Joshua Norton in Occidental Lodge No. 22 of Free and Accepted Masons
Not A Charter Member, He Joined When in Free Fall
The circumstance of Joshua Norton’s being suspended from Occidental Lodge No. 22 of Free and Accepted Masons (San Francisco) is not in doubt. It’s a matter of official record. The offense: non-payment of dues.
But, the circumstances of his being inducted into the Lodge are shrouded.
Let’s begin at the beginning. Popular accounts of Emperor Norton — including the respected 1986 biography by William Drury — have Joshua as a “charter member” of the Occidental Lodge.
This is inaccurate.
Occidental Lodge No. 22 received its charter on 8 May 1852, at the Third Annual Communication — read “Convention” — of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of California, meeting in Masonic Hall in San Francisco.
The Proceedings of the Communication, published later in 1852, include the list of 24 charter members of the Occidental Lodge. And, as you can see, Joshua Norton is not on the list:
List of charter members of Occidental Lodge No. 22, Proceedings of the M. W. Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of California at the Third Annual Communication, 1852, p. 66. Collection of the San Francisco Public Library. Source: Internet Archive
The first listing for Joshua — as “Norton, J.” — appears in the published Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of California’s sixth annual Communication, held in San Francisco in May 1855.
First listing for Joshua Norton as a member of Occidental Lodge No. 22 (fourth column), Proceedings of the M. W. Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of California at the Sixth Annual Communication, 1855, p. 185. Collection of the San Francisco Public Library. Source: Internet Archive
A couple of things are interesting about this, right way.
First: Joshua Norton’s first listing with the Occidental Lodge is as a “Master Mason.”
There are only three basic “degrees” of advancement within Masonry. And, Master Mason is the highest — progressing up from the first degree, “Apprentice,” and the second degree, “Fellow Craft.”
As a Master Mason, Joshua would not have been an initiate. So, when — and through which Lodge — was he initiated into Masonry? Was it through the Occidental Lodge? Or, was it earlier, in South Africa, where his father, John, had been a Mason of some influence?
Possibly related: The Grand Lodge of California’s published Proceedings of its May 1855 Communication was, in effect, an Annual Report of everything of importance that had happened since its Communication of May 1854.
To wit: Joshua Norton could have been inducted into Occidental Lodge at any time between May 1854 and May 1855.
And, he was — at least, according to the program originally created and printed for the ceremony for Emperor Norton’s reburial at Woodlawn cemetery in June 1934.
The program stated: “Emperor Norton affiliated with this Lodge, August 21, 1854.”
That date is so specific that it seems one has to take it seriously.
Alas, William Penn Humphreys, the Masonic “brother” scheduled to speak for the Emperor, pulled out at the last second, apparently for the officious “reason” that the long-dead Emperor had been suspended for non-payment of dues at least 75 years earlier.
Detail from original program for the 30 June 1934 reburial ceremony dedicating Emperor Norton’s grave and headstone at Woodlawn Memorial Park, Colma, Calif. Archives of the Western States Jewish History journal. Source: Jewish Museum of the American West
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SOMETIME between May 1858 and May 1859, Occidental Lodge No. 22 did, in fact, suspend Joshua Norton for non-payment of dues. The offense is recorded in the published Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of California’s tenth annual Communication, held in May 1859.
Listing of Joshua Norton as “Suspended for Non-Payment of Dues” from Occidental Lodge No. 22, Proceedings of the M. W. Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of California at the Tenth Annual Communication, 1859, p. 195. Collection of the San Francisco Public Library. Source: Internet Archive
As one can see, Joshua had plenty of company. Indeed, based on a review of more than a decade of Proceedings of the Grand Lodge during this period — which include the disciplinary records of all the “Subordinate Lodges” (like Occidental No. 22) — suspension for non-payment of dues was a commonplace, sort of a slap on the wrist.
One could be suspended, even expelled, for more serious trespasses — like “Un-Masonic Conduct,” for example. For all of Joshua’s legal troubles — up to, and including, his loss at the bench of the California Supreme Court in 1855 and his declaration of bankruptcy in 1856 — he was not found to have acted in an “un-Masonic” fashion. That seems telling.
But, what’s really fascinating is this…
Between May 1854 and May 1855, Joshua was hurtling towards his depths. In October 1854, the California Supreme Court would issue its final ruling against him in his 3-year-long case against the Ruiz Brothers, the firm that had sold him the shipload of rice in his ill-fated deal of December 1852. And, in August 1856, he would have to declare bankruptcy.
Joshua Norton was barely keeping afloat during this period.
But, it was at this very moment — when, at every professional, legal, financial and personal level, he was approaching the limits of his instability, vulnerability and failure — that Joshua sought and was granted membership in Occidental Lodge No. 22 of the Free and Accepted Masons.
Had Joshua singled out the Masons as one of his few — perhaps his only — remaining lifeline?
By whose graces was Joshua able to get inducted to the Occidental Lodge at this particular moment?
Perhaps, in answer to this second question, it was Joshua’s friend Joseph G. Eastland (1830–1895) who put in the good word.
It was Joseph Eastland, after all, who in January 1880 led the effort to raise funds for a proper casket for Emperor Norton, and who provided a plot in the Masonic Cemetery, San Francisco, for the Emperor’s burial.
Joseph Eastland, who by then was the prominent Secretary of the San Francisco Gas Lighting Company — the precursor to PG&E.
Eastland had been inducted into California Lodge No. 1 (San Francisco) of Free and Accepted Masons sometime between May 1853 and May 1854.
It’s interesting to note that, sometime between May 1860 and May 1861, Eastland himself had been “dropped from the roll” of California Lodge No. 1. At the time, he was a “Fellow Craft” — one degree below Joshua Norton’s rank of Master Mason. This was reported in the Proceedings of the twelfth annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of California, published in 1861.
Listing of Joseph Eastland as “Dropped from the Roll” of California Lodge No. 1, Proceedings of the M. W. Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of California at the Twelfth Annual Communication, 1861, p. 125. Collection of the San Francisco Public Library. Source: Internet Archive
It appears that Joseph Eastland — like Joshua Norton — was not reinstated as a Mason during the Emperor’s lifetime.
This suggests that Eastland’s gesture at the end of the Emperor’s life was less about Masonic brotherhood than about simple friendship.
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A NOTABLE footnote…
Some months after Emperor Norton died in January 1880, Mark Twain wrote to his friend and editor William Dean Howells and said, in part [emphasis mine]:
What an odd thing it is, that neither Frank Soulé, nor Charlie Warren Stoddard, nor I, nor Bret Harte the Immortal Bilk, nor any other professionally literary person of S.F., has ever "written up" the Emperor Norton.
The journalist-historian Frank Soulé (1809–1882) was the lead author and editor of the seminal book and compendium The Annals of San Francisco, published in 1855.
On 8 January 1868 — twelve years, to the day, before Emperor Norton’s death — the Daily Alta had published Mark Twain’s piece in which he related his dream of a trip around the world, complete with a list of ideal shipmates. As you can see from the following excerpt, both the Emperor and Frank Soulé made the cut.
Excerpt from “Letter from ‘Mark Twain’,” Daily Alta, 8 January 1868, p.1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Cast your eyes at the Masonic records above, and you’ll see that Soulé, variously listed as “F.” or “Frank,” was inducted into Occidental Lodge No. 22 at the same time as Joshua Norton — and that, like Joshua, he was suspended for non-payment of dues sometime between May 1858 and May 1859. (Another illustrious San Franciscan whose membership in the Occidental Lodge overlapped with Joshua’s — Sam Brannan, inducted between May 1857 and May 1858.)
Unlike Joshua, Frank was able to pay his arrears and was reinstated. He remained a member of the Occidental Lodge until his death.
But, it’s a good guess that, at some point between mid 1854 and mid 1859 — maybe even on more than one occasion — Emperor Norton and Frank Soulé showed up at the same Lodge meeting or function and had a conversation.
All the more reason why it is “odd,” as Twain wrote — and a shame — that Soulé never got around to “writing up” the Emperor.
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