October 27, 2002

Her Solemn Oath

A “Down Home” encore for Venice Unitarians, Englewood GM folks and Burnt Store Presbyterians

Great Aunt Lucinda was justly proud of being the only lady Freemason in captivity.

Secret fraternal societies were important social institutions – next after churches -- in the Missouri Boot Heel before television.

Every town had at least two fraternal lodges. If you couldn’t make it into the club of first choice, you eventually got accepted somewhere else.

At the top of the social ladder were the Freemasons. They were the oldest and had the most secrets.

Close behind were the Elks, Eagles, Moose, Odd Fellows, Order of Red Men, Knights Pythias and Woodmen of the World.

Ladies had Eastern Star, Rebeccahs, Amaranthas and Daughters of the American Revolution.

Lodge nights were strictly reserved for gender fellowship and moral uplift. You dasn’t miss a lodge meeting lest you get appointed to a committee in absentia.

The Williams family was big on Freemasonry. The men folk had been active therein for as far back as anyone could remember – probably to Grand Master of operative stone masons -- Hiram Abif -- who built King Solomon’s temple as the Bible says.

Aunt Lucinda was the only girl in a family that included five older brothers. As each boy turned 21 – the Masonic age of manhood – they were “accepted” into the mysteries of their father’s ancient order of “brotherly love, relief and truth.”

Indeed, Freemasons were quick to come to the aid of a brother or his womenfolk in need. In those days, government welfare consisted only of the County Poor Farm where you worked for room and board.

Masonic first-degree “Entered Apprentices” learned – “mouth to ear” – the ethical lessons represented by simple tools such as the right-angle square, measuring compass and plumb level.

When a lodge brother died, Masons came to his funeral in black suits, high hats and white lap-aprons. They said “So mote it be” a lot and tossed sprigs of cedar into the coffin.

It made the hair on the back of your head prickle.

Lucinda was impressed with the dignity and solidarity of the Masons. When she and her mother were left alone on lodge night, she sometimes would go to her brothers’ rooms and try on the white lambskin aprons they kept to be buried in someday.

This gave her awesome shivers, but also a deep sense of admiration. It graveled her that she could not expect – in due time -- to follow in the footsteps of her brothers to “that bourn from which no traveler returns.”

Surrounded by men, she had grown up taking her turn behind the plow and tagging along on fishing trips. She saw no reason why she should be excluded from their company on such minor matters as an odd handshake and a whispered word.

Bushwhackers

Most of all, Lucinda felt she was as much entitled to fraternal recognition as her brothers. Their Grandpa Millig had been a Mason. His knowledge of the secret signs saved his life during the Civil War – remembered locally as the “War of Northern Aggression.”

Missouri was a “border state” in that not-so- fraternal conflict. Folks in the Boot Heel were about evenly divided in their sympathies between the North and South.

In those towns where one side or the other was in a decided minority, life was sometimes unpleasant and even dangerous.

There were several instances when “bushwhackers” of one persuasion circled the home of an outspoken sympathizer of the other side, “called him out,” and shot him.

Failure to come outside and be killed brought a fusillade into the house where women and children trembled. Or, the house was set aflame and adult men shot down as they tried to escape.

Grandpa Millig, an ardent Unionist, was called out one night. To spare his wife and children, he kissed them all and stepped out on the porch ready to die to save his family.

As he did so, he displayed and shouted the “grand hailing sign” of a Master Mason in distress.

Grandpa hoped there would be fellow Masons in the bushwhackers who would respond. He was right. There was no way they would assassinate a brother Mason.

Chastened, they backed away with a stern warning to there after keep his Union rhetoric to himself. Obviously he did, else I wouldn’t be here to tell the story.

Lucinda thought the Masonic concern for lodge brothers, and a life-saving vocabulary, were valuable assets for anyone – male or female.

Thus it was, at age 16, she determined to learn the secrets of a Freemason even if they wouldn’t have her officially as a member in good standing.

Moon Lodge

The local Masons had a “moon lodge” which met on the night of a full moon. This almanac arrangement was a handy reminder for farmers and assured them of light on their way home.

They met on the second floor of the drug store. Customers on lodge nights would hear much marching around upstairs and thumping on the floor. They would smile and speculate about who was “riding the goat” that night – uninformed speculation about Masonic initiation rites.

Lucinda one day noticed the shade of the back window of the lodge hall had not been pulled all the way down. There were a couple inches of opening. She also remembered there was to be a full moon that night.

This was the opportunity to act.

After her father and brothers left for lodge, Lucinda slipped out of the house. She kept to the shadows as she made her way to the back of the store- lodge.

She stacked a barrel and a couple of boxes to gain enough height to peek through the lodge-room window.

Hardly daring to breathe, Lucinda teetered as she watched the Masons initiate a second-degree Fellowcraft.

Caught Spying

In her eagerness to follow the perambulations of the initiation, Lucinda leaned too far and came crashing down. Stunned, she lay on the ground while Masons rushed out to apprehend the spy.

She certainly had witnessed some secrets. This was considered a serious matter. She was led up to the lodge anteroom and kept under guard while the lodge members debated what to do.

Lucinda’s father and brothers were mortified but came up with a solution to which all finally agreed.

The contrite teen-ager was brought into lodge and girded with a white apron. She was made to kneel at the altar and swear on the Holy Bible to an oath of secrecy composed for the occasion.

Thoroughly awed, Lucinda swore eternal secrecy to what she had seen.

The Worshipful Master told Lucinda she could never attend lodge but would be considered a Masonic “neophyte.” This entitled her to the friendship of Fellowcrafts – but not their secret signs of recognition and Masonic attainment.

Lucinda was satisfied with the outcome. Though she did not learn the critical secrets she wished, she did achieve acceptance by the all-male group.

Faithful Fellowcraft

A few years later, Lucinda married a Mason and became Matron of Eastern Star – the fraternal order for wives, mothers, daughters and sisters of third-degree Master Masons.

She was introduced as a “Fellowcraft” at the annual Mason/Star picnic. This was a notable honor that she cherished all her long life. She often boasted of being the world’s only “Lady Mason.”

Once I asked her – as one Mason to another – what was the oath laid on her that fateful night. She would not say, ever faithful to her Masonic obligation.

However, she commented: “It started with a promise of death if I told, then got worse!”

Author: Lindsey Williams

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Albion Hurdle painting

[ This full-length painting of George Washington hangs in Alexandria, Virginia, Lodge 22 of Free and Accepted Masons. It portrays him when he was the Worshipful Master after retiring from presidency of the United States of America. ]