Assistance from Those "Whose Benevolent Hearts Glows"

At the core of Scottish Rite Freemasonry is a vision to be a fraternity that fulfills its Masonic obligation to care for its members. In this week’s post, we highlight two documents from the Van Gorden-Williams Library & Archives of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library that illustrate this vision in action, as well as the “benevolent hearts” of Freemasonry.

In the first document, an 1810 letter to Columbian Lodge in Boston, Massachusetts, Susanna Kelly, the widow of Joseph Kelley, a Freemason, petitions Columbian for relief as she and her children await safe passage to Suriname, the home of Kelly’s mother. Susanna’s letter highlights the difficulties that unmarried or widowed women faced in nineteenth-century America and provides insights into how the embargo and Non-Intercourse Act of 1809, two events that led up to the War of 1812, affected everyday Americans.

The second document, an 1810 report submitted by the committee to aid Susanna Kelly, outlines Columbian Lodge’s efforts to aid the Kelly family in conjunction with St. Andrew’s Royal Arch Chapter and its High Priest, John B. Hammatt. Hammatt, who had been initiated at Columbian Lodge, personally paid for many of the family's expenses and advanced Mrs. Kelly $15.00, which may have been used to aid the family during the voyage.     

Letter from Susanna Kelly to Columbian Lodge, June 2, 1810

Boston 2nd June 1810 To the Right Worshipful Master, officers, and members of Columbian Lodge – Gentlemen It is with extreme reluctance your petitioner again solicits your attention, a widow, with several helpless children, in a country without connections, without money, and without friend (excepting indeed the charitable and humane society of free masons, of which my deceased husband was a member) where can I turn for assistance, but to those, whose benevolent Hearts glow with pity and friendship for the unfortunate. Soon after the death of my husband I determined to return to my mother who resides at Suriname, and who, having heard of my loss, kindly invited me to her arms. But the Embargo and non intercourse laws, prevented my taking advantage of her protection. + I have been obliged tho very reluctantly to request assistance of your fraternity to save myself and children from perishing. Intercourse between this + other countries, having been restored, I hope soon to be able to take a passage to Suriname + am at present in cheap lodging at Charlestown waiting on opportunity for that purpose. But, Gentlemen, I am without resource to obtain a subsistence, a stranger, and a foreigner, who will employ me. I appeal therefore to that generosity, that charity and to that humanity which is so often exercised in the cause of distress – whatever you may be pleased to grant me will be received with the most heart felt gratitude by, gentlemen, your devoted servant-- Susanna Kelly

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Committee Report to Columbian Lodge, 1810

The committee chosen by Columbian Lodge to alleviate the distress of the widow + children of our late Br. Joseph Kelly by presenting them certain sums of money according to votes of said Lodge, + also to procure a passage for them to Suriname, with deference state, that in conjunction with a committee from St. Andrews Chapter, for that purpose, they have accomplished the above object, but not without expending more money than was appropriated by said Lodge for that purpose as will appear by the following statement, Cash advanced Mrs. Kelly $25.00 Cash paid for bread 10.50 Cash paid Mrs. Johnson for Mrs. Kelly and children’s board 2.90 Cash paid for wine, eggs, butter [carg. hack hire?] 7.30 Cash paid for beef + bread 7.36 Cash paid for [meal?] and washing floor 1.75 Cash paid for [sundries?] by J. B. Hammatt 34.25 Cash paid for [sauce?] by J. B. Hammatt 9.00 Cash paid for [Truck.g?] by J. B. Hammatt 2.00 Cash advan[ce]d Ms. K. by J. B. Hammatt 15.00 _____ $115.06 That the committee from St. Andrew’s Chapter have paid fifty one dollars of the above sum. Thereby leaving $64.06 paid by your committee, + that they have received 25$ of the Sec.y, which deducted from the above sum leaves $39.06 for which no provision has been made. Dan.l Baxter      Committee Sam. Smith

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Caption

Letter from Susanna Kelly to Columbian Lodge, June 2, 1810. Gift of Columbian Lodge, Boston, Massachusetts, courtesy of Mrs. Godfrey S. Tomkins, MA 002.

Committee Report to Columbian Lodge, 1810. Gift of Columbian Lodge, Boston, Massachusetts, courtesy of Mrs. Godfrey S. Tomkins, MA 002.

 

The Fantastic Tale of George A. Gardiner

In this letter from the collection of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, George A. Gardiner, most likely a confidence man, requests assistance from Columbian Lodge, located in Boston, Massachusetts.

(front of letter)

To the Officers and Members of Columbian Lodge. Having lost our property by the great Earthquake of the 26th of March 1812 in Caracas, in South America, and the greatest part of the time since that period been detained by the Spaniards as prisoners, and for the last four years suffered everything but death and frequently threatened with that, and ultimately,-- during the contentions in that country, the Royalists having found themselves likely to be overcome by the –patriots, Robbed us of everything we possessed even to our clothes, and said “if the patriots should gain the place they would put me, my wife, and my two infant children to immediate and instant Death!” Anticipating the success of the patriots we resolved to make an effort towards our escape, which we effected the same night, and arrived in Puerto Rico, where we found a friend who gave us passage to this place, where we are in the greatest possible distress, having a sick child and not wherewith to provide for it. The above facts compel me thou’ not without that diffidence and reluctance which every man of spirit must feel on such an occasion to ask from the fraternity a donation

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(reverse of letter)

for the present and immediate relief of a distressed family who have never before known want. G.A. Gardiner       In 1820, two years after writing the above letter to Columbian Lodge, Gardiner published his only known literary attempt, A Brief and Correct Account of an Earthquake Which Happened in South America, an account of the 1812 Venezuela earthquake. In addition to incorrectly dating the event (Gardiner stated the earthquake took place on March 26, 1818), Gardiner greatly exaggerated the numbers of casualties and his tall tale included a fantastic description of a “subterranean channel” that “was formed by the tops of two very high mountains falling together” nearly four hundred miles from Caracas.

Gardiner's surreal description of Venezuela drew the attention of respected Venezuelan geologist Franco Urbani Patat in 1985. Urbani Patat debunked Gardiner’s work, calling it a fictitious invention possibly used to impress others. Gardiner’s account amounted to literary fraud, Urbani Patat concluded.

It is unclear as to why Gardiner, who does not appear to have been a Mason, requested aid from Columbian Lodge or whether he made the same request to other lodges. Furthermore, we may never know for certain whether Columbian Lodge ever responded to Gardiner's plea for assistance. The Museum's collection of records for Columbian Lodge is incomplete and contains several gaps that prevent this question from being answered. That said, research into Gardiner’s life provides a better, if not always clearer, picture of the man and of his life.

George A. Gardiner was born in New York State in about 1786, and married Mary Anne Headley of New Jersey sometime before 1818. The couple had at least three children together: a son George A., who was born in 1818; a son John Charles, who often used the name Carlos or John Carlos and was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1824; and a daughter whose name and birth record could not be discovered during research for this blog post. While no record of George A. Gardiner's death was found in Ancestry.com, courtroom testimony from the trial of his two sons for perjury and fraud, the infamous Gardiner trial, uncovers that senior Gardiner died in Havana, Cuba, possibly around 1840.

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Caption

Letter from G.A. Gardiner to Columbian Lodge, May 6, 1818. Gift of Columbian Lodge, Boston, Massachusetts, courtesy of Mrs. Godfrey S. Tomkins, MA 002.

References

Barthel, Thomas (2010). Abner Doubleday: A Civil War Biography. Jefferson: McFarland.

Gardiner, G.A. (1820). A Brief and Correct Account of an Earthquake Which Happened in South America. Poughkeepsie, New York: P. Potter.  

Moore, John Bassett (1898). United States and Mexican Claims Commission: Convention of April 11, 1839. In History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to Which the United States Has Been a Party, (Vol. 2, pp. 1209-1359). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. Accessed: 5 March 2018. https://books.google.com/books?id=s10QAAAAYAAJ

United States. Congress. Senate (1854). Reports of the Committees of the Senate of the United States for the First Session, Thirty-third Congress, 1853-’54.  (Vol. 708, pp. 1259-1260). Washington, D.C.: Beverley Tucker. Accessed 5 March 2018. https://books.google.com/books?id=qWxHAQAAIAAJ

Urbani Patat, Franco (1985). George A. Gardiner (1812-1820). Accessed 15 March 2018.
http://www.acading.org.ve/info/comunicacion/criterioopinion/sillon_XXVI/Notas_biograficas_George_Gardiner-Urbani-1995.pdf