LOUDONVILLE – A few months ago, when the heating and air conditioning system went out at the Hanover Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio, Scott Evans came to the rescue.
A friend of one of the Mason brothers, Evans agreed to fixed the system at cost.
He got along well with the fraternity brothers and expressed an interest in joining the group. He had long been curious about the club. The lodge members kept up with Evans, sending him birthday and Christmas cards as a way of saying “thank you.”
“Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,” said Matt Young, the lodge’s chaplain.
Evans said the diagnosis came on Labor Day weekend, the same weekend his Crestline home was hit by a tornado. He was at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus when the storm hit, and he saw his house on television.
“It didn’t really faze me, because once I found out about this (cancer diagnosis), nothing could faze me,” Evans said.
It generally takes between six weeks and three months to go through the process of becoming a mason. Initiation involves three separate classes, called degrees, that each are accompanied by a verbal proficiency test that new members complete with the mentor who signs their petition to join.
But Young, along with Jack Boyd, who is a Mason and a friend of Evans, decided to try to speed up the process so Evans could join the lodge quickly and enter the brotherhood.
“Unfortunately, his chemo schedule is pretty rigorous, and he doesn’t feel well oftentimes because of the treatments,” Young said. “Most of his time off is spent sleeping, so we had to work around that.
“Time being of the essence here because of the situation, we got special dispensation (from the Grand Lodge) to do all the degrees in one day.”
Hearing the story, other Masons from all over Ohio volunteered to come take part in and help with the three degree ceremonies, which all took place Saturday in the Hanover Lodge, located above Buzzard’s Family Shoe Store in Loudonville.
“We’ve got people coming and going pretty much all day, and these guys are coming from all over, from Dayton, Medina, Columbus, Bellefontaine, you name it,” Young said. “This is just something they can get behind and take part in, and that’s what Masonry is all about.”
Ted Pummell, one of the Masons who came from Columbus to take part in the degree sessions, explained why the fraternity is so important to him.
“I’m just a blue-collar worker all my life, but it’s like having a college degree, because Masons are universal all over the world,” he said.
Several of the Masons emphasized that the fraternity is not a “secret society” as many people think. Knowledge of what they do in their ceremonies and meetings is reserved for members, but they don’t hide their existence and any man can join the society.
The society has its roots in stonemasonry, but the members of “blue lodges,” like the Hanover Lodge, are speculative masons, meaning the don’t practice the stonemason’s craft, but they do use symbolism from the craft to describe their values.
The Hanover chapter does service projects and contributes to Dale Roy’s Special Olympics program.
For the members, masonry is all about camaraderie and about doing good.
“We’re about making good men better men, so it’s unfortunate, his diagnosis, but we’re glad we’re able to do this for him,” said Bryan Thompson, who is known as the worshipful master, or leader of the lodge.
