Van Tidwell, left, presents Eric Cox with special certificate. |
Scores of Freemasons from across Alabama, public officials
and other visitors assembled at the historic Masonic Hall at Perdue Hill on Saturday
to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the establishment of Alabama
Lodge No. 3.
Saturday’s event began at 10 a.m. and kicked off the Alabama
Grand Lodge’s statewide bicentennial celebration of Freemasonry in Alabama.
About
six months older than even the state of Alabama, Alabama Lodge No. 3 traces its
roots to June 25, 1819 when it received its original charter from the Grand
Lodge of South Carolina as Alabama Lodge No. 51. Alabama was officially
admitted to the Union on Dec. 14, 1819, and on Dec. 11, 1820 the Alabama
General Assembly passed legislation allowing the lodge to raise funds to build
and furnish a Masonic Hall building at Claiborne, which was then the county
seat of Monroe County.
On
June 11, 1821, delegates from eight lodges in Alabama, including the lodge at
Claiborne, organized the Grand Lodge of Alabama, and at that time, Alabama
Lodge No. 51 received a charter under the Alabama Grand Lodge and became
Alabama Lodge No. 3, a designation that it still carries today. For various
reasons, including unhealthy conditions at Claiborne and the move of the county
seat to Monroeville, the Masonic Hall was dismantled in 1884 and moved to its
present location at Perdue Hill, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 84 and
Monroe County Road 1.
In 1917, Alabama Lodge No. 3 moved to Monroeville and merged
with Monroeville Lodge No. 153, retaining the name and number of the mother
lodge, and Alabama Lodge No. 3 continued to meet for the better part of the
next century in Monroeville. In early 2018, as Alabama Lodge No. 3 approached
the 200th anniversary of its original charter, the Perdue
Hill-Claiborne Foundation gave Alabama Lodge No. 3 permission to again begin
using the Masonic Hall at Perdue Hill for its regular meetings, and the Alabama
Grand Lodge approved the move from Monroeville back to Perdue Hill on April 2,
2018.
During Saturday’s celebration, Van Tidwell of Haleyville,
Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Alabama Grand Lodge, presented Eric Cox of
Excel, Worshipful Master of Alabama Lodge No. 3, with a special certificate
that read as follows: Know ye, that by the high powers vested in us, for the
occasion of the 200th anniversary of Alabama Lodge No. 2, Free &
Accepted Masons, having completed 200 years of service on June 15, 2019, we do
publish and award this certificate as a token of merit and appreciation in
recognition and commemoration of 200 years of service to the Craft. In witness
whereof, we have set our hands and caused the seal of the Most Worshipful Grand
Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Alabama to be affixed this 4th
day of May 2019. – (Signed) Van Tidwell, Grand Master; Teddy Grogan Jr., Grand
Secretary.
Tidwell also presented the lodge with a commemorative Grand
Master’s knife, and first-time visitors to the lodge were presented with a
commemorative bicentennial coin featuring an image of the Perdue Hill Masonic
Hall. The event also included a short presentation on the lodge’s history by
Wayne Sirmon, a history professor at the University of Mobile. Sirmon also
serves as chairman of the Alabama Grand Lodge’s bicentennial committee.
As part of Saturday’s celebration, the lodge also conducted the
first Master Mason Degree in the Perdue Hill Masonic Hall in over a century.
According to Cecil Chandler, Alabama Lodge No. 3’s Secretary, the last known
Master Mason degree held in the building was conducted in October 1884. The
candidate for Saturday’s historic degree was Matthew Neil Henderson of Frisco
City, and the degree was witnessed by nearly 100 Masons, including his father,
Neil Henderson, Past Master of Elba Lodge No. 170.
Masons participating in that degree included Tidwell, Senior
Grand Warden Tommy Morrow of Elba, Junior Grand Warden Billy Jackson of Leroy,
Wayne Sirmon of Mobile, Grand Treasurer and Past Grand Master Ron Andress of
Tuscaloosa, Grand Chaplain Travis Allred of Arley, Senior Grand Deacon David
Hightower of Detroit, Junior Grand Deacon Craig Skinner of Danville, Senior
Grand Steward Tracy Rye of Haleyville, Past Grand Master Larry Stinson of
Greenville, Garry Wates, Grand Historian Michael Brewer of Athens, Deputy Grand
Tiler Stanley Champion of Russellville, Grand Marshal David Whitaker of New
Hope, Deputy Grand Master Mike Taylor of Remlap, John Key, Bruce Garrison,
Allen Brackin, Nick Milner, Tommy Danner, Glenn Thomas, Paul Adams, Ed Kelley,
Wayne A. Roberts Sr., Eddie Tarkany, Chris Thomas, Ken Carpenter and Zach
Holmes.
Public officials on hand for Saturday’s event included
Monroe County Sheriff Tom Boatwright, Monroe County Probate Judge Sonya Greene
Stinson, Monroe County Circuit Clerk Wes Hines and Assistant District Attorney
Todd Watson. Cox issued a special thanks to Lodge Secretary Cecil Chandler and
other lodge members who had a big hand in making Saturday’s event a
well-attended success.
The celebration was held on May 4 since is was the closest date to May 7. on that date in 1819 the Grand Master of South Carolina authorized John Murphy to create a masonic lodge at Claiborne. This temporary permission was replaced by a permanent charter on June 25, 1819.
ReplyDelete- Wayne Sirmon