The North Carolina Mason

January/February 2011

North Carolina Mason

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January/February 2011 The North Carolina Mason Sherrill a 50-year secretary CONOVER — Fifty consecutive years a lodge secretary — that’s dedica- tion. At his December 11 installation for yet anoth- er term, Fred Sherrill was saluted for doing just that. In 1960, Sherrill was master of Conover 709. In the later part of 1961, he began work as secre- tary pro tem. Later that year, he was elected and installed to his first full term on the master’s left hand. He’s owned the chair since then. Sher- rill is a past winner of the Harris Dudley Grand Secretary’s Award naming him as a top lodge secretary in North Carolina. For Sherrill’s 51st installation, Past Grand Master Tom Gregory was on hand to present a Double brothers GREENSBORO — Octo- genarian blood brothers became Masonic brothers on November 15 at Guilford 656. Don Willoughby was raised a Master Mason by his brother, Ollie, who drove to Greensboro from his Indiana home to participate in the ceremony. Ollie Willoughby is past master Sherrill, left, and PGM Gregory special certificate from the Grand Lodge salut- ing the accomplishment. Grand Lecturer Mack Sigmon installed Sherrill and the other officers of Conover Lodge. This guide is reprinted directly from the Grand Lodge installation program. Take an opportunity to tour your Capitol grounds, and cut this out as your guide to Masonic sights there. of his home lodge in southern In- diana where he has been a member since 1969. Don turned 83 years old in January; Ollie is only two years his junior. Teir long deceased father was also an Indiana Mason. After the raising, Ollie present- — Mack Sigmon ed Don a Masonic lapel pin. It was the same pin their father had given Ollie the night he was raised more than 40 years ago. It’s never too late to become a Mason or to ful- fill a father’s dream for his good sons to become even better men. — Skip Yeakel Page 5 Ollie Willoughby, left, gives his brother Don a family lapel pin at his raising. MASONIC CONNECTIONS around our State Capitol North Carolina’s House of Representatives, met in this room from 1840 to 1961. T e table being used as altar today is the same one used when NC became the last state to secede from the Union in 1861. North Carolina Masons used the same table in 2008 to sign our recognition compact with Prince Hall Masonry. T e T omas Sulley portrait of Washington hanging above the podium is one of the few pieces of art res- cued when the previous Capitol burned in 1831. T e Governor’s offi ce is directly below this chamber. Of North Carolina’s four colonial governors, two were Freemasons: Richard Caswell & Alexander Martin. Samuel Johnston was elected the fi rst grand master of Masons at the creation of the Grand Lodge December 12, 1787. He was governor at the time. T e convention to form the Grand Lodge was held in Tarboro. He was also North Carolina’s fi rst senator. T e April 12, 1776 Halifax Resolves made North Carolina the fi rst colony to recommend independence. Leaders of the Halifax Congress included powerful Masons Samuel Johnston, Cornelius Harnett, and William Hooper. Matt W. Ransom, of Johnston- Caswell 10 in Warrenton, was a US senator, minister to Mexico, Civil War general, and attorney general of NC. At the center of the Capitol rotunda is a 20th century reproduction of Conova’s sculpture of George All T ree of NC’s Declaration of Independence signers were Masons: Joseph Hewes, William Hooper, and John Penn. T e statue of Henry Lawson Wyatt, NC’s fi rst Civil War casualty is the work of Gutzon Borglum, the famed sculptor who produced Mount Rushmore. He also made the Aycock sculpture here. Bor- glum lived in North Carolina for several years. He was a member of Howard 35 in New York City. C. B. Aycock is often called the Education Governor. It is said that a new school was opened nearly every day of his term at the beginning of the 1900s. Aycock was a member of Wayne 112 in Goldsboro. In 1912, Col. Ashley Horne gave $10,000 to build a monument to the women of the Confederacy. Plaques on the monument “depict the futility and destruction of war.” Horne was a member of Granite 191 in Clayton. T ere are two statues of George Washington on the Capitol grounds, this one on the south side and one at the center of the rotunda. T is is one of seven cast copies of Houdon’s sculpture of our fi rst president. It was the fi rst statue placed outdoors on Union Square. Washington was master of Fredericks- burg 4 and Alexandria 22 in Virginia. Zeb Vance was perhaps the most popular politician in Tarheel history. He served three terms as governor (two during the Confederacy) and was serving as US senator at the time of his death in 1894. Vance was a member of Mount Hermon 118 (Asheville) & Phalanx 31 (Charlotte). Charles Duncan McIver was a member of Winston 167 in Winston-Salem. McIver was a renowned promoter of women’s education and the founder of what became UNC-Greensboro in 1892. T e Rotunda Washington as a Roman general. T e original was destroyed when the origi- nal building burned in 1831. Many of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence were Masons. T e Old Hickory Highway is named for President and Mason Andrew Jackson. T ere are two Masonic corner- stones at the northeast corner of the Capitol. T e fi rst was placed at the beginning of construction July 4, 1833. T e second was placed dur- ing the centennial celebration of the Statehouse. T ree United States presi- dents were born in North Carolina: Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson. All were Freemasons, joining their lodges after moving to Ten- nessee. Johnson was born just a block south of here. Raleigh, a Masonic city Raleigh was chosen for the new state capital in 1788. It was formally established in 1792, with three of its fi rst commissioners Masons: William J. Dawson, Frederick Hargett, and Joseph McDowell. Nearby streets still bear their names. Union Square, the site of the Capitol, was designed to be the central square of the town. Constructed of granite quarried in southeastern Wake County and fi nished in 1840, this build- ing replaced the original Capitol which burned in 1831.

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