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Pineville: |
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Under President James Knox Polk, the United States doubled in size
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How was Brother James Knox Polk related to Brother Thomas Polk, co-founder of the city of Charlotte, and to Brother William Polk, fifth Grand Master of NC Masons?
Simple.
All were in the same Mecklenburg family. All descended from John Maxwell dePollok, 1270-1306, from just south of Glasgow, Scotland. (Pollok meant small lake in gaelic.)
Thomas Polk had a brother Ezekiel, 17 years younger. Ezekiel was President James Knox Polk’s grandfather.
William, the Grand Master of Masons, was the son of Thomas.
One of North Carolina’s Masonic treasures is the birthplace of President Polk here in Pineville. He was born in 1795 on a 250-acre farm worked by his parents, Samuel and Jane Polk. When James was 11, the family sold the homestead and moved westward to join James’ grandfather in Tennessee. He returned to the state of his childhood to become an honor student at UNC in Chapel Hill.
After graduating in 1818, he returned to Tennessee to study law and open a practice. In 1820 he was initiated June 5, 1820, in Columbia Lodge 31 in Columbia, TN. He rose to be elected Tennessee governor 1839 to 1841 and US President 1845 to 1849. He was a rock-solid supporter of President and Brother Mason Andrew Jackson.
During Brother Polk’s administration the United States acquired more than 50,000 square miles of western land, doubling the nation’s size.
That made it necessary to create the Department of the Interior.
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Produced by the public relations committee of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Masons in North Carolina,
2921 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27628 MMVIII
Author/editor: Walter J. Klein wklein(at)carolina.rr.com
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