Sketch Of Bro. T. S. Parvin, P.G.M. And For Thirty Years Grand Secretary Of Iowa.

SKETCH OF BRO . T . S . PARVIN , P . G . M . AND FOR THIRTY YEARS GRAND SECRETARY OF IOWA .

[ Written by himself at the request of his brethren , and included in the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Iowa for 1873 . ] IN this volume we have presented biographical sketches of the first four Grand Masters , all deceassd , whose term of service , with that of their successor , fills the period of the first decade ( 1844 . 53 ) of our history , together with sketches of the last four ( 13-16 ) , whose

services were coeval with the period embraced in the volume— the sixth half decade ( 1869-73 ) . These eight and those intervening ( whose history will be continued during subsequent years ) , were contemporaries of the one " Grand Secretary , " a sketch of whose career is importuned at our hands for this series . Not having a kind friend , as the others had , to volunteer the pre

paration of such a paper , and being too modest to ask it at the hands of others , and too inexperienced in the line of autobiography , we are not disposed to devote a summer to fighting it out on either line . We present , therefore , as a flank movement , a page transcribed from the fly-leaves of an old copy of Cross's Chart , the first Masonio book we ever owned , a statement of the order of our advancement in Masonry , and leave to " future generations" the completion of the

work . My earliest and fondest , because of its being ray first recollection of Masonry , is connected with the Lodge of which my father and his father were members before I was born . It was held in the second story of an old mansion occupied by the widowed daughter of an honoured hero of the Revolution . Pleasantly located , and overlooking

a beautiful village npon the banks of the Cedar , from which it derived its name , and just at that point where the tide " ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours " ere it empties into the Delaware on the Jersey side ; all its surroundings were in harmony with the beautiful in nature and all that is good and true in man . In the room under , neath , this good woman , whom we fondly remember , taught a class

of small children , of whom we were one . We children often speculated npon the sights to be seen in that haunted chamber , and often , too , wondered at the operations performed there during the hours when onr little eyes were closed in sleep , bub of which we heard more or less in the talk among the villagers . For about that time it was rumoured that a man " duly and truly prepared " to become a Mason ,

never became one , but fled in hot haste , as though pursued by hobgoblins , to his home and frightened wife . My father , a sea . faring man , was at home from one of his voyages about that time , and being his first born and only son , he could not refuse my request to visit the secret place , for it must be remembered that in those days a Masonio Lodge was never opened to the

inspection of the profane world , old or young . I was of the favoured few , and well do I remember that beautiful antumn morning , when , a little lame boy of seven years , I hobbled along , my father , in whom I trusted , leading the way to the abodes of the mysteries , whose ways I have so often since sought with fear and trembling lest I might not find the truth there concealed . That impression was strong and deep

npon a mind well cultivated for its age , and every article of the quaint old furniture I could have assigned to its proper place the evening when , fourteen years later , npon the banks of the Ohio , I first saw the light my eyes had longed for daring many a year of silent but thoughtful waiting . On the Januarv morning , in 1838 , when I became a free man , with

the consciousness that tbe teachings of a pure and blessed mother had started her boy " under the tongue of good report" upon the voyage of life , I called upon the Hon . Elam P . Langdon , Post Master of the city , and Worshipful Master of the Lodge , one of the oldest in the West , and originally chartered by the Grand Lodge of my native State , and asked him to recommend me to the Lodge , that I might be

made a member . I was initiated in Nova Cesarea Harmony Lodge , No . 2 , Cincinnati , 14 th March 1838 , the Worshipful Master , though present , yielding the gavel to his Senior Warden , John Evans , a master workman , and the late Samuel Reed , then Grand Lecturer of the State , acting as Senior Deacon . I have often wondered , even with childish curiosity , why I was not received in the month of

February intervening ; but , having been informed that in consequence of my lameness it became necessary to procure a special dispensation in my behalf , I rested nnder the impression that the delay arose from that cause . Upon my return from the triennial meeting at Baltimore in 1871 , 1 tarried a week among the old landmarks where I was raised and educated , and sought an inspection of the old records , where I

found quite a business entry to the effect that I was elected , but that , owing to a great fire raging , and burning the large pork house of Bros . — , members of the Lodge , tbe conferring of the degree was postponed that the members might repair to the fire and aid in saving the property of the brothers named , etc . A severe attack of the rheumatism , resulting from a fall when I

was some five years old , had lamed me for life , and , under tho crnstean law of the " operative" Masons , I was debarred a knowledge of " speculative" Masonry . The Grand Master [ Reese ] was not , however , one of these doctors " learned in law" who can only find brains and hearts in the heels or stomach of the candidate , but rather regarding the " internal qualifications which render a man fit to be a

Mason , " consented to my becoming one , and I have the unblushing confidence to believe that I have never disgraced the honour or abased the confidence he and his brethren then reposed in me , a poor candidate for the honours the Order might confer upon one who would seek to learn its precepts and practice what he had learned amid all the

varying scenes of a checkered life . The Lodge was old and wealthy , and composed of aged brethren , with only one nnder middle age , and be fifteen years my senior ; hence I became the pet boy of those " fathers in Israel , " and predestined long before I was " raised , " on the 9 th of May following , to become their Secretary , a life's work upon which the light of that bow has not , I think ; been shed » vain ,

My petition was before the R . A . Chapter , Cincinnati , No . 2 , but withdrawn npon my sudden removal from the city . I also dimicted from the Lodge , bat was subsequently elected an honorary member therein . Congress had just , 12 th June 1838 , detached Iowa from Wisconsin , and created it a territory , and Governor Lucas , of Ohio ,

appointed by President Van Buren , its first , wisest and best Governor , and I had accepted his unsought invitation to accompany him as hia private Secretary . Henceforth Iowa became my home , and in view of subsequent facts , I may , without egotism , quote , as not in . appropriate to myself , the well-known lines of Virgil : —

" ——~ qnaeqne ipso * * * vidi , Et quorum pars magna fui ¦ , " in the varied pursuits of her history , education , religion , politics , benevolence and Masonry . Of my connection with Masonry , I shall only here and now speak , and of that briefly : —

At the third session of the territorial legislature in the fall of 1840 , Col . Bennett , who had been au aid of Gen . Harrison , at Tippecanoe , and since deceased in Oregon , and his son-in-law , Evan Evans , still a resident of Burlington , called npon mo in the council chamber and asked my aid to organise a Masonic Lodge . From my acquaintance with the Deputy Grand Master and Grand Secretary of the Grand

Lodge of Missouri , I was requested to prepare the papers and conduct the correspondence . We received tho dispensation , dated the 20 th of November 1840 , signed by Joseph Foster and Richard B . Dallam , and opened the first Lodge in Iowa at Burlington , on the 30 th of the same month , when I was appointed Junior Deacon . I had communicated these facts to myfather , who had recently become

located in Bloomington . where I resided ; and , counselling with Gen . Ansel Humphreys and others , they determined to organize a Lodge at that place , and I was requested to perform the same offices for them , which I did , signing their petition and withdrawing from Burlington Lodge , afterwards chartered as No . 41 , and subsequently changed to Des Moines , No . 1 .

The dispensation for Iowa Lodge , afterward No . 42 and 2 , was dated 4 Feb . 1841 , and the Lodge organized 15 February . Ansel Humphreys was named its first Master ; my father , an octogenarian , now residing at St . Louis , and who , some years ago , celebrated hia golden wedding , was appointed Treasurer , an office in which , he haa served the various Masonio bodies of which he was a member a

generation or more . I still hold my membership in this Lodgo of " blessed memory . " In the new Lodge I was first appointed Senior Deacon , then Secretary , in which position I served several years . Was elected Master in 1843 , represented it in the Grand Lodge of Missouri in 1842-1843 , and the Convention that organized the Grand Lodge of Iowa , January 1844 , when I was elected Grand Secretary ,

which position I still hold . I was elected Grand Master in 1852 , Past Grand Master Humphreys being my Secretary , and in 1853 we reversed the order of office ; was Grand Orator in 1863 , closing the first score years of onr existence with an address largely historical and commemorative of the past . Wrote the reports on Foreign Correspondence for ten or more years for tho Grand Lodge , and at

different times for Grand Chapter and Commandery . Edited the Western Freemason in 1859—69 , at Muscatine , and the Evergreen , at Davenport , in the year 1861 , and , 1873 , am editing the Iowa department of Gouley ' s magazine , the Freemason , at St . Louis . Am the Grand Representative of the States of New Jersey , Ohio and Missouri , from which I originally hailed as a citizen and a Mason .

Aa Grand Secretary I have edited and published the Proceedings of Grand Lodge in five volumes , 1844—73 , thirty years , and reprinted the first two volumes , 1841—53 , 1854—58 , thus furnishing tho Masonio public a full and complete history of Masonry in Iowa daring the entire period since its introduction within this territory . I have

founded and organized its library , and published its catalogue , of 141 pages , and issued three editions of the Ancient Constitution , with that of the Grand Lodge . During these years I have seen the Grand Lodge grow from very small beginnings to become first among its equals in all the essential elements that constitute a sound and healthy body Masonic—Masonic Review .

Railway Traffic Returns

RAILWAY TRAFFIC RETURNS

The following statement shows the receipts for traffic on the undermentioned railways for the past week , as compared with the corresponding week in 1875 : —

Miles open . Receipts . Hallway . 1876 . 1876 1 * 75 Caledonian .... * . 739 65 , 014 6 l , tf 02 Glasgow and South Western . . . 315 JGreat Eastern 76 lfc 54 , 271 55 , 539 Great Northern 653 61 , 104 66 003 Great Western 2 , 029 147 , 331 150 , 813

Lnncashire aud Yorkshire . . . 437 : * 70 , 693 73 . 5 o 3 London and Brighton .... 378 fc 4 B , 9 S 6 52 , 875 London , Chatham and Dover . . 153 * 24 , 627 27 , 480 London and North Western . . . 1 , 614 * 191 , 912 203 , 107 London and South Western ... — 50 , 917 5 i . 428

London , Tilbury and Southend . . 45 2 , 707 3 , 147 Manchester and Sheffield . . . 259 A Midland 1 , 0553 L 122 , 036 118 , 696 Metropolitan 8 9 , 519 9 , 290 „ „ District .... 8 i 4 , 974 5 , 089 St . John ' s Wood . . li 423 461

North British 844 $ 48 , 747 51 , 283 North Eastern 1 , 411 ^ 128 , 377 131 , 876 North London 13 7 , 209 7 , 433 North Staffordshire Railway . , . 191 » » Canal , 118 South Eastern , , ? , , 850 41 , 546 47 , 183