Richard T. Turner (1809-1877), our third great-grandfather, was born in New York City but lived in Savannah, Georgia for most of his life. He progressively made his living as a sailmaker, a chandler (ship’s merchant), and a customs officer before holding elected office as a Savannah Port Warden for more than thirty years, including preceding and through the occupation of the city by Union troops under the command of General William T. Sherman in 1864 and 1865. Richard’s son George Thomas Turner (1842-1888) was a lawyer (and Confederate soldier) who had nine children, including our great-grandmother Lillian Melvin Turner (1872-1936). Lillian’s son is our beloved grandfather Leon Harman Grayson (1906-1993).
The Georgia Colony – All are welcome, except…
In February 1733, James Oglethorpe wrote his fellow Trustees in England that the site for the new Colony of Georgia was “a healthy situation about ten miles from the sea. The [Savannah] river there forms a half moon, along the South side of which the banks are about 40 foot high and upon the top a flat which they call a bluff. The plain high ground extends into the country five or six miles and along the riverside about a mile.” Thirty-five families founded Savannah, and laid out the town in a beautiful and functional grid pattern accentuated by its famous central squares. All religions were welcome except papists, which the charter banned. Interestingly, it also initially banned lawyers, slavery, and hard liquor. By July, the colony had already lost about twenty colonists from fever when a storm-tossed boatload of forty-two Portuguese Jews unexpectedly arrived, bolstered the colony, and established the still-substantial Jewish community in Savannah. Among these, the Sheftall name continues to thrive.
American Freemasonry
“For nearly 300 years the influences of the institution of Freemasonry in Georgia have shaped the destiny of this State and Nation. The British Colony of Georgia was the first Colony that Masonic Charity ever founded for the poor, the distressed and the persecuted. He who founded Georgia, James Edward Oglethorpe, instituted the first Masonic Lodge within its borders. That FIRST LODGE is now known as Solomon’s Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M. at Savannah the Mother Lodge of Georgia Masonry. Her Masonic Brethren have been among the most illustrious of Georgia’s sons.” -from the website of Solomon’s Masonic Lodge #1, Savannah, GA
Masons are stone workers, and theirs is an ancient craft. Ancient masons were skilled workers in high demand, and thus were generally “free” to move from building site to building site in otherwise restrictive societies. Most Freemasons are not actual masons, but are “accepted” into the lodges to share in the fellowship. It is thus a brotherhood of “Free and Accepted Masons.” Today Freemasons define themselves as, “An organized society of men symbolically applying the principles of operative Masonry and architecture to the science and art of character building.” They use architectural symbolism and stories throughout their instruction. A statement of belief in a higher power (“The Architect of the Universe”) is required for membership, thus Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even Pantheists are eligible, though the discussion of religion and politics is discouraged within a lodge. Benjamin Franklin, General Douglas MacArthur, Colonel Harlan Sanders, boxing promoter Don King, and astronaut John Glenn were all Freemasons. Some famous Jewish Freemasons include Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Harry Houdini. In fact, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia,
[Freemasonry] traces back much of its symbolism and ritual to the building of the First Temple by Solomon. So far does this tendency go that G. Oliver, in his “Antiquities of Freemasonry” (London, 1823), attempts to show that Moses was a grand master. One of the higher grades of the order is connected with the legend of the death of Hiram “Abif” (a misunderstanding of II Chron. ii. 13). According to Masonic legend, he was killed by three workmen just at the completion of the Temple; and there is a mystery about his death as represented in the Masonic rites…. The technical language, symbolism, and rites of freemasonry are full of Jewish ideas and of terms like “Urim and Thummim,” “Acharon Schilton,” “Rehum,” “Sephirot,” “Jachin,” “Ish Chotzeb.” Many of these terms are derived from the Biblical account of the building of Solomon’s Temple (I Kings v. et seq.), and the two pillars Jachin and Boaz take a predominant position in Masonic symbolism. In the Scottish Rite the dates of all official documents are given according to the Hebrew months and Jewish era, and use is made of the older form (Samaritan or Phenician) of the Hebrew alphabet.
Master Freemason RT Turner and the Sheftall and Grayson Families
In Richard Turner’s death notice published February 12, 1877 in the Savannah Morning News we are told, “Mr. Turner was probably best known for his connection to the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a zealous member for more than forty years.” Solomon’s Lodge #1 lists its Lodge Masters dating back to founding father James Oglethorpe from 1734-43 and including Benjamin Sheftall (of the original Jewish families) from 1758-64. Richard Turner is listed as “Worshipful Master” four separate times: 1844-48, 1849-52, 1853-59, and 1863-67. In researching the Turners, I discovered that Richard’s daughter Mary Ella (1840-1883) had married into the Sheftall family. The 1860 U.S. Census shows her married to Mordecai Sheftall (1833-1862), then the Chatham County Superior Court Clerk. Mary Ella’s brother George, then 18, also lived with the Sheftall family. The young Turners were relatively well-off, both listing $1000 in real estate and $5000 in personal wealth. Mordecai claimed a $9000 net worth.
As a small-world aside, in 1860 printer John Langston Grayson (1817-1889), also our third great-grandfather, lived twelve doors away from the Sheftalls with his dressmaker wife Jane (1827-1910) and three children including thirteen year-old Edward Fahm Recker Grayson (1847-1901). In a stark comparison to the Turner-Sheftalls $21,000 estate, the Grayson family net worth was a mere $200. As mentioned above, George Turner had a daughter named Lillian. She eventually met and married Edward F.R.’s son William L. Grayson (1870-1941). With Lillie at his side, William worked his way up from produce clerk to life insurance agent to Chatham County Superior Court Clerk – the same post held by Lillian’s uncle Mordecai two generations before.
(Continued in Part 2)
Postscript: Though American Freemasonry is neither an anti-Catholic nor a religious organization, its early European history included some troubling anti-Catholic strains and its quasi-religious rites and symbolism are of concern to the Church. The Catholic Church teaches that membership in Freemasonry is incompatible with the faith.
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