Emporia Masonic Lodge #12
Here’s a great story of Freemasons stepping up to help during an emergency flu situation. But I’m not talking about the Swine Flu. No, I’m referring to the Spanish Flu pandemic that killed between fifty and one hundred million people worldwide — nearly a fifth of those who contracted it.
When the Spanish Flu hit in Emporia, Kansas in the fall of 1918, there were so many ill, that the Red Cross turned the second floor of the Emporia Masonic Lodge hall on Merchant Street (where it remains to this day) into an emergency hospital.
Of course it was great fortune that the Freemasons had built this hall and it was available, and I’m sure they were happy to turn it over as a hospital as per Masonic teachings. But the real heroes of the story were the female Red Cross nurses who attended the ill.
Read the entire Emporia Gazette article on how the city responded to the 1918 flu pandemic here.
[Note: The photograph of the lodge hall on the site of the 1918 era lodge hall seems to show a more modern building -- perhaps it replaced the original? If someone has some information on that building, I'd enjoy hearing about it]
Well, after a few bad Masonic news posts in a row, I thought it was about time to highlight some of the great stuff going on in the Fraternity. Here’s a sampling of our tenets in action: