The Mystery of the Blank Masonic Checks
by Stcphen E. Patrick

Curator George Washington Masonic National Memorial

As checks go, there was nothing very 
exciting about the sheet of six unused, 
blank checks in the museum collection of 
the George Washington Masonic 
National Memorial other than that they 
had a Masonic square and compass in 
the paper's watermark. Printed for the 
Bank of South Carolina in the 1830s, 
they had nothing to do with George 
Washington, and their only interest to 
the collection was this watermark. 
Nevertheless, since the day I first saw 
them I was fascinated by the decision of 
a major bank to print checks on such 
paper more than one hundred fifty years 
ago.

The thing that captivated me most 
about this was that the 1830s were very 
much within the anti-Masonic years 
when feelings against the fraternity had 
heated enough to warrant the formation 
of a political party in 1828 dedicated to
removing Freemasons from political of-
fices. Though the party collapsed in 
1836, the effects of the movement were 
felt by Masons until the 1840s. The very 
idea that a bank's board of directors 
would be daring enough to permit checks 
printed on such a paper stock was in-
triguing.

   The answer proved to be in the name
of John S. Cogdell, P.G.M. If any one 
Mason from South Carolina could have 
had the daring and the initiative to print 
his bank's checks on stationery identify-
ing his involvement in Freemasonry, it 
was Brother Cogdell. Born in l778, Cog-
dell was educated at the College of Char-
leston, and began a law career in 1799, 
which was disrupted by ill health the 
following year. Cogdell went to Italy to 
recover, and there became fascinated 
with painting and sculpture; a hobby he 
pursued for the rest of his life. He became 
a member of Union-Kilwinning Lodge 
No. 4, one of the oldest and most pres-
tigious Lodges in the state, and rose 
through the ranks of the craft. In addi-
tion to his law practice, Cogdell served 
on the board of the Bank of South 
Carolina, and became its president in 
1832, a position he would occupy for the 
next fifteen years.

Cogdell became one of the leading
figures in the financial, political and so-
cial life of Charleston in the 1820s and 
1830s. A good Mason and a well-inten-
tioned man, Cogdell managed always to 
be at the center of action and debate. 
Most notably, two years after serving as 
Master of Union-Kilwinning Lodge, 
Cogdell's friend, the Supreme Council's 
first Grand Commander,John Mitchell, 
33 degree, died in 1816. Mrs. Mitchell 
gave two trunks full of the late Brother 
Mitchell's papers, including rituals for 
the Sublime Bodies, to the Grand Master 
of South Carolina, Brother Thomas W. 
Bacot, who served as president of the 
Bank of South Carolina in the 1820s. 
Bacot, not then a member of the Su-
preme Council, shared these papers with 
his friend and Junior Grand Warden, 
John Cogdell, and a number of other 
prominent Masons in South Carolina.
Poorly advised, and believing that they 
were within correct practice, they fell 
prey to Joseph Cerneau of New York, 
founder of the spurious co-rival of the 
Supreme Council from 1807 to 1827. 
Cerneau's 1816 directory of his own 
"Supreme Council" lists Grand Master 
Bacot as the Ill. President of the Grand 
Council of South Carolina, and Grand 
Junior Warden Cogdell as Dep. Presi-
dent. In the Rose Croix, Cerneau made 
Bacot President, and Cogdell Grand 
Junior Warden.

Mortified by what had happened, the 
Sovereign Grand Commander, the Rev. 
Dr. Frederick Dalcho found himself in an 
extraordinarily bad position. Whereas 
Dr. Dalcho sat as head of the Supreme 
Council, Brothers Bacot and Cogdell 
were Grand Master and Junior Grand 
Warden of the Grand Lodge of South 
Carolina. Before the conclusion of this 
mishap, Cogdell would be sitting for a 
third term as Grand Master of South 
Carolina, and Bacot would be the most 
honored Past Grand Master of his time, 
having navigated the merger of the two 
rival Grand Lodge bodies of Antients 
and Moderns in 1817. To complicate the 
matters further, Dalcho had enjoyed a 
long friendship with both men, was also 
a member of Union-Kilwinning Lodge, 
and above all, was the assistant rector of 
the two dissenters' parish, St. Michael's 
Episcopal Church. Dalcho could find no 
comfortable way to handle the quarrel, 
and resigned as Sovereign Grand Com-
mander in 1822. Dr. Isaac Auld, 33, 
rose to the Sovereign Grand Com-
mander's position at that point, and was 
able to solve the problem, and legalized 
the Cerneau associators by conferring on 
them Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret 
on February 22, 1822.

The matter died away shortly after 
that, and both Bacot and Cogdell were 
honored as well-liked Past Grand 
Masters of South Carolina. The anti-ma-
sonic period began shortly thereafter in 
1826, and though neighboring Alabama 
and Georgia reeled under the onslaught 
of sentiments against the fraternity, 
South Carolina was only partially af-
fected, and indeed the Grand Lodge 
began plans in the mid 1830s to build a 
new Masonic temple in Charleston. 
Construction began in August 1837, and
substantial work was completed by the 
time a fire broke out on April 27, 1838 
and consumed roughly a third of the city, 
including the uncompleted Masonic 
Temple building.

The Grand Lodge of South Carolina 
appeared to have been in a bad spot. Past 
Grand Master John S. Cogdell's Lodge,
Union-Kilwinning, had loaned the 
Grand Lodge a substantial sum at a rate 
of six percent per annum, the sum of
which had been deposited in John Cog-
dell's bank, the Bank of South Carolina. 
With the loss of the Masonic Temple, the 
Grand Lodge was miserably in debt to 
Union Kilwinning for S5,000, plus inter-
est, and still with no temple. Interest-
ingly, the City Council, which included 
none other than John S. Cogdell as an 
alderman for the first ward, approached 
the Grand Lodge asking to purchase the 
site for their own use in erecting a new 
public hall. At a Quarterly Communica-
tion on December 21, 1838, the Grand 
Lodge agreed to sell the lot to the city for 
a sum not less than S2,000. Much to their 
surprise, the City Council response was 
read at a Quarterly Communication on 
June 28, 1839, and the city offered 
S4,500 for the site. The Grand Lodge 
eagerly accepted the sale, and with a 
renewed vigor, set about constructing a 
brand new gothic revival Masonic 
Temple at the corner of King and Went-
worth Streets.

The result was very happy. Union Kil-
winning Lodge was paid in full eventu-
ally, and the City Council got their 
desired site at the corner of King and 
Meeting Streets, while Grand Lodge got 
their new structure at the corner of King 
and Wentworth. The Bank of South 
Carolina, under the able guidance of 
President John S. Cogdell managed 
everyone's money admirably. As late as 
1847, the year that the Grand Lodge of 
South Carolina mourned the passing of 
Past Grand Master John S. Cogdell, the
Grand Lodge was still showing in its 
assets stock in the Bank of South 
Carolina. Is it any wonder that the Bank 
issued checks on such a paperstock?
The research for this principally comes from
Proceedings for the Grand Lodge of South 
Carolina; Charlcston City Directories, 1829-
1840; Albcrt G. Mackcy, "History of Freema-
sonry in South Carolina " 1840; (Charleston)

1861; Ray Baker Harris, "History of thc
Supreme Council" (Washington, DC) 1964;
Allan Johnson, cd. at., "Dictionary of Amer-
ican Biography" (New York) 1930.
Endnot~
1. Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dic-
tionary of Antcrican Biography (New York, 1930) 
vol. IV:270-71.
2. Albert G. Mackey, History of Frccmasony in South 
Carolina (Columbia, 1861)182-191. SeealsoRay 
Baker Harris History of thc Suprecmec Council, 33rd
d2gr22 ... 180i - 1861 (Washington, DC, 1964),
132-133.
3. Henry Wilson Coil, Coil 's Masonic Encyclopacdia 

(New York, 1961) 58.
4. Mackey, op. cit., 280-287.
5. Abstract of thc Procccdings of thc Most Worshipful 
Crand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of South-Carolina
. . .1847(Charleston 1848) page 6. The necrology 
for Cogdell appears on page 7.

The Philalethes, April 1992

