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George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and the first President of the United States of America (1789–1797). For his central role in the formation of the United States, he is often referred to as "the father of his country".
Initiated: November 4, 1752, Fredericksburgh (Fredericksburg) Lodge No. 4, Fredericksburg, Virginia.
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James Monroe
James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) was the fifth President of the United States (1817–1825). His administration was marked by the acquisition of Florida (1819); the Missouri Compromise (1820), in which Missouri was declared a slave state; the admission of Maine in 1820 as a free state; and the profession of the Monroe Doctrine (1823), declaring U.S. opposition to European interference in the Americas, as well as breaking all ties with France remaining from the War of 1812.
Initiated: November 9, 1775, St. John's Regimental Lodge in the Continental Army.
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James Polk
James Knox Polk (pronounced /ˈpoʊk/ POKE) (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th President of the United States (1845–1849). Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented the state of Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as Speaker of the House (1835–1839) and Governor of Tennessee (1839–1841) before becoming president.
Initiated: June 5, 1820, Columbia Lodge No. 31, Columbia, Tennessee.
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James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the 15th President of the United States from 1857–1861 and the last to be born in the 18th century. To date he is the only President from the state of Pennsylvania and the only president to remain a lifelong bachelor.
Initiated: December 1l, 1816, Lodge No. 43, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
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Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the 17th President of the United States (1865–1869). Following the assassination of President Lincoln, Johnson presided over the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War.
Initiated: May 5, 1851, Greenville Lodge No. 119, Greenville, Tennessee.
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James Garfield
James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th President of the United States. His death, two months after being shot and six months after his inauguration, made his tenure, at 199 days, the second shortest (after William Henry Harrison) in United States history. Before his election as president, Garfield served as a major general in the United States Army and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and as a member of the Electoral Commission of 1876. Garfield was the second U.S. President to be assassinated; Abraham Lincoln was the first. President Garfield, a Republican, had been in office a scant four months when he was shot and fatally wounded on July 2, 1881. He lived until September 19, having served for six months and fifteen days. To date, Garfield is the only sitting member of the House of Representatives to have been elected President.
Initiated: November 19, 1861, Magnolia Lodge, No. 20, Columbus, Ohio.
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William McKinley
William McKinley Jr. (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th President of the United States, and the last veteran of the American Civil War to be elected to the office. He never forgot Masonry and, holding the full range of York Rite Degrees, he delivered the address at the centennial of Washington's death. On December 14, 1899, at Mount Vernon, Bro. McKinley addressed the Masonic observance of the centennial saying: "The Fraternity justly claims the immortal patriot as one of its members; and the whole human family acknowledges him as one of the greatest benefactors."
Initiated: May 1, 1865, Hiram Lodge No. 21, Winchester, Virginia.
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Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919; pronounced /ˈroʊzəvɛlt) was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, his range of interests and achievements, his leadership of the Progressive Movement, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party of 1912. Before becoming President (1901–1909) he held offices at the municipal, state, and federal level of government. Roosevelt's achievements as a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, and soldier are as much a part of his fame as any office he held as a politician.
Initiated: January 2, 1901, Matinecock Lodge No. 806, Oyster Bay, New York.
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Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857 – March 8, 1930) was the 27th President of the United States and later the 10th Chief Justice of the United States. Born in 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio, into the powerful Taft family, Taft graduated from Yale College in 1878, and from Cincinnati Law School in 1880. Then he worked in a number of local legal positions until being appointed an Ohio Superior Court judge in 1887. In 1890 Taft was appointed Solicitor General of the United States and in 1891 a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In 1900, President William McKinley appointed Taft Governor-General of the Philippines. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt, then a political ally of Taft, appointed Taft Secretary of War to groom Taft as his successor to the presidency.
Initiated: February 18, 1909 Kilwinning Lodge No. 356, Cincinnati, Ohio.
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Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945) was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war. The only American president elected to more than two terms, he was often referred to by his initials, FDR. Roosevelt won his first of four presidential elections in 1932, while the United States was in the depths of the Great Depression. FDR's combination of optimism and economic activism is often credited with keeping the country's economic crisis from developing into a political crisis. He led the United States through most of World War II, and died in office of a cerebral hemorrhage, shortly before the war ended.
Initiated: October 11, 1911, Holland Lodge No. 8, New York City.
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Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953). As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice-president and the 34th Vice President of the United States, he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his fourth term.
Initiated: February 9, 1909, Belton Lodge No. 450, Belton, Missouri.
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Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974. As the first person appointed to the vice-presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment, when he became President upon Richard Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974.
Initiated: September 30, 1949, Malta Lodge No. 465, Grand Rapids, Michigan
The aim of Freemasonry has long been to "Make Good Men Better". It is hard to argue that Masons have not been successful in their undertaking with many of our nations most respected leaders being among the brethren. ..
