By Jan Jackson
When Silverton-area resident Karen Kidd first learned about Freemasonry, the fraternity’s so-called “no women allowed” rule intrigued her. However, when she did a Google search on the subject, she found there had been women Masons in the past, there are women Masons now and if she chose, she could become one.
As Kidd continued to investigate Masonry, she began to fall in love with it. She became a Freemason in a Seattle-area Lodge in 2006. In a March 2008 ceremony in Manchester, England, she was honored by many of her Malecraft Brethren when her essay “I am Regular” won the World Award in Internet Lodge No. 9659’s Short Papers competition. This past April, Cornerstone Book Publishers (New Orleans, La.) published her book detailing the lives of women who managed to be made Freemasons early in the organization’s history and some who tried but failed.
Haunted Chambers; The Lives of Early Women Freemasons, is not only the most complete list of early women Freemasons to date but includes as much detail about their lives as can still be found.
Kidd’s introduction to Freemasonry was from friends and one of them happened to own a little red book by the 19th century Freemason Albert Pike.
“I was visiting Greg, and about four o’clock one morning when I couldn’t sleep, I got up and discovered Pike’s book,” Kidd said. “I pulled the book off the shelf and began to read. By the time the rest of the guests got up I was already on chapter four. I was hooked.
Masonic Mixed Order marks centennial
Karen Kidd’s lodge works under the
Honorable Order of American Co-Masonry,
American Federation of Human Rights,
a Masonic Mixed Order and is headquartered in Larkspur,
Colorado. It marks its 100th anniversary this year.
Because the order practices mixed or Co-Masonry,
it is not recognized by most of the world’s
male-only orders, including the Grand Lodge of Oregon.
For information, email Karen Kidd at
author@hauntedchambers. com or visit
hauntedchambers.com. A sample chapter of
the book is available at Cornerstone Publishers.
The book is also available for purchase through Amazon.
“The first woman Freemason I discovered in my research was Elizabeth St. Leger Aldworth of Ireland, initiated into her father’s lodge in the very early 18th Century. The second was from an 1916 biography of Catherine Babington who was initiated into an otherwise Malecraft lodge in East Kentucky in 1831. Cornerstone is going to republish that biography this fall so my next writing project is to write the forward for it.”
Kidd was born in the small Cape Cod town of Bourne, Mass., but with a father in the Air Force, she didn’t live there – or anywhere else – very long. Except for a now-deceased uncle, she knows of no other Freemasons in her family. She also is the only writer among her parent’s six children, though they are all fans.
“One of my brothers bought Haunted Chambers before I could even send him a free copy,” Kidd said. “I’m really enjoying the fact that he said it read like someone intelligent wrote it and my mother said it was the best book she ever read.
“When I was first in the Craft I thought I knew a lot but soon learned I didn’t even know a thimbleful of what there is to learn and today I am only up to my ankles in it. I have always liked history and philosophy and though I am not authorized to speak for my obedience, I can offer personal opinions and observation. I owe a lot to my friends who got me interested in Freemasonry in the first place, the staff and volunteers at the Silver Falls Library who worked so hard to search out the books that I needed and of course Pike’s little red book.”
