Presidential Seal
Masonic Presidents
Sq & Comp symbol
 

GW
Washington
First President, born 1731/2, died 1799. Initiated Nov. 4, 1752, passed March 3, 1753, raised Aug. 4, 1753 all in Fredericksburg Lodge (later No. 4) at Fredericksburg, Va. Charter Master, Alexandria Lodge No. 22, Alexandria, Va., April 28, 1788 and reelected Dec. 20 1788.
JM
Monroe
5th President, born 1758; died 1831. Initiated in Williamsburg Lodge No. 6 at Williamsburg, Va., Nov. 9, 1775, but there is no record of his taking any further degrees. The records of Cumberland Lodge No. 8 in Tennessee, June 8, 1819, show a reception for Monroe as "a Brother of the Craft."
 
AJ
Jackson
7th President, born 1767, died 1829. Grand Master of Tennessee, 1822-23. His lodge is unknown but he is said to have attended at Clover Bottom Lodge under the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. He was present in Lodge at Greeneville in 1801 and acted as Senior Warden pro tempore.
   
JKP
Polk
11th President, born 1795; died 1849. Initiated, passed, and raised in Columbia Lodge No. 31, Columbia, Tenn. Exalted a Royal Arch Mason in La Fayette Chapter No. 4 at Columbia in 1825.
DRA
Atchison
12th President, (for Just One Day), born on August 11, 1807 in a place named Frogtown, Kentucky. Today it is called Kirklevington

Click Here For "The Rest of the Story
JB
Buchanan
15th President, Born 1791; died 1868;(1857-1861). Initiated December 11, 1816, in Lodge 43, at Lancaster, PA. Passed and raised in 1817. Junior Warden in 1821 and 1822. Master in 1825. Also Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
 
AJ
Johnson
17th President, born 1808 died 1875; initiated, passed and raised in Greeneville Lodge No. 119 now No. 3 at Greeneville, Tenn. in 1851. Probably a member of Greeneville Chapter No. 82 Royal Arch Masons, since he joined Nashville Commandery of Knights Templar No. 1 in 1859. He received the Scottish Rite degrees in the White House in 1867.
JAG
Garfield
20th President, born 1831; died 1881; initiated and passed in Magnolia Lodge No. 20, Columbus, Ohio, and raised in Columbus Lodge No.3O, 1864. Affiliated with Garrettsville Lodge No. 246 in 1866 Affiliated with Pentalpha Lodge No. 23 Washington, D. C. as charter member in 1869. Exalted in Columbus Royal Arch Chapter, 1866 and Knight Templar, 1866. 14th Degree Scottish Rite, 1872.
 
WM
McKinley
25th President, born 1843; died 1901; is sometimes said to have been initiated, passed, and raised in Hiram Lodge No. 10 in Winchester, West Virginia in 1865. McKinley affiliated with Canton Lodge No. 60 at Canton, Ohio in 1867 and later became a charter member of Eagle Lodge No. 43. He received the Capitular degrees in Canton in 1883 and was made a Knight Templar in 1884.
 
TR
Theo Roosevelt
26th President, born 1858, died 1919. Initiated, passed, and raised in Matinecock Lodge No. 806, Oyster Bay, N. Y. in 1901.
 
WHT
Taft
27th President, born 1857; died 1930. Made a Mason at sight in Kilwinning Lodge No. 356, Cincinnati, Ohio in 1901. Evidently, that made him a member at large, for the Grand Lodge issued him a demit and he became a member of the above lodge.
 
WH
Harding
29th President born 1865; died 1923. Initiated in Marion Lodge No. 7O, Marion, Ohio, 1901. He received no other degree until after becoming President. He was passed and raised in Marion Lodge in 1920, Royal Arch Chapter degrees in Marion Chapter No. 62 in 1921; Knight Templar in Marion Commandery No. 36, in 1921. Scottish Rite and Shrine in 1921.
 
FDR
Franklin D Roosevelt
32nd President, born 1882; died 1945. Initiated, passed, and raised in Holland Lodge No. 8, New York City, in 1911, 32nd Degree Scottish Rite in Albany Consistory 1929, Shrine in 1930.
   
HST
Truman
33rd President, Born May 8, 1884, Lamar, Missouri. Received the degrees in Belton Lodge No 450; organized and became a charter member of Grandview No. 618. Served as both district lecturer and deputy Grand Master for several years. Elected Grand Master of Masons in Missouri in 1940. He always claimed this was the greatest honor that had ever come to him. He received the first Gourgas Medal of the Scottish Rite, NMJ granted while he was serving as a Senator. Elected vice-president in 1944 and became President on the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt (a Mason) on April 12, 1945. He died on December 26 1972. On the 28th he was buried on his library's grounds with impressive rites. These included the only Masonic funeral service ever televised worldwide.
 
LBJ
Johnson
36th President of the US. Initiated on October 30, 1937, in Johnson City Lodge 561, Johnson City, TX., but unfortunately never returned to Freemasonry (due to Congressional, Vice-Presidential and Presidential duties) and completed the next two degrees, the Fellow Craft Degree and the Master Mason Degree.
 
GF
Ford
38th President, Born July 14, 1913 as Leslie L. King, Jr. He was later adopted and took the name of his mother's second husband (a Freemason). Became President on August 9, 1974 on the resignation of Richard Nixon (not a Mason). Ford received the degrees in Malta Lodge No. 405, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Brother Ford was the 1974 recipient of the NY
 

 

 

David Rice Atchison was born on August 11, 1807 in a place named Frogtown, Kentucky. Today it is called Kirklevington.


At the young age of 36, Atchison was appointed to the United States Senate to replace a Missouri Senator that had just died. He held this office for 12 years, from 1843 to 1855.

Then it happened:

President James Knox Polk was scheduled to step down from office at noon on Sunday, March 4, 1849.
Uh, oh! BIG problem!


It seems that President-elect Zachary Taylor was a religious man and refused to be sworn in on a Sunday. It was the Sabbath. Taylor insisted on waited until the following day.


The big question arose: Who was going to serve as the President during this twenty-four hour period?
Normally, the Vice-President (George M. Dallas at the time) would fill the position, but his term expired along with Polk's. Dallas had actually resigned as President of the Senate on Friday, March 2nd.
Under the law, the Presidency then fell to the President Pro Tem of the Senate. You can guess who that was - David Rice Atchison! Atchison had just been elected for an additional term to this office during the closing hours of the Thirtieth Congress.


As a result, Atchison legally became the President for a twenty-four hour period, even though he was never elected to this office or sworn in. That's a daguerreotype of Atchison on the right.
Now if you were President for a day, what would you do? Declare war on some dinky little nation? Bomb your enemies? Appoint your friends to office? Make some weird executive decision?
Atchison did none of these things. When asked what he did on this day, he commented "I went to bed. There had been two or three busy nights finishing up the work of the Senate, and I slept most of that Sunday."


In other words, this particular day was uneventful in American history. No major executive decisions needed to be made.


Many, including Atchison, have questioned whether or not he was actually President. Technically, Atchison was appointed as President Pro Tem for each session of the Senate. Since the previous session of the Senate had been dismissed, one could claim that Atchison's term had expired (even though he was to continue in this role when the Senate reconvened for the next session).


This leads to a very interesting question: If there was no President, Vice-President, President Pro Tem, a dismissed Senate, and a dismissed House of Representatives - Who in the world was running this country?
Even if one could prove that Atchison wasn't President for the twenty-four hour period between the two Presidents, he definitely had the job for several minutes.

Here's why:
On Inauguration Day the first person to be sworn in was David Rice Atchison as President Pro Tem. So now he was definitely President (congratulations!). Atchison then ended this short stint as President with the swearing-in of the new Vice-President, Millard Fillmore (he would become President in just sixteen months following the natural death of Zachary Taylor). The entire Senate then proceeded to the east portico for the inauguration of the new President.


So ends the reign of one David Rice Atchison as the leader of the United States. We may never truly know for sure if he actually was President for that short period of time, but, let's face it, it makes for a better story to think that he was.