cr ft m sonry - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic District Historical ...

Central NY. Crowds lined the streets to the cemetery where two thousand others were waiting. The final majestic and moving
Masonic Rites were completed at the grave in the glow of lanterns.
References:
• Cathers, George B., “Historical Sketch of Central City Lodge No. 305, F.& A.M., at its Diamond Jubilee, June 11, 1928, Syracuse, NY.”
• Cummings, William L., “History of Central City Bodies, A.A.S.R., 1862-1937.”
• Peacher, William G., “100 Years of Scottish Rite Masonry in the Valley of Syracuse, 1862-1962.”
• Peacher, William G., “History, Central City Chapter No. 70, Royal Arch Masons, 1821-1962.”
• Peacher, William G., “History, Central City Commandery No. 25, Knights Templar, 1857-1966.”
• Vogt, George C., “Our Heritage: Centennial, Otseningo Bodies, 1867-1967.”
M..W.. William S. Farmer, Grand Master 1918-1919
William Sidney Farmer was born in Hailesborough, St. Lawrence, New York, on 18 Jul 1861, was the son of Seymour M. and
Alethea M. Farmer. His education was in the district schools and in Wesleyan Seminary at Gouveneur. Following graduation he
studied law in the office at the latter place of the late Jude Vasco P. Abbot, and in 1862 was admitted to the bar at the General Term
of the Supreme Court at Saratoga. Seven years later he located at Kimball, South Dakota, were he engaged in legal lines and also
served as vice president and managing director of a bank.
Returning to the east in 1891, he began practice of the law at Syracuse as senior member of the firm of W. S. and H. H. Farmer. In
1915 he was appointed Judge of the Municipal Court, a position which he occupied until his death. On 27 Feb 1889 he was married
to Ruth Adelia Selleck, daughter of William H. Selleck, and they had a daughter, Alethea Farmer.
Judge Farmer belonged to the Universalist faith and was a member of the Citizens Club, Masonic Club, Syracuse Escort, Mystique
Krewe, and Elks Club of Syracuse, and the Masonic Club of New York City.
BLUE LODGE:
20 Nov 1894 Initiated in Central City Lodge No. 305
1895 Junior Master of Ceremonies
1896 Senior Deacon
1897 & 1898 Junior Warden
1899 & 1900 Master
1902-1905 District Deputy Grand Master, 27th Masonic District
1908 Grand Lodge Commission of Appeals; Chief Commissioner, 1909
1910-1914 Junior Grand Warden
1914-1918 Senior Grand Warden
1918-1919 Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York
CAPITULAR MASONRY:
24 May 1895 Received in Central City Chapter No. 70, RAM, serving in various capacities
02 Jan 1901 Initiated in Central City Council No. 13, Royal and Select Masters
18 Apr 1898 Knighted in Central City Commandery No. 25, K.T.
A.A.S.R., Valley of Syracuse:
30 Mar and 2 Apr 1898 The degrees of the Scottish Rite were conferred upon him.
1906 Sovereign Prince of the Council
17 Sep 1918 Honorary Member 33 o , Supreme Council, A.A.S.R., NMJ
Judge Farmer was ever watchful for the true interests of the Masonic order. He was Grand Master during the hectic period of the
First World War when countless numbers turned their thoughts toward securing fraternal affiliation, and his thought in the particular
was expressed to the Lodges in the following from their Grand Master:
“We must have good material – men of courage, men of thought, men of conviction. We do not want, and must not elect to
membership, the unworthy, cowards, grafters, trimmers, weaklings, men lacking backbone, floaters with the popular tide no matter
whither they may tend. Direct your Lodge members in passing upon applications to do their full duty, manfully, bravely, without fear,
without favor. Direct them to scrutinize closely the character of those who seek to join. Direct them to make exception of no man,
howsoever great, howsoever wealthy, howsoever influential. Direct them to see to it that no person be admitted to the rites of
Freemasonry who does not measure up to the standard of a man, bearing in mind this axiom, that the end of man’s human destiny
is not to be counted as the best Frenchman, the best Englishman or the best American in any other sense than the he is the best
man that his physical, mental, and moral faculties can make of him.”
On the natal day of the Father of our Country in 1930, while returning from a meeting in Washington of the Directors of the George
Washington National Masonic Memorial Association, to which enterprise he had given ten years of earnest effort, Ill.’. William
Sidney Farmer, 33 o , was suddenly stricken in the city of New York, and passed to the Celestial Lodge Above. The fraternity in the
entire state was shocked and grieved by the new and general mourning ensued. The body was conveyed to his home city,
Syracuse, and there laid to rest on Thursday afternoon, 27 Feb 1930, duly honored by all branches of the fraternity and by the
citizenry in general.
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George Judd Gardner, born 19 Jul 1818, in Boston, MA, was one of seven children of Thomas and Hannah (Anna) Judd Gardner.
About 1830 he became one of Syracuse’s first newsboys and an apprentice printer to his cousin, Lewis H. Redfield, Onondaga
County’s first printer (and member of Onondaga Lodge 98). He thereafter led an active and successful business and active public
life.
He was deeply interested in Masonry, serving with distinction in all Bodies:
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