Nebraska History posts materials online for your personal use. Please remember that the contents of Nebraska History are copyrighted by the Nebraska State Historical Society (except for materials credited to other institutions). The NSHS retains its copyrights even to materials it posts on the web. For permission to re-use materials or for photo ordering information, please see: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/magazine/permission.htm Nebraska State Historical Society members receive four issues of Nebraska History and four issues of Nebraska History News annually. For membership information, see: http://nebraskahistory.org/admin/members/index.htm Article Title: The Origins of the Prince Hall Mason Grand Lodge of Nebraska Full Citation: Dennis N Mihelich, “The Origins of the Prince Hall Mason Grand Lodge of Nebraska,” Nebraska History 76 (1995): 20-21. URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1995Pr_Hall_Origin.pdf Date: 3/9/2011 Article Summary: Prince Hall Masonry is an African American fraternal organization that arose because blacks were excluded from white Masonic lodges. This article presents an early history of black Masons in Nebraska, piecing together limited documentary evidence from the establishment of the first lodge in 1875 through the formation of the Prince Hall Mason Grand Lodge of Nebraska in 1919. Part of a series: see also, “World War I, the Great Migration, and the Formation of the Grand Bodies of Prince Hall Masonry (Spring 1997), “Boom-Bust: Prince Hall Masonry in Nebraska during the 1920s” (Summer 1998), and “From the Depths: Prince Hall Masonry in Nebraska, 1930 – 1960” ( Spring 2009) Cataloging Information: Names: H K Hillon, G F Franklin, M O Ricketts, J H Henderson, C E Coleman, R W Freeman, Joseph Carr, G N Johnson, T P Mahammitt, A W White, William Rosier, S S Westerfield, G W Buxton, Isaac Trice, Ferdinand L Barnett, J H Wakefield, E C Underwood, N Hunter III, Walter L Seals, Mary E Allen, R M Ella Hunter, William Burrell, H Warner, Will N Johnson, Wynn McCulloch, A N Wade, H O Wood, Haywood Hall, W H Washington, Richard Young, John Albert Williams, Nellie Gordon, Lizzie Carpew, Eva M Pickett, Dora Donley, Mrs William Woods, Mrs C R Runyon, Mrs Izella Malone, Mrs Laura Johnson, Maude Hancock, Mrs John Galbraeth, , P L Moore, J W Birdwhistle, C W Wiggington, Moses Dickson, I L Brown, Norris Brown, Gilbert M Hitchcock, James Dahlman Place Names: Boston, Massachusetts; Lexington, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska; Lincoln, Nebraska; Fort Robinson, Nebraska Keywords: Black Masonry; Prince Hall Masonry; Rough Ashler No 74; Excelsior Lodge No 110; Damascus Temple of Mystic Shriners; Ivanhoe Commandery; Knights St John Consistory; Eureka Chapter No 33; Lebanon Lodge No 126; Acacia Lodge No 46; St John’s Lodge No 31; Ninth Cavalry; Tenth Cavalry; The Enterprise; Progress; Missouri Jurisdiction; Trans-Mississippi Exposition; Iowa Grand Lodge; Missouri Grand Lodge; Grand Lodge Annual Communication; Omaha Daily News; Omaha World-Herald; Emancipation Day Celebration; Knights of Pythias Hall; Order of the Eastern Star (OES); Dan Desdunes’s orchestra; Western Star Court No 23; The Monitor Photographs / Images: Dr Matthew O Ricketts; Ferdinand L Barnett; Inset: News of the Lodges and Fraternities, The Monitor, December 2, 1916; Grand Lodge Officers; Grand Musical Concert ad, The Monitor, January 6, 1917; Dan Desdunes’s orchestra group photo; Rev John Albert Williams of St Phillip Episcopal Church [Omaha]; Will N Johnson as a University of Nebraska football player The Origi ns of the Prince Halll1ason Grand Lodge of Nebraska By Dennis N Mihelich Black Masonry originated in colon ial ma ti c populati on increase of th e I 880s. Ameri ca in 1775 as a res ult of racial dis­ Individual lodge records do not reach crimination. Aft er being rebu ffed by back to th e nineteen th ce ntu ry an d lo­ Boston Masons, Prince Hall , a mulatt o ca l cit y direc tories did not begin to list art isan an d mi nister, rece ived a charter black frat ern al societies until 1913, al­ from th e Grand Lodge of England. Sub­ though th e Omaha Ci ty Direc tory began sequ ently, the black inst itution adopted to identi fy individual "coloreds" with a his name and spread among free blacks "(c)" in 1887 and Li ncoln followed su it in antebellum America. It grew rapid ly in 1891. and moved westward aft er th e Civil War Allholigh the state's first black news­ and the emancipation o f slaves (only paper was established in Omaha in the free born may join Prince Hall Ma­ 1889, ex tant copies of the various publi­ sonry) . It follows a federal structure of ca ti ons date only from 1895, with governan ce, wh ereby each slate even tu­ lengt hy gaps in th e collections until the ally es ta blished an independent grand post-Worl d War f era. Thus, in one of th e lodge, th e supreme governing body for fi rst survi vi ng issues of The Entelprise, a the subord inate or blue lodges of that story procla imed that H. K. Hillon, G. F. state. Prince Hall Masonry ca me to Ne­ Frankl in, and Dr. M. O. Ri ckells at­ braska during the late nineteenth cen· tended th e an nual grand lodge mee ting tury , and the Great Migration of World in Lexington, Missouri. Shortly thereafter War I finally gave it th e numeri ca l the paper ran an an noun ce ment con­ strength to crea te the Prince Hall Grand ce rni ng "a joint meeting" of Rou gh Lodge of Nebraska. The history of that As hi er No. 74 and Excelsior No. 110.' gestation also reveals the lifestyle of "re­ Similarly, th e earl iest ex tant copy of spec table" African Am erica ns (in Victo­ th e Afro-American Sentinel ( 1896) docu­ rian te rmi nology, th ose who displayed mented th e existence of several black publically th e correct manners and mor­ fratern it ies, including th e Odd Fellows als), as we ll as the intrica te, shifting pa­ an d th e Kn ights of Pythias. Th e list in­ rameters of while-b lack ra ce re lati ons in Dr. Matthew O. Ricketts was the first Afri­ cluded th e following Masonic groups: can American to graduate with a medi­ Nebraska. Rough AshIer No_ 74 In 1865 th e Prin ce Hall Masons of cal degree In Nebraska, and the first black person elected to the Nebraska 1. H. Henderson, Worshipful Master Mi sso uri established an independent legislature (1892). Former worshipful mas­ C. E. Coleman, Secretary grand lodge and a decade later it char­ ter of Omaha Excelsior lodge No. 110, tered the first blue lodge for black Ma­ Ricketts was elected grand master of the Excelsior Lodge No_ 110 sons in Nebraska. Oth er than the knowl­ Missouri Grand lodge In 1907. (NSHS-l514) R. W. Freeman, W. M. edge of its fou nding date in 1875 in Joseph Carr, Sec. Oma ha, no records exist in Nebraska to ing stone) Lodge No. 74. ' By th e end of Damascus Temple of Mystic reveal the early history of Rough Ash ier the ce ntury, five blue lodges existed in Shriners , G. N. Johnson, Pote ntate (an unfinished, sq uared block of build- Nebraska, as we ll as several affiliat ed T. P. Mahammitt, Chief Rabin bodies, bu t specific founding dates are Ivanhoe COIDmandery Dennis N. Mihelich is (I professor of histOfY a( not kn own. The new organ izations prob­ G. N. Johnson, Commander Cre ighton Uniuersiry in Omaha. ably originated as a resu ll of th e dra­ 1. H. Hen derson , Recorder 10 Prince Hall Masons Knights St. John Consistory The Missouri numbers cause confu­ banded as a result of the disastrous de­ A. W. White sion because the grand lodge frequently cline in the African American popula­ [no title listed; Commander-in-Chief] reused numbers from defunct lodges; af­ tion in Hastings during the depressed Joseph Carr, Sec. ter a certain point the numbers no 1890s. While several blacks operated Eureka Chapter No. 33 longer indicated the order of creation. prosperous businesses or farmed in the [Royal Arch Masons] Further disorder is created because an­ area, the vast majority gained employ­ T. P. Mahammitt, H. P. [High Priest] other lodge, Marvin No. 127 in Hastings, ment as domestics. According to a local J. H. Henderson, Sec.3 was established and apparently dis­ historian, "to have Negro servants was a banded before the first press lis~ing ap­ splendid status symbol," but one easily All the lodges met twice a month at a peared. A Hastings, Nebraska, newspa­ foregone during hard economic times. hall at Fourteenth and Dodge streets. per reported a "colored Masonic ball" in At the beginning of the decade 327 The existence of Prince Hall Masonry June 1891 and the following year the blacks lived in Adams County; the 1900 outside of Omaha went unreported at Hastings Weekly Nebraskan detailed the census counted only 63.8 that time. Certainly Lebanon Lodge No. following: The Ninth and Tenth Cavalry were 126 had been formed in Lincoln. In a Marvin lodge No. 127, colored, will give a stationed at Ft. Robinson, Nebraska, be­ June edition The Enterprise divulged picnic at Cole park on Sept. 9 and in the tween 1885 and 1907. During that pe­ that "a new lodge of the masonic order evening will hold a grand soiree at G. A. riod the black cavalrymen established was instituted at South Omaha Thursday R.