Our History |  |
Phoenix Lodge #144 was founded in 1861, when a difference of opinion between the members of Occidental Lodge over the appropriateness of the Civil War and California's future brought about the formation of Oriental Lodge #144. Oriental members supported the preservation of the Union and opposed California becoming a slave state. Phoenix Lodge #144 was later born from the consolidation of Oriental Lodge, Paul Revere Lodge, and Forest Hill Lodges.
Smith joined the White Star Line in March 1880 as the Fourth Officer of the Celtic. He served aboard the company's liners to Australia and to New York, where he quickly rose in stature. In 1887, Smith received his first White Star command, the SS Republic. In 1888, Smith earned his Extra Master's Certificate and joined the Royal Naval Reserve (thus enabling him to append his name with "RNR"), qualifying as a full Lieutenant. This meant that in a time of war, Smith and his ship could be called upon to serve by the Royal Navy. Because of his position as a Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve, Smith had the distinction of being able to fly the Blue Ensign of the R.N.R.; most ships flew the Red Duster of the merchant marine.
It is not known how Smith died on the night of the sinking. In Robert Ballard's book, The Discovery of the Titanic, he claims that Smith went into the bridge at 2:13AM, ten minutes before the final sinking. This idea is used by the 1997 Titanic film. Working near Collapsible B, Junior Marconi Officer Harold Bride reported seeing Smith dive into the sea from the open bridge minutes before the final plunge began. One story states he carried a child to the overturned collapsible B after the sinking and swam off to freeze in the water. The Titanic struck the iceberg at around 11:40PM, but did not sink until around 2:20AM the following day. This would make Captain Smith's date of death 15 April 1912.
On 12 July 1887, Smith married Sarah Eleanor Pennington. Their daughter, Helen Melville Smith, was born in Waterloo, Lancashire, in 1898. The family lived in an imposing red brick, twin-gabled house, named "Woodhead", on Winn Road, Portswood, Southampton. According to his daughter, Captain Smith loved cigars and the smoke from them. He wouldn't let anyone into his study while he was smoking because he didn't want the ring of smoke to be disturbed.
Brother Thomas Hill (September 11, 1829 - June 30, 1908) was a noted American artist of the 19th century noted for his many paintings of the California landscape, in particular of the Yosemite Valley, and of the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
When he moved to California 1861 he produced numerous paintings of monumental scope, including vistas of the Great Canon of the Sierra, Yosemite, Vernal Falls, and Yosemite Valley, which many consider to be his best works.
His 1865 View of the Yosemite Valley, commemorating Lincoln's 1864 signing of the Yosemite Grant, was chosen to be the backdrop of the head table at Barack Obama's inaugural luncheon.
Brother Hill's most famous and enduring work captures the driving of the "Last Spike" at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory, on May 10, 1869, joining the rails of the Central Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad. The huge 8x12 foot painting, which features detailed portraits of 71 individuals associated with the First Transcontinental Railroad, now hangs at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California. See http://cprr.org/Museum/Engravings/Last%20Spike+Key%20toPortraits.html for more information about this painting.
Thomas Starr King (December 17, 1824 – March 4, 1864) was an American Unitarian minister, influential in California politics during the American Civil War.
Thomas Starr King, “the orator who saved the nation”, was born December 17, 1824, in New York City. The sole support of his family at age 15, he was forced to leave school. Inspired by men like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Ward Beecher, King embarked on a program of self-study for the ministry. At the age of 20 he took over his father’s former pulpit at the First Unitarian Church of Charlestown, Massachusetts.
In 1848 he was appointed pastor of the Hollis Street Unitarian Church in Boston, where he became one of the most famous preachers in New England. He vacationed in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and in 1859 published a book about the area entitled The White Hills; their Legends, Landscapes, & Poetry. In 1860 he accepted a call from the First Unitarian Church of San Francisco, California. During the Civil War, he spoke zealously in favor of the Union and was credited by Abraham Lincoln with preventing California from becoming a separate republic. In addition, he organized the Pacific Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission, which cared for wounded soldiers and was the predecessor to the American Red Cross.
A fiery orator, he raised over $1.5 million for the Sanitary Commission headquarters in New York, one-fifth of the total contributions from all the states in the Union. The relentless lecture circuit exhausted him, and he died in San Francisco on March 4, 1864, of diphtheria.
Mountain peaks in the White Mountains (Mount Starr King, elevation 1,191 m (3,907 ft)) and in Yosemite National Park (Mount Starr King) are named in his honor. In 1913 he was voted one of California’s two greatest heroes and funds were appropriated for a statue. In 1931 the state of California donated a bronze statue of King to the National Statuary Hall Collection. In 1941 the Starr King School for the Ministry (Unitarian Universalist), in Berkeley, California, was also renamed in his honor. King’s church and tomb in San Francisco are designated historical monuments, and two streets in the city (Starr King Way, on which the church is located, and King Street in the Mission Bay neighborhood) are named for him. There is also a statue of him in Golden Gate Park, facing JFK Drive, quite close to the De Young Museum. In Los Angeles there is also a middle school located in Silverlake/Hollywood that is named and dedicated to him.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Starr_King
See also http://www.sksm.edu/about/thomas_starr_king.php)
