Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. So this is part
Speaker 1: two of a two parter, and in part one we
Speaker 1: talked about the life of William Morgan. He lived in Batavia,
Speaker 1: New York with his family in the mid eighteen twenties,
Speaker 1: when he decided that he was going to write an
Speaker 1: exposee of the Masonic Order, and as a consequence, gained
Speaker 1: the ire of many Freemasons. He was, according to witness accounts,
Speaker 1: abducted on September eleventh, eighteen twenty six, and was taken
Speaker 1: to Fort Niagara, and his friends and family never saw
Speaker 1: him again, and his disappearance led to immediate criticism of
Speaker 1: the Freemasons, and volunteer investigators sought to figure out what
Speaker 1: had actually happened to William Morgan. A body found a
Speaker 1: year later was determined to be is but then was
Speaker 1: identified as another man. So the mystery remain. So today
Speaker 1: we're picking up by talking about Morgan's book and what
Speaker 1: secrets it actually held, and the various confessions and accounts
Speaker 1: of Morgan's fate that were published in the decades decades
Speaker 1: following his abduction, so Morgan's publishing partner, Colonel Miller, did
Speaker 1: publish Morgan's manuscript, although it wasn't as complete as Morgan
Speaker 1: had intended. He had planned to include the details on
Speaker 1: how a member would pass through the seven first degrees,
Speaker 1: but the manuscript Miller published included only three. The publisher
Speaker 1: wrote a lengthy introduction for it himself. Quote, we come
Speaker 1: to lay before the world the claims of an institution
Speaker 1: which has been sanctioned by ages, venerated for wisdom, exalted
Speaker 1: for light, but an institution whose benefits have always been overrated,
Speaker 1: and whose continuance is not in the slightest degree necessary.
Speaker 1: Strip it of its borrowed trappings, and it is a
Speaker 1: mere nothing, a toy, not now worthy the notice of
Speaker 1: a child to sport with. Miller goes on to make
Speaker 1: the case that masonry had value when knowledge was held
Speaker 1: in but a few places, and the order was needed
Speaker 1: as a quote guide and conductor, but that masonry and
Speaker 1: its members no longer had any valuable knowledge which was
Speaker 1: not quote known to every inquiring mind. He points out
Speaker 1: that its origin was with workmen who were joining together
Speaker 1: to ensure their trades were regulated, but it became something
Speaker 1: else over the years, noting quote but that there is
Speaker 1: anything intrinsically valuable in the signs, symbols, or words of masonry.
Speaker 1: No man of sense will contend that there is not
Speaker 1: any hidden secret which operates as a talismanic charm on
Speaker 1: its possessors. Every man of intelligence, Mason or no Mason,
Speaker 1: must candidly acknowledge. Perhaps the most damning is Miller's passage
Speaker 1: quote Masonry is of itself naked and worthless. It consists
Speaker 1: of gleanings from the holy scriptures and from the arts
Speaker 1: and sciences which shone in the world, linking itself with
Speaker 1: philosophy and science and religion. On this it rests all
Speaker 1: its claims to veneration and respect. Take away this borrowed aid,
Speaker 1: and it falls into ruins. So if you're wondering what
Speaker 1: salacious secrets this book held, prepared to be disappointed. It
Speaker 1: does exactly what Miller says. It starts by laying out
Speaker 1: the opening ceremonies of the lodge, starting with the call
Speaker 1: to Order and the Call and Response, which starts meetings
Speaker 1: consisting of the lodge master asking the people in various positions,
Speaker 1: what their duties are, and having them state them. It
Speaker 1: then details the manner in which a new initiate would
Speaker 1: be brought into the lodge, voted on, and initiated if
Speaker 1: that vote passed. It includes the various steps of the
Speaker 1: same ceremony, which have particulars that make them unique and ritualized,
Speaker 1: but really are generally pretty benign. There's the bringing forward
Speaker 1: of candidates to the order, their statements of intent, and
Speaker 1: voting on whether to initiate them. There's a part where
Speaker 1: the candidate's clothes are removed and the candidate wears only
Speaker 1: his shirt, a barred pair of trousers that the lodge
Speaker 1: kept for the occasion, a blindfold, a slipper on his
Speaker 1: right foot only, and a rope around his neck and
Speaker 1: sometimes left arm. All of these are explained as symbolic
Speaker 1: of things like humility and trust and other traits like that.
Speaker 1: There's a promise of secrecy forever. And then, according to
Speaker 1: this document, the men would stand in a circle and
Speaker 1: clap their hands and stamp their right foot, and then
Speaker 1: the three great lights of the order are introduced. The
Speaker 1: Holy Bible is invoked as a guide for faith. A
Speaker 1: square like a stonemason or a carpenter would use to
Speaker 1: square their actions, and a compass to keep the brothers
Speaker 1: in do bonds with all mankind, but especially brethren. And
Speaker 1: then there are three burning candles called the lesser Lights,
Speaker 1: representing the Sun as the ruler of the day, the
Speaker 1: Moon is the ruler of the night, and the Worshipful
Speaker 1: Master is ruler of the lodge. All of the language
Speaker 1: throughout this ceremony, as William Morgan wrote, it is about
Speaker 1: honor and uprightness, and keeping Christian values, and befriending all
Speaker 1: brothers and helping them win in need, etc. The book
Speaker 1: then describes the closing of the lodge with a similar
Speaker 1: call and response ceremony, including a prayer, and then the
Speaker 1: text goes into detail on all of various symbols and
Speaker 1: their meanings, how the lodge is the representation of King
Speaker 1: Solomon's temple, and a lot of the passages that members
Speaker 1: studied and memorized to participate in these rituals. There is
Speaker 1: a section that describes being promoted to the second degree
Speaker 1: of masonry, and it's not all that different from the initiation.
Speaker 1: There's more swearing of duty and recitation of call and
Speaker 1: response questions and discussions of the meanings of the symbols
Speaker 1: and what they represent an even deeper commitment on the
Speaker 1: part of the member being promoted. The same write up
Speaker 1: of the third degree, the master Mason's degree, and how
Speaker 1: it is conferred, is also again pretty similar. This one,
Speaker 1: though involves travel. We're using air quotes there, which is
Speaker 1: really the promotee leaving and returning to the lodge, and
Speaker 1: each time being told it's a new place, and once
Speaker 1: again there's a call in response. There's a little bit
Speaker 1: of hazing type behavior along the lines of carrying him
Speaker 1: around in a blanket and pretending that he's being buried
Speaker 1: in a play acting farce involving Solomon and the death
Speaker 1: of the character Hiram Abraf, who is the architect of
Speaker 1: Solomon's temple. All of these rituals involve an awful lot
Speaker 1: of pontificating. Morgan writes of these ceremonies quote, the ceremonies, history,
Speaker 1: and the lecture in the preceding degree are so similar
Speaker 1: that perhaps some of the three might have been dispensed with.
Speaker 1: The conclusion of the book is almost like a glossary,
Speaker 1: a list with all the various grips and hand signals
Speaker 1: and words, as well as arrangements of props that are
Speaker 1: part of the life of a lodge. This book is
Speaker 1: really not exactly shocking. It's mostly just a lot of
Speaker 1: rhetoric and kind of made up lore. Promises that members
Speaker 1: will have each other's backs. Nothing in it seems worth
Speaker 1: killing someone to protect. And this is particularly the case
Speaker 1: when you consider that there were already published books that
Speaker 1: already told masonry secrets. In his eighteen ninety nine book
Speaker 1: A Standard History of Freemasonry in the State of New York,
Speaker 1: author Peter Ross notes a handful of similar books that
Speaker 1: had been published in England as far back as seventeen
Speaker 1: twenty four, and that a book titled Masonry Dissected, which
Speaker 1: was written by Samuel Pritchard in seventeen thirty, had a
Speaker 1: lot of reprints and was very popular in North America,
Speaker 1: and no doubt because of this whole abduction and the
Speaker 1: fallout from it, Morgan's book was also very popular. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where you read it expecting
Speaker 1: like some really dark secret will be revealed, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of like, huh, this is just a bunch of
Speaker 1: guys kind of telling ritualized Bible stories. This story stayed
Speaker 1: in the public eye for decades after Morgan's abduction and disappearance,
Speaker 1: both because it was a horrific event and because as
Speaker 1: members of the Batavia community in surrounding areas wrote their
Speaker 1: memoirs near the ends of their lives, they sometimes divulged
Speaker 1: their own knowledge of what had happened. Here's the thing,
Speaker 1: those accounts are impossible to verify because of both the
Speaker 1: time that has elapsed since the accounts and since the
Speaker 1: matters discussed, and because everything about who knew what and
Speaker 1: participated was intended to be secret to begin with. One
Speaker 1: of these accounts was written by Thurlow Weed in eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy five, so that was nearly fifty years after Morgan's abduction.
Speaker 1: Weed was also anti Masonic, so there's that contacts there.
Speaker 1: He stated that he had originally been asked to print
Speaker 1: the manuscript, but had refused on the basis that he
Speaker 1: felt Morgan was breaking his vow to keep the Order's secrets.
Speaker 1: He also stated that the original plan for William Morgan
Speaker 1: was that he was going to be transferred to a
Speaker 1: Canadian lodge and then moved west in that country and
Speaker 1: given a job in a fur company there to try
Speaker 1: to keep him away from the Batavia community and the
Speaker 1: lodge that felt so threatened by this manuscript. But he
Speaker 1: said the Canadian lodge had changed their mind once this
Speaker 1: whole kidnapping was in motion, and that was why Morgan
Speaker 1: and his captors returned to Fort Niagara. Weed names several
Speaker 1: men who he says then as a group were active
Speaker 1: participants in Morgan's end, meaning his murder, But Weed is
Speaker 1: pretty delicate in his language to not come out and
Speaker 1: say that they murdered him. He also wrote of these
Speaker 1: men that they were quote all men of correct habits
Speaker 1: and character, and all I doubt not, were moved by
Speaker 1: an enthusiastic but most misguided sense of duty. He continues
Speaker 1: later in his account, quote, of all the persons connected
Speaker 1: with the abduction, arrest, imprisonment, and subsequent fate of Morgan,
Speaker 1: there was not one within my knowledge who did not
Speaker 1: possess and enjoyed the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens.
Speaker 1: It was not strange, therefore, that facts subsequently established beyond
Speaker 1: denial were at first very generally and indignantly rejected. The
Speaker 1: people would not believe that respectable citizens were guilty of
Speaker 1: open and gross violations of law. We'd also hinted in
Speaker 1: this book, and many people believed that he would relay
Speaker 1: even more specifics of what had happened to William Morgan.
Speaker 1: One day. Coming up, we'll talk about a different account
Speaker 1: that came out almost fifty years after the abduction. But
Speaker 1: before we do, we will take a quick sponsor break.
Speaker 1: So we talked about Thurlow Weed's account that he wrote
Speaker 1: in the eighteen seventies. Another decades later account of what
Speaker 1: had happened to William Morgan was published in eighteen seventy three.
Speaker 1: That was Samuel Green's book titled The Broken Seal or
Speaker 1: Personal Reminiscences of the Morgan Abduction and Murder. In the introduction,
Speaker 1: Green writes, quote, I have no intention of writing an autobiography,
Speaker 1: except in relation to one feature of my history. Many
Speaker 1: years ago, I was brought, in the providence of God,
Speaker 1: into strange and intimate association with a series of events
Speaker 1: which deeply affected my own mind and for a long
Speaker 1: time powerfully agitated society. Green explains that he was in
Speaker 1: the same lodge with Morgan and witnessed quote much that
Speaker 1: went concerning him, and he says that he is prepared
Speaker 1: to bear testimony on the subject that few other men
Speaker 1: could give. He also states plainly that he has come
Speaker 1: to believe that Freemasonry is injurious to morality, hostile to
Speaker 1: good government, and also hostile to the Christian Church. Green
Speaker 1: mentions that, like him, other members of the Freemasons had
Speaker 1: found it to be corrupt and immoral and were distancing
Speaker 1: themselves even before the events related to William Morgan. He
Speaker 1: writes about colleagues who, speaking to other Masons about Morgan,
Speaker 1: found them to be very ready to justify what had
Speaker 1: happened to him. We mentioned that there was a rupture
Speaker 1: among the Masons in the aftermath of this abduction and disappearance,
Speaker 1: and this was a big part of it. Although the
Speaker 1: fracturing had really already begun, many saw this as the
Speaker 1: last straw in their association with the group. Green states
Speaker 1: that he doesn't think that the men who became members
Speaker 1: of the organization are inherently evil, but they became part
Speaker 1: of quote an institution which has its own laws and
Speaker 1: its own methods of working, and by it they are
Speaker 1: shaped and controlled in ways they know not of. He
Speaker 1: makes the case that setting up any society as secret
Speaker 1: and separate from the rest of society is just inherently
Speaker 1: problematic and is sure to lead to corruption by degrees
Speaker 1: so subtle that its members don't even realize it's happening.
Speaker 1: Green lays out the same details of Morgan's abduction that
Speaker 1: we've already discussed, but he also offers a sad revelation
Speaker 1: about halfway through the book, which reads, quote, I was
Speaker 1: still a Mason in good and regular standing. Some might
Speaker 1: suspect me not to be true to my oaths, but
Speaker 1: my secret was not yet out. I still attended the
Speaker 1: lodge meetings, for I could not very well do otherwise.
Speaker 1: Just now there I heard enough after a little time
Speaker 1: to convince me that Morgan was no longer in the
Speaker 1: land of the living. It was just as well understood
Speaker 1: by the members of our lodge that Morgan was dead,
Speaker 1: as it is when our families attend a funeral of
Speaker 1: any person and return to tell the news. Only the
Speaker 1: Masons did not make the announcement in the same way.
Speaker 1: They had a great deal of rough joking over the subject,
Speaker 1: implying that he was drowned somewhere in the direction of Canada.
Speaker 1: Green's account states that lodge leadership clearly quote understood well
Speaker 1: that Morgan had been put out of the way. By
Speaker 1: some accounts, there were as many as sixty nine people
Speaker 1: involved in the plot to stop William Morgan from publishing
Speaker 1: his book from the beginning of the plot, as it
Speaker 1: was hashed in a tavern owned by a man named Ganson.
Speaker 1: There were Masons from Batavia, Canadagua, Lockport, Lewiston, and other
Speaker 1: towns and villages in western New York. So while it
Speaker 1: may have been the work of only some of the order,
Speaker 1: it was a significant number of people. How many of
Speaker 1: them knew that things would escalate from organized harassment to
Speaker 1: kidnapping to murder is really unknown, and it could be
Speaker 1: that different pockets of the group knew differing degrees of
Speaker 1: the plan and were willing to go to different lengths
Speaker 1: to try to secure their secrecy. There's also a theory
Speaker 1: that the plot was purposely doled out in pieces in
Speaker 1: the interest of maintaining deniability. The remains that we mentioned
Speaker 1: in the opening of part one were found in eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty one in Pembroke, New York, about eleven miles west
Speaker 1: of Batavia. That was during a dig project that was
Speaker 1: to precede the establishment of a stone quarry on the site. Initially,
Speaker 1: the men working on that dig thought that they had
Speaker 1: uncovered the remains of a Native American because the site
Speaker 1: of the planned quarry was just two miles away from
Speaker 1: the Tonawanda Reservation. But there wasn't anything on or with
Speaker 1: the body that supported that idea. That body had been
Speaker 1: covered with rocks and dirt. This was not a scenario
Speaker 1: where a body had been accidentally buried over time. All
Speaker 1: evidence indicated it had been deliberately buried with the intent
Speaker 1: to conceal it. This is a case where the unearthing
Speaker 1: of the body might make you cringe, because it really
Speaker 1: wasn't handled with the sort of careful techniques that ideally
Speaker 1: would be used today. The workmen who found the remains
Speaker 1: removed the bones. According to the paper, it was carefully.
Speaker 1: They set them aside and then started sifting through the
Speaker 1: dirt with their hands. Ideal or not, this method did
Speaker 1: turn up some other clues. There was a silver ring
Speaker 1: with the monogram WM engraved on it, and then what
Speaker 1: was believed to have been an old tin tobacco box
Speaker 1: which contained a manuscript. While there was agreement that the
Speaker 1: initials WM on the ring were not conclusive because a
Speaker 1: lot of people have those initials. The manuscript was recognized
Speaker 1: as potentially important, and it was taken to a man
Speaker 1: the papers referred to simply as doctor Phillips, who examined
Speaker 1: it under a microscope to see if they could make
Speaker 1: out any of the very faded writing on it. Basically
Speaker 1: like to the naked eye, you couldn't tell what any
Speaker 1: of the words were, and he was reportedly able to
Speaker 1: identify the following words Mason's liar, prison, kill, and the
Speaker 1: name Henry Brown. Henry Brown was a lawyer in Batavia
Speaker 1: who wrote a book three years after Morgan vanished, titled
Speaker 1: A Narrative of the Anti Masonic Excitement in the Western
Speaker 1: part of the State of New York during the years
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty six, seven eight and a part of eighteen
Speaker 1: twenty nine. This book seems like it's on Morgan's side
Speaker 1: in some ways. It describes him being abducted in great
Speaker 1: detail and says it was over zealous Masons who had
Speaker 1: done this, but it also asserts that there was no
Speaker 1: proof of a murder taking place, And then it kind
Speaker 1: of chides William Morgan for having gotten everybody so riled
Speaker 1: up in the first place by writing his book At
Speaker 1: this point. With this new body discovered, at least one
Speaker 1: member of the press hunted down William Morgan's adult daughter
Speaker 1: for comment. The New York Times reported on July ninth,
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty one, that Missus Smith, who was married to
Speaker 1: Captain William Smith and was living in Portland, Oregon. Quote
Speaker 1: says her father was drowned by five men who took
Speaker 1: him one night into the lake. She states that one
Speaker 1: of the five men who assisted in the drowning for
Speaker 1: many years resided in Portland, Oregon, but is now dead.
Speaker 1: Just a few weeks later, on July twenty second, eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty one, the New York Times ran a piece titled
Speaker 1: Another Morgan Story. It is, in essence an obituary claiming
Speaker 1: that William Morgan had died in Smyrna Turkya known today
Speaker 1: as is Mere. This item's subtitle kind of sets up
Speaker 1: the tone for the peace quote, the much drowned and
Speaker 1: off killed man dies in Smyrna. The timing of the
Speaker 1: reported death is a little unclear, so one of many
Speaker 1: accounts that claims that this information came from an old
Speaker 1: timer who has since passed on, although it does say
Speaker 1: that he heard the story in eighteen forty nine, a
Speaker 1: year after the eighteen eighty one discovery of remains, William
Speaker 1: Morgan got a monument which was viewed with some suspicion.
Speaker 1: And we'll talk about that after we hear from our sponsors.
Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty two, a monument to William Morgan was
Speaker 1: erected by an anti Mason group called the National Christian Association.
Speaker 1: This group was new, and it incited some suspicious speculation.
Speaker 1: The New York Times wrote of the monument on September fifteenth,
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two. Quote, to most people, the fact of
Speaker 1: the existence of a National Christian Association was made known
Speaker 1: for the first time the other day by the unveiling
Speaker 1: of a statue erected by the Association in honor of
Speaker 1: one William Morgan. This article reflects the negative sentiment that
Speaker 1: still surrounded Morgan fifty six years after his death. It
Speaker 1: continues in the language of a smear campaign, sounding surprisingly angry. Quote.
Speaker 1: At first sight, it may seem rather odd that a
Speaker 1: National Christian Association should take pains to honor the memory
Speaker 1: of a drunken vagabond whose one claim to fame lies
Speaker 1: in the fact that he violated a dozen or more
Speaker 1: of the most solemn oaths, or told a large collection
Speaker 1: of ingenious falsehoods to add to the beauty and symmetry
Speaker 1: of his moral character. Mister William Morgan always maintained that
Speaker 1: he violated his alleged oaths and betrayed the confidence of
Speaker 1: his associates from a sense of duty. He thus crowned
Speaker 1: his moral edifice with hypocrisy, and was as various and
Speaker 1: miscellaneous a rascal as our prolific country had produced. This
Speaker 1: article then goes on to exaggerate the anti Mason stance
Speaker 1: for effect sort of blaming every ill of the world
Speaker 1: on the fraternity as a means to discredit the stance
Speaker 1: of the National Christian Association by noting how utterly harmless
Speaker 1: all Freemason's look while talking about their alleged bloodthirstiness is
Speaker 1: kind of an intense read, it really is. It's so
Speaker 1: angry for something that is half century old. The discovery
Speaker 1: of the wm Body led to more people asking for
Speaker 1: thurlough Weed to finally tell everything he knew, if in
Speaker 1: fact there was more to his story as he had
Speaker 1: hinted in eighteen seventy five. At this point he was
Speaker 1: the only surviving person with ties to the case, and
Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty two he did write another follow up
Speaker 1: to the story. He included the fact that he had
Speaker 1: left Rochester and the paper that he ran there after,
Speaker 1: sentiment against him grew in the wake of calling for
Speaker 1: Freemasons to quote take the laboring or in the search
Speaker 1: for Morgan. Subscriptions to his paper dropped so rapidly after
Speaker 1: he had made this statement that he left the paper
Speaker 1: to his business partner and just sought work elsewhere. In
Speaker 1: his follow up, we need comments on the fact that
Speaker 1: three of the men who were part of the volunteer
Speaker 1: committee that formed in Rochester to investigate Morgan's abduction back
Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty six had been Masons themselves, and that
Speaker 1: two of them had been involved in the abduction. He
Speaker 1: mentions that the legal efforts to bring the perpetrators to
Speaker 1: justice and multiple different municipalities were all hindered by the
Speaker 1: fact that Masons in each community were protecting each other
Speaker 1: and the order, and that obtaining indictments had been impossible
Speaker 1: quote in five of the six counties where indictments were needed.
Speaker 1: In discussing the evidence, he noted, quote there was every
Speaker 1: reason to believe that he was taken from the magazine
Speaker 1: and drowned in Lake Ontario. This, however, was boldly and
Speaker 1: persistently denied. Denials accompanied by solemn assurances that Morgan had
Speaker 1: been seen alive in several places, divided the public sentiment.
Speaker 1: Weed noted that while this issue led to political positioning
Speaker 1: as parties being pro or anti Mason, he and his
Speaker 1: committee quote firmly resisted all efforts, urging all who were
Speaker 1: connected with us in an effort to vindicate the law
Speaker 1: to vote for the candidates of the party with which
Speaker 1: they had been previously connected. But he explained that once
Speaker 1: it was discovered that Mason's had enough power to control
Speaker 1: the outcome of elections and pretty much everything else, he
Speaker 1: and like minded colleagues incorporated their anti Mason stance into
Speaker 1: their politics. Weed was a politician. He was a member
Speaker 1: of the New York State Assembly the year before Morgan's disappearance,
Speaker 1: and he was elected a member again in eighteen thirty.
Speaker 1: Through an account he attributed to a man named John
Speaker 1: Whitney who was involved in the plot, We'd ultimately placed
Speaker 1: the blame for the initial idea to stop Morgan's book
Speaker 1: through kidnapping on David John's and then he implicates several
Speaker 1: other masons as he described the confession that one gave
Speaker 1: him of the end of Morgan's life. According to that account,
Speaker 1: which we'd stated he never shared because of was told
Speaker 1: to him in confidence, Morgan was told he was being
Speaker 1: taken to Canada and that his family was going to
Speaker 1: be brought to him there. So he willingly got into
Speaker 1: a boat, and that at the mouth of the Niagara River,
Speaker 1: a rope was tied around him with a sinker attached
Speaker 1: to him, and he was dumped. In a particularly sad detail,
Speaker 1: he tried to hold on to the edges of the
Speaker 1: vessel but was pushed away, and he managed to bite
Speaker 1: one of his killers in the process. Weed gives a
Speaker 1: complicated story about why he did not obtain a signed
Speaker 1: copy of this confession. He said that Whitney wanted once
Speaker 1: to be made to be shared after his death, but
Speaker 1: that Weed was so busy he forgot to do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a whole weird side track story where he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I was in town for a convention and I told
Speaker 1: him I would go do it, but I got so
Speaker 1: busy I forgot about it. And then I went to Iowa,
Speaker 1: and then I remember like it's a very like here's
Speaker 1: the overly complicated, a detailed explanation of why don't have
Speaker 1: a signed version of this? The Whitney account was not
Speaker 1: the only late in life confession to the murder of
Speaker 1: William Morgan. There were others, but they created new problems,
Speaker 1: as in some cases the details did not match up
Speaker 1: among them. Additionally, and frustratingly, the remains that were found
Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty one never seemed to lead to any
Speaker 1: sort of conclusive revelation. That story just sputters out in
Speaker 1: the papers. So if people were hoping that Weed's second
Speaker 1: writing on the matter, one of the confessions, or the
Speaker 1: investigation of the body and its accouterment would lead to
Speaker 1: a final resolution, they did not get it, and there
Speaker 1: never has been one. Even modern tellings of Morgan's story
Speaker 1: disagree deeply on what kind of man he was, Whether
Speaker 1: this entire thing was a sinister plot, a case of
Speaker 1: a handful of people getting carried away by their zeal,
Speaker 1: or even a stunt created by Morgan and Milner two
Speaker 1: bolster sales of their book, But the majority seemed to
Speaker 1: chalk the whole thing up to zeal. It went too far,
Speaker 1: as it agitated among the men responsible for the abduction
Speaker 1: and likely end of Morgan's life. In a standard history
Speaker 1: of Freemasonry in the State of New York, which we've
Speaker 1: quoted in this episode previously, author Peter Ross, who we
Speaker 1: could not call a fan of William Morgan by any measure,
Speaker 1: makes the case for why this entire scenario escalated to
Speaker 1: such a tragic end. Quote. Had it been proposed to
Speaker 1: issue the illustrations of masonry in a large city, it might,
Speaker 1: if we judge by previous instances, have created no comment.
Speaker 1: But in a little country place it was different. Quite
Speaker 1: an excited sentiment against the proposed work was aroused, and
Speaker 1: the feeling was intensified by the worthlessness of its real
Speaker 1: or reputed author. Had it been a work of an
Speaker 1: honest man, which is difficult to realize, of an educated
Speaker 1: man or a thinker, it might have been viewed differently
Speaker 1: and with some degree of respect. But for a graceless,
Speaker 1: good nothing scamp to propose selling secrets he had sworn
Speaker 1: to conceal for the prospect of a few dollars was
Speaker 1: too much to be regarded lightly. And as the matter
Speaker 1: was discussed, the rumors gathering in clearness of the nature
Speaker 1: of the work ascribed to it a merit far beyond
Speaker 1: its due, and intensified the excitement. So this is both
Speaker 1: an insightful commentary on small communities in the way that
Speaker 1: strife can impact them, and a pretty biased description of
Speaker 1: William Morgan, also pretty victim blamey oh one hundred percent. Uh.
Speaker 1: Samuel Greene, who was far more sympathetic to Morgan, makes
Speaker 1: a similar statement in his book quote never were greater
Speaker 1: emotions awakened from so small and unimportant a cause. He
Speaker 1: then adds quote, but there was nevertheless a philosophy underlying
Speaker 1: this excitement. It must be remembered that masonry is too
Speaker 1: sacred and important a thing to be committed to books.
Speaker 1: The theory is that it must be transmitted from generation
Speaker 1: to generation through the air. That the whole communication of
Speaker 1: these tremendous secrets must be purely oral, passing from mouth
Speaker 1: to mouth, as the illustrious order lives along the ages humans.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, always so disappointing. So for listener mail, I
Speaker 1: have one that's a correction. This is from our listener Jenny,
Speaker 1: who writes about our Mad Gasser of Matoon episode. Jenny writes,
Speaker 1: Dear Holly and Tracy. I've been listening to the show
Speaker 1: for years now and love the broad array of topics
Speaker 1: you bring to lay. I can proudly say that I
Speaker 1: have my PhD and stuff you missed in history class,
Speaker 1: although it is an ongoing job to maintain that degree
Speaker 1: and I am now a couple of months behind. We
Speaker 1: always say this, but it bears repeating again. That's cool.
Speaker 1: I never want anybody to feel like, you know, listening
Speaker 1: to something they enjoy is an obligation and not something
Speaker 1: that's actually enjoyable. I was about to say, there's no
Speaker 1: obligation at all. No, we love, we love our listeners,
Speaker 1: and we love that you're listening. But like we get
Speaker 1: behind on the media that we love all the time,
Speaker 1: it happens. Life are thing that it is full of
Speaker 1: activities and needs and responsibilities. Your entertainment should never feel
Speaker 1: like a responsibility. Jenny writes, I have wanted to write
Speaker 1: in for a long time, and I hate that I
Speaker 1: finally got around to it. By pointing out a minor
Speaker 1: correction in the Mattoon Gaser episode, you mentioned the Alton Railroad,
Speaker 1: pronouncing Alton as it looks like how it should be pronounced,
Speaker 1: like the Food Network host Alton Brown. As this is
Speaker 1: my hometown, I feel compelled to let you know that
Speaker 1: it is actually pronounced all ten. All ten is in
Speaker 1: fact an interesting little rivertown that could provide material for
Speaker 1: the show someday. It is the site of the seventh
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln Douglas Debate, the hometown of the record holder
Speaker 1: of the tallest man in the world, Robert Wadlow, the
Speaker 1: home of Elijah P. Lovejoy, the first martyr for the Press,
Speaker 1: the birthplace of Miles Davis, site of Piazza bird legend,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately, the home of Philish Slafelyy. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: not have known all ten pronounce that way, so thank you.
Speaker 1: Finally attached to the obligatory pet tax. The reddish brown
Speaker 1: guy and black brown girl are my current babies, Ziggi
Speaker 1: and Melusine. I also feel I must include my pets
Speaker 1: who have sadly passed on, as they too heard plenty
Speaker 1: of hours of stuff you missed in history class with me.
Speaker 1: The smiling black dog is Achilles, so cute, the brown
Speaker 1: rabbit is Summer, also so cute, and the black one
Speaker 1: is Autumn. Bunnies make great pets and are really fun
Speaker 1: and loving. However, they can have a lot of health
Speaker 1: problems and are not as easy to care for as
Speaker 1: people expect. Unfortunately, this leads to people setting them free,
Speaker 1: which domesticated rabbits are not prepared to handle. But I digress.
Speaker 1: Thank you for all you do and keep up the
Speaker 1: good work. So we got a correction and a PSA
Speaker 1: about rabbits. If you want to adopt a rabbit, they're
Speaker 1: very cute, but yeah, they're all animals are worked. You
Speaker 1: got to be prepared for the commitment of an animal.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that correction. Sorry all ten, didn't mean
Speaker 1: to do it wrong. If you would like to write
Speaker 1: to us with minor corrections, pet pictures, or your thoughts
Speaker 1: on unsolved but kind of solved murders, you can do
Speaker 1: that at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can
Speaker 1: also find us on social media as Missed in History,
Speaker 1: and if you have not yet subscribed, you can do
Speaker 1: that on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. Stuff you Missed in History Class is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.