Brethren,
As we come to the end of the Masonic year, I have a couple more stories to share with you before my time expires. This past Saturday, May 30, 2020, was the annual wreath laying ceremony at the grave of our first Grand Master Berryman Jennings in Portland. I started out intending to send you Brother Frank Knoll’s biography of Brother Jennings, written in 1949. His paper was excellent but severally lacking in details concerning his early years. Brother Knoll also noted that no information was found concerning his ancestry. I took the challenge and spent three days adding what I could. I had already traced Brother Jennings family back to the 1500’s and had found letters, newspapers and service records which filled in some of the other holes in his story. I added some large sections to his heritage and early years and then reverted to Brother Knoll’s work. Where I had additional details they were added in (parenthesis) or are noted in the footnotes. Brother Knoll’s article is nearly intact within the additions.
Enjoy my Brothers
Michael D. Robinson Grand Historian
Click here to read Berryman Jennings Story by Brother Frank Knoll, annotated by WBr. Michael Robinson.
If you’ve missed any of Br. Robinson’s articles you can check out the previous publications here: https://oregonscottishrite.wordpress.com/history-papers-articles/
Photo credit WBr. Dan Gray from the Wreath Ceremony at MWBr. Berryman Jennings gravesite, May 30th, 2020
The Brethren assembled
Most Worshipful Brother Ron Eggers, 33°, Grand Master of Masons in Oregon 2019-2020, performing the dedication ceremony.