From
The North Carolina Mason
the editor's desk
You can help make
history reachable
RALEIGH — Card Turk is here! If you've
wanted to be part of a major Masonic project
that is both historic and historical, now's your
chance!
Back
around
the turn of the last
century, the Grand
Lodge began tracking
state-wide
membership
on
three-by-five-inch
index cards. About
the same time, a
passion for our history led to combing all the annual
returns of the lodges back to the beginnings
of the Grand Lodge in 1787. For each person
found in those records, a card was created with
as much information as could be culled from
the early records. It was only in 1995 that records moved to a digital database format. Only
Masons active at the time had their record
digitized. The members of more distant history,
about 200,000 of them, were left tracked only
on the index cards.
Talks of a dream project began with Enable Labs, the same company which builds and
maintains MORI, the database web application
the Grand Lodge and your lodge secretary use
for membership records. The dream was to be
able to search all the members in the history of
our Grand Lodge.
Step one was completed more than a year ago
with the scanning of
the entire card catalog. Two pictures of
each card were made,
one front, one back.
Step two was the
creation of crowd
sourcing application
that could gather
enough information
from each card to
make them searchable. That application, Card Turk, is now running. Testers are being added weekly, and we expect to be running
at full force very soon.
Step three will be a searchable database. You
type in a name and a date, and you are returned
pictures of all the cards matching that search.
The data will also be integrated into MORI allow lodges to have access to every member ever
in their lodge.
You can find instructions and tips on the
Card Turk Facebook page . That will be our rally
area to discuss ideas, problems, and solutions.
You'll find sign up instructions there. Join us,
be part of history.
Green Lodge breaks
its chicken record
RALEIGH — Eyes may have been a little
wide when Chairman Don Steichen challenged
the James B. Green 735's barbecue crew to sell
600 plates in their annual chicken fundraiser. It
was more than they ever had sold before. The
grill was on at 5:00 a.m., and the whole operation
was closed down at 7:00 p.m. Grill Master Richard Eddins and his cook crew of three cooked
624 half chickens, a new record for them. According to Lodge Master Joe Teague, "Our reputation for good food keeps pulling folks in. Our
mission is to give our membership a chance to
excel together and give the community a chance
to know James B. Green Lodge just as GM Preslar has challenged us.
May/June 2013
Surles named
Montfort Medalist
Ric Car ter photo
Page 2
TRENTON — Grand Master Robert E.
Gresham Jr. visited Zion 81 to present Johnny
Surles the Joseph Montfort Medal for outstanding service to the Masonic fraternity.
Surles is a past grand tyler and district
deputy grand master. He was master of Zion
Lodge in 1984 and 2007. He has been one of
the organizers of several Grand Lodge officer
installations and has been central to organizing
the recent expansion of Homecoming at the
Masonic Home for Children to include Masons, a Shrine parade, and many new activities.
The Joseph Montfort Medal is the highest
award in North Carolina Freemasonry and is
given to those who have proven the most valuable servants of the Craft here. Each grand
master is allowed to present three such awards.
The medal is named after North Carolinian
Joseph Montfort who was named "provincial
grand master of and for America" in 1771.
A heritage of religious liberty
By Gene Hutloff
During the course of its history, Freema- tarians who, although many maintained a church
sonry has gone from explicitly Christian in its affiliation, were able to affirm in good faith that
operative days to implicitly Christian, during their belief in a Supreme Being proceeded from
the emergence from its operative to its specula- a rational consideration of the works of the
tive stages during the formative years of the first Great Creator, both in nature and in the moral
grand lodges, then through the era of schism and law implanted in the hearts of all men. Classic
reconstitution, eventuating in the formation of examples of this category of Mason are Benjathe United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE). min Franklin and Voltaire, both honored as giAs the Craft spread to the European con- ants of Freemasonry, and generally considered
tinent, thence to America and the far flung to be indispensable men in the evolution of the
reaches of the British Empire, the whole ques- Fraternity, from the 1717 Revival to the prestion of admitting non-Christians, became in- ent. Many of them considered themselves to be
creasingly problematic — more so for Hindus, Christian on account of the moral precepts to be
Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and Confucianists, found in the Volume of the Sacred Law, without
less so for Jews and Muslims, i.e., People of the necessarily subscribing to the dogmas instituted
Book. It was even suggested by some Masonic by the various sects of Protestant Christendom
writers that there be separate lodges for each and enforced by the power of the State. Say
faith tradition — some Jewish, some Muslim, what one will about the heterodoxy of these free
some Hindu, etc. This was subsequently dealt thinkers, both Masonic and profane, civilization
with, in 1842, by the Duke of Sussex, Grand owes its heritage of religious liberty to the likes
Master of the UGLE, who proclaimed that no of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine.
man should be denied consideration for canGene Hutloff was grand chaplain of the Grand
didacy based solely on his religion, it being re- Lodge of Arizona.
quired that the aspirant simply affirm his belief
— Arizona Masonry, March/April 2010
in a Supreme Being. In diverse places and at
some times, a further affirmation of belief in an
In the 1800s, several grand lodges estabafterlife or the immortality of the soul was also
lished Masonic colleges. The most successful of
required, but with considerable variation.
Besides Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims, which was in Hannibal, MS in 1847. Kentucky,
yet another category of men, separated but not Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Georunrelated to the aforementioned religions, had gia all tried it but all were eventually closed due
been affiliating with the Craft during the centu- to lack of support. North Carolina's St. John's
ry leading up to the Revival of 1717; these were College became the Masonic Home for Chil— Alphonse Cerza
the free thinkers, philosophers. Deists, and Uni- dren in Oxford.
Policeman visited
by child he saved
NASCAR's tough fans include Crainshaw
KANNAPOLIS — After appearing in a television commercial,
Randy Crainshaw may not qualify as a superstar, but clearly he makes
superfan. NASCAR likes Randy Crainshaw's garage/man cave. It's
Crainshaw's shrine to Dale Earnhardt and his renowned #3.
NASCAR released the ad for their Nationwide Series in February featuring Austin Dillon #3 and the pressure that comes
from carrying the legendary number. It begins panning through
pictures of superfans of Earnhardt. One is Randy Crainshaw sitting among his dozens of #3 souvenirs.
The voice over says, "It's not just a number, it's history. It's a
symbol for a great man who did great things.
"And Austin Dillon doesn't want to erase that, he wants to
add to it.
"The NASCAR Nationwide Series on ESPN. Names Are
Made Here."
You can see it here: .
Randy is secretary of Allen Graham 695 and a member
Knights of Solomon 764.
T h e m i s s i o n o f F r e e m a s o n r y i n N o r t h C a r o l i n a i s t o r a i s e t h e m o r a l , s o c i a l , i n t e l l e ct u a l ,
tenets of B rotherly L ove , R elief , and T ruth , which are expressed outwardly through service to
NORTH CAROLINA
The Mason
(USPS 598-260) is published bimonthly by The Grand Lodge of AF & AM of North
Carolina, 2921 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27608.
Third class postage paid at Oxford, NC 27565.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The North Carolina Mason, School Of Graphic
Arts, Masonic Home for Children, Oxford, NC 27565.
Grand Master
Dewey R. Preslar Jr.
Board Of Publication
Thomas A. Pope Jr. (Chair)
Don E. Bolden
R. Kevin Combs
John A. Pea
John A. Sullivan
Editor
Ric Carter
and
G od ,
STANLEY — Last year, Stanley Police Chief Derek Summey (a member of Stanley 713) embraced the 7-week-old boy
he helped save a week before. Ethan Varner, the infant son of
Nicholas Varner and Kayla Scruggs, lay in the arms of Summey
at the Stanley Police station as the child's family looked on in
amazement at the child's recovery.
In May, Scruggs and her mother were taking Ethan Varner to
Charlotte because of the infant's troubled breathing. When the
child completely stopped breathing, they spotted Summey in front
of the police station and stopped their vehicle, desperately looking
for someone to help. Summey was in civilian clothing and headed
to lunch, but a dead battery in his vehicle had caused a delay.
Although they did not know Summey was an officer, they
placed the infant in his arms. He removed Varner's shirt and
gave him four or five rounds of 30 chest compressions. He also
used a defibrillator while another person in the department
called for help.
Varner was treated and released from a Charlotte hospital. The
child is now attached to a device monitoring his heart rate and
breathing. Summey refers to helping save the infant as "the best
feeling" he's had in his 15-year career in law enforcement.
Scruggs said she will tell her son about his near-death encounter someday and the hero who stepped in during their moment of need.
— Wade Allen, The Gaston Gazette
Andrew McNair, a Philadelphia Mason, rang the Liberty bell
in Independence Hall of July 8, 1776 to call the people together
to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence. The bell
developed a crack when it was rung for the death of Chief Justice
Marshall, past grand master of Virginia.
— Alphonse Cerza
spiritual conscience of society by
family , country , and self under the
teaching
the ancient and enduring philosophical
of G od within the B rotherhood of M an .
F atherhood
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Reproduction of articles
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Each North Carolina Mason is a subscriber to The North Carolina Mason. If you know a member
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Oxford, North Carolina 27565.
Opinions expressed
are not necessarily those of The North
Carolina Mason, the
Grand Lodge, or Board
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