by Midnight Freemasons Founder and Editor
Todd E. Creason, 33°
Remember me? Probably not . . . it's been awhile.
Back in 2007, I created a blog called “The Midnight Freemason” and I used that blog to post research leftovers from the books and the articles I was writing about Freemasonry at the time. Despite much conjecture over the years, the title of the blog doesn’t have any deep Masonic meaning at all. It merely described my writing habits—working a full-time job, I often wrote late into the night. A friend had once commented that when his phone alerted him to an email after midnight, he always knew who it was. That was me—the Midnight Freemason. Hence, the title of the blog.
I posted three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and
Fridays. For the first year, nobody seemed
to notice. And then a strange thing
happened. I’d go to a meeting somewhere
and people would say, “I know who you are.
You’re the Midnight Freemason!”
And for the first five years it grew.
And it grew. And it grew. And I ran out of research leftovers, and began
writing content just for the blog. And
that got harder and harder to maintain.
By 2012 it was getting to be too much, and I called a few
friends in to provide content. Among the
original contributors were Greg Knott (wrote the first contributor piece),
Steve Harrison, Robert Johnson, Scott Niccum, Judy Gordon, Michael Shirley, and
Brian Pettice. I hope I didn’t leave
anybody out.
We retitled the blog “The Midnight Freemasons” (plural) and
it has been a contributor blog ever since.
It was tremendous fun. Many of us
were friends, and every time we got a group of us in a room together we’d take
a “Midnight Freemasons” picture. And the
blog grew, and more and more lodges found it, and were using pieces for their
lodge education, and were asking permission to reprint pieces in newsletters
and websites. Over the years we’ve had
more than 30 regular contributors and countless contributions we’ve published
as “one time” articles.
Robert Johnson took over as the first editor, and I began
taking a step back. He took the blog to
a whole new level. Later Darin Lahners
stepped in, and has done amazing work collecting, and editing, and posting all
this material. Bill Hosler also played a
huge role in managing the Midnight Freemasons.
Over the years we’ve gone from posting three days a week, to once a
week, and then most recently to whenever we had a good piece to share. And I think that was a wise decision to make—quality
over quantity. But now we’re in a new
place.
Darin Lahners has decided it is time for him to explore some
new projects and do some research into areas he’s interested in learning more
about, and has stepped down as the editor.
And now it’s back to me. And I’m
trying to decide what to do with the blog.
One thing I’m certain of—it’s not going away. Too many people enjoy it. We’re still getting 50,000 and sometimes as
many as 100,000 hits a month. That’s
amazing!
If nothing else it will stay up as an archive of thousands
of pieces that have been written and published over the last 19 years or so. I’m leaning towards continuing it as a
contributor blog, and being a more active contributor again myself. But there might be some changes coming. I’ll keep you posted.
I’d like to thank our editors over the years. And all those contributors and the countless
hours they’ve spent writing such amazing content! That’s what’s made this work. And, of course, our enthusiastic readers!
Stay tuned! There’s
more to come!
~TEC33
Todd E. Creason, 33° is the Founder and (once again) the
Editor of the Midnight Freemasons blog. He is an award-winning author of
several books and novels, including the Famous American Freemasons series. Todd
started the Midnight Freemason blog in 2006, and in 2012 he opened it up as a
contributor blog The Midnight Freemasons (plural). Todd has written more than
1,000 pieces for the blog since it began. He is a Past Master of Ogden Lodge
No. 754 (IL) where he currently serves as Secretary. He is a Past Sovereign
Master of the Eastern Illinois Council No. 356 Allied Masonic Degrees. He is a
Fellow at the Missouri Lodge of Research (FMLR). He is a charter member of
Admiration Chapter No. 282 and is a Past EHP. You can contact him at
webmaster@toddcreason.org
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