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**Harvest at the Masonic, by Jamie Rice**

This mixed media painting by Jamie Rice was commissioned by Rick Wells for his restaurant, Harvest at the Masonic. He has acquired and restored an historic building, formerly the Masonic Temple of Mckinney, St. Johns Lodge #51 built January 24, 1850. The painting depicts many famous Freemasons, including founding members of Mckinney and their works, woven together with Masonic imagery. This painting neither glorifies, nor vilifies freemasonry. Rather, it is an attempt to peer back into the all seeing eye and take a look at just how integrated freemasonry is in many aspects of western society.

Freemasons Featured in Painting:

US Presidents:

George Washington – 1st U.S President

Thomas Jefferson —3rd U.S President

James Madison —4th U.S President

James Monroe —5th U.S President

Andrew Jackson 7th U.S President

Theodore Roosevelt — 26th U.S President

William Howard Taft —27th U.S President

Franklin D. Roosevelt—32nd U.S President

Harry S. Truman – 33rd U.S President

Lyndon B Johnson —36th U.S President

—Other Masonic Presidents not featured in painting: James Buchanan, Gerald Ford, James Garfield, Warren G Harding, Andrew Johnson, William McKinley, James Polk.

Military and Political Figures:

General Douglas MacArthur – Commander of Armed Forces in Philippines

David “Davy” Crockett – Frontiersman, Tennessee Representative

Stephen F. Austin– Father of Texas

Sam Houston —Texas Declaration of Independence, Battle of San Jacinto 1836

Benjamin Franklin – Inventor, Politician, Author

Thurgood Marshall – First Black Supreme Court Justice, 1967-1991

Prince Hall —Founder of First Black Freemason chapter

John Philip Sousa – Led the US Marine Band from 1880 – 1892

Colonel William B. Travis – Alamo

General Marquis De Lafayette —American Revolutionary War, French Revolution

Charles Lindbergh-American Aviator and Military Officer

Sir Winston Churchill – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

George VI – King of England during W.W. II

Musicians:

Wolfgang M. Mozart – Austrian Composer, Musician

Nat King Cole — American Singer

Duke Ellington — American Jazz Pianist/Composer

Count Basie — American Jazz Pianist/Organist/Composer

Gene Autry —American Actor, Musician, Composer, Rodeo Performer

Writers:

William Shakespeare – Poet/Playwright

Doyle, Sir Author Conan – Writer – Sherlock Holmes

Rudyard Kipling — Writer —Jungle Book, If

Voltaire – French writer and philosopher

Leo Tolstoy —Writer — War and Peace

Oscar Wilde —Playwright/Poet

Mark Twain —American Writer/ Humorist — Huckleberry Finn

Actors/Entertainers:

“John Wayne” – Actor/Director

Gable, Clark – Actor

Michael Richards – Actor, known for “Cosmo Kramer”

Richard Pryor —Comedian

Houdini —Magician

Science/Innovators

Albert Einstein — Scientist

Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin – United States Astronaut

Niel Armstrong – United States Astronaut

Thomas Edison —American Businessman, Patentholder of 2332 patents.

Henry Ford — Founder Ford Motor Company, Model T Ford, Assembly line

Sigmund Freud - Austrian Neurologist, Founder of Psychoanalysis

Mckinney History: Founded by Freemasons

Collin B Mckinney —Namesake of Collin County and Mckinney, Texas. Settler, Surveyor, Church Founder

Collin Mckinney was a settler, surveyor, church founder, and member of the committee that drafted the Texas Declaration of Independence. He was also a member of the committee that drafted the Republic of Texas Constitution. He served three terms in Congress of the Republic of Texas. Collin County Texas was founded in 1846, when Texas became a state.

James Thockmorton — 12th governor of texas 1866, Congressman, Doctor, Attorney,

Thockmorton was a pioneer, Doctor, Lawyer, Congressman, General and Governor. His family made their way from Tennessee to become early settlers of Collin County in 1841, near modern day Melissa TX near Hwy 75. Thockmorton studied medicine in Kentucky but returned home to Texas to fight in the U.S.-Mexican War as an army surgeon. In 1857, Throckmorton rose to state senate and allied with Sam Houston against the rising forces of secession in Texas, but as the civil war loomed, the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 prompted a wave of secession that engulfed Texas. Because of their efforts, Collin, along with several counties along the Red River, voted against secession. Throckmorton stepped forward and volunteered to defend Texas during the Civil War, rising from captain to general by 1864. In 1866, he chaired a convention of Unionists to draft a new constitution for Texas. Throckmorton was elected governor with 79% of the vote. He was able to return political, economic, and social stability to war-torn Texas, while maintaining order between former Confederates and former slaves. He served three terms in the Texas House; advocating for free public schools and the construction of a railroad network. He resumed his law practice and was a member of St. Johns Lodge No. 51 in Mckinney TX until his death in 1894. Throckmorton remained widely respected in his community, with residents later naming a street after him and erecting a statue in his honor.

St. Johns Lodge No. 51 : New Home of Harvest at the Masonic

On January 24, 1850, St. Johns Lodge No. 51, received its charter, from the grand lodge of Texas, authorizing it to organize a Masonic lodge. St. Johns Lodge proudly boasts of its early members; from prominent ministers, statesman, attorneys and esteemed medical professionals to charity organizers active in the Scottish Rite, as well as many who built and founded the cities’ institutions. “We are proud of the three cornerstones laid in McKinney by the Grand Lodge of Texas, namely; The Collin County Courthouse, the Christian Church and the City Hospital. St. Johns lodge ,has a membership of 350, with C. J. Young, it’s present Master.”

Masonic Images Included:

Free Masons Certification "From Darkness To Light" 1887.

From darkness to light' outlines the performative structure and purpose of masonic initiation rituals, describing different versions of the Hiramic legend, and explaining the key craft degrees of freemasonry—Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. This is a certificate that would have been filled out and presented to a new Master Mason.

"From Darkness to Light" inscription is explained as follows:

The candidate enters the Lodge of the Master Mason in darkness, for he has not witnessed the Light at this Degree before. But the difference of this entrance from that of the others is that he is now in a state of equilibrium and is prepared to walk on sacred ground. He becomes fully committed to the Fraternity and completely puts his faith on the Three Great Lights.

Masonic Temple Image:

The Spiral Staircase is Ceremonial metaphor for the ascent through life. It is also described as a specific stairway found in the Temple of Solomon, up which the Masons who built the temple ascended to receive their wages. Spiralling coils have represented the passage of life in many aspects of art. During the Renaissance the study of natural spirals, like shells, were seen as an investigation of Divine creation. As a spiral grew and widened it was seen as a representation of growth showing a shell still as a child (in the smaller part of the spiral) but also its development to an adult (in the large part of the spiral). The growth by mathematical proportion was the seen as the code of God. Adding this metaphor to the ascending notion of a stairway, or ladder, the two concepts become the perfect image of a life (and possibly the natural exhaustion of life in climbing those stairs).

Broken pillars are repeatedly used as symbols within Freemasonry, the most prominent being the two Pillars of King Solomon’s Temple that feature significantly in Craft Freemasonry. The two globes were placed on the top of the two pillars of King Solomon’s Temple. One globe was meant to portray a map of the stars and the other globe of the world.

Black and white checkered floors have existed since ancient Egypt. The pavement is the area on which initiations occur and is “emblematic of human life, checkered with good and evil.

Source: Mysterious Writing

Symbols included in paintings:

The alchemical symbol of apotheosis, the transformation of man into god, is traditionally represented by an image of a hand with other symbols, including skulls, crowns, stars, fish, keys, lanterns, astrological symbols and the all-seeing eye. The Hand of the Mysteries goes by many other names, including the Hand of the Master Mason, Hand of the Philosopher, and the Emblematic Hand of Mysteries.