Mansfield Masonic Lodge #35 F & AM members celebrated 200 years of Freemasonry in Richland County Wednesday evening at the Blockhouse in South Park, Mansfield. Richland County was just a year old when the first lodge formed in 1814, and there were reportedly only 20 homes in Mansfield—all cabins.
Today the Masons meet at the Masonic Temple on Middle Bellville Roa, Mansfield, but for Wednesday’s celebration they met at the Blockhouse. “It’s our 200th anniversary of Freemasonry in Mansfield. The Blockhouse was used in 1814 as a courthouse, a schoolhouse and a church. This is the first time for us to meet here,” said Master Kevin Wappner.
The special meeting also included a visit from Mansfield Boy Scout Troop 121. One Scout played the bagpipes and their color guard raised the flag on the pole outside of the Blockhouse. Lodge Secretary Michael McKee further noted that for the event Wappner had built chairs, benches and a wooden trunk that carried their effects and also served as the altar.
Wappner explained that there are two lodges in Mansfield and five lodges in the entire county.
McKee, who served as Master in 1983, added, “When I became secretary, and I’ve been secretary since 1983, we had a little over 1,000 members. Mansfield alone had 3,500 to 4,000 in four lodges. Now our membership in this lodge is 192, largely because of deaths. The average age of our membership statewide is 70 years old.”
Of the current 192 members, over 100 of them have been members for more than 40 years and approximately 50 have been a member in excess of 50 years. Masonic Lodges do not recruit membership, instead prospects must ask to become a member. More information about membership can be obtained from the Grand Lodge of Ohio.
Harold Klopp, president of the Mansfield 35 Fellow Craft Club, a Masonic unit, described other Masonic groups including the Baku Grotto that specialized in service to the handicapped; the Shriners, who work with special needs children and the Shriner’s hospitals across the country; and the Amranth and Easter Star, which are groups that welcome both men and women. Ohio Masons also support the annual Special Olympics.
Klopp and McKee are members of the Scottish Rite. Members must be 32nd Degree Masons. Klopp belongs to the Valley of Columbus Scottish Rite and McKee belongs to the Valley of Dayton.
The highest rank a Mason can reach is the 33rd Degree. Carl Pfeiffer is a 33rd Degree Mason. “I’m a 64 year Mason,” said Pfeiffer. I petitioned for the Lodge the day I turned 21. I was a DeMolay (an international organization for young men ages 12 to 21) that we don’t have in Mansfield anymore. The Mansfield fraternity has been a big part of my life all my life and so have the men I met here.”
Pfeiffer worked at Roger’s Jewelers, which was located on North Main Street where the Squirrel’s Den is currently located. Then he opened a finance company which was located at 37 N. Mulberry. That location is now part of the Mansfield Richland County main branch library. He worked in finance for 28 years the business was sold in 1990.
McKee said that history doesn’t record where the first lodge was because they originally met in one of the cabins in the area of downtown Mansfield. What little was found of early minutes notes that the Masons met the Wednesday preceding the full moon. No regular lodge site was maintained until 1822 and there is no record of the locations.
Their effects would have been carried with them perhaps in a trunk like Wappner built. And they sat on wooden chairs and benches, again the incentive for Wappner, who also was part of the Blockhouse restoration, to build the chairs and benches for the event.
In 1822 the lodge met in a room in the “mansion house,” rented by Brother John Smart. The house was located at Walnut Street and Park Avenue where the Farmer’s Savings and Trust was and where Chase Bank is now located. Meetings were held there until 1843, and the house was torn down in 1860 to make room for a Baptist Church.
“The next Masonic Temple, I believe, was located at Temple Court,” said McKee. “That building remained largely unoccupied until I got here in the 1960s. It was maybe three to four stories tall with a tower. That’s where they remained until they built the present building on Middle Bellville Road.”
For more information about Mansfield Masonic Lodge 35, visit their website.
