Albert Pike
1809 - 1891
Sovereign Grand Commander 1859-1891
Sovereign Grand Master Pike is known for many things in his life. As with most of the members of the Freemason Organization in its years of discovery, Pike traveled many miles in mind, spirit and conscience, making his way to the truth in the Light in which we all seek.
Born in Boston Massachusetts on December 29, 1809 to Benjamin and Sarah (Andrews) Pike. He later left the north east area of a young America looking for his place as so many did. However, he did not follow the same footsteps as the others. Pike walked his own trail as a civil servant everywhere he stopped along the way. It is well known that he served as a Senior officer of the Confederate States Army, commanding the District of Indian Territory in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. From 1864 to 1865 he served as an Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court in exile.
Yet Albert Pike is known best for his contribution to the Freemasons, where he served as a prominent member. Making his best contributions just prior to and after becoming the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council, Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction, USA) from 1859 to 1889.
In 1850 Albert Pike knocked on the door of Freemasonry and was admitted. Although past forty years of age, his brilliant intellect, his amazing memory, and his broad knowledge enabled him to quickly grasp the Scottish Rite philosophy and rise to the dignity of Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council in eight years. Already great in many lines of endeavor: a brilliant writer, a distinguished lawyer and judge, a gallant soldier with the rank of Brigadier General, a prolific author and poet and a philanthropist whose charity included all mankind. His greatest accomplishments were reached in the service of the Scottish Rite, where he became recognized as the most eminent
Mason in the world. He revised and spiritualized the Rituals, and no grander guide for human conduct ever came from the mind and soul of man. His “MORALS AND DOGMA” is the textbook of the Scottish
Rite of Freemasonry. Truth was the Pole Star of his life. His goal was to lift Freemasonry to a higher level and prove its right to the consideration of men of intellect and learning. He was the highest embodiment of the virtues of Freemasonry, and a living example of its principles.
THE FRUITS OF HIS LABOR LIVE AFTER HIM