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LEVI LUSK, ESQ.

[Communicated.]

THE illustrious Brother, about whom we are now to write, has for many years occupied a conspicuous position among the Craft in Illinois. An active and distinguished Mason long before he emigrated hither, he was ready and willing for any work when he came among us.

SALMON LUSK emigrated from Meriden, Connecticut, in 1792, to what is now New Hartford in New York, where he intermarried with Miss Eliza Shepard, in 1794. The subject of this sketch was born to them, May 10th, 1795, making him now 65 years of age. One son and three daughters were afterwards added to the family circle, all of whom are now dead, except one. The father died in 1846, at the ripe age of 78 years. The mother, now 93 years old, resides on the same place where our Brother was born.

Enjoying only the usual advantages of a new country for an education, raised to toil upon a farm, and encountering the privations incident to an unsettled state of society, yet we find him at twenty a teacher of a school, near home,-then a clerk in a Hotel at Columbus, Ohio, and in the winter of 1817-18, a teacher in Newport, Kentucky; in 1818, a clerk for two years forward in the principal Hotel in Georgetown, in the same State; then for two years teacher of a High School, and in 1823, salesman in a store.

While a boy, Bro. LUSK attended school in a building where there was a Masonic Hall, and the older boys used to excite his curiosity by telling marvellous stories about the Masons, and he resolved that if he ever lived to be a man, that he would know all about the subject. This resolution grew stronger as he increased in years, and upon attaining to his majority, be carefully studied into the nature and character of the Institution, and was initiated into the mysteries of Masonry, on the first Monday in April, 1821, in Mount Vernon Lodge No. 14, at Georgetown, Ky. Three weeks after, he was passed, and in four weeks raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason, and in four weeks thereafter, had the entire work and ritual of the three degrees, and could fill any station in the Lodge While he resided in Georgetown, he never missed a meeting of the Lodge, and at every meeting filled some station pro tem., or by previous appointment or election. His first regular service was as Senior Deacon, then Secretary, then Senior Warden, and for three successive years, Master. Upon retiring from the chair, he voluntarily acted as Tyler, being willing, as his 30-VOL. V. NO. X.

whole Masonic life amply proves, to share in the burdens as well as in the honors of Masonry. Not satisfied with labors incident to his several stations, he lectured the brethren and candidates, until his Lodge was acknowledged to be the brightest in Kentucky.

While Warden and Master, and on several other occasions as proxy, he represented his brethren in Grand Lodge, and usually exemplified the work in the Lodges at Lexington, and it was during this time, that THOMAS H. BRADFORD of the same Lodge passed through the various grades of office to the Grand Master's Chair.

In March, 1823, he was exalted in Georgetown Chapter No. 13, in which he served as Master of the 3rd Veil, Principal Sojourner, Captain of the Host, Scribe, King, and High Priest, the last, for several years.

In 1831, Comp. Lusk was elected Grand Treasurer of the Grand Chapter, subsequently as Grand King, and in 1834, Deputy Grand High Priest, soon after which, he resolved to emigrate to this State, and did not attend the next Convocation.

He married Miss Sarah Maria Brooks, Dec. 24, 1823; four sons and two daughters blessed this union, all now living. From the time of his marriage until 1835, he remained in Georgetown, and was engaged in teaching a private school a portion of the time, as an Assistant in the Rittenhouse Academy, and as teacher in the preparatory department of the Baptist College.

The degrees of Royal and Select Master were irregularly conferred upon him in 1825; afterwards he was healed in the Grand Council of Kentucky.

In 1828 he received the Order of High Priesthood during the session of the Grand Chapter, and for several years presided over the annual assemblages of High Priests, and conferred the Order upon candidates.

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In 1835, we find Comp. LUSK a citizen of Rushville, Deputy Circuit and County Clerk and Assistant Recorder.

In the spring of 1837, he removed to the farm where he now resides, on the road from Rushville to Lewiston, and which is now dignified with the Post Office name of Sylva. Having become surety for a Brother Mason, he found himself in 1841 upon the verge of bankruptcy by having the debt to pay. Nor was this misfortune relieved of its sting by the reflection that the Brother was a member of the same Christian Church with himself. To save his farm, he again resorted to teaching, and in 1843, finding himself relieved from that embarrassment,

he returned to his farm where he has since resided, sometimes abroad lecturing his brethren, and occasionally teaching a winter school.

In 1842, Grand Master JONAS granted a Dispensation to Bro. LUSK as Master, with six other brethren, to open a Lodge at Rushville, which was chartered at the Grand Communication of that year as No. 9. At the same meeting, he was elected Senior Grand Warden; in 1843, Dep. Gr. Master, and Grand Master in 1844. During his year, he granted Dispensations for Barry, Apollo, Oriental and Morning Star Lodges. Apollo was subsequently merged in Oriental, and the three Lodges are now among the most substantial and prosperous in the State.

At the Grand Com. in 1845, he was succeeded by Rev. Wм. F. WALKER, and Bro. LUSK was elected Grand Secretary, which office he filled with great ability, as the proceedings of 1845 and 1846 will show, during which time, the numbers reached to 42.

The Report on Foreign Correspondence in 1847 came from his pen, and is the first methodical and systematic report ever prepared in the Illinois Grand Lodge. Several Reports previously made show learning, zeal and ability; that of 1847 shows all that, and system and method also. Once, since that time, he has served his Lodge as Master, and several times as Warden. He has been in attendance upon every session of the Grand Lodge since 1842, with the exception of the regular sessions of 1849 and 1850. His position on Committees, and his reports, serve to show his capacity and efficiency more than anything else. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Returns of Chartered Lodges in 1842 and 1855, and was on the Com. in 1851. In 1847, he was Chairman of the Com. on For. Cor., and was on the Com. several times before; in 1848 and 1852, was on the Com. on Grievances; in 1854, 1856, '7, '8 and '9, Chairman of the Committee on Lodges U. D., during which time he reported 164 Lodges U. D. for charters, recommended many wholesome laws, and procured the adoption of a uniform code of By-Laws for the government of Lodges U. D. No man has done so much as an officer and on the floor to give permanence and stability, character and dignity to the Order in Illinois. He is now, and has been several times, Grand Lecturer, both in Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter.

On the 28th of June, 1849, a Dispensation was granted by the D. G. G. High Priest to Comp. LUSK as High Priest, and the requisite number of Companions, for a new Chapter at Rushville, which was continued in 1850, with authority to the Gen. G. H. Priest to issue a

charter if he saw fit. We suppose, however, that no charter was issued, for the Chapter placed itself under the care of the Grand Chapter, in 1850, at Alton, and there received a charter.

Since that time, the offices of High Priest, King and Principal Sojourner, have been conferred upon him several times, in all of which he has labored faithfully, notwithstanding the "weight of years" and of age was upon him.

The Grand Chapter elected him Grand High Priest in 1852, and he represented the Grand Chapter acceptably in the Gen. Gr. Chapter at Lexington, Ky., in Sept. 1853. His attendance upon Grand Chapter has been regular ever since, and for four years he has served as Grand Chaplain. The like service has been rendered on Committees as in the Grand Lodge, having served ever since 1854 as Chairman of the Committee on Chapters U. D., with the exception of one year that he served as Chairman of the Committee on Chartered Chapters. It was during his service as Grand High Priest, that the question in regard to the right of visit was sent up from Lafayette Chapter, which resulted in so many misapprehensions and consequent misstatements in regard to the position of our Grand Chapter, which sustained his decision, and strenuously maintained its ground in defiance of all opposition, and succeeded in establishing it as the deliberate and well-settled judgment of three-fourths of the Grand Chapters of the United States.

At the session of the Grand Council in 1854, a Dispensation was granted to him and eight others for a new Council at Rushville, which was chartered the following year, at which time he was elected to preside over it. During his term of service, he granted Dispensations for new Councils at Iowa City and Dubuque, Iowa, which afterwards joined with the Council at Muscatine to form a Grand Council in that State.

He presided in Convention and conferred the Order of High Priesthood in 1853, 1854, and 1855, at which time the Grand Council of High Priests was formed, of which he has ever since been President, having conferred the Order upon 57 High Priests in this State, up to and including the session of last September.

In September last, several brethren represented the Grand Lodge of Illinois in the National Masonic Convention at Chicago, of whom our Illustrious Brother was one. As the Convention was to be held in Illinois, the Grand Lodge sent Delegates as a mark of respect to the eminent Brethren advocating a national organization, but with instruction to oppose any such measure. Yet, though the views of Bro. LusK

were well known, that Body did itself the honor to compliment the subject of this notice with the office of Treasurer. It was a compliment, and was so esteemed by the Illinois delegation.

Now, our M. W. Bro. is considered and treated as the father of the family. Such he is emphatically to all the younger members of the Grand Lodge to all who seek his council or assistance. Upon all questions in Grand Lodge, his views are tersely, clearly and modestly expressed, seeking for no victory, looking only for the good of Masonry. When his rights are invaded, he shows the strong points of his character, and woe to the tyro that encounters him then.

In person, he is large, bony and muscular, and would be a hard man to handle even now. Benevolence and good-fellowship enter largely into all his traits of character, and though candid and reliable on all important subjects, yet there is a vein of good humor about him, which often shows itself in a witty or dry saying when least expected, and which is quick to appreciate a good joke, even at his own expense.

God bless Father LUSK! May his days be many, serene and happy, as his end will be joyful in a good hope of a blessed resurrection.

THE STOLEN MEETING.

[From Robert Browning's "Blot in the 'Scutcheon."]

There's a woman like a dew-drop, she's so purer than the purest;
And her noble heart's the noblest, yes, and her sure faith's the surest:
And her eyes are dark and humid, like the depth on depth of lustre
Hid i' the harebell, while her tresses, sunnier than the wild-grape cluster,
Gush in golden-tinted plenty down her neck's rose-misted marble;
Then her voice's music..call it the well's bubbling, the bird's warble.

And this woman says, "My days were sunless and my nights were moonless, "Parched the pleasant April herbage, and the lark's heart's outbreak tuneless, "If you loved me not!" And I who-(ah, for words of flame!)—adore her! Who am mad to lay my spirit prostrate palpably before her

I may enter at her portal soon, as now her lattice takes me,

And by noontide as by midnight make her mine, as hers she makes me !

"The spirit that can contemplate, that lives only in the intellect, can ascend to its star, even from the midst of the Burial-ground called Earth, and while the Sarcophagus called Life immures in its clay the Everlasting!"-Zanoni.

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