The Masonic University was an educational facility operated by the

Grand Lodge of Kentucky The Grand Lodge of Kentucky is one of two state organizations that supervise Masonic lodges in the state of Kentucky. It was established in 1800. The Grand Lodge of Virginia (GLVA) established Lexington Lodge #25, the first Masonic lodge west o ...

La Grange, Kentucky La Grange is a home rule-class city in Oldham County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 8,082 at the time of the 2010 U.S. census. It is the seat of its county. An unusual feature of La Grange is the CSX Transportation street-ru ...

, located twenty miles northeast of

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

, in the mid-nineteenth century. Among its faculty was Kentucky Chief Jurist and Confederate spy Thomas Hines, and Robert Morris, the

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

History

The initial money to found the school came from the will of William M. Funk, who left $10,000 for the purpose of such an institution, naming it the Funk Seminary. The

Kentucky General Assembly The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives. The Gene ...

approved of the school and chartered it in 1842. The

took control of it in 1844, and renamed it the Masonic College. It was renamed Masonic University in 1852.Kleber, John E. ''Encyclopedia of Louisville''. (University Press of Kentucky, 2001). p.593. The Masonic University had its greatest era in the 1850s. However, the beginning of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

in 1861 severely crippled it. This is best represented by the departure of the principal of its grammar school, Hines, who left to found the Buckner's Guides, a Confederate force. It was during this time that Rob Morris began running the school (1860). His home, the Rob Morris House, still stands a few blocks southeast of the site of the university. Eventually the Grand Lodge decided they had better uses for the money used to run the school, selling it off in 1873 in favor of concentrating on the

Masonic Widows and Orphans Home The Masonic Widows and Orphans Home, located in Louisville, Kentucky, Louisville near St. Matthews, Kentucky, St. Matthews, Kentucky, is a historic building on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky ...

, then just established in Louisville. In 1881 the school finally closed. The building burned to the ground in 1911. The Oldham County Fiscal Court Building now stands at the site.

Operations

As a means to support the school, a one-dollar donation was requested from each Freemason in Kentucky. Tuition was six dollars, but was waived for students whose father was a Mason and was either very poor, or dead.Woods, Richard. Masonic Educational Institutions ''The School Review'', Vol. 44, No. 6, (June 1936), (

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

Press). p.458 The first president of the Masonic University was J.R. Finley, who was paid a yearly salary of $750. Finley traveled throughout the United States from 1844 to 1846 to attain "books, maps, and mineralogical specimens" from various Masonic lodges. The journey also saw fifty-eight new students for the school, including one from

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

and four from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. Students at the school did not live on campus, but instead boarded in nearby homes. However, they never studied at the homes, but instead in the individual school rooms under the supervision of one of the professors. The schools were nonsectarian; students could attend who had no relationship to a Freemason. The commencement ceremonies, first held on July 23, 1847, were not open to the general public. Subjects taught were reading, writing, math,

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

, and bookkeeping. It was mandatory for those who attended the university due to charity to learn one of the following: carpentry,

coopering A cooper is a person trained to make wooden casks, barrels, vats, buckets, tubs, troughs and other similar containers from timber staves that were usually heated or steamed to make them pliable. Journeymen coopers also traditionally made ...

horseshoe A horseshoe is a fabricated product designed to protect a horse hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface (ground side) of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human ...

ing,

horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

, or smithing.

References

Kentucky Historical Markers in Oldham County
{{coord, 38, 24.519, N, 85, 22.76, W, type:landmark_region:US-KY, display=title Defunct private universities and colleges in Kentucky Freemasonry in the United States Masonic buildings in Kentucky Masonic educational institutions in the United States Buildings and structures in Oldham County, Kentucky Education in Oldham County, Kentucky La Grange, Kentucky