MOGMSCarnegy
STEPHEN W. B. CARNEGY 1797-1892
Grand Master, 1836-1839
BIOGRAPHY
From Biographies of Past Grand Masters, 1821-1901, by the Grand Lodge of Missouri:
Most Worshipful Brother S. W. B. Carnegy received his first substantial recognition at the Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge in November, 1834, when he was called to the South as Junior Grand Warden, serving until October, 1836, two years. At the Annual Communication in October, 1836, he was elected Grand Master, and re-elected in 1837, and again in 1838, serving three years. He was succeeded by Brother Priestly H. McBride.
Brother Carnegy was born in Harrison County, Ky., January 29, 1797. In youth he attended the schools of the time; in young manhood was elected a member of the County Court and soon after commissioned as Colonel of the 86th Kentucky Regiment of Militia. In March, 1829, he moved to Palmyra, Mo. In 1835 was elected to the Legislature.
From data furnished by himself many years since, he was made a Mason in St. Andrew's Lodge No. 18, in Cynthiana, Ky., in 1820, and was twice Master of his Lodge, and represented it in the Grand Lodge of Kentucky.
He assisted in organizing Palmyra Lodge No. 18, the Dispensation of which was dated November 30, 1830, with Brother Carnegy as Junior Warden. He was Master in 1831, and re-elected several years. His first appearance in the Grand Lodge was in 1832. He received the Capitular degrees in Palmyra Royal Arch Chapter in 1837 and the degrees of Cryptic Masonry the same year. He attended the famous "Baltimore Convention" in 1843, and while in Baltimore received the Orders of Knighthood.
October, 1846, he with others petitioned the Grand Encampment for a Dispensation or Charter to empower them to form an Encampment — as Commanderies were then styled — in St. Louis, with J. W. S. Mitchell as Commander, S. W. B. Carnegy as Generalissimo and M. Davis as Captain-General. The records of St. Louis Commandery, however, fail to disclose any other official station Brother Carnegy held. In 1849 he removed to Canton, Lewis County, where he continued to reside until his death. He assisted in the formation of Canton Lodge No. 100, and Canton Royal Arch Chapter.
Brother Carnegy was the author of the resolution for the organization of a Masonic College; the enterprise was a failure, yet he sacrificed time and strength in its behalf.
He was stricken with paralysis in 1887, and lingered until January 5, 1892, lacking but a few days of being 95 years old.
