Morris, Robert, 1818---1888, , Massachusetts 1818 1888 Male Lecturer Writer Masonic writer and lecturer, was born near Boston, Massachussets His parents were school-teachers, and he was educated for the same vocation and followed it for a number of years.
Shortly after reaching his majority he left New England and settled in Oxford, Miss. , where he became principal of Mount Sylvan Academy.
For a brief period he was president of the Masonic College at La Grange.
In addition to his interest in education, he was an ardent geologist and numismatist and at one time was secretary of the American Association of Numismatists.
Career
Three sons and three daughters were born to them.
He moved to Lodgeton, Ky. , in 1853, to La Grange in 1860, and later lived for some time in Louisville.
In 1868 he visited the Holy Land and made extensive researches which are embodied in his work Freemasonry in the Holy Land (1872).
The most famous of these is "The Level and the Square. "
His personality is best expressed by one who referred to him as "lank as a rattlesnake and as swift at a witty stroke; nervous to the last degree; frightfully dyspeptic; extremely fond of nature and an indefatigable collector of shells, arrow-heads and eccentric stones; a glutton for books; fluent as the river and generous as the sea; speaking in all things from the heart, amiable and generous" (quoted by Kenaston, post, p. 73).
The fact that a contemporary writer had the same name caused him to shorten his first name to Rob, his reason being that when the other Robert wrote anything which was not well received he got the blame for it.
He was made a Master Mason in Oxford Lodge, No. 33, Oxford, Miss. , on July 3, 1846.
Owing to changes of residence, his lodge membership was transferred, and in 1860 he is recorded as a Past Master of Fortitude Lodge, No. 47, La Grange, Ky.
In his extensive travels he delivered thousands of lectures, and was crowned "Poet Laureate of Freemasonry" in the Masonic Hall, New York City, Dec. 17, 1884.
Among his publications, besides innumerable articles in magazines, are The Lights and Shadows of Freemasonry (1852); Life in the Triangle (1854); A Code of Masonic Law (1856); The History of Freemasonry in Kentucky (1859); Tales of Masonic Life (1860); The Masonic Martyr, the Biography of Eli Bruce (1861); Masonic Odes and Poems (1864); The Dictionary of Freemasonry (1867); Freemasonry in the Holy Land (1872); William Morgan; or, Political Anti-Masonry, Its Rise, Growth, and Decadence (1883); The Poetry of Freemasonry (1884).
[T. R. Austin, The Well Spent Life, the Masonic Career of Robert Morris (1878); L. V. Rule, Pioneering in Masonry, the Life and Times of Rob Morris (1922); J. M. Kenaston, Hist.
of the Order of the Eastern Star (1917); Voice of Masonry and Family Mag. , Sept. 1888; biographical notice in Morris' Poetry of Freemasonry (ed.
in 1895); Courier-Jour.
(Louisville, Ky. ), Aug. 1, 1888. ]
Connections
On Aug. 26, 1841, he married Charlotte Mendenhall, who resided near Oxford.
