South Carolina
C.S.A.
South Carolina
C.S.A.
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South Carolina C.S.A.
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South Carolina C.S.A. |
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 Abbeville SC Oct 1869 |
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Abbeville, South Carolina, 1869 From the collection of Richard Sawyer This apron was painted by Sara A. Graydon Bramlett, for her husband James H. Bramlett. They lived in the Ware Shoals area. Some of the visible symbols are: the letter "G", the sun, the moon, the stars, the column, the trowel, the level, the beehive, and the coffin. |
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The Masons of "G" Company "We met upon the level, and we parted on the square." Kipling The Man Who Would Be King Like those who came before, and those yet to come, these men were travelers, carrying all that they knew of the craft with them, seeking illumination and providing light, always to build. The Masonic order was pervasive in antebellum American. Nowhere can the influence of the order be seen more clearly than in Company G of the Sixteenth South Carolina. Two lodges, one in upper Greenville County and one in Pickens County, are named for members of Company G. Bates Lodge in Easley was founded during late reconstruction. The lodge was named for Lt. Esley Bates and founded by him. Cooper Lodge in Travelers Rest was founded later, but is named in honor of Sergeant J.D. Cooper of Company G of the Sixteenth S.C.V. Most of the men in G Company entered the Masonic Order at Recovery Lodge in Greenville or the Ebenezer Lodge in Marietta, which was founded at the beginning of the war. Some probably served in traveling lodges that were common in the Confederate Army and a few like Edward B Powell, may have become Masons in earlier wars. Indeed it is very possible that Company G was home to one of these traveling lodges. Burt Miller, curator of the Sixteenth Museum, confirms that a traveling lodge was sanctioned by the Grand Lodge of South Carolina while the unit was on the coast of South Carolina. No returns survived at the Grand Lodge. During Stoneman's raid the Master of Ebenezer at Marietta was summoned in the night by a Union officer and allowed to save the items in the lodge, including the Masonic Jewels, before the building the lodge was housed in was burned. The Union officer was obviously a Mason, and probably the one who posted a guard on the house in Oolenoy Community around the same time. The father of that home had nailed the Masonic symbol on the doorpost prior to leaving for the war, thus saving the home. At least one of the men of the Brookshire family from upper Greenville County was a Mason. Family legend states he was arrested while at home and sentenced to be hanged for desertion. He in turn asked for assistance and that assistance was given. He lived many years after the war. These stories are representative of the incidents of Masonic aid given in the War Between the States, that aid being quite common, as so many men were a part of the order at that time. Captain Boling was certainly a Mason in good standing at the time of his death. The correspondence between the Captain's son and the children of the Batson's boys in G Company and the Powell boys of G Company all indicate a concern for all matters Masonic. The following men were all Masons from G Company, others will be added as they come to light. Boling, John Washington, Captain, Ebenezer Lodge Bates, Esley H., Lieutenant, Bates Lodge Batson, Doctor F. "Doc", Lieutenant Ebenezer Lodge Powell, Edward, Lieutenant, Ebenezer Lodge Cooper, Joseph D., First Sergeant, Ebenezer Lodge Powell, Stephen, First Sergeant, Ebenezer Lodge Batson, Wm. D., Private, Ebenezer Lodge From Edward B. Powell, Soldier and Southern Gentleman 1816-1880 Chester A. Howell Date of Edward B. Powell being raised to a Master Mason was not found in the Ebenezer Lodge Records. Stephen Powell was raised to a Master Mason on August 3, 1860. The rules and by-laws adopted by the lodge in 1866, were signed by Edward Powell. Stephen Powell was an officer in the Lodge in 1872. He would have been 86 years old at the time. Edward Powell was Senior Deacon in 1875. The Lodge met on October 28, 1878, to pay last respects and tributes to Brother Stephen Powell and to give him a Masonic funeral. (Two days after his death.) On November 30, 1880, the Lodge met and appointed a committe to draw a resolution in honor of their deceased Brother Edward Powell, Edward died on November 10. Ever faithful and evergreen, the cedars they carried, spread across the land. Even in old age and death, the bees came and filled the hollow and empty trunks and made sweet honey for those who knew them not, to enjoy. So Mote It Be. |
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Esley Bates and Bates Lodge The Dreams of our Father Confederate Odyssey The Roster of "G" Company |
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