by Midnight Freemason Guest Contributor,
RWB Lloyd G. Lyon
Benjamin
B. French
1800-1870
“Arguably
no Mason has been associated with more public Masonic
functions
over a longer period in the Capitol than Bro. French.”
The nineteenth century was the time of many
prominent Masons, but Bro. Benjamin French was such an exceptional one that he
requires special notice.
Benjamin B. French
was born September 4, 1800 in Chester New Hampshire. His father was a lawyer of high standing and
for several years Attorney General of the State of New Hampshire.
In 1819 he went to
Boston hoping to go to sea. Failing to obtain a berth on a ship, he enlisted as
a soldier in the United States Army and was stationed at Fort Warren on
Governor's Island in the harbor of Boston. He was appointed a Sergeant soon
after enlisting and faithfully performed his duty for about four months when,
at the request of his friends who provided a substitute, he left the army on
September 12, 1819.
He then returned to his father's, he began
the study of law, which he pursued with diligence for five years, that being
the time fixed by the bar rules of New Hampshire. At the February 1825 term of
the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Rockingham, held at Portsmouth, he
was admitted an attorney at law.
He was thus a
lawyer by profession and following his marriage in 1825 to Elizabeth Smith
Richardson (1805-1861), daughter of Chief Justice of New Hampshire William
Merchant Richardson and a cousin of Judge William A. Richardson, formerly
Secretary of the Treasury, he became active in politics, serving as Assistant
Clerk of the State Senate of New Hampshire (1828-1830).
Initiated in 1826 in New Hampshire and
courageously serving Corinthian Lodge as Master in 1831, 1832, and 1833 during
the Anti-Masonic period, he was also Grand Marshal of the Grand Lodge of New
Hampshire.
He was later
elected to the New Hampshire State Legislature (1831-1833). While in the
Legislature, he was the proprietor and editor of the New Hampshire Spectator.
French's chief
contribution to an understanding of the 19th century is his eleven-volume
journal of almost four thousand pages, which was begun in August of 1828 and
was faithfully kept up until shortly before his death in the nation's capital
in 1870. Roughly one third of the journal was published in one volume in 1989
under the title Witness to the Young Republic, A Yankee's Journal, 1828-1870,
edited by Donald B. Cole and John J. McDonough.
He knew 12 presidents and their
administrations intimately over 40+ years, from Bro. Andrew Jackson (1833) to
Bro. Andrew Johnson (1867) and organized Lincoln’s inaugural and the Gettysburg
memorial dedication (at which Lincoln have his famous address). His house was
on the site of the present Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress.
After moving to Washington in 1846 he
joined National Lodge No. 12, was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
Washington D.C. from 1847 to 1853, and in 1868 became Grand Master again after
much persuasion. He was active in both the York and Scottish Rites.
After moving to
Washington, on May 7, 1846, Brother French was affiliated with National Lodge
No.12 of the District of Columbia and on November 3, 1846, he was elected Grand
Master of the District of Columbia and served for seven consecutive years.
While Grand Master, he laid the cornerstones of the east extension of the
United States Capitol Building, the Smithsonian Institute (1847), and the
Washington Monument (1848).
Companion French
was exalted in Columbia Chapter No. 1 Royal Arch Masons on November 5, 1846,
and later served as Excellent High Priest of that chapter.
He also served as
the Most Excellent Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of the District of
Columbia. Sir Knight French was knighted in DeWitt Clinton Encampment,
Brooklyn, New York on April 5, 1847, and became Eminent Commander of Washington
Commandery No. 1 (D.C.) on its revival in 1847, serving for eleven years.
In 1850, accompanied by President Zachary
Taylor, he laid the cornerstone of the Washington Monument in Richmond,
Virginia.
 |
(George
Washington’s
Masonic
Apron)
|
Again as Grand Master, wearing the original apron used by Washington, French laid the cornerstone of the Capitol extension on July 4, 1851, following which a pilgrimage was made to Washington’s tomb with an address given by French.
In 1851 French had received the degrees of
the Scottish Rite and on December 12, 1859, SGC Albert Pike conferred upon him
the 33°. He was the first Mason from the
District of Columbia to be so honored.
In
1853, French was named the Commissioner of Public Buildings under President
Franklin Pierce. As the Commissioner of
Public Buildings, French was responsible for the care of all federal buildings
in Washington, D.C., including the United States Capitol. French would lose his
job because of his anti-slavery views.
In his diary French describes an early
encounter with Albert Pike on Wednesday, January 12, 1853: “passed the day at
my office and the Capitol, and in the evening attended a meeting of the
Encampment of Knights Templars, and conferred the orders on Albert Pike, Esq.
of Arkansas. He is a scholar and a poet. Was an officer in the Mexican War and
a man I am disposed to hold in high estimation.”
Then, on February 6, 1853: “Thursday
evening, Washington Encampment met and we conferred the orders of Knighthood on
General Sam Houston. We had a full encampment, and everything went off
admirably.”
Brother French had
the distinction of having a Lodge named in his honor while he was a sitting
Grand Master. Most Worshipful Brother
French reluctantly signed the charter establishing his namesake lodge in late
1852. Benjamin Brown French Lodge No. 15
held its first communication in 1853. The Lodge has met continuously since in
the Georgetown section of the District of Columbia.
He chaired the Board of Alderman of the
District, headed the Telegraph Company, and chaired the District Relief
committee to support families of soldiers during the Civil War.
He was elected
Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar, U.S.A. in 1859 and
served until 1865. Brother French became a Scottish Rite Mason, and on
September 15, 1859, he became the first 33rd Degree Mason from the District of
Columbia. At the time of his death, he was Lieutenant Grand Commander of the
Supreme Council, AASR (SJ).
French had rejoiced
in Abraham Lincoln's election in November 1860 and at the same time recoiled at
the South's threat of secession. He had learned that his beloved wife Elizabeth
had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had consented to a mastectomy (which
was not successful). Elizabeth's death in May of 1861 was a profound loss for
French. His family gathered round him to ease his grief.
Mary Ellen Brady (1831- 1905), a sister of
his brother Edmund's wife, moved in to manage his household. With time, a
romantic attachment developed between Mary Ellen who was thirty years younger
than French, and within a year and a half they were wed on September 9, 1862.
French was the Chief Marshal of the March
1861 inaugural parade of Abraham Lincoln, who reappointed French Commissioner
of Public Buildings in which he oversaw the completion of the new dome on the
Capitol.
After his
appointment, French wrote in his diary on September 8, 1861: "I was at the President's and saw
Mrs. Lincoln and the President. Mrs. L.
expressed her satisfaction at my appointment, and I hope and trust she and I
shall get along quietly. I certainly shall do all in my power to oblige her and
make her comfortable. She is evidently a smart, intelligent woman and likes to
have her own way pretty much. I was delighted with her independence and her
lady-like reception of me. Afterward I saw the President, and he received me
very cordially."
During his tenure,
French also over saw the funeral arrangements for both Willie Lincoln
(1850-1862) and President Lincoln (1809-1865). He would visit Lincoln on his
deathbed at the time of his assassination.
French claimed to
have prevented an earlier assault on Lincoln at the President's Inauguration on
March 4. His journal relates the circumstances.
The Civil War
naturally called a halt in the steady forward march of Templary. This was
noticeable in only one Triennial Conclave, however, and that was the one which
fell in 1862, in the time of the war. It had been previously decided to hold
this Conclave in Memphis, Tennessee.
This was not
feasible in September of 1862, and a special meeting, before the regular
Conclave, changed the place of assembly of the Triennial Conclave for that year
to New York City. It was then twenty
years since the last Conclave had been held in New York City.
The meeting was a
small one. The best authorities state that only eight Grand Commanderies and
subordinate Commanderies from two states and from the District of Columbia were
present, and these were all northern. It is not clear that all the southern
bodies had completely and finally seceded from the Grand Encampment as had
their states from the United States government. Indeed, there is evidence that
some friendly and fraternal relations were maintained.
This Conclave again
took up the matter of Templar uniform, giving still further and more detailed
regulations in the famous "Edict of 1862." In the matter of the
ritual, it was decided to have a devotional service prepared for the opening of
the next Conclave, the place and time for which were fixed at Columbus, Ohio,
on September 5, 1865, and the week following.
Even before
the actual close of the war, the coming peace and harmony was indicated by the
admission into the ranks of the constituent Grand Commanderies of two states,
one of the south, Louisiana, on February 12, 1864, and one of the north, Iowa,
on June 6, 1864. Subordinate Commanderies joined from three new states, Kansas,
Minnesota, and Nebraska.
There was in
the entire 1865 Conclave no real note of war, and the Grand Master at the 1862
and 1865 Conclaves, "the War Grand Master," Benjamin Brown French,
proved himself one of the most caring and peaceable of men. In having him at
the helm throughout those troubled times, Masonic Templary was very fortunate.
Calm, unruffled, broad-minded, and open eyed, he proved to be the right man to
guide American Templary safely through the Civil War years.
On March 4,
1867, Radical Republicans in Congress succeeded in abolishing the office of Commissioner
as a way to punish French for his loyalty to Democratic President Andrew
Johnson (who was also a Knight Templar). On March 14, 1867, French surrendered
books, ledgers, and accounts to the Secretary of the Interior. On March 30,
1867, Congress placed the care of the United States Capitol and grounds under
Edward Clark and the newly created office of the Architect of the Capitol.
Nearly twenty years later, in 1867, he
accompanied President Andrew Johnson to Boston for a national meeting of the
Masonic Knights Templar, of which French had also been Grand Master.
On April 15, 1868 he presided over the
dedication of Washington’s first statue of Abraham Lincoln. Brown’s nephew, Daniel Chester Brown, would
sculpt the statue of Lincoln unveiled in 1922.
In 1870, he was made Lieutenant Grand
Commander of the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction.
French spent
his final years in a minor clerk position in the United States Treasury
Department, and though he found the work humiliating, he held the post until
forced by politics to resign two months before his death.
He died at home on
August 12, 1870, from heart failure and lung congestion. French was placed in a
coffin in the front parlor beneath his portrait and in front of two little
lamps. His Masonic hat, badge, and sword were on the lid of the coffin, and the
room was strewn with flowers. His body
was then taken to the Congressional Cemetery where he was laid to rest amid
throngs of mourners and with the solemn funeral service of Freemasonry.
The full
account of Benjamin B. French's life is not defined by his government service
alone. A sociable and open man, he was likewise occupied in numerous community
and business activities, including serving as Treasurer of the United States
Agricultural Society and as president of the Republican Association of the City
of Washington, as well as Grand Master of the Knights Templar of the United
States.
He invested
smartly, and his business judgment provided him a better lifestyle than would
otherwise have been possible on a government salary alone. He was also interested in cultural and
literary matters, constantly composing poetry, speaking at public occasions,
and discussing current authors and their works in his correspondence.
His journal is
filled with descriptions of parties and other social occasions, and it was not
uncommon to find him at home playing euchre well into the night with a group of
friends that included congressmen and other prominent public officials. Sadly,
Benjamin Brown French would likely be little remembered today were it not for
his journal and letters already mentioned.
The remaining
unpublished material, comprising two-thirds of the journal, is housed in the
Library of Congress which is now situated on the very site where French's
mansion, built in 1842, was located. The unique aspect of French's journal is
the keen insight provided into political life in Washington, D.C. The workings
and the key players of every administration from that of John Quincy Adams to
Ulysses S. Grant are faithfully recorded.
They provide a wide
window into the early years of the republic and more particularly on the
Lincoln White House and are his legacy to the nation.
Sources:
RWB
Lloyd G. Lyon is Editor of the Missouri Lodge of Research Newsletter, published
quarterly. For the Grand Lodge of
Missouri, he is serving as a Grand Chaplin 2017-18 and sits on several state
committees. He is a Past Master of
Hale City Lodge No. 216 (MO) and currently the Secretary. He is currently the District Deputy Grand
Lecturer for the 14th District and has previously served as District
Deputy Grand Master. He belongs to the
York Rite and in 2016 served as Excellent High Priest of Lexington (MO) Chapter
No. 10, 2016 Eminent Commander of Demolay Commandery No. 3 and 2017 Illustrious
Master of John F. Houston Council No. 42.
He also holds membership in Richmond Chapter No. 255 (WP) and Lexington
Chapter No. 248 (AP) Order of the Eastern Star, Harry S. Truman York Rite
College No. 167, Charlemayne Council No. 79 Knight Masons, Kilwinning Council
No. 19 Allied Masonic Degrees, Missouri Priory No. 17 Knights of the York Court
of Honour (KYCH), Mary Conclave No. 5 Red Cross of Constantine, Order of the
Past Masters, Order of the High Priesthood, Order of the Silver Trowel,
Missouri Association of Past Masters and Aleppo Grotto. You can contact him at halecitylodge216@gmail.com