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Freemasonry offers “treasures” in the form of good fellowship and aid to worthy causes, but doesn’t have any gold or jewels stashed away. And the Masonic bodies are not conspiring to take over the world, either.
Charles Blatchley, a former master of Pittsburg Masonic Lodge No. 187, will discuss myths and misconceptions about Freemasonry during an open house at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Masonic Center, 3105 N. Joplin. It will be open to the entire community, and refreshments will be served.
“Most people in town seem to have no idea who the Masons are,” said Blatchley, a Pittsburg State University physics professor.
He added that books such as “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown and movies like “National Treasure” just perpetuate myths about conspiracies and hidden treasures.
By coincidence, Blatchley himself has a link with the movie “National Treasure.” He is related to Charles Carroll, wealthy Maryland planter and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He is shown at the start of the movie, and is the person hiding the treasure.
But, Blatchley said, the movie makes two basic errors about Carroll. First, he was not a Mason. Carroll was a Catholic, and the Catholic Church forbid its members from joining Freemasonry.
“The movie also shows Charles as being enormously overweight, and all the portraits I’ve ever seen of him show that he was very slender all his life,” Blatchley said.
Back in the 1890s, French writer Leo Taxil perpetuated a deliberate hoax, publishing a series of pamphlets accusing Freemasons of worshiping the devil.
“Within a year Taxil admitted that this was a hoax, but it’s hung on,” Blatchley said. “Some of those silly things are still out there.”
He plans to discuss the history of Freemasonry, which is a group of related bodies rather than one organization. There are those who claim that the Freemasons are descendants of the Knights Templar, but this is probably not the case.
“I’ll discuss how the medieval guilds evolved into the organization we have today,” he said. “It really got rolling at a time toward the end of the Enlightenment, when people were interested in clubs for intellectual entertainment.”
Blatchley noted that Masonic bodies were very popular in the pre-TV era.
“People would get together, have dinner and a meeting,” he said. “People did this as a social activity.”
For him, it has been a family tradition handed down from father to son.
Freemasonry offers “treasures” in the form of good fellowship and aid to worthy causes, but doesn’t have any gold or jewels stashed away. And the Masonic bodies are not conspiring to take over the world, either.
Charles Blatchley, a former master of Pittsburg Masonic Lodge No. 187, will discuss myths and misconceptions about Freemasonry during an open house at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Masonic Center, 3105 N. Joplin. It will be open to the entire community, and refreshments will be served.
“Most people in town seem to have no idea who the Masons are,” said Blatchley, a Pittsburg State University physics professor.
He added that books such as “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown and movies like “National Treasure” just perpetuate myths about conspiracies and hidden treasures.
By coincidence, Blatchley himself has a link with the movie “National Treasure.” He is related to Charles Carroll, wealthy Maryland planter and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He is shown at the start of the movie, and is the person hiding the treasure.
But, Blatchley said, the movie makes two basic errors about Carroll. First, he was not a Mason. Carroll was a Catholic, and the Catholic Church forbid its members from joining Freemasonry.
“The movie also shows Charles as being enormously overweight, and all the portraits I’ve ever seen of him show that he was very slender all his life,” Blatchley said.
Back in the 1890s, French writer Leo Taxil perpetuated a deliberate hoax, publishing a series of pamphlets accusing Freemasons of worshiping the devil.
“Within a year Taxil admitted that this was a hoax, but it’s hung on,” Blatchley said. “Some of those silly things are still out there.”
He plans to discuss the history of Freemasonry, which is a group of related bodies rather than one organization. There are those who claim that the Freemasons are descendants of the Knights Templar, but this is probably not the case.
“I’ll discuss how the medieval guilds evolved into the organization we have today,” he said. “It really got rolling at a time toward the end of the Enlightenment, when people were interested in clubs for intellectual entertainment.”
Blatchley noted that Masonic bodies were very popular in the pre-TV era.
“People would get together, have dinner and a meeting,” he said. “People did this as a social activity.”
For him, it has been a family tradition handed down from father to son.
“My grandfather, William Miller, introduced Freemasonry to my father, Clifford H. Blatchley, and he introduced me,” Blatchley said. “A lot of the activities I undertake were to honor my father and his memory.”
His own son, Matthew Blatchely, Pittsburg, is now a Mason.
“I served as master in 2000, and Matt was master of the lodge in 2009,” Blatchley said.
Walls of the kitchen/dining area of the Masonic Center are lined with pictures of former worshipful masters of the Pittsburg lodge, starting with the first, Charles W. Long, who first served in the office in 1879.
The Masonic Temple was previously located at Sixth and Pine, and a remnant of its wall still stands at the parking lot which now occupies the site. Many relics from the old building were moved to the new center in 1998, including a beautiful glass dome over 100 years old.
“Back then they allowed smoking in the building, and the glass was covered with filth and grime,” Blatchley said. “Oscar Fettig took it apart and cleaned each piece of glass with lye, then put it back together and built the oak frame around it. I was one of those who helped put it in place here, and that was quite an adventure for me.”
A lovely stained glass window was also brought from the old building, along with other items, including a portrait of George Washington, an active Mason who belonged to Alexandria Lodge. No. 22 in Virginia.
And that’s where Blatchley has to confess that yes, there was a hidden treasure that members found while setting up the new center.
“The portrait of Washington wasn’t fitting quite right, or something like that, so they checked and found something stuffed behind it,” Blatchley said. “It was a flag with stars on it, and by checking into the historical records, we’ve found that those stars commemorate members of this lodge who served during World War I.”
Lodge members continue to serve their nation and their community.
“We use this center for pancake feeds to support band camps every year for high school musicians,” Blatchley said. “Other fundraising activities are held here as well. A current project of ours is the CHIP program for child identification. We do this regularly every quarter at Home Depot, and we went to Fort Scott during Pioneer Days.”
He added that Kansas Freemasons, through the Kansas Masonic Foundation, Inc., have many millions of dollars for cancer research and education programs at the Kansas Masonic Cancer Research Institute at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
