Jirah Dewey Buck

Theosophical Society activities

According to Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett:

Buck, Dr. Jirah Dewey, 1838-1916. A medical doctor and prominent member of the TS in Cincinnati, Ohio. Appointed by HSO as a member of the Board of Control of the TS in America, May 13, 1884. He remained loyal to the Society throughout. ML, p. 475; D, p. 184; SH index (many references).

Masonry

In an obituary in The Builder, one of his fellow Masons wrote,

Dr. Buck was an active and influential member of every Rite of our historic Order, holding the highest rank both in the esteem of his Brethren and in the gift of the fraternity --including the honorary Thirty-Third Degree of the Scottish Rite in its Northern Jurisdiction. Indeed, he was a recognized leader of a definite school of Masonic thought and propaganda; and while we have never been able to agree with all the conclusions of the school which he represented, we are none the less appreciative of its services to the Craft--knowing that Truth is larger than the formula of any one school or of all schools put together...

His Masonry, on one side, was a spiritual patriotism in the exposition of which he was truly and impressively eloquent. In behalf of free thought, free conscience, and the sovereign right of man to worship in the way his heart loves best, he was a crusader--as every Mason must be.

Writings

• Mystic Masonry
• The Lost Word Found

Additional resources

• Correspondence and other archival materials related to Dr. Buck's activities in the Theosophical Society are in the Theosophical Society in America Archives. Records Series 20.02.01. Cincinnati Theosophical Society Records. Theosophical Society in America Archives, Wheaton, Illinois.