large number of handsome monuments make it well worth a visit.”

A Battle Over the Dead

However, space for the dead began to interfere with space for the living in the growing city. So in 1901, mayor James Phelan banned any new burials or cremations within city limits, kicking off what would become a multi-decade campaign to eradicate the city’s profusion of graveyards.

Families of the deceased, incensed by the apparent sacrilege, did not give in without a fight. However, several factors worked against them. First was the urgent need for new housing in the cramped city. Second was a change in tastes, as the Victorian-era “garden-park cemeteries” like the Masonic began falling out of fashion. But perhaps most important was the 1906 earthquake, which badly damaged the city’s many cemeteries, including the Masonic. In the aftermath, the crumbling graveyards were seen as public eyesores and a threat to public health.

Heated litigation over the forced removal stretched on for years, ultimately reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. But major rulings in 1914 and then 1924 sealed the fate of most of San Francisco’s cemeteries. Seeing the writing on the wall, the San Francisco Masonic Cemetery Association, which managed the site, began negotiating a sale to St. Ignatius College, now the University of San Francisco.

Move to Colma

The final death knell came in 1930, when the city officially rezoned the area of Lone Mountain, which formally allowed the boards of the big four cemeteries to sell off their land and reinter their dead elsewhere. As the moves began, one cemetery at a time, caskets were dug up and transported south to the sleepy town of Lawndale, now known as Colma, the so-called “city of souls.” Today, Colma is home to 18 cemeteries. Nearly 1.5 million people are buried there, 1,000 times its living population.

With the cemetery’s closure imminent, the San Francisco Masonic Cemetery Association raised funds to purchase land for a new resting place in Colma called Woodlawn Memorial Park. (In 1996, Woodlawn was sold to a private corporation, but remains the largest de facto Masonic cemetery in the Bay Area.) Most of the bodies originally buried at the San Francisco site were dug up and transported to Woodlawn, though a few wound up at nearby cemeteries including Olivet Memorial Park, Cypress Lawn, and Greenlawn Memorial Park just a few blocks away.

Many, however, were never removed at all—an exceedingly common occurrence citywide during the great reinterrment period. One study found that at Golden Gate Cemetery (now the site of the Legion of Honor and the Lincoln Park Golf Course), only about 1,000 bodies’ remains were ever actually removed, leaving an estimated 18,000 still in the ground. (A museum excavation in 1993 uncovered 800 of them.)

At the four Lone Mountain cemeteries, the herculean task of digging up the deceased was, understandably, challenging. One report described it as “chaotic and hasty.” While many caskets could be moved intact, others were in various states of decomposition, and only some of the remains were moved. Others were left “wholly untouched,” according to a 2011 archaeological survey conducted on behalf of the University of San Francisco.

In the end, relatively few of the deceased were ever provided with new individual grave markers. Of the 20,000 people buried at the Masonic Cemetery, about 5,000 remains were claimed by family members and reinterred in Colma, according to a fraternity report at the time. The rest—up to 15,000—were, like the rest of the city’s unclaimed, placed in mass graves, their tombstones left behind. Even Masonic dignitaries met that fate: Among those moved to an unmarked grave in the common plot was Jonathan Stevenson, the first grand master of California. It wasn’t until 1954 that he was reinterred in the California № 1 lodge plot at Cypress Lawn and a memorial plaque was erected in his memory.

Above:
A postcard lithograph from the late 1800s, depicting the Masonic Cemetery bounded by Masonic and Parker avenues and Turk and Fulton streets. Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

Reclaiming the Remains

“The place of public history is vulnerable to the advance of urban progress,” wrote historian Tamara Venit-Shelton of the mass reburial efforts in the Journal of California History. There could hardly be a more apt visual metaphor than in the thousands of deserted tombstones left behind in the mass exhumation and reinterment of San Francisco’s dead. Families of the deceased were instructed to claim the headstones themselves, but few ever did. Eventually, workers from the city’s Department of Public Works collected the thousands of marble and granite stones for use as building materials. According to Shelton, those stones were used in construction projects all over the city, including the breakwaters at Aquatic Park and the municipal yacht harbor, and for paving roads in the North Beach neighborhood.

There are no records of which headstones were sent where. And with the passing of time, their markings have become harder and harder to decipher. But for many old-time members of the city’s rowing clubs, which use Aquatic Park as their headquarters, it was only a generation ago that swimmers passing close to the seawall could make out the names of the departed carved into the odd bit of rock. Perhaps in some protected nook or cranny, a Masonic square and compass survives.

It can be hard to reconcile the seemingly pitiless exhumation of the city’s deceased with the supposed finality of a casket laid to rest. But an appropriate metaphor can be drawn from Masonry, which teaches members that their work aims to build a temple in spirit. Even the grandest temple of stone can be destroyed, but no material is as long-lasting as memory.

So while the stones memorializing the Masons buried at Lone Mountain have long since vanished or been eroded by time and tide, their story lives on in other ways. The loveliness of Aquatic Park, protected from the harsh San Francisco Bay by the breakwater, certainly suggests as much. At Lone Mountain, their memory lives on, hiding in plain sight to every person who passes the old site as they walk or drive along what’s now known as Masonic Avenue.

Tony Gilbert is a writer and member of Golden Gate Speranza № 30, as well as a past board member of the South End Rowing Club. Ian A. Stewart is a writer and editor of California Freemason.

Pyramid Scheme

What started as an idea to turn a quick buck on a national holiday morphed into a million-dollar idea for Jim McCullough. As a starving artist in the seventies, McCullough fell backward into owning the copyright to the Eye of Providence, that mysterious image on the dollar bill. And while he never managed to cash in on his fortune, the story behind it is about as bizarre as the floating, radiating eye itself.

“It’s the most iconic image on the planet,” McCullough says. “Everyone knows that symbol.”

The saga started in 1976. McCullough, a member of Mill Valley No. 356, and his business partner, Preston “Presto” Stuart, were film students in San Francisco, where they ran a T-shirt business. In honor of the bicentennial, they’d been designing shirts sporting classic Americana like the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag. Then another idea struck them: How about a T-shirt featuring the Eye of Providence, that strange, trippy symbol on the back of the dollar bill?

Certainly, it’s one of the strangest government symbols around: a floating human eye within a triangle, illuminated by a shining ray of light, levitating over an unfinished brick pyramid. To an artistic spirit like McCullough, it was practically irresistible.

For generations, the image has baffled onlookers and, thanks to what seems like a connection to Freemasonry, inspired countless conspiracies. In reality, the all-seeing eye isn’t unique to Masonry, and is actually a common representation of divine protection used in many religious traditions.

In the case of the circa-1782 seal on the dollar, the eye watching over an unfinished, 13-step pyramid is typically interpreted as God’s benevolent sanction of the new nation. It’s surrounded by the phrases annuit coeptis (“He has favored our undertakings”) and novus ordo seclorum (“a new succession of ages”). The film National Treasure and the novels of Dan Brown have contributed to the misbelief that the image conceals a secret Masonic meaning. And while there are iconographic echoes aplenty to be found in the great seal where Masonry is concerned, they’re more likely emblematic of a shared affinity for Renaissance-era symbolism than any kind of conspiratorial clue.

All McCollough wanted to know was: Could he get sued for using it?

He wrote to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to inquire, and in response was sent a Form H application for reproduction copyright. McCullough called the copyright office back. He wasn’t trying to buy the rights to the Eye of Providence, he explained. Just put it on a shirt.

The staffer explained: The Eye of Providence was an unprotected image. But McCullough and Stuart could file a reproduction copyright claim on it for a simple $6 fee. So they did. Weeks later, they received a stamped certification in the mail. They now owned one of the most recognizable images in American pop culture. “I remember being exhilarated,” McCullough recalls. “It was amazing. I guess we were supposed to have it.”

Well, maybe. That was 45 years ago. McCullough still believes he owns the copyright. But that’s where things get hazy. As for other documentation, McCullough cites his attorney from the time, a former guitar player who goes by the name Lonesome Eddy, who says he has the paperwork related to the copyright in his basement. According to the U.S. Copyright Office, only a federal court can determine a copyright if it’s contested. (This one isn’t.) Furthermore, any work made pre-1926 is in the public domain.

As Eddy explains, McCullough and Presto don’t actually own the Eye of Providence; they own their sketch of it, which happens to look the same. So the million-dollar question remains: Are McCullough, Presto, and Lonesome Eddy sitting on a potential goldmine?

Lord only knows. McCullough and Presto never tried or managed to make money off the image, and the T-shirt company is long gone. McCullough says he’s seen the symbol out in the wild, but never taken any steps to sue anyone for copyright infringement.

It’s better that way, he says. Both Stuart and McCullough are jovial, aging artists with no appetite for courtroom drama. The symbol, they say, shouldn’t belong to litigious profiteers.

Still, the eye is “secretive and wonderful,” says McCullough, now a marketing consultant for Hollywood films. He always wanted to turn his unlikely copyright into some kind of lasting project, one that might make a buck. Instead, it’s left a different kind of legacy, he says. “It was good for a laugh.”

R.I.P. Finally

How did a 19th century Masonic tombstone from Piedmont find its way to the side of the road in Stanislaus County, 100 miles away? That’s exactly what members of Oak Summit Lodge No. 112 set out to discover—and to lay a long-lost brother to rest.

Read more about lodges in the the California’s Mother Lode in the newest issue of California Freemason at californiafreemason.org/ripfinally

Check out the digital issue on our newly redesigned home page, californiafreemason.org. And search for your favorite topics, peruse past issues, and find the latest news from the fraternity all in one convenient place.

Generations Connected

Two perspectives on DeMolay, Masonry, and Life

By Cécile Revaugér

DeMolay provides early exposure to positive values and life skills. Masonry is its natural continuation, giving young men an opportunity to put into practice the values they have learned. Two Senior DeMolays and current Masons exemplify the teachings that both organizations impart.

GLENN WOODY RYAN TONDARES

80 years old 25 years old
DeMolay since 1952 DeMolay since 2008
58 years as a Mason Four years as a Mason

How old were you when you became a DeMolay and what chapter did you join?

Glenn: “I was 14 years old, and at the time, that was earliest age you could sign up. I belonged to the E.Y. Lee Chapter in Lubbock, Texas. ”

Ryan: “I was 12 years old. My uncle’s sons were in DeMolay, as were two of my best friends. I belonged to the Walt Disney Chapter in Anaheim, California.”

Did you serve in any leadership positions?

Glenn: “Did you serve in any leadership positions? I took to DeMolay like a duck to water. I was active until I was 21 years old. I served as master councilor of my chapter and was then elected to area master councilor, then state master councilor. I was a member of the DeMolay International Supreme Council for a number of years. ”

Ryan: “I served in high school as chapter master councilor. My first year of college, I was the illustrious knight commander of Saint Bernard Priory, where I assisted the Southern California jurisdiction of DeMolay.”

What did you learn in DeMolay?

Glenn: “It was rewarding to learn about leadership, organization, planning skills, and mentorship. I gained great experience that enhanced my public speaking skills for the rest of my life. I believe most of the doors of opportunity that opened for me were a result of things I was exposed to early on in DeMolay.”

Ryan: “My DeMolay events were funded by our jurisdiction or chapter, so we all worked together to pay for our events. I learned planning, budgeting, finance, and preparation. I also learned a lot about leadership and responsibility, and it gave me little steps toward maturity. It was rewarding to gain the skills for becoming an adult. I always wanted to be a businessman, and those precepts instilled values to remain polite, and not do things that would tarnish my reputation.”

How important are your DeMolay and Masonic friendships?

Glenn: “In my 40s, I was sitting on a balcony in a beautiful hotel in Hawaii and I began to think about my life. I wrote down the names of the people who had been instrumental. It was my mother, my father, who became a Mason during the time I was in DeMolay, and five other men who were mentors and advisors to me early in DeMolay. The point is that, except for my mother, they were all Masons. DeMolay and Masonry created lifelong friendships.”

Ryan: “Masonry follows DeMolay, especially with brotherhood and the degrees. My brother and my dad were a part of my degrees. The lodge feels like a family. The events that we do are fun, but we also give back to the community. I’ve learned that giving back is spiritually rewarding.”

If you could tell other men one thing about DeMolay and Masonry, what would it be?

Glenn: “It is the leading place to be exposed to positive values and be given the opportunity to practice them and develop them in your own life. Some people reach an age at which they wonder if they’ve made a difference. Advisors for the Masonic youth groups, DeMolay, Jobs Daughters and Rainbow for Girls don’t ever have to ask that question.”

Ryan: “Honestly, it’s a group that pushes you and reminds you to do good and be a better person by following lessons learned in the degrees and in the rights of joining Masonry and DeMolay. Young men grow through DeMolay to do good and be better young men.”

Photo Credit: KLK Photography

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