The Man, the Mason, the First Grand Master
A robust man, of strong sinew and muscle. A man with rugged, handsome features, unspoiled by the debilitating ravishes of fast living, that earmarks today's life. This is a physical description of the first leader of Prince Hall Masonry in Michigan. This was Brother John W. Harrison.
John Harrison's vocational pursuit is recorded as one of the most important vocations in the time and place of his living. He was a harness maker.
Horses, the energy suppliers of the early day transportation system, were controlled in their goings and comings, in their speed of pace, in the direction they were desired to go. These controls were made of heavy, strong home-tanned leather. Fashioned into reins, halters, belly and breast bands, crafted by our first Mason's handiwork. Big John Harrison, the Cass County harness marker.
Thus, it makes no drain on one's imagination, to realize that the lessons gained in harness making, added much to the Deeded experience for guidance and direction used by Mason Harrison, in his leading of the team, that made up the first lodge in our history.
John Harrison, without a doubt, was also a man with great spiritual and humanitarian capacities. He, like many other black men in his community, was an immediate descendant of slaves, or had been in the recent past, a slave himself. And while most commonly published histories are mute, silent, there needs to be no questionable speculation, that Harrison and others of his craft, were deeply involved in the Underground Railway System, the escape method that freed black men and women from the shackles of slavery.
It should be no strain for Masons, real Masons, to understand that John Harrison's deeds and actions, yes, even his instructions to the craft, were built upon his firm belief in the application of the lessons of the "Bee-hive" to his, to every Mason's way of life.
When John W. Harrison finished his earthly tasks, we are quite sure, the Grand Master of the Universe presiding in the Grand East of the Celestial Lodge of Heaven, has sitting at his right hand, he, to whom we with pride and reverence most respectfully bow, the most Worshipful John W. Harrison, our first Grand Master.
"Well done good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joys of thy Lord."
