Barker, John G.
Barker, John G. Details are lacking concerning the life of John Barker prior to his admission as an Active Member of the Supreme Council 33rd Degree of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, May 13, 1823, when he was listed as ”Agent for Con. May 13, 1823.” He was a member of Union Lodge No. 8 at Charleston, S. C., and is listed in the Proceedings of the Supreme Council for 1824 as Past Master of Franklin Lodge No. 2 and of Washington Lodge No. 5. In 1823, he was chosen Grand Lecturer and Inspector of the Grand Lodge of South Carolina. The following year, he affiliated with South Carolina Encampment No. 1, K. T. and, in 1825, was a member of the Lodge of Perfection at Charleston. Later, at the instance of the Supreme Council, he went to Alabama on a mission to recover a copy of the 33rd Degree ritual said to have been purloined by Bro. McFarlane. By 1830, Grand Commander Holbrook became critical of Barker for not accounting for moneys received and, two years later, equally critical of Barker’s neglect or refusal to answer letters. These strictures may be discounted somewhat, for we have other information from the very reliable and informative pen of Albert Pike (q.v.) that, even at a later date, cash accounts and other records of the Charleston Supreme Council and its officers were remarkable principally for their brevity or complete absence. See SCOTTISH RITE, SOUTHERN JURISDICTION; also Lobingier’s The Supreme Council 33rd Degree, Mother Council of the World etc.
Barker received a patent from the Charleston Supreme Council to confer the degrees and was rated as Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the Thirty-third Degree and General Agent of the Supreme Council. How much Barker did in the dissemination of the degrees is not certain, but he was especially effective in planting the Select Master and Royal Master degrees (q.v.), which were later called the Cryptic Rite (See RITE, CRYPTIC), and which were side degrees of the Scottish Rite. Such side degrees were in those times plentiful in both the York Rite and Scottish Rite, the peculiarity about the Royal and Select degrees being that they presumably originated as Scottish and wound up in the York Rite, being for a while under Royal Arch Chapters. In September 1827, Barker established a Council of Royal and Select Masters at Louisville, Ky., and, a month later, one at Cincinnati, Ohio. This information is taken from pages 53 and 132 of Lobingier’s above-mentioned work. Its incomplete character not only as to Barker’s departure from the work of the Supreme Council, but from this life is an illustration of the fragmentary nature of early Masonic records.
In July 1877, Barker, E. DuLaurans, a Mr. Dunham and John Hoole were doing business at 729 Broadway, in New York City, under the name of Masonic Publishing and Furnishing Company. In February of the following year this business was reorganized and the partners were, in addition to Barker, John W. Simons, Daniel Sickels and John Hoole. The newly organized group moved to 43 Bleecker Street and in 1884, to 63 Bleecker. Between October 1901 and November 1902, the business was sold to the Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company then located at 34 Park Row, New York City.
