The Masonic University was an educational facility operated by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky

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....

 in La Grange, Kentucky

La Grange, Kentucky

As of the census of 2000, there were 5,676 people, 2,216 households, and 1,502 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,514.8 people per square mile . There were 2,330 housing units at an average density of 621.8 per square mile...

, located twenty miles northeast of Louisville

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

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

Thomas Hines

Thomas Henry Hines was a Confederate spy during the American Civil War. A native of Butler County, Kentucky, he initially worked as a grammar instructor, mainly at the Masonic University of La Grange, Kentucky. During the first year of the war, he served as a field officer, initiating several...

, and Robert Morris

Rob Morris (Freemason)

Dr. Rob Morris was a prominent American poet and Freemason. He also created the first ritual for what was to become the Order of the Eastern Star.-Early life:Many references state that Rob Morris was born on August 31, 1818, near Boston, Massachusetts...

, the poet laureate

Poet Laureate

A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...

 of Freemasonry

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

.

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 approved of the school and chartered it in 1842. The Grand Lodge of Kentucky took control of it in 1844, and renamed it the Masonic College. It was renamed Masonic University in 1852.

The Masonic University had its greatest era in the 1850s. However, the beginning of the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 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

Masonic Widows and Orphans Home

The Masonic Widows and Orphans Home, located in Louisville , Kentucky, is a historic building on the National Register of Historic Places...

, 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.

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

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and four from France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

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 language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

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

Carpentry

A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....

, coopering

Cooper (profession)

Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...

, horseshoe

Horseshoe

A horseshoe, is a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horse's hoof from wear and tear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall...

ing, horticulture

Horticulture

Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...

, or smithing.