Leonard Nolen, My Maternal Grandfather
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 34
Prompt: Long-Lasting
Sometimes a story begins with something very small.
I was methodically working my way through my family tree, starting with myself and moving backward, clicking on Ancestry hints as I went. When I reached my great-great-uncle George W. Wallis, who lived near Colburn, Indiana, I found an item in a Lafayette newspaper from 1874 reporting the election of officers for Colburn Lodge. George had been elected Junior Deacon of Colburn Lodge No. 490, F. and A. M.
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| Click on image to enlarge. |
I had to stop and look up the initials F. and A. M.
Free and Accepted Masons.
That made me think: My dad was a Mason. So was my maternal grandfather, Leonard Nolen. In fact, several members of my family belonged to Masonic organizations.
Suddenly I wasn't just clearing Ancestry hints anymore.
I was following a family tradition that stretched back at least 150 years.
The Earliest Mason I've Found
So far, George W. Wallis is the earliest Mason I have identified in my family.
In 1874, he was living in the Colburn area of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, when he was elected Junior Deacon of the local Masonic lodge.
More than fifty years later and hundreds of miles away, Masonry was very much a part of the life of my maternal grandfather, Leonard Nolen.
And for Leonard, I have much more than a newspaper clipping.
Leonard Nolen
I always knew Grandpa Nolen was a Mason. What I hadn't realized until I started pulling out the things I had saved was just how extensive—and how long-lasting—his involvement had been.
Among his belongings are membership and dues cards, certificates, photographs and other items that document his participation in several Masonic organizations for more than half a century.
The earliest evidence I have found is a 1919 letter from the recorder of AKDAR Temple in Tulsa. The letter accompanied Leonard's diploma and stated that he was already a member of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. It also contained an interesting bit of postwar history: if Leonard had not yet received his fez, the recorder promised to send one, explaining that fezzes had been almost impossible to obtain since the war because they had originally been made in Austria.
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| Leonard Nolen wearing AKDAR fez about 1919. Click on image for larger view. |
A January 3, 1922, receipt shows Leonard as a member of Sand Springs Chapter No. 89, R.A.M.—Royal Arch Masons—with his dues paid through the end of that year. Since a man had to be a Master Mason before becoming a Royal Arch Mason, Leonard's Masonic membership had begun even earlier.
By 1923 he was also a Scottish Rite Mason. I know that because a certificate dated October 25, 1973, honored him for fifty years as a Scottish Rite Mason in the Valley of Guthrie, Orient of Oklahoma.
His connection with Sand Springs Lodge No. 475 was equally long. A 1928 card certified that he was a Master Mason and member in good standing, and in 1975 the lodge issued him a card identifying him as a 50 Year Member. Other surviving cards and receipts document his continuing involvement with AKDAR Temple, the Oklahoma Consistory and the Sand Springs Scottish Rite Club. His dues to the Scottish Rite Club in 1928 were one dollar.
His obituary would later describe him as a 32nd-degree Mason and a member of the Tulsa Consistory.
There are photographs of Leonard wearing Masonic lapel pins and regalia, including a formal studio portrait of him as a young man wearing an AKDAR fez and a wonderful group photograph of men in their AKDAR fezzes. Leonard is on the front row at the right.
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| Leonard Nolen, front row, far right. Click on image for larger view. |
But the part of Leonard's Masonic story that means the most to me came much later.
The Blind Chaplain
Leonard began having serious problems with detached retinas in the early 1950s. A 1953 newspaper article reported that he had already lost the sight in one eye and was entering an Oklahoma City clinic for an operation doctors hoped would save the sight in his remaining eye.
He also went to the Mayo Clinic, but eventually there was nothing more that could be done. He became completely blind. I was the last grandchild he ever saw.
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| Leonard Nolen and wife Elizabeth Moore, assumed to be during trip to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for eye surgery. Click on image for larger view. |
Blindness did not end his involvement with the Masons.
Leonard served as Chaplain of Sand Springs Lodge No. 475. Newspaper reports document his installation as Chaplain in 1968, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1976. I believe he served in that position continuously for many years, although I haven't located an installation notice for every year.
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| Leonard Nolen, front row at right, with members of Sand Springs Lodge No. 475 in what appears to be a photograph taken following an installation ceremony. Leonard is holding the white cane presented to him by the Sand Springs Lions Club in November 1963. Click on image for a larger view |
Because Leonard could no longer see the printed prayers he was required to memorize, someone recorded them for him on cassette tapes so he could learn them by listening.
No one in the family now remembers who made those tapes.
My father had a wonderful radio voice, so I have wondered if it might have been him. Another possibility is Paul Galloway, who served as Worshipful Master during at least one of Leonard's years as Chaplain and was one of the men who would come by and take Leonard to lodge.
I wish I could find those tapes.
I don't remember ever seeing them, but I have learned enough from years of family-history research to know better than to say they no longer exist.
Somewhere, there is always another box.
Friday Night Was Lodge Night
Masonry wasn't something Leonard did alone.
My Uncle Sonny Nolen was also a Mason, as was my Uncle Paul, who was married to Leonard's daughter.
My cousin Robbin remembers Leonard, Sonny and Paul going to lodge together. When my father, Ralph Wallis, was in Sand Springs, he went with them.
Dad was not active in a lodge during the years we lived in Bartlesville or later in Bentonville. His Masonic home remained Sand Springs Lodge No. 475.
His Masonic record gives me the dates. He was initiated December 27, 1951, became a Fellow Craft on January 25, 1952, and a Master Mason on February 29, 1952. On March 27, 2002, he received his 50-year Service Award.
He remained a member until his death in 2013.
So when Dad went to lodge with Leonard, Sonny and Paul, he wasn't merely tagging along with his father-in-law. He was returning to his own lodge.
I like thinking about those four men heading off together on a Friday night.
The Next Generation
The Masonic organizations reached the next generation too.
My brother Dave belonged to DeMolay, the Masonic-sponsored organization for young men.
My cousin Robbin and I were Rainbow Girls.
I didn't just join Rainbow. I became very active and eventually served as Worthy Advisor, the presiding officer of my assembly. I still have my Rainbow ring, pins, awards and other memorabilia.
When I recently retrieved my old Rainbow scrapbook, I discovered something I had written there at the time of my installation as Worthy Advisor.
My grandfather Leonard gave the closing prayer.
The grandfather who could no longer see me stood at my installation and gave the prayer he had learned to deliver without being able to read it.
And Leonard presented me with my Rainbow ring.
I am sure my parents purchased the ring locally and arranged for Grandpa to give it to me, but that doesn't make the memory any less special.
Eastern Star
My parents became members of the Order of the Eastern Star while I was in Rainbow, largely to support my involvement. I remember that they later served as Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron while I was away at college, although I haven't yet located the newspaper coverage or other records documenting their terms.
At the end of my term as Worthy Advisor, I too was installed in Eastern Star.
I was never active.
That didn't seem to matter to Dad.
Every year he paid my Eastern Star dues and sent me my new membership card.
I still have some of my mother's Eastern Star jewelry. Add those to my Rainbow ring and pins, Leonard's Masonic Monitor, fezzes, lapel pins, membership cards and photographs, and the collection tells much of the story by itself.
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| My mother's Order of Eastern Star pin. Click on image for larger view. |
Long-Lasting
All of this came from one little newspaper hint.
I started with George W. Wallis being elected Junior Deacon of a Masonic lodge in Indiana in 1874 and ended up pulling a box labeled "Masonic" from the top shelf of my computer room, climbing through old photographs and membership cards, texting cousins, retrieving my Rainbow scrapbook from another house, and discovering pieces of a family story I had never put together before.
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| The things I pulled out while writing this story now fill two boxes labeled “MASONIC.” |
The organizations changed from one generation to another—Masons, Scottish Rite, Royal Arch, Shrine, DeMolay, Rainbow and Eastern Star—but the connections among them ran through both sides of my family and into my own life.
Perhaps the best example of "long-lasting" is Leonard.
By 1922 he was already far enough along in Freemasonry to belong to the Royal Arch. More than fifty years later, blind for nearly two decades, he was still being installed as Chaplain of his lodge.
And somewhere in between, he stood at his granddaughter's installation as Worthy Advisor, gave the closing prayer from memory, and presented her with a Rainbow ring.
More than fifty years later, I still have it.
