22 April 2011 - SCMRS Banquet and Symposium

The Society is proud to announce the first South Carolina Masonic Research Society Banquet and Symposium, which will be held on April 22, 2011, at 7:00 PM in the Omar Shrine Temple, 176 Patriots Point Street, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina 29464. The cost is $25.00 per person and this will be a formal or semi-formal dress event. Period dress from the time period of the War Between the States is also invited and encouraged. A catered meal will be provided.

The keynote speaker will be Worshipful Brother Michael A. Halleran, author of The Better Angels of our Nature: Freemasonry in the American Civil War. Halleran is a freelance writer and a practicing attorney in the Flint Hills of East-Central Kansas. A lecturer at Emporia State University, he is also an active Freemason, belonging to both Emporia Lodge No. 12, AF&AM, and Mount Zion Lodge No. 266, AF&AM, Topeka, Kansas. Halleran received the Mackey Award for Excellence in Masonic Scholarship by the Scottish Rite Research Society for his article on Civil War Freemasonry in that society’s journal: Heredom, vol. 14 (2006). In addition, he is the author of a regular column for The Scottish Rite Journal. He is a member of the Quatuor Coronati Correspondence Circle, and the Scottish Rite Research Society where he studies American military Masonry and the traditions of military lodges worldwide. See: http://michaelhalleran.com/.

We are further proud to announce that Worshipful Brother Wayne Sirmon, of Alabama, will also be a speaker at this event. Sirmon brings to us a deep knowledge of the CS Hunley and the Masonic connections surrounding that vessel. Sirmon is currently the Master of the Texas Lodge of Masonic Research.

This will not be a tiled event and you are encouraged to invite your non-Mason friends and family members – especially those that have an interest in history. Your Society’s officers look forward to seeing you at this quality event which will be filled with first class education and fellowship.

See http://www.scmrs.org/banquet.html for ticket and book ordering information.

/s/

Grayson W. Mayfield, III DDGM
President, SCMRS

Betrayed By A Mason? The Tragic Mission of Lt. Thomas Boyd

From Michael Karpovage, author of "Betrayed By A Mason? The Tragic Mission of Lt. Thomas Boyd.": "This article appeared in October 2010 issue of the The Plumbline, A Quarterly Bulletin of the Scottish Rite Research Society. Essentially it is an in-depth assessment of one of the most heinous torture deaths in the American Revolution, but from a Freemason perspective because of what happened between enemy Freemasons. It's an exposé between the American scout Thomas Boyd, and his British adversaries Colonel John Butler and Chief Joseph Brant at the end of the famed Sullivan Expedition of 1779. It's one of those lost moments in history that I had heavily researched for my new mystery thriller novel Crown of Serpents. I'm hoping this article sheds further light on an extraordinary incident in both Masonic and military history between two nations in a most horrible time of war."

Go to this link to read the very interesting article: "Betrayed By A Mason? The Tragic Mission of Lt. Thomas Boyd."

See also: http://palmettomason.blogspot.com/2010/04/recommended-crown-of-serpents.html