Masonic Hit Squads Part II: The 1826 Morgan/Miller Affair (E377)
In part two, Travis takes us back in time to Western New York State during the beginning of the Jacksonian era.
The plans of 50-year-old William Morgan to publish Masonic secrets turned into one of America’s first nationwide true-crime media frenzies. After Morgan and printer David C. Miller threatened to expose the inner workings of Freemasonry, local Masons responded with lawsuits, surveillance, sabotage, armed mobs, bogus warrants, arson attempts, kidnapping, and possibly Morgan’s murder in the Niagara River.
This episode follows the story from Batavia taverns and print shops to the Ontario County jail, the road to Rochester, the failed Canadian handoff, and the grim stone powder magazine at Old Fort Niagara where Morgan was last known to be held. We also dig into the forgotten role of David C. Miller, the “Masonic spy” Daniel Johns, the propaganda war between Masons and Anti-Masons, and how the scandal helped create the first major third party in American politics.
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Produced by Liv Agar & Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm ). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com )
QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
The Hoop Pole Knights
Abridged version of a 19th Century Anti-Masonic Song
Some poets sing in epic strains,
Of warriors and their fates,
And some that rise and some that fall,
Of kingdoms and of states;
But hark! the while in loftier song,
And more sublimely grand,
I sing to all the listening world
The brave Masonic Band.
The world was still, and wonders rare,
Save now and then a dream
Of railroads, and of side canals,
And guns that go by steam;
When Morgan swore a mighty oath,
In spite of friends or foes,
That he, for cash or conscience' sake,
Would Masonry disclose
And Miller swore to print the tale,
And spread it far and near,
That all the blind on earth might see,
And all the deaf might hear;
That from the greatest to the least,
By Scripture rule, forsooth,
That all should come to knowledge of
The hidden light of truth.
Then hell broke loose, and all the host
Of Masons circled round,
To kidnap both, destroy the book,
Or burn Batavia down;
And fury seized on many a brain,
And vengeance seemed to start,
In room of Love and Charity,
From many a Mason's heart.
And then the General Hoop-pole Knight,
Renowned for chivalry,
Began to feel that feather grow,
Called popularity ;
And how if he succeeded well
By prowess in the fight,
That he should be a Senator,
As well as leading Knight:
And cried, "Arise my friends, arise!
With pistols, swords, and dirks,
Hoop-poles and knives, and cudgels strong,
Prepared for bloody works;
Without regard to powers that be,
Or laws that men devise,
On Miller, seize, and seize the book--
Succeed, or sacrifice."
On foot, on horse, in wagons stored,
They marched ten miles or more,
To guard their victim of revenge,
And triumph in his gore;
The while the people rose in strength,
With blood at boiling heat,
And sent him back to printing books,
And made the band retreat.
Nay, since the days of Don Quixote,
When windmills were his foe,
There has not been a scene like this,
Unless in shades below;
And even Don would laugh,
and shake His sides till in distress,
Had he but seen the Yankee Knights
Attack a Printing Press.
Comments (92)
Jake’s laughter is so contagious
I’m catching up on my QAAs right now. Is there a place to download Jake’s song? Thanks!
Whoa whoa whoa, twist ending!!!!
Sounds like Morgan was the original Jimmy Hoffa
Wonderful tale, as a member of a similar society I always love to see other fraternal orders thrown into disrepute
Song is a banger
That song at the end is amazing! Has it been posted anywhere as a standalone thing yet?
I am so delighted when you all end up giggling
I come from a long line of Masons including the women’s loges. My grandparents were leaders in their chapters. There was always a weird fog that hung over that part of their lives. I also believe their early involvement in the beginning years of the KKK was totally tied to the Lodge. There was also a white supremest church which I’m certain included the Lodge members. It was a lot to keep from a child but I spent a lot of time with their friends (BIG drinkers) and occasionally was asked to sing and dance at the Lodge before meetings. I was quickly ushered out when the fun began. Whenever I hear about Masonry I have a vague sense of familiarity. I also have a house in central NY and I see lots of very old Lodges. It seems to follow me.
Jake, Google...Ararat, city of refuge in NY
Great episode Travis. Very riveting tale of taverns and conspiracy. Jake you need to make the movie like Hot Fuzz, where Travis is investigating in a small town and there’s something just off about the place. Eventually he has to fight off a cabal of townspeople who want to stop him from discovering the murder.
what's that song at the end?
As a buffalo native it was so fun to hear so much of my region in this story. Another perfect banger. The names around here are also really hard! Canandaigua is pronounced can-ann-DAY-gwa
did the cavortex episode get removed????
Epic episode, great research Travis and a story well told. Loved the song.
Love the auto-cue!
Dude the song at the end is sick. I need this on my Spotify playlist.
What a great episode series. The dialogues Travis unearthed indeed oscillate between Coen Brothers and the weaponized bureaucracy satires of Stalislav Lem. Very enjoyable episode and looking forward to the book.
ok jake!!!!
There should be Jake song about every episode!
Yooo, the outro song kicks ass
Holy shit, Jake! That sounded amazing!!! It was haunting and beautiful! Was that Julian singing back up?
I heard that too! Let it be true
I've been whistling the song at the end for days. Kudos Jake. Catchy.
This is the best kind of Travis episode just laying down some melted American history with really engaged comedic commentary
They should definitely use Jake's song as the credits song for the movie
Lovely episode, but if you really want to open a whole new world about real life conspiracy involving deviant mason lodges to the American audience, you should really look into the role of P2 in post WWII Italy. P2 was also involved with Gladio, which you already covered, the canceled attempted coup of gen Borghese and the "Piano Solo". No spoilers, but you should really look up who was a registered P2 member at number 1816
This was mentioned in part 1.
It was an okay episode, don’t really care for the Freemasons. The most interesting thing was Morgan’s wife become John Smith’s wife like wtf what a crazy connection to Mormons also awesome singing Jake.
Weird coincidence. William Morgan's widow temporarily converted to Mormonism and is thought to have been one of the polygamous wives of Joseph Smith, there's a podcast biography about her here though it's mainly just a recapitulation of the Morgan Affair and the Mormon history events that intersect with her. We have little about her directly. https://yearofpolygamy.com/year-of-polygamy/year-of-polygamy-lucinda-morgan-harris-episode-02/
Oh my gosh, more Jake music, please! Between this and the past Taylor Swift cover, I am obsessed.
Wow the Jake song !!! Loved it
Ayy a Rockatansky original! Banger outro song 🔥
Jake! What a tune!!!!
Listening to this episode is like constant whiplash. Hearing the names of towns that I know and can easily travel to is so surreal.
Y’all have to release a stand alone, high quality audio release of Jake’s rendition of The Hoop Pole Knights, ’cause it’s a banger
you gotta give us a download for the song though, straight banger
"Dump stains" -Rockatansky
Genesee county! Gimmie that cream ale
Lucinda's second husband reveal was such a jump scare!
Third husband, most of the first women Joseph Smith married after secretly introducing polygamy were also polyandrous marriages, she's actually probably the most questionable of the people he's believed to have married.
this song is awesome
The Joseph smith connection is wild
As I recall, Fawn Brodie mentioned the influence of this on a portion of The Book of Mormon in her Smith bio “No Man Knows My History”.
Dump stains
If I was writing this as a movie I would have them finally decide that they can't handle the heat and decide to let Morgan go, but then one of the guard's trigger finger slips and he shoots him Vincent shooting Marvin from Pulp Fiction style.
Let me know if you need an editor for the movie version, I wanna make this fever dream a reality
I was surprised at how nostalgic this one made me. My childhood was in Fayetteville/DeWitt, in Onondaga county. The place names and quirky local histories of the Burned Over District always make me think of field trips we took with school. I think it led to my fondness for somewhat shabby, very local historic sites and weird roadside attractions.
This really seems like a cohen brothers movie
right?!
More Jake music please!
Jake, after years of hearing you describe ongoing tummy troubles and now finding out you can't sweat, maybe you should get checked for some form of dysautonomia of you haven't already
mate that song was lovely, definitely would like more or on stream somewhere?
Right the song fkn slaps
song whipped ass great job jake
I was waiting the whole time for Travis to reveal he is now a Mason
He’ll only reveal it once he’s taken over his local lodge. 😉
i cant emphasise enough how good the new intro song is. A year later, and its so iconic, every time i hear it i get a threatening dooming feeling, and a warm fuzzy homey feel all at once.
The 18th century: you KNOW it smelled crazy in there
Travis (not sure you read the comments), but I was just in western New York also. I was on a history tour too, though it was the much older history of rocks from about 180 million years ago that come to the surface in Leroy, NY. Small world.
You can hear Travis' uncomfort during Jake's screeds.
I’m often surprised he doesn’t get more push back honestly. The amount of times he derails from the hard work the hosts and guests put into their episodes sucks. It’s disruptive to the listening experience as well.
This has got me wanting to re-read Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis.
I don’t know what is BUT I’M GOING TO FIND OUT!
After listening to this episode I do think Morgan was killed but because these Masons were such bumbling morons I wouldn’t be surprised if they did it by accident. Like, someone tried to pull him out of a wagon and he hit his head on a rock when he landed. Some real Coen brothers-style dumbassery.
Nahhhh, I din’t think so.
Jake and the Dump Stains is a good band name. It’s also what I might start calling this show (complimentary). If the ladies are on I’d change it to Jake and the Dump Stains featuring Liv and Annie.
I think you were referencing Canandaigua but pronouncing it with the u in the wrong spot.. normally i wouldn't bother correcting pronunciation on a random ass upstate ny town but you did travel across the country for this episode so i figured you probably would care
Ontario county native here! Thanks, Isaac - yes, it's actually Cannon-DAY-gwa
Travis has the patience of a sainted buddhist monk
The art of the straight man
Outro song!! 🫶
My takeaway is that the way LDS prophet Joseph Smith Jr was killed was actually completely typical of the time. (edit: left this comment literally two minutes before I got to the bit about which specific Lucinda Morgan this was. gee.)
Honestly it seems like Western New York State in this time is the original homeland of West Coast weirdness.
The song at the end is killer
New Jake lore just dropped
Wait… is Jake singing the song in the auto que?!
yes!
Amazing song!
banger ep, banger song at the end
jake thinks wiping was invented in the 1950s apparently
I am about to have a hysterectomy and am excited to listen to this in the afterbliss of post surgery narcotics. Thank you QAA for the wild stories I will sloppily attempt to retell my friends and partner.
More jake jams. Liv Agar
OMG, I ordered by food and it got delivered at the end when the auto Q came on and Jake was singing at the top of his lungs when the guy came to the door.
My dog barked when the dog barked. 🙂
It is technically true that “average” lifespan in the early 1800s was 35 to 40 years old, but that’s measuring by mean lifespan of all people from birth which is kind of a statistical fallacy. A *huge* portion of children died before age five; a typical adult who made it to age 20 would be expected to live into their sixties, with ages of 70+ or even 80+ not uncommon!
(Great episode though, can’t wait for this book!)
Will every episode from here on out contain a discussion of incontinence and/or personal hygiene? Jake has a real fixation.
It's either this or cum talk
When are we going to learn some actual masonry secrets? Stone pointing? Keystone cutting? How to build a secret door into solid granite? These are what I’m curious about.
There's a whole fucking song in the show notes fool.
Always love a part 2!