By T.S. Akers
Housed within the collections of the McAlester Scottish Rite Valley are a variety of objects, most of which serve some practical purpose as paraphernalia of Freemasonry and some of which have further stories to tell. One particular item is a ceremonial trowel inscribed:
Grand Council
of
Royal and Select Masters
of Oklahoma
Austin R. Stough
Grand Master
1956
Altar Trowel of Austin R. Stough
(From the collections of the McAlester Scottish Rite)
A trowel is an instrument made use of by operative masons to spread the cement which unites a building into one common mass. This particular ceremonial trowel served as part of the altar set of Companion Stough during his tenure as Illustrious Grand Master of Royal and Select Masters of Oklahoma. This trowel, along with the Square and Compasses and a small sword would have been placed upon the Holy Bible during tyled Masonic meetings.
The story of
Austin R. Stough does not simply end there though. The piece elicits further
questions. Who was Austin R. Stough and why does this trowel now reside in
McAlester?
Austin R. Stough
Illustrious Grand Master of Royal and Select Masters of Oklahoma
1956-1957
Austin R.
Stough was born in Geary, Oklahoma, on July 21, 1910. He went on to graduate
from the University of Oklahoma in 1932 and then attended the University of
Tennessee Medical School. He came to settle in McAlester and began a private
practice in 1939.[i]
Stough took
the degrees of Freemasonry in South McAlester Lodge No. 96, being initiated an
Entered Apprentice on December 9, 1945, and raised to the degree of Master
Mason in February of 1946. He joined the York Rite soon thereafter, holding
membership in Indian Chapter No. 1 Royal Arch Masons, Union Council No. 3 Royal
and Select Masters, and McAlester Commandery No. 6 Knights Templar. Stough also
joined the McAlester Valley of the Scottish Rite in 1946.[ii]
As the
Oklahoma representative to the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Ireland,
Stough was given the distinction of Honorary Past Grand High Priest of Ireland.
He was also a member of Joseph of Arimathea Tabernacle of the Holy Royal Arch
Knights Templar Priests. Stough had the distinction of being the first
Illustrious Grand Master of Royal and Select Masters of Oklahoma to be born in
Oklahoma.[iii]
By all
accounts, Stough was an active and upstanding Freemason in McAlester; but his
Masonic career only tells half the story of who Austin R. Stough was. By 1939,
he was serving as physician on a part-time basis at the State Penitentiary. It
was there that Stough embarked upon a new business venture with several
pharmaceutical companies to conduct voluntary drug tests on inmates. While the
inmates who participated in the studies were compensated a dollar a day, the
payoff for Stough proved much larger. He soon expanded into other state
prisons, ultimately conducting 25 to 50 percent of initial drug trials in the
United States up to 1964. Stough would ultimately move into plasma collection
in the prisons of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Alabama.[iv]
Stough was
able grow his plasma collection business outside of the state prison of
Oklahoma by bringing prison physicians in Arkansas and Alabama onto his payroll.
Operating under at least nine separate entities, Stough was grossing $1 million
a year providing roughly a fourth of the nation’s plasma supply.[v]
The
conditions under which Stough’s plasma collection operated quickly came under
scrutiny. He began plasma collection at the state prison in McAlester in March
of 1962. On September 19 of the same year, a technician working for Stough drew
blood from an Oklahoma inmate whose blood type was O-positive. Once the plasma
was drawn off, the technician re-injected the inmate with another man’s cells.
Unfortunately, that blood was A-negative and the inmate suffered organ damage.[vi]
Cutter
Laboratories, a consumer of Stough’s plasma, once noted that gross
contamination was apparent in Stough’s operation, with the collection rooms
being sloppy. This did not stop Cutter Laboratories from doing business with
Stough though, as he had contacts with well-placed officials that could
continue to provide access to a plasma donor pool. When Oklahoma legislators
began to investigate if Stough was operating within the law, he retained the
services of McAlester attorney, and State Senator, Gene Stipe for $1,000 a
month. A law protecting Stough’s plasma collection was soon pushed through the
Legislature.[vii]
In 1964, the
conditions in which Stough operated his plasma collection venture came into
serious question. At the Kilby prison in Alabama, one tenth of the population
contracted viral hepatitis as a result of giving plasma. At least four inmates
in Alabama died of hepatitis, one in Arkansas, and one in Oklahoma. Ultimately,
the three states in which Stough operated closed their prison doors to him, but
continued to collect plasma from inmates.[viii]
Stough faced
no real repercussions for the disease his operation spread or the deaths he
caused. He opened a private plasma collection center in Birmingham, Alabama,
and a second in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1968. Stough moved the headquarters of
Stough Enterprises to Cincinnati that year, though he would die shortly
thereafter in 1972. In 1994, Stough Enterprises acquired the Hanke Building in
Cincinnati, with renovation plans to include a bar called the Cell Block.[ix] Perhaps this was a nod to
the company’s prison beginnings.
Freemasonry
teaches a system of ethics and morality designed to help men become good role
models to their family, their community, and their friends. Stough sought to
provide a much needed service to the country with his plasma collection. In
this way, he attempted to be a good role model. In Freemasonry, to Guard the West Gate
means to be diligent in who is allowed into the Craft. But as a Freemason, one
should also work to Guard the West Gate of their own bodily temple. In this
way, Stough sacrificed much in the pursuit of fortune.
[i] Proceedings
of the Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of Oklahoma: 63rd
Annual Assembly (Oklahoma: Masonic Home Boys, 1957).
[ii] Proceedings
of the Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of Oklahoma: 63rd
Annual Assembly.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Walter Rugaber, “Prison Drug and Plasma
Projects Leave Fatal Trail,” The New York
Times (New York City, NY), July 29, 1969.
[v] Rugaber.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Ibid.
[ix] Dan Monk, “Infusion of real estate adds to
Stough’s growth; Stough Enterprises Inc,” Cincinnati
Business Courier (Cincinnati, OH), April 10, 1998.
