The History of Mannford Masonic Lodge

The Masonic Lodge has been an important part of Mannford's history since it was chartered on February 28, 1924. Many, if not most, of the leaders of the town have been Masons. The Lodge is a combination civic organization, charitable group and men's fraternity.

The original charter members included the following:

William A. Barron

Charles F. Carothers

James Henry Carothers

Matthew A. Clegg

Lovell Clark Clifford

Robert Chalmer Cline

Francis Marion Coonrod

Tommie R. Crane

Cecil Eugene Fox

Joseph Wade Gwathney

Bertie Irwin Greenwood

John Wesley Hesterlee

James Hinton

Vernon Harl Hinton

Robert Exum Holmes

Daniel W. Johnson

Clarence Randle McDonald

Thomas Edward Mann

Clarence Willard Newell

Reece Reed

David R. Robinson

Ernest E. Roop

Officers of that first Lodge included Clarence McDonald as Worshipful Master, Lovell Clifford as Senior Warden and Clarence Newell as Junior Warden.

Mannford Lodge has been in operation continuously since that first meeting in 1924. For many years, they met in a room above the Mannford Mercantile in the old town. When it was announced that the town was moving, they started a series of fundraisers and raised enough money to build a new building where it now stands at 106 E. Cimarron Street. In May 1962, the land was acquired and construction began. Grand Master Carson Scott of the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma conducted the cornerstone ceremony in 1964.

Keystone Lodge No. 348 had been chartered in December 1906. When it was decided to build Keystone Lake and the town of Keystone decided not to move, the Lodge there was consolidated with Mannford Lodge No. 515. This took place on December 5, 1961 by order of the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma.

One of Mannford Lodge's outstanding Masons was Eugene (Gene) Fields, a full blood Creek Indian, who became a Mason in 1965 and served as Worshipful Master of the Lodge in 1971. For about twenty years, he was Director of the Oklahoma Indian Masonic Degree Team. This team traveled Worldwide and conferred over eight hundred Master Mason degrees around the globe. Gene was also the first Mannford Mason to be honored by being made a 33^rd Degree Mason, an level few Masons achieve.

In 2001 the Lodge found that it had outgrown the original building and a plan was formulated to add a dining room onto the southwest corner. Construction was started in July and the exterior was largely completed within four months. Most Worshipful Robert Shipe, Grand Master of tThe Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, conducted the cornerstone ceremony on October 5, 200I.

New Wing Being Added

In November, 2010, at the annual communication of the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, Mannford’s own Glenn Almy was elected to become Grand Master of the State of Oklahoma for the following year. For 2011, he was the highest ranking Mason in the State. Glenn joined Mannford Lodge in 1973 and has held many local and state offices, both before and after his year as Grand Master.

Most Worshipful Glenn Almy

Another Mannford Mason was well known in Masonic circles throughout the State. Jesse Swift served the Lodge for almost fifty one years before his death in March, 2016. Four months earlier he had been awarded the Masonic Medal of Honor, the highest award an Oklahoma Mason can receive. Like Glenn Almy, Jesse had served in several offices, both local and state, and he was a 33^rd Degree Mason.

Projects supported for the past few years include scholarships for Mannford Seniors, awards for Students and Teachers of Today, the Mannford Giving Tree, the Ag Boosters Club, and many more.

The Lodge has been an integral part of the town for ninety eight years and is looking forward to many more.

My First Train Travel

 I think we are all a bit intrigued by the idea of traveling by train.  My first train trip was in 1966 and it was a long one.

I had gone on wheat harvest with my friend David's uncle, Carl Rice.  I rode my Honda S90 motorcycle to Chickasha, Oklahoma, where Carl and his crew were already cutting wheat.  As you might expect, the harvest starts in southern climes and moves north as the summer progresses.

Cutting Wheat in Montana

From Chickasha, we went north to Dodge City, Kansas, where I decided that the motorcycle was too hard to carry from stop to stop so I left it there at a garage, telling the owner that I would return later to get it.  We then made a couple of stops in Kansas and Nebraska, and eventually into Montana.

After spending a couple of weeks in Brockway, Montana (population - less than 100), we moved to Opheim, Montana, 12 miles from the Canadian border.  Unfortunately, it began to rain and continued for days.  Because we couldn't harvest wheat, Carl and the older guys went off to Saskatewan for several days while I stayed in the trailer.

Our Trailer

After about three days, I got really bored and decided to head home.  I had no money so I called Mom and asked her to wire me some, which she agreed to.  I did have enough money to buy a ticked on the local train and headed for Williston, North Dakota where Western Union would have the money for me.

The train from Opheim to Williston was a true "milk" train.  We stopped at every small town and the conductor would load cream cans onto the train.  At one stop, he came into the passenger area and asked if I could help, which I was glad to do.  As it turned out, he needed help loading a casket onto the train!  I was the only passenger and he and I spent quite a bit of time talking.  The train consisted of a locomotive, a freight car, and a combination mail car/passenger car.

Passenger/Mail Car

I don't remember the timing exactly but I think the trip to Williston took about half a day.  Before I left Opheim, I had lost my wallet in the wheat fields with all my identification in it.  During the trip to Williston, it dawned on me that I might not be able to get the $50 that Mom had wired to me.  The conductor told me that he would go to the Western Union office and vouch for me, which he did.

In Williston, I bought a ticket on the Great Northern Empire Builder to St. Paul, Minnesota.  Because I only had a little bit of money, I was traveling in "steerage".  For much of the trip I was unable to find a seat and had to sit on a stool in the restroom.  I spent a whole night on that stool!  We arrived in St. Paul the next morning.

When I got to St. Paul, I boarded the Rock Island Rocket bound for Kansas City.  It too was terribly crowded and I found no comfortable places to sit.  I don't remember much about that leg of the trip except that we got to Kansas City late in the day.

I had a long layover in Kansas City before I caught the Santa Fe Super Chief headed for California.  Thankfully, this train had plenty of room on it and seats were plentiful.  Since I hadn't slept in a couple of nights, I asked the conductor to please wake me when we got to Dodge City and I went into a deep sleep.

Sure enough, when we got to Dodge City, he woke me up and I got off the train.  Although my train trip was over, I still had a long motorcycle ride ahead of me to Mannford.  Of the $50 Mom had wired me, I had $5 left and that was enough to buy gasoline for the ride home and for a candy bar.  When I got home, I had nothing but a little change left in my pockets.

It was a great adventure but I sure wouldn't want to do it again.  Many years later, Louise and I rode trains around Europe for three days and it was much more enjoyable!

The Last River Trip

 If you've read several of these blogs, you know that I've made a few trips down  the Arkansas River to the Mississippi.  The last trip was in September, 2018 and you can read about it in an October, 2018 blog post.

At the time we made that trip, I wasn't sure I would ever do it again.  With each trip, the sleeping bag became increasingly hard and uncomfortable.  However, no one ever accused me of being intelligent so we planned another trip this year.

The group this year would consist of my brother, Milt, and his good friend, Bill, in Bill's boat and my son, Dan, my cousin's husband, Jim, and myself in my boat.  We were going to change things up a bit and leave from Muskogee this year.  We had always left from Tulsa but were going to make this an abbreviated trip.

The plan was to put in at Muskogee Three Forks Harbor, go downstream to Little Rock, then return to Muskogee.  We figured it would be about a four day trip.  We were to leave on Saturday, September 17.

The appointed day came and we met in Muskogee.  We had decided that we weren't going to be in such a hurry on this trip since we weren't going nearly so far as we had on previous trips.  The first day, we took our time and did some fishing.  In fact, Dan caught a couple of Sauger right where the Illinois River dumps into the Arkansas.

Our plan was to spend the first night at Applegate Cove Marina on Kerr Reservoir.  We had stayed there before and had an enjoyable time.  Our first big surprise came when we got to Applegate Cove and discovered that it was closed and out of business!

Finding fuel on the river is always a challenging problem and we had planned on fueling at Applegate.  Fortunately, there was a guy there who had a key to the pump and we were able to top off our tanks.  We got to talking with him and he offered to let us sleep on the dock at the marina.  I'm not sure whether he had the authority to allow this but we took advantage of it anyway.  Sleeping on the dock that night reinforced my desire to not make this trip any more.

The next morning we took off down river and found ourselves at the Corps of Engineers Park in Ozark, Arkansas in late afternoon.  We had stayed in this park on previous trips so it seemed like a good place to stay again.  I haven't mentioned it before the the temperature on this whole trip was just better than unbearable.

After another miserable night of sleeping (and sweating) on the ground, we woke up the next morning and had a meeting.  Everyone agreed that we had had enough so we decided to turn around and go back upstream.  This would cut off at least two days travel to get to Little Rock and back.

Of course, this meant that we would spend the third night out at Applegate and be sleeping on that hard, hard dock again.  The trip back upstream was uneventful and we arrived back at Muskogee on Wednesday, September 20.

You may have noticed the title of the blog, "The Last River Trip".  As far as I'm concerned, unless I acquire a houseboat with air conditioning and a bed, I think I'm done.  I'm aware of the old adage, "Never say never", but I'm pretty close to never.