Army Lodge A, A.F. & A.M. - 113th Field Artillery

113th Field Artillery Masonic Emblem.jpg

The following is from “History of the 113th Field Artillery 30th Division: Electronic Edition” by Fletcher, Arthur Lloyd. Pgs. 196-201.

THE One Hundred and Thirteenth Field Artillery, being almost 100 per cent. North Carolinian to start with, was naturally a hot-bed of Masonry. All North Carolina believes in the principles of the greatest of all secret orders, the Masons, and no good Tar Heel figures on living out his allotted span and dying without having been raised to the degree of Master Mason.

When the regiment had had time to get settled and there was opportunity for casting about and getting acquainted with one another the Masons of the regiment found many "brethren" and some were occupying high places, while others were holding down positions slightly lower. The brigade commander was a Mason of the most enthusiastic variety. So was the colonel, so was the lieutenant-colonel, so were all three of the regiment's majors and nearly all of the lower officers. There were Masons among the sergeants and corporals. There were Masons among the bucks of the batteries. There were Masonic cooks, mule-skinners and incinerator experts.

Some one studied out a plan for an army lodge, an organization of brothers, who could "meet upon the level" where rank is forgotten and all men are equal. It pleased everybody. A petition was circulated in the regiment, asking the Grand Lodge of North Carolina for a dispensation for the establishment of "Army Lodge A." Major Claude L. Pridgen, commanding officer of the regiment's Sanitary Detachment, was Grand Master of the North Carolina Grand Lodge A. F. & A. M., and he arranged for the dispensation. The first meeting of the lodge was held in the Masonic Temple at Greenville, January 12, 1918 and it was opened by Grand Master Pridgen.

At this meeting Sergeant Joseph H. Mitchell, of the Sanitary Detachment, was elected W. M., Brigadier General George G. Gatley, commanding the 55th Field Artillery Brigade, was elected S. W. and Colonel Albert L. Cox, J. W. The officers who served at this first meeting were:

W. M., Joseph H. Mitchell.
S. W., George G. Gatley.
Acting J. W., Alfred L. Bulwinkle.
Acting Chaplain, Claude L. Pridgen.
Acting S. D., Benj. R. Lacy, Jr.
Acting J. D., Louis A. Hanson.
Acting S. S., Erskine E. Boyce.
Acting J. S., Ralph S. Sholar.

Acting Tyler, Karl P. Burger.

Thomas S. Payne, of the Sanitary Detachment, was elected secretary of the lodge and Erskine E. Boyce, adjutant of the Second Battalion, was elected treasurer.

At a subsequent meeting, the following permanent officers were appointed by the W. M.:

S. D., B. R. Lacy, Jr.
J. D., John E. Burris.
S. S., Samuel T. Russell.
J. S., Julian M. Byrd.
Tyler, Karl P. Burger.
Chaplain, Claude L. Pridgen.

The following standing committees were named:

Finance, Claude L. Pridgen, George G. Gatley, Benj. R. Lacy, Jr.
Reference, Alfred L. Bulwinkle, Erskine E. Boyce and Albert L. Cox.
Oxford Orphanage, Thomas S. Payne, Karl P. Burger and Samuel T. Russell.

The lodge meetings were always interesting, but it was the first that will linger longest in the memories of those who were present. It was the first experience of meeting on the level that the Masons there assembled had had for many months. They had been in the army for more than six months and army rank and circumstance is pretty well defined and rigidly maintained. Here for the first time in his military experience Brother Buck Private met Brother Brigadier General and Brother Colonel on perfect equality of footing and none was the worse for the experience. Brother Buck found that his Brother Brigadier was a human being, after all, and not the tyrant that he had watched from afar with fear and trembling, and he carried back to his fellows who were not members of the lodge the new impressions he had received not only as to the Brigadier General but as to many other officers. Army Lodge A was a source of profit to the regiment from its inception and the good it accomplished can never be estimated.

The first meeting of the lodge was featured by short speeches by General Gatley and Major Pridgen and the lodge's most important action was to direct the newly elected Master to go to Raleigh, N. C., for the meeting of the North Carolina Grand Lodge, and formally place before that body an application for a charter.

At the next regular meeting, which was held on January 19, 1918, the lodge was legally dedicated and consecrated and the officers elected at the first meeting lawfully installed. Grand Master Pridgen presided at the ceremonies and there were many visiting Masons present. At this meeting the first petitions for degrees were received, this being from Lieutenant Joseph A. Speed, and Lieutenant Henry P. Ledford, of the Sanitary Detachment, and Privates Aaron T. Salling and Harry B. Register, also of the Sanitary Detachment. It became necessary to ask the South Carolina Grand Lodge for permission to confer degrees in its jurisdiction. This right was readily granted.

The lodge was much gratified to learn that the Grand Lodge of North Carolina had accorded the new organization a warm welcome and was very proud of its new offspring. Past Grand Master Pridgen brought from the Grand Lodge of North Carolina an offer to donate $500 toward a Masonic club room for the soldiers of the regiment and from St. John's Lodge, No. 1, Wilmington, N. C., a further donation of $50 for the lodge. The project met with disfavor when the camp authorities were approached and it was abandoned. It was also learned that the War Department had prohibited secret meetings within the limits of all army camps and arrangements were made to hold all meetings for secret work thereafter in the Masonic Temple at Greenville.

The lodge's first meeting in March was featured by a visit from Brother George S. Norfleet, Grand Master of North Carolina Masons, of Winston-Salem. He had been elected in January to succeed Major Claude L. Pridgen. The Grand Master took a great deal of interest in Army Lodge A and offered it every encouragement. He gave the lodge a very beautiful silk flag which was carried with the lodge throughout the war and after the regiment's return to the United States, presented to the Grand Lodge of North Carolina.

Unfortunately, the minutes of the lodge were not well kept at all times. The first secretary of the lodge was transferred to another outfit and the lodge lost his services and the work was passed around from hand to hand. Such of the records as are still available record the election of the following candidates for degrees:

Liston L. Mallard, Thomas I. Graham, Eugene Allison, W. T. Dixon, J. E. Lambeth, Jr., Otway C. Fogus, Roman L. Mauldin, Hugh C. Pollard, L. W. Gardner, Thomas A. Lacy, Wilbon O. Huntley, Ferdinand D. Fink, Carey E. Dorsett, Frank W. McKeel, Walter W. Pollock, Arthur B. Corey, Sam N. Nash, Rufus C. Miller, Herbert M. Thornburg, Lewis Norwood, Charles R. Davis, Wilbur C. Spruill, John W. Brookshire.

There is also recorded at various meetings in the United States and in France and Luxemburg, the election to membership in the lodge of various Masons, among them being the following:

Sidney C. Chambers, G. N. Taylor, E. W. McCullers, W. R. Thompson, L. P. McLendon, L. B. Crayton, Thaddeus G. Stem, J. M. Lynch, J. C. Fortune, J. T. Leslie, Nelson L. Nelson, W. E. Baugham, Enoch S. Simmons, H. B. Newell, C. T. Scott, R. L. Vaughan, J. P. Bolt, A. L. Fletcher, H. G. Coleman, J. T. Gross, C. L. Gross, D. T. Moore, N. O. Reeves, J. W. McCawley, G. P. Norwood, R. L. Atwater, Zeno O. Ratcliff and Christian E. Mears.

The last regular meeting in the United States was held on May 1, 1918. Moving orders came soon thereafter and no regular meeting was held until after the regiment had completed its period of training in France and had been actively engaged in the fighting on the Toul front for two weeks. On September 7, 1918, in the little village of Sanzy on the outskirts of the "Foret de la Reine," Army Lodge A met in special communication to initiate Thomas I. Graham, W. T. Dixon and Stewart Barnes, the first two having been elected as candidates for the degrees and the last named as a courtesy to Watauga Lodge No. 273, of Boone, N. C. This point was only a few miles from the front and the sound of the guns and the muffled roar of exploding of shells furnished a strange accompaniment for the solemn words of the Masonic ritual.

There was no regular or special communication after that until after the Armistice, when meetings were resumed in a shack in the Foret de la Montagne, on the Woëvre sector, which Headquarters Company honored with the title of "mess-hall." Here at a meeting held on November 16, 1918, the following new officers were elected:

W. M., Albert L. Cox, who had been J. W.
S. W., Karl P. Burger, who had been Tyler.
J. W., Christian E. Mears.
Treasurer, Erskine E. Boyce.
Secretary, George N. Taylor.

At a subsequent meeting held at Colmar-Berg, in the province of Luxemburg, the following appointments were made:

To be S. D., John E. Burriss.
To be J. D., W. Reid Thompson.
To be Tyler, Dewitt T. Moore.
To be Chaplain, B. R. Lacy, Jr.
To be S. S., Ralph L. Sholar.
To be J. S., Cleve L. Gross.
The following standing committees were appointed:

Oxford Orphanage Committee: John E. Burriss, Chairman; John M. Lynch, Harry B. Newell.

Finance Committee: A. L. Fletcher, Chairman; Harry B. Register, Lennox P. McLendon.

Reference Committee: Alfred L. Bulwinkle, Chairman; Wm. L. Futrelle, Roy L. Vaughan.

These officers served throughout the remainder of Army Lodge A's existence.

The lodge did a great deal of work for other lodges in various states, a service which it rendered gladly. It also "kept open house" for all Masons everywhere. Comparatively few of the Masons of the regiment transferred their membership to Army Lodge A but those who did not were welcomed just as warmly to every meeting as if they had transferred, and the Masons of other regiments in the 30th Division, while in the United States, and of the various units with which the regiment served in France and with the Army of Occupation, were always invited to all meetings of the lodge and many a homesick Mason was cheered and comforted by the experience.

The book of minutes which is now the property of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina, records meetings in various parts of France, at the little town of Bous, just a mile from the Moselle River in Luxemburg, at Colmar-Berg and at Bissen in Luxemburg and at Jouy-Sous-les-Cotes, in France, the last meeting on French soil being held on Saturday, January 18, 1919, just before the regiment entrained for Le Mans to rejoin the 30th Division.

The last regular communication of the lodge was held aboard the U. S. S. Santa Teresa, on March 15, 1919, en route from St. Nazaire, France, to Newport News, Va. It was featured by a large attendance of visiting Masons from the ship's crew and everybody enjoyed the very unusual lodge meeting aboard one of Uncle Sam's great transports, headed for home. At this meeting Arthur B. Corey, Sam N. Nash, Rufus C. Miller, Herbert M. Thornburg, Lewis Norwood, Charles R. Davis, Wilbur C. Spruill and John W. Brookshire were given the degree of entered apprentice.

With the close of this meeting Army Lodge A passed into history. It was not regularly dissolved until the regiment was demobilized but in the rush and hurry attendant upon demobilization, it was impossible to hold other meetings. Under the charter of the lodge the memberships of the old Masons who constituted Army Lodge A automatically reverted to the home lodges from which they had received dimits and the new Masons were certified to lodges having jurisdiction over them.

Army Lodge A did a great deal of good, underwent many odd and unusual experiences, and brought into the Masonic fold a fine lot of young men. It aided materially in sustaining the morale of the regiment in all kinds of trying circumstances. It helped the Masons of the regiment to keep in mind the high principles of their great order. It served to remind the officers of the regiment of the fact that officers in all armies sometimes forget that they were only men, clothed for a time in authority, but no whit better than the men under them. It served also to bring about a clearer understanding among the enlisted personnel of the heavy load of responsibility their brother officers carried and by so doing it helped to make the regiment what it was. The lodge never forgot its obligations to provide for the widows and orphans and it contributed largely to every good cause. Fifteen hundred francs, at that time equivalent to about $275, was contributed to the A. E. F. French orphans' fund.

Roster of Army Lodge A, A. F. & A. M.