Oklahoma Freemasonry During the Spanish Flu of 1918

By T.S. Akers 

On March 17, 2020, three days after his first edict, the Grand Master of Masons of the State of Oklahoma suspended all Masonic activity until April 10 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This suspension was soon expanded, with an eventual end date of June 1. This led many Masons to seek out other ways to gather fraternally through applications such as Zoom video conferencing. Guildhall Lodge No. 553 A.F. & A.M. chose to utilize video conferences to share Masonic light, or education, in the months of April and May. It was at the May video meeting that it was asked what Masons were doing in 1918 in response to the Spanish flu pandemic. This author was tasked with preparing a paper on that topic to be delivered at the next meeting, held June 3.

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Ira C. Bryant, District Deputy Grand Master, was born at West Point, Mississippi, October 23^rd, 1877, and was educated in that state. He was a member of Maysville Lodge No. 233, A.F. & A.M., Pauls Valley Chapter No. 30, R.A.M.

He received his Scottish Rite Degrees in Guthrie Consistory and his Shrine in India Temple, Oklahoma City.

He enlisted in the officers’ Training Camp at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, August 26^th, 1918, contracted Spanish influenza and died October 7^th, 1918. He was buried at Vardeman, Mississippi, October 12.

Maysville Lodge being unable to attend the burial wired the Master of Vardeman Lodge to take charge of the body and bury with ceremonies of the fraternity.[1]

The grave of Bro. Ira C. Bryant at Bethlehem Cemetery in Calhoun County, Mississippi.

(From Find a Grave)

Brother Bryant was not the first Oklahoma Mason to succumb to the Spanish flu and he was far from the last. The fraternal dead reported in the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma for the year 1918 strangely number 1,918.[2] While the cause of death for those men in 1918 is not identified, the same accounting for the year 1917 was only 392.[3] There was of course a war on at this time and the proceedings note that 8,800 Oklahoma Masons were serving in the nation’s military.[4] While there does not appear to be an accounting of Oklahoma’s Masonic dead from the Great War, a total of 726 Oklahomans gave the last full measure.[5] The Spanish flu claimed the lives of 7,500 Oklahomans.[6]

In January of 1918, something strange was afoot in Haskell County, Kansas. A newspaper there, the Santa Fe Monitor, reported “Most everybody over the county is having lagrippe or pneumonia.” Loring Miner, a local physician, believed the situation was severe enough to report an influenza outbreak to the U.S. Public Health Service. At this time, influenza was not classified as a “reportable” disease.[7] Historians have held for some time that the Spanish flu of 1918 began in Kansas. More recent research has pointed to China as the place of origin. The British Commonwealth mobilized around 94,000 Chinese laborers for service behind the lines in France and transported them by rail across Canada to expedite their arrival. In November of 1917, a respiratory illness had begun to spread across northern China. Chinese health officials later identified this malady as being identical to the Spanish flu. A British legation official in Beijing would go on to confirm the illness as influenza in a 1918 report. Of the 25,000 Chinese laborers that had been transported across Canada in 1917, 3,000 ended up in medical quarantine with flu-like symptoms.[8] Regardless of where the Spanish flu began, it had certainly made its way to Kansas. Several men from Haskell County soon found themselves at Camp Funston, in central Kansas, for induction into the U.S. Army. On March 4, 1918, the first case of influenza at Camp Funston was reported. Within two weeks, there were eleven hundred soldiers sick in hospital and thousands more confined to their barracks. Twenty-four of thirty-six of the large induction camps reported influenza outbreaks, sickening tens of thousands.[9] With the war, the virus had an ultimate destination of Europe.

Over the course of fifteen months, the Spanish flu killed between 50 and 100 million people worldwide, though the true death toll will likely never be known. In the early days of the pandemic, there was little concern, as the virus was not particularly deadly, despite its high infection rate. Within the British Grand Fleet 10,313 sailors were admitted to sick bay in May and June of 1918 with influenza, but only four died. Both the Allied and Central powers saw influenza outbreaks in the field in April, but it was dismissed as a “three-day fever.” What was unusual was the way in which the virus afflicted the young and it was showing signs of gaining severity. At one French Army camp, 688 soldiers of 1,018 were hospitalized and 49 died. The virus only gained real attention as it swept through Spain, sickening the king. The Spanish press, which was not being censored owing to the nation’s neutrality, wrote at length on the virus which garnered it the name “the Spanish flu.” By July, the U.S. Army reported the “epidemic is about at an end.” A British medical journal was so bold as to state that the malady had completely disappeared.[10]

What we know about the Spanish flu today is, that it came in three waves. The Spanish flu, which has been identified as an H1N1 strain, was different from the standard influenza in that it infected the upper respiratory tract, and then settled into the lungs with viral or bacterial pneumonia. It managed to kill so many young people because their immune systems attacked the disease with such force that it killed them.[11] The second wave began as early as August in Switzerland where a U.S. Navy intelligence officer in a report marked “Secret and Confidential” indicated the Spanish flu had become an epidemic. In the United States, it was again an army camp that would see the first influenza cases. Camp Devens near Boston housed 45,000 soldiers with a camp hospital capable of accommodating 1,200. On September 7, 1918, a soldier at Camp Devens was diagnosed with meningitis. The next day, twelve more men from the same company were afflicted and physicians soon changed the diagnosis to influenza. At the peak, 1,543 soldiers were reported sick in a single day at Camp Devens.[12] In total, the Spanish flu would kill 675,000 Americans, of which 43,000 were servicemen. Most of these deaths occurred in the second, or main wave, which came in the autumn. A subsequent wave was seen in early 1919.[13]

As previously noted, reporting of the Spanish flu in American papers was being censored. The Sedition Act had it made in punishable by twenty years in prison to publish any “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States.” Posters urged the reporting of anyone “who spreads pessimistic stories.” During a four-day period in October, the hospital at Camp Pike in Arkansas admitted 8,000 soldiers. Just seven miles away in Little Rock, a headline in the Gazette read: “Spanish influenza is plain la grippe – same old fever and chills.” For Philadelphia, downplaying the threat of the Spanish flu proved disastrous. A naval vessel had brought the virus to that city from Boston in early September.[14] The city then moved forward with a Liberty Loan parade on September 28 and 200,000 spectators crammed the streets for the event. Within three days, every hospital in Philadelphia was at capacity. By October 12, 4,500 people had died.[15] It had become clear that dense populations, as had been seen in the army camps, accelerated the spread of the virus. The nation would soon see the closing of schools, theatres, bars, and other gathering places. Mothers were even warned to confine their children to their own yards.[16] It is important to note that factories and industry remained operational owing to war production.[17]

The first case of Spanish flu in Oklahoma City was reported on September 29, 1918.[18] By October 4, the number had grown to 1,249 cases across twenty-four counties.[19] To compound the issue, twenty nurses, half of the staff, at University Hospital had contracted influenza. The city commissioners of Oklahoma City made the decision on October 9 to close all schools, theatres, churches, and ban all public meetings.[20] The day before, P.D. Walker, mayor of McAlester, had issued a similar proclamation closing schools, churches, and public buildings. That city even saw the establishment of an emergency hospital in the manse of its First Presbyterian Church. There were 291 flu deaths in Pittsburg County alone that October.[21] In Oklahoma City, with people falling ill and dying in their homes, the police were turned into ambulance drivers, delivering the most serious cases to whatever hospitals were available.[22]

An American Red Cross Canteen Service team at Oklahoma City in November of 1918.

(From the Library of Congress)

Convincing Oklahomans, and Americans at large, that Spanish flu was serious proved to be a challenge. One Oklahoma City newspaper reported "There has been some slight difficulty in holding the public in leash. A few institutions have violated the closing order..." Officials in Oklahoma went on to say “…the greatest obstacles in dealing promptly and effectively with the epidemic was the slowness of the general public in realizing the extreme seriousness of the situation.” Even the penalty for spitting on the sidewalk was increased to jailtime. While the quarantine and closures in Oklahoma only lasted a month, other densely packed cities were not so fortunate.[23] In January of 1919, two thousand San Franciscans turned up for a public meeting of the Anti-Mask League. The group passed resolutions declaring the city’s mask requirement “contrary to the desires of a majority of the people.”[24]

One will note, the bans on gathering in Oklahoma targeted public occasions. The Masonic Fraternity is a private institution and arguably not under the purview of such measures. However, the leadership of the Fraternity at the time seems to have been comprised of wise men. On October 10, 1918, Grand Master Joseph W. Morris issued the following circular:

To all Constituent Lodges A.F. & A.M. of the Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of the State of Oklahoma.

Brethren: Owing to the prevalence of the contagion known as the Spanish Influenza, and to aid the Health Authorities of the state in checking the spread of this disease, it is my order as your Grand Master that you cease all Masonic gatherings and suspend all lodge meetings, except in great emergency, until the State Health Officers by order permit general gatherings throughout the State of Oklahoma.

The Worshipful Master of each body will see that his brethren are duly notified and I suggest that the substance of this order be furnished your home or County paper for publication.[25]

The effects of the virus were felt across Masonry in Oklahoma. Jabez H. Mann, Grand High Priest of Royal Arch Masons, took office in April of 1918 and noted in his 1919 address that he made few official visits to the constituent Chapters, three to be exact and all after February, owing to the Spanish flu.[26] Interestingly, the Triennial of the General Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters, the Cryptic Rite, proceeded as scheduled in September of 1918 at Baltimore, Maryland. Oklahoma’s Deputy Grand Master Sydnor H. Lester was in attendance.[27] In the realm of Templary, Grand Commander Charles S. Highsmith had postponed inspections of the constituent Commanderies owing to the war and suspended them altogether once influenza took hold.[28]

Grand Master Joseph W. Morris

(From the Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma)

The suspension of Masonic activity in Oklahoma not only prevented degree work, it also prevented the election of officers for the coming year of 1919. The Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma was slated to meet in February, which caused Grand Master Morris to seek the opinion of his constituent lodges on such an assembly. In a letter dated January 20, 1919, Morris stated:

The advisability of assembling the Grand Lodge in February, necessitating the congregating of hundreds of our best citizenship for a period of ten days with the realization of its possible and probable result, has been a subject of very grave and important concern in the mind of your Grand Master...[29]

While bans on gatherings had been lifted across Oklahoma, Freemasons chose to be cautious about returning to their activities, and rightfully so. In his letter, Morris directed the Lodges to immediately convene in Special Communication to vote on whether to postpone the convening of the Grand Lodge for sixty to ninety days. On February 12, it was announced that ninety-five percent of the Lodges were in favor of such a postponement and the Grand Lodge was not convened until April 29.[30]

The third wave of influenza in early 1919 even reached President Woodrow Wilson. Weakened by a 103-degree fever, intense coughing fits, and diarrhea, he began to suffer from severe confusion during the Versailles Peace Conference. It was later found that many influenza patients also had cognitive or psychological symptoms.[31] It is also believed that the Spanish flu either potentiated or lowered one’s resistance to encephalitis lethargica, a disease which attacks the brain and renders its victims catatonic. Encephalitis lethargica became most virulent in late 1918 and abruptly vanished around 1927. The influenza strain of 1918 ceased human circulation sometime before 1933, further linking the two maladies.[32] The lessons of the potential lasting effects of the Spanish flu on an individual have not been entirely forgotten. The U.S. military is currently disqualifying anyone for service who was hospitalized due to COVID-19, owing to the lack of information on the effects of the new virus.[33] It is worth noting that the pathology of COVID-19 is quite similar to that of the Spanish flu of 1918.[34]

The Spanish flu itself did not simply vanish in 1919. Infections continued, but the virus lost its lethality. Exposure to the virus in the first or second wave helped individuals develop an immune response in the third wave and the strain simply became seasonal influenza.[35] As previously noted, the virus ceased human circulation in the late Twenties or early Thirties; but it became widespread in American swine herds after its 1918 appearance.[36] The H1N1 flu strain, of which the 1918 strain was, is of course more commonly known as the Swine flu, and the year 2009 saw a pandemic of this very strain. As has been illustrated, close quarters enhanced the spread of the Spanish flu and without effective drugs for treating it or a vaccine, temporary bans on public gatherings were essential. Studies have shown that such preventative measures in 1918 were successful in lowering the number of influenza cases. Today, we call this social distancing to flatten the curve, the curve being the number of COVID-19 infections over a span of time.[37] Oklahoma’s Masonic leaders made the right decisions to protect their membership in 1918. It appears that Oklahoma’s Masonic leaders are again taking appropriate measures to protect their membership with the cancelling of all Masonic activity for a period of time, a prohibition on such fraternal activities that bring men into close contact, and mandating the wear of face coverings to prevent the spread of the virus. There are lessons to be learned from 1918 and for some, those lessons are not lost.

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[1]  Proceedings of the M.: W.: Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of the State of Oklahoma: Eleventh Annual Communication (Guthrie, 1919), 16-17.

[2]  State of Oklahoma: Eleventh Annual Communication, 80.

[3]  Proceedings of the M.: W.: Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of the State of Oklahoma: Tenth Annual Communication (Guthrie, 1918), 216.

[4]  State of Oklahoma: Eleventh Annual Communication, 25.

[5]  Matt Patterson, "More than 85,000 Oklahomans marched off to WWI," The Oklahoman, last modified April 6, 2017, https://oklahoman.com/article/5544410/more-than-85000-oklahomans-marched-off-to-wwi.

[6]  Mike Cathey, "CATHEY: Looking back at the Influenza of 1918 in Oklahoma," McAlester News-Capital, last modified April 19, 2020, https://www.mcalesternews.com/news/local_news/cathey-looking-back-at-the-influenza-of-1918-in-oklahoma/article_82e50cf9-265b-5d81-949e-512f302abd7d.html.

[7]  John M. Barry, "How the Horrific 1918 Flu Spread Across America," Smithsonian Magazine, last modified November 2017, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/journal-plague-year-180965222/.

[8]  Dan Vergano, "1918 Flu Pandemic That Killed 50 Million Originated in China, Historians Say," National Geographic, last modified January 24, 2014, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/140123-spanish-flu-1918-china-origins-pandemic-science-health/.

[9]  Barry.

[10]  Ibid.

[11]  Ashley Halsey III, "The flu can kill tens of millions of people. In 1918, that’s exactly what it did," The Washington Post, last modified January 27, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/27/the-flu-can-kill-tens-of-millions-of-people-in-1918-thats-exactly-what-it-did/.

[12]  Barry.

[13]  Jeffery K. Taubenberger, "The Origin and Virulence of the 1918 “Spanish” Influenza Virus," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 150, no. 1 (2006): 86-112, www.jstor.org/stable/4598974.

[14]  Barry.

[15]  David Mack and Amber Jamieson, "What Is Social Distancing? How Staying Away From Others Can Help Stop The Coronavirus Spread," BuzzFeed.News, last modified March 11, 2020, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/social-distancing-coronavirus.I

[16]  Halsey.

[17]  "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History," (panel discussion, New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University, April 30, 2020), https://youtu.be/sycJAEKg7MU.

[18]  "Oklahoma City in the 1918 Flu Pandemic," shanehampton.com, last modified March 19, 2020, http://shanehampton.com/okc1918/.

[19]  Cathey.

[20]  “Oklahoma City in the 1918 Flu Pandemic.”

[21]  Cathey.

[22]  “Oklahoma City in the 1918 Flu Pandemic.”

[23]  Ibid.

[24]  Nancy Bristow, "Loosening Public-Health Restrictions Too Early Can Cost Lives. Just Look What Happened During the 1918 Flu Pandemic," Time, last modified May 1, 2020, https://time.com/5830265/1918-flu-reopening-coronavirus.

[25]  State of Oklahoma: Eleventh Annual Communication, 27.

[26]  Proceedings of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Oklahoma: Thirtieth Annual Convocation (Muskogee, 1919), 12.

[27]  Proceedings of the M.: Ill.: Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of Oklahoma: Twenty-Fifth Annual Assembly (Muskogee, 1919), 4.

[28]  Proceedings of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Oklahoma: Twenty-Fourth Annual Conclave (Muskogee, 1919), 15.

[29]  State of Oklahoma: Eleventh Annual Communication, 28.

[30]  Ibid., 28-31.

[31]  Barry.

[32]  Sherman McCall, et al, “The relationship between encephalitis lethargica and influenza: a critical analysis,” Journal of Neurovirology 14, no. 3 (2008): 177-85, doi:10.1080/13550280801995445.

[33]  Corey Dickstein, "Contracting coronavirus won't disqualify you from serving in the military, but a hospital stay for it might," Stars and Stripes, last modified May 8, 2020, https://www.stripes.com/news/us/contracting-coronavirus-won-t-disqualify-you-from-serving-in-the-military-but-a-hospital-stay-for-it-might-1.628995.

[34]   "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History," (panel discussion).

[35]  Ibid.

[36]  Taubenberger.

[37]  Nina Strochlic and Riley D. Champine, "How some cities ‘flattened the curve’ during the 1918 flu pandemic," National Geographic, last modified March 27, 2020, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/03/how-cities-flattened-curve-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-coronavirus/.

McAlester's Albert Pike Hospital

By T.S. Akers

 Albert Pike Hospital, 1928

When Fort Gibson was established in 1824 in what would eventually become Oklahoma, it was essentially the end of the Earth. Life on the frontier could be particularly dangerous and this was evidenced at Fort Gibson. Between 1834 and 1835, 298 soldiers died of disease there, with 600 cases of illness reported in the third quarter of 1835 alone.[1] The situation improved at Fort Gibson by the 1870s when a post hospital was erected.[2] While physicians were scattered across the territory, institutions to provide care for people en masse simply did not exist. It would ultimately take a catastrophe in the 1890s for a hospital to be established to meet the needs of the citizens of Indian Territory.

Coal mining in Indian Territory quickly became a major industry, bringing large numbers of men to the area hoping to make a living. Mining was also dangerous and even more so in Indian Territory than the surrounding states. On average, more than thirteen miners died per million tons of coal produced in Indian Territory, the ratio in Kansas was less than half that. The worst mining disaster happened on January 7, 1892, near Krebs. An explosion at the Osage Coal and Mining Company's Mine Number Eleven left one hundred men dead and another two hundred injured.[3] While the mining operations maintained contract physicians, Krebs and the nearby city of McAlester had no hospitals that could meet the needs caused by such a catastrophe.

In response to the mine explosion, the Episcopal Church created the Missionary District of Oklahoma in 1892 and sent Bishop Francis K. Brooke to oversee missionary operations in the region. In his 1894 report, Brooke remarked that there were “20,000 people engaged in and living by the coal mining industry in a half-dozen towns in the Choctaw coal fields. There is not a single hospital or the beginnings of one.” Brooke’s plea was answered the following year by an anonymous donor with six acres provided by a Choctaw citizen for the construction of a hospital at South McAlester to be known as All Saints Hospital. In 1897 Brooke’s report indicated the hospital rendered care to 152 patients, 27 of whom were private patients and 105 of whom were contract patients from the railroad and mines. Care was provided free of charge to 20 indigent patients. The hospital would grow to have sixty-five beds and be home to a nurses training school by 1911.[4]

The expansion of All Saints Hospital included a “fireproof” wing, but its original wood frame structure remained. By 1923 the original hospital section was considered unsafe and in danger of being condemned. Bishop Theodore P. Thurston, Brooke’s successor, called for the replacement of the original hospital section, but the funds for such construction simply did not exist.[5] By this time, All Saints was not McAlester’s only hospital. The Sisters of Charity assumed operation of another small hospital in 1914 and acquired the estate of a local attorney to open St. Mary’s Hospital.[6] With All Saints on the verge of closing, the McAlester Scottish Rite Valley, realizing the need for a community hospital, stepped up to take over operations. The McAlester Valley assumed All Saints’ existing debt of $10,000 and agreed to erect a new building.[7]

On June 5, 1924, All Saints Hospital ceased to exist, and Albert Pike Hospital was born.[8] The first order of business was resolving the issue of the building in which the hospital was then housed; the original frame structure now being referred to as  a “firetrap.” There were a couple of options available to remedy this. One was to rebuild the original frame structure to the same standards as its fireproof wing, which would cost $100,000. A second option was to erect an entirely new hospital on land adjacent to where William Busby’s home stood.[9] Busby, a prominent McAlester Mason, had died in 1913 and his estate occupied nearly an entire city block.[10] While the McAlester Valley had purchased the site with the intention of locating the hospital there, this option was estimated to cost $250,000.[11] There was also a third option. As the Scottish Rite grew in popularity, the McAlester membership had expanded from 2,500 Masons in 1915 to 6,132 in 1920. With minimal hotel accommodations available, the McAlester Valley erected a dormitory in 1921 for the Brethren attending the Scottish Rite Reunions.[12] It was settled in 1927 that the three-story fireproof dormitory would be the new home of Albert Pike Hospital. The old All Saints property and Busby homesite were to be sold to offset the renovation expenses and an additional fifty-foot lot south of the dormitory was to be purchased for hospital expansion.[13] The contract for renovating the dormitory into a hospital called for the work to be completed in eighty days at a cost of $33,250.[14]

In true Scottish Rite fashion, the removal of the hospital to its new home was commemorated by naming a Reunion class in its honor. The 164 men who became Masters of the Royal Secret during the Reunion held in October of 1927 were known as the Albert Pike Hospital Class.[15] On February 15, 1928, the first patients arrived at the new hospital, twenty-four in total; there were beds available for fifty-five.[16] The dormitory expansion included a dining room and kitchen for hospital operations.[17] The nurses training program continued, a three year program based mostly on clinical experience with a handful of classes taught by the attending physicians. Two cottages were constructed behind the hospital to house the nurses.[18]

Nurses' cottages located behind Albert Pike Hospital, 1929

While the McAlester Scottish Rite Valley had assumed hospital operations, Albert Pike Hospital was to remain a community hospital. A board of control was established from the Protestant denominations of McAlester, which included the Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist, Christian, and Presbyterian Churches, along with representatives of the McAlester Lodge of Perfection (the Lodge of Perfection is the business conducting body of a Scottish Rite Valley). A.U. Thomas, who served as Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the Scottish Rite in Oklahoma from 1927 to 1936, was selected as the board president.[19] In addition to being a general hospital, it was decided that Albert Pike Hospital would also be a specialized facility treating crippled children.[20] A total of 266 children were treated in 1942 alone, the largest number of admissions to any privately owned hospital in Oklahoma that year.[21] Albert Pike Hospital regularly appeared on the annual approved list of hospitals by the Hospital Standardization conference of the American College of Surgeons.[22]

Crowding at the University Hospital in Oklahoma City led the state legislature to look for a means to alleviate the situation in 1937. Legislation was being hotly debated to purchase private hospitals in eastern and western Oklahoma to meet the needs for facilities across the state.[23] Bills introduced during that session included one by Senator Deroy Burns of Mountain Park to purchase the Baptist hospital located in Clinton for $175,000 and one by Representative Huby Jordan of McAlester to purchase Albert Pike Hospital for $150,000.[24] Governor E.W. Marland, a Mason, opposed both measures stating, “It is foolish for the state to buy hospitals without money to operate and maintain them.”[25] Inspection committees dispatched by the legislature to establish the value of each institution determined the Clinton hospital to be worth $118,421 and Albert Pike Hospital to be worth $90,609.[26] The Clinton measure passed both houses of the legislature and provided that any surplus funds would be used for improvements and a nurse’s home.[27] The same group dispatched to place a value on the Albert Pike Hospital recommended that $150,000 instead be appropriated for the construction of an entirely new institution in McAlester.[28] Representative Jordan’s McAlester bill did advance to the state senate and as it did, he noted that his actual hope was for two hospitals to come into existence, with one to be located within the state penitentiary. Ultimately, the measure to purchase Albert Pike Hospital died in the state senate.[29]

Through its years in operation, Albert Pike Hospital had only a handful of superintendents. The first to arrive was Ida Norville. She left a position as superintendent of the Muskogee general hospital to oversee the transition from All Saints and the move to the old Masonic dormitory.[30] Norville left in July of 1929 in order to pursue post graduate studies in Tennessee.[31] Norville was followed by Julia Dalnwood, who may very well have saved the McAlester Scottish Rite Temple. In 1934 a fire erupted, believed to be the result of a carelessly tossed cigarette, which caused $5,000 in damage to the temple’s Blue Room. Dalnwood discovered the fire around 2:30AM as smoke began to pour through the tunnel that connected the hospital and the temple.[32] Rennie L. Moore of Ada became superintendent in 1938 and remained in that role until Albert Pike Hospital ceased operations. Active in the York Rite, he became Grand Commander of Knights Templar of Oklahoma in 1955.[33]

The state penitentiary at McAlester did eventually obtain the hospital that Representative Jordan had envisioned. Known as the Central State Hospital Annex, it was a branch of the Central State Hospital in Norman, which was an institution for the mentally ill.[34] By 1947 the state legislature was once again looking into providing money for a hospital in McAlester. This time, the Pittsburg County Medical Association was asking for $100,000 to equip the former Central State Hospital Annex, a 150-bed institution, and $75,000 for the next biennium to operate it, in order to meet the needs of McAlester. It was noted at this time that Albert Pike Hospital was looking to close its doors, but only if the state would open the former institution to the public.[35] Ultimately, the state legislature and the city of McAlester reached an agreement for creating a new hospital in the former Central State Hospital Annex and the McAlester General Hospital came into existence.[36] By September of 1950, the transfer of all patients from Albert Pike Hospital to McAlester General was complete.[37]

This was not the final chapter for the old Masonic dormitory though. From 1952 to 1972 the building returned to its original purpose, providing lodging for men attending the Scottish Rite Reunions. The structure was known as the Will Rogers Dormitory during this period. The building’s tenure came to an end in August of 1973 when it was demolished.[38] But a memory now, the Masonic dormitory that became Albert Pike Hospital was an important institution that provided for the needs of the community when healthcare in the far flung corners of Oklahoma was not easily had.

Aerial photograph of McAlester showing the expanded Scottish Rite Temple and Albert Pike Hospital, 1930

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[1]  Richard C. Rohrs, “Fort Gibson: Forgotten Glory,” in Early Military Forts and Posts in Oklahoma, ed. Odie B. Faulks, Kenny A. Franks, and Paul F. Lambert (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Historical Society, 1978), 26-31.

[2]  "Renovations set for historic Fort Gibson military hospital," Tahlequah Daily Press (Tahlequah, OK), Nov. 24, 2018.

[3]  Steven L. Sewell, "Coal-Mining Disasters," The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed April 26, 2020, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CO004.

[4]  Fred S. Clinton, "The First Hospital and Training School for Nurses in the Indian Territory, Now Oklahoma," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 25, no. 3 (1947): 219-221.

[5]  Clinton, 222.

[6]  "History," McAlester Regional Health Center, accessed April 26, 2020, https://www.mrhcok.com/welcome/history/.

[7]  Clinton, 222.

[8]  Ibid., 227.

[9]  "New Albert Pike Hospital," The Oklahoma Mason 17, no. 10 (1927): 2.

[10]  Mike Cathey, "Colonel William Busby: The man of the sesquicentennial," McAlester News-Capital (McAlester, OK), Dec. 27, 2019.

[11]   "New Albert Pike Hospital," The Oklahoma Mason.

[12]  Tom Crowl, "Albert Pike Hospital, before and after" (presentation, McAlester Scottish Rite Valley, July 29, 2013), https://youtu.be/U7Nm4bSFL94.

[13]   "New Albert Pike Hospital," The Oklahoma Mason.

[14]  "A.F. Stewart of Oklahoma City has been awarded...," The Allen Democrat (Allen, OK), Jul. 21, 1927.

[15]  "164 In Scottish Rite Class at McAlester," Miami Daily News-Record (Miami, OK), Oct. 13, 1927.

[16]  Crowl.

[17]  "New Albert Pike Hospital," The Oklahoma Mason.

[18]  Crowl.

[19]  "Thomas Named Head of Hospital Board," News-Capital and Democrat (McAlester, OK), Mar. 1, 1928.

[20]  "Hospital Planned for Crippled Children," The Allen Democrat (Allen, OK), Jul. 8, 1927.

[21]  "99 Crippled Kiddies From Tillman Co. Given Treatment," The Frederick Press (Frederick, OK), Feb. 6, 1942.

[22]  "Cushing is Again Upon Hospital List," The Cushing Daily Citizen (Cushing, OK), Oct. 14, 1938.

[23]  “The legislature in its closing days…,” The Big Pasture News (Grandfield, OK), Apr. 29, 1937.

[24]  “State Purchase of 2 Hospitals Sought,” The Oklahoma News (Oklahoma City, OK), Mar. 25, 1937.

[25]  “Plans to Buy State Clinics Draw Frowns,” The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK) Apr. 24, 1937.

[26]  “Hospital Deal,” Miami Daily News-Record (Miami, OK), Apr. 28, 1937.7

[27]  “Plans to Buy State Clinics Draw Frowns,” The Daily Oklahoman.

[28]  “Yesterday in the Legislature,” The Oklahoma News (Oklahoma City, OK), Apr. 29, 1937.

[29]  “Legislator Predicts 2 Hospitals to Grow Where One Is Planted,” The Oklahoma News (Oklahoma City, OK), May 5, 1937.

[30]  “State Briefs,” The Kiowa Chronicle (Kiowa, OK), Aug. 26, 1926.

[31]  “Superintendent At Albert Pike Hospital Resigns,” News-Capital and Democrat (McAlester, OK), May 23, 1929.

[32]  “McAlester Temple Damaged By Fire,” The Ada Weekly News (Ada, OK), Jan. 4, 1934.

[33]  “Ada Man Heads Pike Hospital At McAlester,” The Ada Weekly News (Ada, OK), Apr. 7, 1938.

[34]  Oklahoma Writers’ Program, Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1947), 303.

[35]  “Hospital Plans Hinge on Funds,” The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK), Feb. 15, 1947.

[36]  E.H. Shuller, "Medicine in Pittsburg County," The Tobucksy News 31, no. 3 (2014).

[37]  “Transfer of patients from the old Albert Pike Hospital…,” The Cushing Daily Citizen (Cushing, OK), Sep. 5, 1950.

[38]  Crowl.

A Bold and Ardent Friend: Grand Master Henry L. Muldrow

By T.S. Akers

Grand Master Henry L. Muldrow

Throughout the history of Freemasonry, there have been a handful of men who have left an indelible mark on the Fraternity in Oklahoma. Within our halls, there are names that are instantly recognizable throughout our jurisdiction. Men like Joseph S. Murrow, Harper S. Cunningham, and William Busby are either well known across the state or in their specific corners of influence. However, there is another name that should number among those men. In 1951 Charles Evans, former University of Tulsa president, said the following of this Oklahoma Mason, “One recognized in him that he would make a bold and ardent friend, or a dauntless, unyielding enemy.”[1] In Henry L.  Muldrow, Freemasonry found just the bold and ardent friend it needed in Oklahoma.

Known as “Hal,” Henry Lowndes Muldrow was born in Paducah, Kentucky, on October 12, 1872. His father was Major Robert Muldrow, a graduate of the first class of Mississippi State University who served in the state legislature as a young man representing Oktibbeha County before joining the Confederacy with Wirt Adams’ Mississippi Cavalry. Hal’s mother was Annie Oliver, the daughter of Simeon C. Oliver, former Governor of the State of Mississippi. Hal’s father died a year after he was born and at the age of eleven, he and his mother returned to Oktibbeha County, Mississippi. Hal went on to attend Mississippi A&M and then George Washington University where he earned a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1894.[2]

Shortly after graduation, Muldrow came to the Indian Territory with the U.S. Geological Survey where he assisted in establishing section lines in the Choctaw Nation. He went with the U.S. Geological Survey to Alaska in 1898 as a topographer for a party surveying the height of what was then known as Mount McKinley.[3] Muldrow returned to the Indian Territory and married Mary Daisy Fisher on April 12, 1899, at Tishomingo.[4] Miss Fisher was the daughter of David Osborn Fisher, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation and an adopted citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, who served in various tribal positions of importance as well as operating a mercantile.[5]

It was while with the U.S. Geological Survey in 1896 that Muldrow took the degrees of Freemasonry in South McAlester Lodge No. 81 (now No. 96). He was initiated an Entered Apprentice on April 3, passed to the degree of Fellowcraft on May 1, and raised to the degree of Master Mason on June 26.[6] After returning from Alaska and marrying, Muldrow established his residence in Tishomingo where he practiced law. He also pursued real estate interests and engaged in the buying and selling of cotton and gravel. When the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railway built a branch line from Haileyville through Tishomingo to Ardmore in 1901, Muldrow became the townsite agent.[7] He demitted from South McAlester Lodge No. 81 in 1902 and affiliated with Tishomingo Lodge No. 77 (now No. 91).[8]

In Tishomingo, Muldrow really began to devote himself to Freemasonry. He was elected Worshipful Master of Tishomingo Lodge for the year 1903 and would not vacate the East until the end of 1905. During this period, Muldrow was elected Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory. He proceeded through the progressive officer line, becoming Grand Master of Indian Territory in 1908.[9] A member of the Scottish Rite at McAlester, having received those degrees in 1902 at Washington, D.C., Muldrow was coroneted a 33^rd Degree at the age of thirty-seven in 1909. He was a charter member of Tishomingo Chapter No. 40, R.A.M. (chartered April 12, 1904), and a charter member of Tishomingo Council No. 9, R. & S.M. (chartered April 19, 1905). Muldrow was knighted in Ardmore Commandery No. 9, K.T. in 1904.[10]

With statehood for Oklahoma arriving in November of 1907, the state then had two grand lodges for the Twin Territories operating within its borders. A fair portion of Muldrow’s 1908 term as Grand Master of Indian Territory was devoted to the issue of uniting the two jurisdictions. On February 9, 1909, the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory assembled as her own entity for the final time at McAlester. There, Muldrow delivered the following remarks on what was to come:

… the new Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma, which under all human probability will be organized tomorrow, will not be any greater, any prouder, any more willing and anxious to do that for which it is organized than this one but with the majority of my brethren I believe that the best interest of all is better served by the union of the two Grand Lodges now within this State and I rejoice that the union will but unite noble-hearted men in closer communication in the Great Brotherhood.[11]

The next day, representatives of the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory travelled by train to Guthrie for the special convention to form the new Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma. When his grand lodge was formed in 1874, Muldrow was but a toddler. Alive then, but not present that day, was Joseph S. Murrow, the “Father of Freemasonry in Oklahoma.” Murrow became the second Grand Master of Indian Territory in 1877. At the age of seventy-four, Murrow would assume another important role, this time as secretary of the convention to form the new grand lodge.[12] As the day concluded, the Craft united as one grand body chose Henry L. Muldrow as the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma.[13]

Past Grand Master Jewel of Henry L. Muldrow, c. 1910

(From the collections of the McAlester Scottish Rite)

While Muldrow’s first term in the Grand East as the last Grand Master of Indian Territory was occupied with some very serious administrative duties, he found his second term in the Grand East as the first Grand Master of the State of Oklahoma to be equally as well occupied. One major task of combining two grand jurisdictions was establishing a uniform ritual for the degrees. This task fell to a committee comprised of Grand Lecturer David D. Hoag, William M. Anderson, and William A. McBride.[14] During a Special Communication held over the course of two days at McAlester, beginning on February 8, 1910, the three degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry for the jurisdiction of the State of Oklahoma were conferred upon a series of candidates and adopted as the ritualistic work.[15] One man assisting with the degree conferrals was Joseph S. Murrow. He would himself be tasked with preparing a Masonic monitor for the new grand lodge, the written ritualistic work.[16] With the assistance of William M. Anderson, “The Murrow Masonic Monitor” was completed and remains in use today.

Muldrow’s most important administrative task surrounded the Masonic Children’s Home. In 1888 the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory had resolved to “raise funds therefor and secure legal title to a suitable body of land on which to erect a Masonic Orphanage.”[17] By 1907, temporary accommodations had been secured for the Masonic orphanage at the Murrow Indian Orphans’ Home in Atoka.[18] It was discovered in 1909 that the old Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian School Reservation at Darlington, four miles west of El Reno, was being offered to the city of El Reno for the appraised value of $73,288.41. Muldrow convinced the city of El Reno to relinquish its option to purchase the 634 acres and secured access for the Masonic orphans to the city high school. Muldrow’s work required visits to Washington, D.C., in order to help usher a bill through Congress allowing the Fraternity to purchase the property. With the sponsorship of Representative Dick T. Morgan and Senator Robert L. Owen (a Brother Mason), the bill made it out of committee, but not without help. Thanks to Brother J.H. Shephard of South McAlester Lodge No. 96, who was assistant to the Attorney General of the United States, the bill received the approval of the Department of Interior and did not become stalled in committee. The bill, which required three separate payments for the property, was passed by Congress in January of 1910.[19] Darlington would house the Masonic Home until it moved to Guthrie in 1922.

To help with the mission of Oklahoma A&M at Stillwater, a series of subsidiary schools were established at Tishomingo, Lawton, and Warner. Muldrow was made president of the college located at Tishomingo, but he did not remain in that city for much longer. He moved to Norman in 1914 and soon went to work for the Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company, remaining in their employ for forty years. In Norman, Muldrow began to serve on the Board of Education. Active in Democratic politics, he also managed two gubernatorial campaigns, which resulted in his appointment to the Board of Regents for the University of Oklahoma.[20]

Muldrow’s tenure on the Board of Regents saw him advocate for the Regents to not become involved with the powers and prerogatives of the university president. He also demanded that the Regents resist the overreach of elected officials in meddling with the business of the university, the campus was often susceptible to political whims.[21] While a Regent, Muldrow saw a need for housing for young Masons and the children of Masons who were attending the University of Oklahoma and proposed the idea to the McAlester Scottish Rite Valley[22]. It was reported that 184 young men on campus were Masons and that 484 boys and 463 girls were the children of Masons.[23] The Albert Pike Lodge of Perfection at McAlester purchased two plots of land in 1919 for $17,200 to erect dormitories on. The site that would become the boys’ dormitory was located at the corner of Boyd and University. What was to become the girls’ dormitory was located on the same block, north of what was then the Delta Delta Delta sorority house.[24] While the girls’ dormitory did not come to fruition, the cornerstone for the boys’ dormitory, known simply as the Masonic Dormitory, was laid on October 11, 1920.[25] The building opened in 1921 with accommodations for 135 students. Each pair of rooms was equipped with disappearing beds and an adjoining study room, providing living quarters for four young men. There was a lodge room located on the fourth floor, in the wing behind the tower, for use by the local DeMolay and Acacia chapters.[26] The total construction cost for the building was $250,000.[27]

Masonic Dormitory at the University of Oklahoma

(Courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society)

Muldrow also had another moment of note arise while serving as a Regent, this time involving one of the university’s four original professors. Edwin C. DeBarr arrived in Norman in the autumn of 1892 to teach chemistry. DeBarr came to be well liked by his students and rose to prominence in Masonic circles. He was the eleventh Worshipful Master of Norman Lodge No. 38 and the first High Priest of Lion Chapter No. 24, R.A.M.; even serving as Grand Prelate of the Grand Commandery Knights Templar of Oklahoma in 1902.[28] Unfortunately, DeBarr was also involved with the Ku Klux Klan, eventually holding the position of Grand Dragon of Oklahoma and later Imperial Kludd.[29] DeBarr had in time become vice president of the university and when President Stratton D. Brooks was away from campus in August of 1922, DeBarr called for his fellow Klansmen to vote for Klansman Robert H. Wilson for governor.[30] Wilson was the state Superintendent of Public Education in 1917 when the campus’ new chemistry building was erected and named DeBarr Hall.[31] DeBarr’s actions were in direct violation of a decree issued by the Board of Regents banning faculty from becoming involved in the pro and anti-Klan politics of the day.[32] As Chairman of the Board of Regents, Muldrow called for DeBarr’s dismissal from the faculty. The Regents ultimately recommended that Debarr not retain his position as vice president. The gubernatorial election did not end well for DeBarr though, his candidate lost, five brand new Regents were appointed, and DeBarr was removed from the faculty at the University of Oklahoma in the summer of 1923.[33]

In October of 1929, the stock market crashed in the United States, thrusting the world into what would become known as the Great Depression. It became evident that Masonic relief would be needed and here Muldrow saw an opportunity for something good to be created. In 1929 the Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma had appropriated $80,000 for the Masonic Home, which was overseeing Masonic relief. The Home, which included children and adults in two separate locations now, had two hundred residents and a total of $13,329 was spent that year for the relief of those outside of the Home. The problem being faced was that while the Grand Lodge received donations and bequests by will, this all went into a general fund with an annual appropriation for Masonic relief. As applications for relief were numbering in the hundreds and climbing, it could very well take the entirety of the annual revenue to care for those requiring assistance. In 1930 Muldrow and a special committee brought a resolution before Grand Lodge that read in part:

…for the particular purpose of receiving, segregating and securing proper and efficient management, control, and use of such donations, gifts and bequests, as are properly intended for the financial support of our Masonic Homes and Masonic relief, and for the further purpose of encouraging charity, benevolence, education and philanthropy… there shall be created, incorporated and organized a holding company, or Masonic Charity Foundation.[34]

Upon adoption of the resolution, Muldrow became the Executive Secretary of the new foundation, a position he held until his death.[35] By 1932 the Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma had a net worth of $59,858.33.[36] Today, the Foundation’s net assets exceed $90,000,000.

Muldrow also worked to spread further Masonic light in helping to organize the Red Cross of Constantine in Oklahoma, an invitational Masonic order for those who have made noteworthy contributions to the Fraternity. He remained committed to lifelong learning and spent ten years on the Board of Directors of the Oklahoma Historical Society, depositing a collection of annual proceedings of various Oklahoma Masonic orders in their archives.[37] Henry L. Muldrow passed away on May 16, 1951, and was laid to rest in the IOOF Cemetery of Norman, Oklahoma.[38] The fall Reunion of the McAlester Scottish Rite Valley that year, held September 22-23, was conducted in Muldrow’s honor. The two hundred men who took their 32^nd Degree that day became known as “The Henry Lowndes Muldrow Class.”[39] It was a fitting memorial for a great Oklahoma Mason.

 Muldrow family grave marker at the Norman IOOF Cemetery

---

[1]  Charles Evans, "Henry Lowndes Muldrow," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 29, no. 4 (1951-1952): 394.

[2]  Evans, 394-395.

[3]  J. Fred Latham, The Story of Oklahoma Masonry: The First Seventy-Five Years of Symbolic Masonry 1874-1949 (Guthrie: Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, 1978), 201.

[4]  Evans, 395.

[5]  Harry F. O'Beirne, Leaders and Leading Men of the Indian Territory: With Interesting Biographical Sketches (Chicago: American Publishers Association, 1891), 1: 36-37.

[6]  Latham, 200.

[7]  Evans, 395.

[8]  Latham, 200.

[9]  Ibid., 200.

[10]  William E. Godfrey, ed., Grand Masters of Oklahoma (Oklahoma Lodge of Research, 1975), 31.

[11]  Proceedings of the M.: W.: Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of the Indian Territory: Thirty-Sixth Annual Communication (Guthrie, Okla.: The State Capital Company, 1909), 38.

[12]  Proceedings of the M.: W.: Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of Oklahoma: Seventeenth Annual Communication (Guthrie, 1909), 199.

[13]  Oklahoma: Seventeenth Annual Communication, 236.

[14]  Proceedings of the M.: W.: Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of the State of Oklahoma: Second Annual Communication (Guthrie, 1910), 49.

[15]  Latham, 293.

[16]  State of Oklahoma: Second Annual Communication, 147.

[17]  Proceedings of the M.: W.: Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of the Indian Territory: Fourteenth Annual Communication (Muskogee, Ind. Ter.: Phoenix Steam Printing Company, 1888), 23.

[18]  William H. Phelps, Memories: Oklahoma Masonic Children’s Home (Oklahoma Lodge of Research, 1995), 1.

[19]  State of Oklahoma: Second Annual Communication, 84-86.

[20]  Evans, 396.

[21]  Ibid., 396.

[22]  "Masonic Dormitory Sets Pace for U.S.," The Daily Transcript (Norman, OK), October 19, 1919, https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc114177/m1/1/.

[23]  "The Beautiful Masonic Dormitory," The Daily Transcript (Norman, OK), January 1, 1920, https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc114238/m1/2/.

[24]  "Masons Purchase Two Building Sites on University Boulevard," The Daily Transcript (Norman, OK), November 6, 1919, https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc114193/m1/1/.

[25]  Robert T. Shipe, Cornerstones by Grand Lodges, A.F. & A.M. in Oklahoma: 1875-2015 (Guthrie: Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma, 2016), 423.

[26]  Elisha A. Paschall, "Masonic Dormitory is Completed: Beautiful Structure at Oklahoma University is Campus Home for Masons and Sons of Masons," The Acacia Journal 16, no. 1 (1921): 61, https://books.google.com/books?id=dXTorvYplfsC&pg=PP7#v=onepage&q&f=false.

[27]  "Norman Building is Over Million, Says O.U. Publicity Man," The Daily Transcript (Norman, OK), June 27, 1920, https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc114381/m1/4/.

[28]  Oklahoma Templary (vertical file, T.S. Akers Private Collection).

[29]  David W. Levy, “The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall of Edwin (“Daddy”) DeBarr,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma 88, no. 3 (2010): 298.

[30]  Levy, 299.

[31]  Ibid., 293.

[32]  Ibid., 298.

[33]  Ibid., 300-302.

[34]  Proceedings of the M.: W.: Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of the State of Oklahoma: Twenty-Second Annual Communication (Guthrie, 1930), 203-205.

[35]  Evans, 397.

[36]  Proceedings of the M.: W.: Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of the State of Oklahoma: Twenty-Fourth Annual Communication (Guthrie, 1932), 216-217.

[37]  Evans, 397-399.

[38]  Latham, 200.

[39]  Evans, 400.