THE BUILDER September 1925

Great Men Who Were Masons

Kit Carson and Edward F. Beale

By BBO. GEORGE W. BAIRD, P.G.M., District of Columbia

THE first of the two subjects of this sketch was born in Kentucky,
the second in Washington, D.C., but an adventurous disposition
threw them together in the then scarcely explored West, and they
are especially connected together in their acquaintance with, and
efforts for, the welfare of the various Indian tribes.

Christopher Carson, who will Kit, is one of the better known of
those picturesque, trapper, pioneer, and frontiersman figures of
the days when the white man was beginning to reach out to take
possession of the Golden West. As mentioned above he was born in
Kentucky, but his parents moved into the state of Missouri when he
was a year old, and there he spent his boyhood. He went to school
until he was fifteen and was then apprenticed to a saddler. Whether
he gained much proficiency at this craft, history does not say, but
at the age of seventeen he joined a trading expedition going
overland to Santa Fe. Perhaps his knowledge of saddlery may have
had something to do with this adventure, as many repairs to the
harness would naturally be required on such a long journey.

After this taste of travel and adventure, the youth found it
impossible to settle down to any sedentary pursuit. He became a
trapper and explorer, wandering all over the plains and through the
Rockies to the Coast. It is said that for sixteen years "his rifle
supplied every particle of food on which he lived." At one time he
was employed by a Trader's Company to supply their fort with meat,
and this he did for eight years.

In this life he became well acquainted with the Indians, and was
always on good terms with them. He married an Indian girl. By this
marriage he had a daughter who was educated in st. Louis, Mo., and
grew up to be very well known and popular in that city. His wife
died in 1842.

When Fremont made his famous expedition to explore the Rocky
Mountains he employed Carson as guide, and it would have hardly
been possible for him to have found any one better fitted for the
post. After this expedition Carson returned to New Mexico, where he
married again, a Spanish lady, and resumed his old life of hunting
and trapping; but when Fremont made his second expedition Carson
joined him again and remained with him all through the military
operations which resulted in the addition of California to the
territory of the United states in 1846-7. Later on Carson was sent
Washington, where President Polk nominated him for a commission in
the Army, but this nomination was not confirmed by the Senate. He
then returned to New Mexico and in 1853 he collected a flock of
over six thousand sheep which he took to California, where they
were in great demand.

After this successful venture he returned once more to New Mexico,
and was later appointed Indian Agent. It was a most happy
appointment, for his knowledge of the Indians and his reputation
among them fitted him in a peculiar manner for this responsible
post. Owing to their trust and confidence in him he was enabled to
negotiate several treaties of benefit both to the Indians
themselves and the Government at Washington.

With the outbreak of the Civil War Carson was loyally on the side
of the Government, and rendered most valuable services; so that at
the end of the War the man whom the Senate refused to accept as a
second Lieutenant was retired from the army with the brevet rank of
Brigadier General.

Carson joined the Masonic Order in 1854, receiving the degrees in
Montezuma Lodge, No. 109, at Santa Fe. He afterwards dimitted with
several others to become a charter member of Bent Lodge, No. 204,
at Taos, named after Governor Charles Bent, whose wife was a sister
of the lady Carson had married. Carson was named Junior Warden in
the charter of the new lodge, and in spite of his constant
expeditions was a faithful attendant. The lodge was later obliged
to return its charter, and the surviving members, including Carson,
returned to membership in Montezuma Lodge.

Carson was absolutely fearless, but so modest and retiring that no
one could ever get him to speak of his exploits. He was greatly
beloved by all who knew him personally, and deeply regretted when
he died.

In the National Museum at Washington is a bronze relief showing
Carson and Beale in their hazardous journey to gain reinforcements
for the American forces in the second Californian expedition. The
inscription tells the story:

"The Army, sent from Santa Fe to occupy California was met and
defeated by the Mexicans at San Pasqual. The American forces were
driven upon a dune in the desert where there was no water, and
there surrounded by the Mexican forces. Edward F. Beale and Kit
Carson, both famous explorers of the west, volunteered to get
through the Mexican lines and get reinforcements from Stockton's
fleet at San Diego. They succeeded in crawling past three cordons
of Mexican sentries in the night; by hiding in ravines in the day
and traveling by night they reached Stockton's fleet after enduring
great hardships."

This memorial, in the largest museum in the country, is seen and
read by many thousand visitors every year.

Our second subject, Edward Beale, was the son of George Beale, a
Naval Paymaster, and his mother was the youngest daughter of
Commodore Truxton, who commanded the Constellation in her famous
engagement with the Vengeance. Very naturally he followed in the
footsteps of his forbears and went into the naval service. He was
appointed Midshipman by order of President Andrew Jackson, was
promoted to Master in 1849, and Lieutenant in 1852. At the time of
the event above described he was commanding a naval battery,
serving with the army. It was Beale who was called the hero of San
Pasqual, and it was Beale and Carson who crossed the plains
bringing reports to Washington, and it was Beale who brought the
first gold from California to the East. He eventually resigned from
the Navy and President Fillmore appointed him Superintendent of
Indian Affairs in California, while Congress appropriated two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars to carry out the plan he had
proposed of establishing Indian colonies, or reservations. Had this
plan been strictly adhered to and honestly carried out much of the
later trouble with the Red Men would have been avoided.

Beale kept a diary, which he illustrated with very clever pencil
sketches; a most interesting account of his adventures, and one
that should find some day a competent editor. He noted the
deplorable condition of the Indians held in peonage by the
Spaniards and Mexicans, and from these observations eventuated his
plans for the care of these wards of the nation.

The question of transportation in the Southwest was then a very
serious one, and Beale suggested the use of camels, which the then
Secretary of War, Davis, approved, and Commander David D. Porter
was sent to Syria to secure a number of these animals. The
experiment proved a great success, and but for the advent of the
railroads the use of camels would probably have been continued.

The first wagon road was surveyed from Fort Defiance to California,
the second step in solving the transportation problem, and then
came the railway surveys from Fort Smith to the Colorado.

President Lincoln reappointed Beale as Surveyor General of
California and Nevada, though he had expressed a desire to re-enter
the Navy and take a part in the active operations of the Civil War,
but the President wanted him where he felt he was really
indispensable. Beale proposed the acquisition of Lower California,
but this was not favored at Washington .

At the end of the Civil War, Beale resigned his office with the
intention of making his home on his ranch at Tejon, but his annual
visits to Chester, Pa., revived his liking for politics. His land
holdings in California had yielded him a good fortune, and he
purchased the old home of Commodore Stephen Decatur in Washington,
and settled down in close neighborhood with many of his old Mexican
War comrades. He had been, for many years, a close friend of
General Grant and General Sherman. The difference between Grant and
Blaine was reconciled through his intermediation. President Arthur
wanted to appoint him Secretary of the Navy, but did not succeed.
He died in Washington on April 22, 1893, and his ashes interred at
Chester, Pa.

He was a member of California Lodge, No. 1, though the date and
place of his initiation have not come to the knowledge of the
writer. His services to the Government in regard to the
establishing and settling arrangements with the Indians, like those
of Carson, are worthy of remembrance.

