Today we pay homage to Patrick H. Reason of the original Philomathean Lodge #646
Patrick Henry Reason, first named Patrice Rison (March 17, 1816 – August 12, 1898), was one of the earliest and greatest African-American engravers and lithographers in the United States. He was active as an abolitionist (along with his brother Charles Lewis Reason).With his two brothers Elver and Charles L. Reason, Patrick attended New York’s African Free School. At the age of 13, his drawing of the school building was engraved for the frontispiece of Charles C. Andrews’ history of the school published in 1830. He was apprenticed to Stephen Henry Gimber (1806-1862), an English engraver and lithographer in the city.
His engravings include an 1835 version of the kneeling female slave, an 1840 portrait of Ohio Senator Benjamin Tappan, and the frontispiece portrait for the 1849 autobiography of Henry Bibb, a fugitive from slavery and an abolitionist lecturer. An 1840 lithograph portrait of Bibb has also been attributed to Reason.
Patrick Reason was the first to apply to become an oddfellow as a man of color during the 1800s. Though unsuccessful, he later met with the likes of our beloved Peter Ogden of the Original Grand United Order of Oddfellows. Reason expressed his Philomathean society’s desire to join the Order and Ogden suggested that they get a charter directly from the mother lodge and delivered the request personally. It was granted and on March 1,1843, our collective was brought into existence in the United States. The cultural climate of the time, the hate, the disdain for a fellow human based on the hue of one’s skin couldn’t stop #FriendshipLoveandTruth from making a home here.
Reason designed the membership certificate and at one point served as the lodge’s grand master, and in 1858 composed the Ruth degree, the first to be conferred upon female members…….#salutes #oddfellows #oddfellow #guoof #guoofof #blackhistory #lithograph #americanhistory #engraving
Happy Holidays! Shalom, Sir. Ralph Singleton 33, District Grand Lodge Secretary of state South Carolina
Likewise Bro. Singleton
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