By T.S. Akers
The museum of the McAlester
Scottish Rite Valley remains an active collecting institution and there are still
Masonic treasures to be had. As such, we are always interested in Masonic items
of note. One new such piece to find its way to us is this Scottish Rite flag,
bearing the 32nd Degree eagle.
The flag itself is simple, a four
by six affair of standard cotton with an applique eagle. But it has three
different unique ties to Scottish Rite Masonry in McAlester. The first being
that it flew over our Scottish Rite Temple at some point.
The flag was produced by McDowell
Brothers Uniform and Graduate Supply Company of Oklahoma City. The McDowell
Brothers were Harold K. McDowell and George E. McDowell, both of whom were graduates
of the University of Oklahoma. Harold had been superintendent of schools in
Lambert and Burlington, Oklahoma, from 1924 to 1930.[1]
George briefly taught school in McLoud beginning in 1931, before going to work
for J.C. Penney. In 1935 the two went into business together, supplying academic
and fraternal regalia for forty years.[2]
Harold was a member of Oklahoma City Lodge No. 36.[3]
His brother George was a member of Amity Lodge No. 473. Both were members of
the McAlester Scottish Rite Valley.[4]
While only a handful of regalia
houses exist nationwide today suppling Masonic goods, it is interesting that
there was a period when Oklahoma Masons could locally purchase some of the fraternal
goods they needed. At least one example of the McDowell Brothers’ academic regalia
exists today, a set of doctoral robes that belonged to Dr. Roy Herbert Cantrell,
former president of what was then Bethany Nazarene College in Oklahoma
(Southern Nazarene University today).[5]
The flag came back to the McAlester
Scottish Rite Valley by way of the daughter of Carl Tannehill, a McAlester
Scottish Rite Mason. Tannehill had purchased the flag from the estate of Edwin
T. Richards, a prominent McAlester Mason who had served on the committee responsible
for erecting the fabled Mount Moriah Masonic Temple. Richards died in 1963 and
based on the construction of the flag, it likely saw service at our temple in
the 1930s or 40s.[6]
[1] "Harold McDowell," The Daily
Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK), October 12, 1972,
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27877132/1972-obit-harold-mcdowell/.
[2] "George E. McDowell," The Daily
Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK), July 2, 1999,
https://oklahoman.com/article/2659008/george-e-mcdowell.
[3] “Harold McDowell.”
[4] “George E. McDowell.”
[5] "Roy H. Cantrell Academic Regalia,"
Northwest Nazarene University Collections, accessed December 4, 2020,
https://nnu.whdl.org/roy-h-cantrell-academic-regalia.
[6] “Ed Richards Rites Are Set for Saturday,” The
McAlester News-Capital (McAlester, OK), June 14, 1963.
