 McCay 's politics are unclear , and it is disputed whether he sympathized with the viewpoints displayed in his editorial cartoons . He was agnostic and believed in reincarnation . He was a lifelong member of the Freemasons , which he may have joined as early as when he was living in Chicago . His father had also been a Freemason , and was buried in 1915 with full Masonic rites , with funerals arranged by his Masonic lodges in both Woodstock , Ontario , and Edmore , Michigan . His mother often visited him in Brooklyn , and attended Little Nemo 's Philadelphia premiere . She died in Edmore , Michigan , in 1927 . 
