Freemasonry arrived in what would become Oklahoma in 1824 when Colonel Matthew Arbuckle, a Mason, established Fort Gibson at the confluence of the Grand and Arkansas Rivers, in order to maintain peace between the Osage and Cherokees who would cross into Osage country from Arkansas.[5] The first full scale emigration of the Five Tribes occurred in 1827 when roughly 700 Creeks led by Chilly McIntosh made their way west in the wake of the Treaty of Indian Springs. Known as the McIntosh Party for their support of Chief William McIntosh in his ceding of Creek lands for land west of the Mississippi, these Creeks settled in the Three Forks area near Fort Gibson.[6] The Western or Old Settler Cherokees were removed from Arkansas the following year.[7] It is estimated that the Indian Removal Act of 1830 would see over 58,000 members of the Five Tribes either emigrate or be forcibly removed to the Indian Territory. The 1839 Act of Union brought together the Western Cherokees, formerly of Arkansas, and the recently removed Cherokees as the Cherokee Nation, establishing their capital at Tahlequah.[8] It was here on November 9, 1848, that Cherokee Lodge No. 21 was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Arkansas. The members of Cherokee Lodge were granted land by the Cherokee National Council for their first permanent lodge hall in 1852. They erected a two-story structure within a year, which was shared with the Sons of Temperance.[9] Additional Lodges, with primarily indigenous membership, that were chartered included Choctaw Lodge No. 52, Flint Lodge No. 74, and Muscogee Lodge No. 93.[10]
The Civil War would interrupt Freemasonry in the Indian Territory and it was particularly devastating to the region. An anonymous writer for the Indian Journal recalled the situation in 1878, writing:
At the close of the war families were again gathered together only to find their farms, desolate, their homes burned, their fences destroyed, their fields overrun with weeds, their church and school buildings even burned.[11]
All of the Five Tribes became embroiled in the conflict and Masonic activity in the region ceased. The proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas make note of lodges being destroyed as Federal troops moved through that state.[12] The lodges of Indian Territory were carried on the rolls of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas through the Civil War, though no dues payments or annual reports were being sent to Arkansas. By 1865, the Indian Territory lodges were considered to be in default. To remedy this, they were required to provide copies of their charters, to prove they still existed, and remit their outstanding dues by June 1, 1866, or their charters would be withdrawn. Having received no response by the given date, the Grand Lodge of Arkansas withdrew the charters of Cherokee, Choctaw, and Muscogee Lodges in 1867.[13]At a settlement known as Boggy Depot, Freemasonry sprang to life again in the Indian Territory with the establishment of Oklahoma Lodge No. 217 by the Grand Lodge of Arkansas in 1868. This was done under the direction of the Baptist Missionary Joseph S. Murrow, who would go on to be a charter member of the first of numerous Masonic orders in the Indian Territory, including Indian Chapter No. 1 of Royal Arch Masons at McAlester, Oklahoma Council No. 1 of Royal and Select Masters at Atoka, and Muskogee Commandery No. 1 of Knights Templar.[14] The other Lodges that existed prior to the Civil War began to function as well. Cherokee Lodge No. 21 attempted to put its affairs in order with the Grand Lodge of Arkansas in 1870, but their request for reinstatement was denied under the premise that their lodge number had been reassigned and no further attempts to regain a charter from Arkansas were made. The Brethren of Choctaw Lodge No. 52 at Doaksville near Fort Towson received a new charter to operate as Doaksville Lodge No. 279 in 1871. Caddo Lodge No. 311 was another new lodge in the Choctaw Nation, chartered in 1873. The Brethren of Flint Lodge No. 74, who had moved their charter to Wilsonville, Arkansas, during the War, returned to the Cherokee Nation in October of 1873.[15] Muscogee Lodge had reconvened in the second story of a mercantile operated by a member at Eufaula.[16] The Brethren labored diligently until early 1874 when they journeyed to Little Rock, Arkansas, to make payment for all accounts due and insure their charter was valid.[17] Unfortunately, Muscogee Lodge’s original number had been reassigned by the Grand Lodge of Arkansas and a new charter was issued as Muscogee Lodge No. 90.[18] This is interesting as Cherokee Lodge was denied reinstatement owing to their lodge number being reassigned. Cherokee Lodge Historian George W. Moser speculated that the true reason for the denial was owing to large factions of Cherokees supporting the Union during the Civil War.[19]
The Worshipful Master of Caddo Lodge No. 311 in 1874 was a printer named Granville McPherson. He had taken the degrees of Freemasonry in Arkansas and had helped to organize the Scottish Rite bodies at Little Rock. With there being six lodges chartered in the Indian Territory, he felt the time was right to organize a grand lodge.[20] McPherson’s own grand jurisdiction of Arkansas was itself formed from just three lodges in 1838.[21] He first wrote to Alpha Lodge No. 122 located at Fort Gibson, which had been chartered by Kansas, and they rejected the idea of forming a grand lodge. Similarly, Oklahoma Lodge No. 217 and Flint Lodge No. 74, both chartered by Arkansas, were not interested in forming a grand lodge. Without consulting the Grand Lodges of Kansas or Arkansas, McPherson proceeded and on October 5, 1874, the representatives of Muscogee Lodge No. 90, Doaksville Lodge No. 279, and Caddo Lodge No. 311 met in Caddo to form the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory, with McPherson as Grand Master.[22] The formation of the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory was duly announced by dispatching copies of the proceedings to every Grand Lodge in the United States and Territories, as well as Canada, Nova Scotia, and Mexico.[23] It appears that the august occasion may not have been news to the Grand Master of Arkansas though. Joseph S. Murrow of Oklahoma Lodge No. 217 was opposed to the formation of a grand lodge and had called for the Grand Master to intervene. Based on the lack of action, it appears that Murrow’s plea was ignored.[24]
While Oklahoma Lodge No. 217 did not participate in forming the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory, it willingly joined with that grand jurisdiction on May 12, 1875, as Oklahoma Lodge No. 4.[25] It is possible that their senior statesmen, Joseph S. Murrow, precipitated this move owing to the lack of action by the Grand Master of Arkansas to prevent the formation of the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory. Either way, bringing the remaining two lodges in the Indian Territory into the fold and securing recognition by other grand lodges would not prove as easy, even though Grand Master McPherson believed otherwise, stating:
It is with pleasure I am able to make the announcement that nearly all the Grand Lodges which have met since then have formally recognized and cordially welcomed us into the Grand Masonic sisterhood. Those that have not will doubtless do so in their own good time; when we have proved ourselves worthy of it.[26]
The Grand Lodges of the United States, and of the whole world, will take a deeper interest in us than has ever been manifested for any Grand Body within the limits of the Great Republic; from the fact that we are the first Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ever organized by the aborigines of North America. Many, who are ignorant of the situation of affairs in this country, will look upon us with grave doubts and misgivings; while others, more familiar with us and our advanced stage of civilization, will watch us closely, though at the same time feel confident of our ability to sustain ourselves in the proud position we have assumed. It but remains for us, brethren, to do our duty, prove ourselves worthy of the confidence, and finally win a high place in the noble sisterhood of Grand Lodges.[28]
To the preeminent Oklahoma Masonic Historian Charles E. Creager, race was a reason why other grand lodges were slow to provide recognition to Indian Territory. History has shown that the indigenous peoples of North America have frequently been viewed as inferior. Writing in 1935, he said:
The Indians were misunderstood and unappreciated. True, where Indian Masons were known, they were respected and honored. The Eastern and Southern and Northern Masons had not enjoyed the opportunity of meeting such men. So a Grand Lodge in an Indian country, composed largely of ‘savages,’ and ‘heathen,’ and ‘barbarians’ was next to unthinkable by the staid dignitaries of such Grand Lodges as Maine and Maryland.[31]
There is a class of reckless white adventurers in this Territory. Some of these have perhaps been Masons somewhere, perhaps expelled, at best irregular and unreliable. These are troubling our lodges no little.[32]
The only argument that we have seen against the regularity of the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory, is presented by Brother Brown of Kansas.[40]
For the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory, obtaining recognition from Kansas was going to be a more difficult nut to crack. The three lodges that had formed the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory - Muscogee, Doaksville, and Caddo - had all been chartered by Arkansas. Flint Lodge, which had come under fire due to Indian Territory’s jurisdictional dispute, was also an Arkansas lodge. However, the remaining lodge in Indian Territory not yet brought into the fold, Alpha Lodge at Fort Gibson, was a Kansas lodge. Naturally, the members of Alpha Lodge were not pleased to learn that the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory had declared them clandestine for not surrendering their Kansas charter. Writing to the Grand Lodge of Kansas in 1876, it was determined that Alpha Lodge would continue to adhere to that grand jurisdiction as Kansas chose not to recognize Indian Territory.[43] Alpha Lodge itself, under the leadership of their Worshipful Master Patrick J. Byrne, adopted a resolution addressing the status of the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory, reading in part:
The Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge established, has, we are informed, no legal status as a citizen of Indian country, and is liable, in common with some other officers of that Lodge, to be removed beyond its limits, at any time by the direction of the President of the United States…[44]
The Grand Lodge of Indian Territory, in efforts to bolster its fraternal standing, continued to recognize and extend fraternal relations to other grand jurisdictions. In 1881 the Grand Lodge of New South Wales was granted recognition.[49] A recent addition to the Masonic landscape of Indian Territory was Capitular Masonry with the first Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, Indian Chapter, being established at McAlester in 1878.[50] When the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory convened in 1889, Companions present representing the now five Royal Arch Chapters of Indian Territory discussed forming a Grand Chapter and prepared the appropriate petition to be made to the General Grand Chapter. The General Grand High Priest, Noble D. Larner, flatly refused to consider the petition from the Companions of Indian Territory.[51] Even with all the progress that had been made, the Masons of Indian Territory were still being looked down upon. Joseph S. Murrow journeyed to the triennial convocation of the General Grand Chapter at Atlanta, Georgia, in November of 1889 to advocate for a charter to form a grand chapter. In Atlanta, issues of clandestine Masons in Indian Territory were being discussed as to why a charter should not be granted. There was the case of Isaac W. Stone at Caddo Lodge, but also another involving a Jeff C. Johnson at Elm Springs Lodge. Johnson was admitted to membership in Elm Springs Lodge by a petition of affiliation, but no demit accompanied the petition to prove from whence he came, an error on the part of Elm Springs Lodge that briefly resulted in the suspension of their charter.[52] One Companion at the triennial convocation even remarked, “…the ethical tendencies of the Masons out in that wild country, hardly commend them to membership in such a Body as this.”[53] Murrow, denied an audience with the Committee on Charters and Dispensations, took to the convocation floor to plead the case for Capitular Masonry in Indian Territory. Before the entire gathering of Royal Arch Masons, Murrow stood and addressed the Companions thus:
Capitular Masonry has not grown apace with our Symbolic Lodges in Indian Territory, because you are too far away, you have so little sympathy with us, you do not care to understand us and our problems. We might have grown if there had been some source of encouragement to organize Chapters and keep them going. All the interest this General Grand Chapter seems to have in us lies in the amount of our remittances in dues! And, pardon me, Companions, if I speak frankly, you do not seem to offer us much for what we pay! I do not lay the charge at your door, but it is possible that there are some here who are calculating enough to observe that as a subordinate Chapters, we are paying fifty cents per member per year! While you Grand Chapters pay one cent per member per year! And I submit in the name of justice and right, that we have not received fifty times as much benefit as you have! Nay, Companions, we receive very, very little![54]
By the 1890s, Indian Territory was distancing itself from the lawless place it had been described as for some time. The Choctaw Nation that Charles Portis’ Rooster Cogburn set out into to bring Tom Chaney to justice was becoming a memory. Storefronts in cities such as Eufaula and McAlester were more often stone and brick rather than wood and canvas. The year 1889 saw the establishment of the federal court at Muskogee, a jurisdiction previously overseen by Fort Smith.[56] In November of 1892, Grand Master Leo Bennett presided over a convention in Oklahoma City for the formation of a Grand Lodge of Oklahoma Territory.[57] Exercising that level of control over the subordinate lodges and at the same time encouraging them to form a new jurisdiction in a newly established territory is probably the manner in which the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory should have been formed, a manner that may have prevented the issues with gaining recognition. In 1893 the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory received a beautiful token from the Grand Lodge of Ireland. In addition to receiving recognition as a legitimate grand lodge, nineteen years after being formed, the Grand Lodge of Ireland appointed John Coyle as their representative near the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory. Coyle, a native of Scotland, was presented an impressive grand representative jewel, which has since been deposited with the McAlester Scottish Rite Valley. Coyle became Grand Master of Indian Territory in 1894.[58] While the way it was born caused considerable consternation among some grand jurisdictions, the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory proved itself worthy in time. It continued to do so through statehood in Oklahoma in 1907, culminating with the successful merger of the Grand Lodges of Indian and Oklahoma Territories to form the Grand Lodge of the State of Oklahoma in 1909.
