July 11, 2025 • 41 mins
Minnesota Masonic Charities was formed in 2006, but how did we get here? Author Paul Hodnefield breaks down the timeline of the three distinct stages of “Charity” in Minnesota and how it has guided us since our inception in the 1850s.
“The advances that Minnesota Masonry has funded over the years are known not just here locally, they’re known across the world. It's something that has benefitted mankind at large.”
Learn about our rich history and the pivotal influence of A.T.C. Pierson, Gideon Ives, Marian Savage, the Order of the Eastern Star, and more.
“Masonry is a tool to be used, not a form to be served.” -PGM Leroy Mattson
Paul Hodnefield's latest book is titled “Our Guiding Star” and will be released in spring 2026.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello again, everyone.
(00:00):
Welcome back.
It's another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
Happy to be joined in studiotoday.
It's been a little over a yearsince you were last with us,
Paul Denfield.
Thanks for having me, Reid.
You are the author of Sherman'sWood Ticks.
We talked about that in ourprevious conversation, A
non-fiction work about theextraordinary story of the
(00:21):
eighth Minnesota VolunteerInfantry Regiment during the
Civil War.
I powered through that bookshortly after our conversation
last year.
excellent work.
you are an attorney serving asAssociate General Counsel for a
public records legal servicesprovider.
also a frequent speaker onpublic record filing, recording,
(00:42):
and search issues.
A Also a proud and activeFreemason housemaster of
Cataract Lodge number two inMinneapolis.
And currently you are working onthe history of Masonic charity
in Minnesota.
A project that I would have toimagine is well vast to say the
least.
Where do we even start on aproject like this?
(01:04):
Tell us more.
Well, the, the place to start, Iguess, is at the beginning.
So I, I was taking a look at,uh, some of the histories of the
earliest lodges in Minnesota,the proceedings of the first
Grand Lodge of Minnesota, justto see where charity was in
their mind.
And I, I can tell you thatcharity was first and foremost,
(01:25):
uh, during the early stages ofMasonry in Minnesota.
In fact, the working title forthe book.
Came from the Grand Master'saddress at the first annual
communication of the Grand Lodgeof Minnesota.
the full quote is, uh, letCharity be our guiding star.
So from, from Masonry'sinception in Minnesota, charity
(01:45):
has been, uh, a very importantpart of the Masonic experience.
we're grateful to have you instudio to talk about this
project.
What have you discovered on thisjourney of research so far?
It's gotta be a lot to tell.
There is a lot to tell andthere's been, uh, a lot of, a
lot of challenges for, forMasons and providing charity
(02:06):
over the years and, uh.
And, uh, a very much a change infocus.
It's evolved quite a bit overtime.
Masonic charity in Minnesota hasgone through three distinct
stages.
Right now we're in the thirdstage where you could call it an
era or uh, whatever.
But, I found it interesting thatthe number three popped up
(02:27):
because of course.
Three is a very important numberto Mason's three degrees.
There's, uh, the, the numberthree has many different, uh,
symbolic meanings in masonry.
A lot of prominence.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it, and, and, uh, it, itdoes in many areas as well, like
alchemy, for example, the, the,the three stages of alchemy and,
(02:48):
uh.
The three eras of masonry can belikened to, I guess, maybe three
degrees in masonry or the threestages of alchemy.
The first stage, which lastedalmost a hundred years, was, I
guess the rough equivalent ofyouth or, uh, the first stage
of, uh, alchemy making thingsbetter.
(03:11):
Uh, what it really boiled downto was masonry.
Was in a growth stage.
It was discovering itself.
Uh, it was determining what itwas and who we are as Masons in
Minnesota.
And during that growth where wewent from, uh, approximately 60
Masons in Minnesota when theGrand Lodge was formed to 60,000
(03:36):
by the early 1950s.
Over that time, uh, the GrandLodge was focused on.
Chartering new lodges goingthrough the process of, uh,
building the, the, the lodgebuildings, dealing with new
members, performing rituals,very inward focused.
And while Masonic charity wasimportant during that time, it
(03:58):
also tended to be inwardfocused.
It was focused on, uh, you know,providing, or helping aiding and
assisting brother Masons andtheir families.
Uh, the good news is with sucha, at the very beginning anyway,
with such a small number ofmasons, there wasn't a lot of
need.
And as the number grew overtime, um, it, it was an
(04:22):
important part of, and, and isan important part of who we are
as Masons to, uh, help Aidanassist our, our brethren and
their families.
But the need there was not thatgreat.
Still as the population aged,uh, the population of Masons in
Minnesota aged, there was a needto deal with the elderly masons
(04:44):
and, and destitute masons who.
Uh, became that way over time.
So, uh, again, the Masoniccharity was inward focused, but
it was focused on some bigthings.
And one of those big things wasthe building of a home where,
uh, masons that, uh, weredestitute or, or needed special
care where they could live and,and for their families as well.
(05:08):
And actually the first talk ofa, of a home in the sense of a
a, a home for this purpose wasway back in 1857.
And that was, uh, at a grandlodge, uh, communication.
An a TC Pearson, who was the,uh, master at the time, talked
about building a Masonic home inSt.
Paul, but.
He was not talking about a homein the sense of a nursing home
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facility or something like that.
It was a home for the lodgeswhere multiple lodges could, uh,
meet.
I.
think of it as a, a Masonictemple, and then as kind of an
afterthought, he said, oh yes,and it'll be big enough.
We can have a couple of rooms onthe first floor for, uh,
destitute masons and theirfamilies to, to stay if need be.
(05:55):
And that was in 1857.
1857, huh?
And, uh, again, you, you think,well, that's not a whole lot of.
Thought about Masonic charityfor, to help Aidan assist other
Masons.
But again, remember how fewMasons there were in Minnesota
at the time, and how few of themneeded assistance at the time,
(06:18):
but it planted the seed and thatseed was discussed over and over
and over again for the next 50years.
Twofold, generations passed.
Before action was taken on it.
Now there, there have been a lotof talk in the 1880s and into
the 1890s about, well, we got agrowing need for this type of
(06:40):
facility someplace where, uh,you know, uh, elderly masons or
otherwise destitute masons andtheir families can, uh, can
spend the rest of their years.
And nothing much happened.
There was a lot of talk, therewere a couple of committees
formed to kind of explore it.
Discussion To a fault.
Yes.
Yeah.
(07:00):
In 1906, Gideon Ives, pastMaster of or pa, past Grand of
Masons of Minnesota, pushedthrough a resolution to form a
committee and begin gatheringfunds for the erection of a.
Home.
And, uh, that passed and thecommittees were appointed and a,
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uh, entity was formed with thestate of Minnesota so that they
had a corporation that couldaccept and manage the funds that
came in as donations.
Now they set some parameters onthis.
I said, we, we aren't gonna doanything with the home until we
have a hundred thousand dollarsin the bank.
That's big money.
Back then it was.
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Remember this is 1906, a hundredthousand dollars goes an awful
long way.
So they began collecting themoney in 1906.
Now, Gideon Ives was an idealleader for this project, and
this is something we see, uh,throughout the history of
Masonic charity, where we movefrom one era into another.
It typically is because there'sone driving force behind it.
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And in this case, back in, uh,1906, it was, it was Gideon
Ives.
Now, I've, as, as I said, Iveswas, uh, ideally suited for this
because He had already beenthrough this and he had been
Grand Master of Masons inMinnesota.
So he was well positioned totake on this project.
And, uh, beginning in 1906 thathe did, he, he was able to
(08:33):
rally, uh, enough, uh, peoplewithin Masonry.
He got, uh, and one of his big,um, accomplishments was he got
the Eastern Star on board.
I cannot emphasize enough howimportant the order of the
Eastern Star was in raising thefunds for the Masonic home and
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for keeping, uh, uh, for keepingthe fundraising going after the
initial, part of the home wasbuilt What I have read about
that, a crucial collaborationIndeed, they, uh, they raised
money for the home.
in 1920 when the home wasopened, they continued that work
and we're instrumental inexpanding to, uh, at, at, when
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the home opened, it was just theold Savage Estate.
But that wasn't enough tosatisfy the demand for rooms.
And as a result, the, thedecision was made very quickly
to go ahead and build the mainguest lodge, which is the
defining architecture of theMasonic home today.
It's what, uh, comes to mindwhen people think of the Masonic
(09:36):
home.
Do you anticipate having somephotos of this in the book to
see the, how it rolled out?
I do.
Excellent.
Uh, it's a matter of, uh, whereto get the photos.
Uh, I'm sure there's plenty inour archives at the, uh, uh,
heritage Center.
There's, uh, certainly some atthe Minnesota Historical Society
(09:56):
that we can we'll get permissionto use, but we'll get those in
the book.
Yes.
It's still hard to imagine atime when we didn't have.
The professional amenities wehave today when a loved one, a
family member, parent needs morecare than we can provide for
(10:17):
them, either them home andindependent or living with us.
And at that time, there wasnothing of the sort safe to say,
this was pretty groundbreakingat the time.
it was there.
I mean, there were institutionsfor people that were destitute,
uh, but they weren't necessarilyvery nice.
Uh, think of the county poorfarms, uh, that were, uh, many,
(10:39):
many states had poor farms, uh,uh, for this purpose.
And, um.
The Masonic home was reallydifferent.
the, uh, Gideon Ives after heretired when the home first
opened, he passed the torch to,uh, Stewart Gamble, another, uh,
another prominent MinnesotaMason, who, uh, had a lot of
(11:00):
energy and worked to raise fundsto, uh, expand the Masonic home.
But he, he insisted thateveryone refer to the residents
here.
Not as inmates or residents, butas guests.
The idea was this is, ourmasonic home for our masons and
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their families.
They are guests, even if they'redestitute, they're guests.
That was an importantdistinction, and that's why the,
the building in which we now sitwas referred to as the main
guest lodge, uh, at the time.
And I, I don't know if it stillis, but uh, it referred to our
guests.
Love that.
(11:43):
So you talked about how we'vegone through these three
distinct eras, the first ofwhich culminated then with the
building of the home in 1920.
What was the next.
Phase, like, well, it didn'tculminate with that.
It continued the, the Masonichome, uh, was in demand and it
needed to be expanded.
(12:03):
So we did that first in 1927with the, uh, main guest lodge,
uh, the farm across the street,uh, from where we sit now.
Was expanded and, and upgraded,and various other improvements
were made up until the 1950swhen the, the original, the old
home, the Savage Mansion hadreached the end of its useful
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life and they tore that down.
Can you give a little more intelon that for someone that wasn't
familiar with.
The grounds at that time.
Mm-hmm.
And historically speaking, soit, it was Bloomington Township,
correct?
Yeah.
Bloomington was not a, a cityyet.
It was a township.
And, and there was like thismansion that was owned by Marian
Savage.
(12:46):
Uh, Marian Savage.
For those that don't know, uh,was the owner of a horse so
famous that it, it.
Rivaled any celebrity athletetoday?
The, the horse was none otherthan the great Dan Patch and,
um, Dan Patch, uh, set all sortsof records.
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He's a harness horse, right?
He was a harness horse.
Yeah.
A harness racer.
Well, Marian Savage, the owner.
Had about 700 acres of landbetween the south side of the
Minnesota River where he had thefarm, where dam patch was kept
in the training facilities.
And then he had about 270 acreson the north side of the river
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in Bloomington, from the riverup, uh, to about where Old
Shakopee Road is now or portionsof that.
And on the top of the bluff, hebuilt a very expensive mansion.
That looked out to the southover the river to the, to his,
uh, to his holdings in the whatis now Savage, of course.
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And it was that mansion that wasthe original Masonic home
because when it opened in 1920,there was no, there were no
other buildings here.
They put the, the firstresidence in that mansion and,
uh, took care of them in there.
the only problem with thatmansion was it was not designed.
As a care facility of any typeor a residential facility.
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It was a home.
Talk about stairs.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it, it, uh, it served itspurpose until the main guest
lodge opened.
It was, uh, later when demandrose to, to a point they had to
reopen it and, and use it for,for some space, for, for guests.
But, uh, eventually, you know,it was a wood frame structure.
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It was not designed for thispurpose.
So by 1950, they, they did haveto tear it down.
It had, uh, pretty well wornout.
For our listeners who arehistory buffs, by the way, there
are images of all of thesethings on display at the Masonic
Heritage Center if you'reinterested.
It's really cool.
Yeah.
That, uh, uh, it's a shame thatthat mansion isn't still there
because it was really agrandiose structure.
(14:57):
Yeah.
And, and would be verybeautiful.
But, it just, uh, it sadly itwasn't worth saving.
So when, uh, in any event when,uh, Savage passed away, he and
his horse passed away within aday of each other.
Uh, the horse went first andthen, uh, he, he had been ailing
and, uh, just pushed him overthe edge.
That was, he died a couple dayslater?
(15:18):
Yeah.
Wow.
And that was, uh, in, uh, Ithink in late 1916.
Well, his estate, uh, was deeplyin debt and, I, I haven't been
able to find a will.
There may be one out there, buthe, he had a lot of creditors
for the estate and, uh, therewas provision made for his
surviving spouse, but theyneeded to sell the land to pay
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off the debts'cause thecreditors are banging on the
door of the, at the, uh, in theprobate court.
And it was ma uh, for it workedto the, uh, favor of the Masonic
home because they were able tobuy the Porsche north of the
river.
Where the mansion was and wherethe Masonic home is today, about
200 and roughly 270 acres.
(16:02):
And they got it at a fire saleprice.
And that's what made the Masonichome possible here, is they were
able to buy it cheap enough.
They still had to raiseadditional money because after
buying it, they didn't haveenough to build on it and, and
to, uh, operate at the levelthat they wanted, but at least
they had the, they had the, the.
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Land that they needed in orderto erect the Masonic home.
Was Marian Savage a Mason?
I don't think so.
I haven't found any record ofit.
Um, he may have had ties toMasonry.
Uh, one of our colleagues, uh,uh, historian, believes there
was some sort of connection, buthe, he can't prove it.
(16:46):
No solid evidence of a rightlodge or something.
Okay.
Just curious about that.
Yeah.
So, once, uh, once we reachedthe 1950s, the Masonic home had
been expanding.
Things are going well, butMasonry was still focused
internally.
There were some external thingsthat Masonry did for charity.
For example, uh, many MasonicLodges when they were first
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formed in Minnesota.
Would do something for theircommunity.
And one popular thing was toestablish cemeteries.
And if you look at the lodges,the earliest lodges of Minnesota
that formed, they, they formedalong the rivers because that
was the main form oftransportation back in the day.
I.
You, for example, followMississippi River up north you
have, uh, uh, Monticello Lodge,and then you have Clearwater
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Lodge, and then you have, aNorth Star Lodge all, uh, in St.
Cloud all along the MississippiRiver.
Every one of those lodgesestablished a cemetery in their
early days outside of townbecause at the time.
People needed a place to, tobury and to memorialize their,
their loved ones.
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So would the lodge own that?
The, the lodge would, uh, thelodge typically owned it, But,
and the same thing, if you gosouth, for example, Mankato had
a Masonic Cemetery.
It didn't last real long as aMasonic cemetery, but they
established it and got it, gotit going.
I'm not mistaken.
Corinthian and Farmington stilldoes, or they still have a
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connection to that localcemetery.
They may very well.
A lot of lodges, uh, uh, didthat type of work early on.
So it's no surprise that you'llsee cemeteries known as, uh, old
Masonic Cemetery or AcaciaCemetery or North Star Cemetery,
all named after a.
Either the lodge or something,uh, symbolic to masonry.
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There's a actually, uh, uh, atleast two Acacia Cemeteries of
Minnesota.
One being in, uh, Clearwater,which that was established I
think in the 1857.
1858, right after the lodge was.
But you've also got AcaciaCemetery over, uh, uh, across
the river from St.
Paul, which was established inthe 20th century.
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And that was, uh, a big projectof a lot of lodges that came
together.
To design and build that.
And, uh, that, again, that wasprimarily is a Masonic cemetery.
It's, I believe, since beenopened up to a, a, a broader
spectrum.
Sure.
But, um, all of these thingswere again, primarily, focused
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on the local communitycharitable acts, uh, the Masonic
home.
Did take in non masons.
If they were indigent, it wasset up that it could do that.
I don't know, I dunno how manythey actually took in, but they
would do that for the community.
They had to abide by all therules to be admitted to the
Masonic home.
And there were plenty of those,uh, people might, people would
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be surprised.
Learn that to get entrance intothe Masonic home, you had to
turn over all your assets.
To the Masonic home, and thatwould cover your care and
everything during the time youwere there.
And often it, well, typically itwasn't anywhere near enough to
cover the expenses of being inthe home, especially if you were
indigent.
But, uh, you would turn thatover and, um, that's one of the
(20:01):
ways that the home was funded.
Although it was not a majorityof the funding, it covered only
a, a.
It was a substantial portion,but it was certainly far less
than half of the cost of, ofrunning the home came from the,
the residents themselves.
How did they handle that then,as far as funding and budgets
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and needing operating?
Well, uh, the Masons ofMinnesota came through Grand
Lodge back in the twenties andposed a per capita, um, on, uh,
annual per capita on top of the,as part of the dues.
And so that money, uh, was theprimary funding source for the
Masonic home for many, manyyears.
But by the, by the 1950s, theMasonic home, you know, it, it
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had, it was more mature.
Masonry had really found itsniche and, and found itself.
In 1954, Leroy Matson, anAssociate Justice on the Supreme
Court, became Grand Master ofMasons of Minnesota.
And at that time he came up,with the idea that Masonry
needed to do.
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More than just look after itsown.
And what he did is he, he cameup with the thought that we
should be doing a grand gesturethat will benefit the world at
large.
He wanted something, uh, visiblethat would benefit everyone to
(21:26):
beyond Minnesota and beyond.
Mm-hmm.
And in fact, he, um, he saidthat masonry.
Is a tool to be used, not a formto be served.
And that's a quote I've heardmultiple gram masters use since,
and maybe he borrowed that too.
But, he, he, he considered it avital force to be used.
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so in the summer of 1954.
Leroy Matson invited, uh, anumber of prominent masons up to
a cabin that he owned on LeachLake, and he brought'em up one
at a time.
He's included the grand lineand, and others that he
considered influential, and hesat down with them one-on-one
and asked, what can we do asmasons, as a, as a big project,
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uh, a big charitable effort thatwill benefit humanity as a
whole?
And, uh, the various, uh, peoplethat were up there put in their
2 cents worth and thought aboutit.
but one thing, it, it keptcoming back to one idea and that
was, uh, something in themedical field.
And as it progressed, uh, uh,doctors who he had brought up
(22:36):
there emphasized the need for acancer hospital At the time, uh,
cancer was, cancer was prettymuch a death sentence.
And the, uh, hospitals were notreally interested in treating it
because the, I guess theattitude was what, you know,
we're a hospital, we treatpeople and make them better.
(22:58):
We can't do that with cancerpatients.
Moreover, cancer cancer wasconsidered, uh, it had a bit of
a stigma to it at the time.
Really?
So there was, there reallywasn't anything available for
the victims of cancer and theirfamilies, and it was a
devastating disease then, as itis now.
it was, uh, expensive.
It was, uh, uh, it cost a lot ofmoney to treat if you could find
(23:23):
a place where, where you couldget good treatment.
And, uh, it imposed just aterrible burden on, on families,
both financially and, andmentally.
There was one place in the TwinCities, there was a charity
hospital, uh, in St.
Paul that took in indigentcancer patients, but that was
about it.
And they, they had a longwaiting list, so the.
(23:46):
Decision was, uh, that MinnesotaMasonry would take it upon
itself to build a cancerhospital.
And so they approached theUniversity of Minnesota.
The University of Minnesota wasthrilled at the idea they need,
they needed something like that,and they were willing to support
it.
Uh, as part of the exploration,uh, masons, uh, in Minnesota
(24:10):
realized that they had noability whatsoever to run a
hospital.
they needed the, the buy-in fromthe University of Minnesota,
university of Minnesota wasthrilled.
They really wanted to take onthis project, create a cancer
hospital and use it as aresearch hospital as well.
So, the grandma Master Matsonappointed a, a committee to go
(24:31):
out and come up with a plan and,uh, a fundraising plan as well.
it was called the committee of ahundred.
They met at the Scottish Rite inMinneapolis, uh, for the first
time, uh, late in 18 or 1954.
Sorry, I'm sitting here in thenine 19th century at times.
Uh, but, uh, they met at theScottish Rite, uh, in late 1954.
(24:55):
came up with a plan.
And after that they appointed anexecutive committee that would,
uh, focus on the fundraising.
this was led, they brought in afellow named Donald Cowling, who
was a very interestingcharacter.
He had been the president ofCarlton College.
He had been born in England.
Come to the United States,obtain several degrees from Ivy
(25:17):
League colleges at a very youngage, and then, uh, come to
Minnesota and taken over aspresident of Carlton College.
When he took over at Carlton in1909, he.
I think the fundraising was inthe thousands of dollars per
year.
He boosted that up to, uh, uh,you know, many magnitudes more
(25:37):
than that, and, uh, you know, totens of thousands than hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
He was a master fundraiser.
So he was at Carlton until hisretirement, uh uh, uh, sometime
around 1950, I believe, or maybein the 1940s.
Then he used those skills tohelp raise money for the
(25:57):
University of Minnesota MedicalProgram.
He was a perfect fit.
For this very project because,uh, what they did is they
decided we're gonna build thiscancer hospital.
It's gonna cost a milliondollars.
Masons pledged half of that$500,000.
And the rest, the U of M uh,planned to get through federal,
(26:21):
uh, funding sources.
Well.
Cowling was a master fundraiserand it didn't take long to get
the ball rolling.
They actually had a division oflabor when it came to that.
They, uh, Donald Cowling andLeroy Matson worked on the large
donors, the uh, the wealthyindividuals, foundations and
(26:42):
things like that.
But there were two other, uh,masons who were assigned to
work.
the smaller level, which was thelodge level.
And these were Clyde Heman andFrank Emrich.
And what they did during that,during 1955 is they visited
every lodge in the state to sellthe concept of that cancer
(27:05):
hospital.
To, uh, get each lodge toappoint a, um, an administrator
for this project.
Wow.
And by the time they were done,uh, they had, approximately
3,500 Masons who were workingacross the state on this
fundraising project.
(27:25):
And collecting money fromvirtually every Mason and member
of the Eastern Star.
And again, it's important tounderstand the Eastern Star
played a critical role, if not alead role in many cases.
the, um, uh, worthy matron atthe time was, uh, Mildred Dietz,
and, uh, she dedicated her yearto raising money.
(27:47):
For the, the cancer hospital.
And very effectively, you know,again, traveling the state,
visiting the, uh, the EasternStar chapters probably also,
yeah.
Visiting every chapter onEastern Star side too.
in fact, it, it was sosuccessful that it di before,
before Long the Minnesota Masonspledged the whole million.
(28:10):
Took the federal funding outtathe picture.
Wow.
And of course, U of M wasprobably quite happy with that
because even back in the 1950s,federal funding entailed, uh,
all sorts of, uh, paperwork andred tape.
Yeah.
Red tape that goes with it.
So what a, what a massivesuccess it was.
And, and the cancer hospitalopened in 1958.
(28:32):
And it was a very quick project.
It opened with three levels,basement and two, two other
levels above ground.
and that quickly filled, theyneeded more room and, um.
Minnesota Masonry came throughagain and pledged, uh, uh, the
cost of adding two more storiesto the hospital.
(28:52):
And those were opened in theearly 1960s.
well between the Grand Lodge ofMinnesota and the Eastern Star,
uh, funding has been just aboutcontinual ever since that time.
So over 70 years of apartnership?
Exactly.
The Grand Lodge expanded kind ofthe, the concepts.
By this point, we really havetwo major.
charities.
(29:12):
We've got the, um, Masonic Home,which was incorporated, uh, on
its own, and we've got theCancer Center Fund, which was
also incorporated on its own.
They were under the control ofthe Grand Lodge largely, but
they were separate legalentities, so that kind of
mitigated the, the directcontrol of the Grand Lodge and
gave them some independence.
(29:36):
By 1970, uh, the Grand Lodgealso formed the Minnesota
Masonic Foundation, which was,uh, another charitable entity,
which was, which was formed tomanage scholarships and, uh,
some other projects.
for example, they, uh, at onetime they had a project to
distribute glucose monitors toschools all around the, the
(29:57):
state and train the schoolnurses 1970.
Uh, in the 1970s.
Yeah.
That had to be somewhat rare atthat time.
Yeah.
there was a real need for itbecause, uh, diabetic children
really didn't get treatment atschool and the schools didn't
know how to deal with it.
I.
What would happen is, uh, kidswould wind up, uh, having, uh, a
(30:21):
crisis before they knew whatwas, that there was something
wrong and they would haul'em offin an ambulance.
once the glucose monitorsstarted getting out there and
the training, uh.
For school personnel, they wouldbe, they would be able to
monitor glucose levelsthroughout the day and avoid
getting to the crisis point by,uh, uh, taking whatever action
was necessary to ensure that thechildren's blood sugar didn't
(30:43):
get outta whack.
So that was, uh.
A success, although it, it, itwasn't a long lived effort.
Uh, I think state programs tookover eventually and, and, uh,
Had to be the catalyst thoughfor wider awareness of how to
treat that.
Imagine now a poor kid having totake an ambulance ride to the
hospital.
(31:03):
Yeah.
Simply because of a lack ofknowledge or ability to handle a
blood sugar situation.
Yeah, that, that was exactly it.
There were, the schools weren'ttrained to deal with it at the
time, and this was a way ofhelping raise that awareness and
getting the training out there.
Other projects.
The foundation was responsiblefor scholarships.
They had a scholarship programand they developed some of the
(31:28):
things that we use inscholarships today through
Minnesota Masonic Charities, forexample, matching funds.
Yes.
That was something that thatbegan with the foundation and
there were other things thatthey did, but As we got into the
1990s, we have the MinnesotaMasonic Foundation, we have the
Cancer Center fund, we have thethe Minnesota Masonic Home Fund,
(31:51):
and all of these are out raisingmoney, and they're all operating
somewhat independently, and theybegan to step on each other's
toes and they were chasing thesame donors.
They weren't always investingmoney.
That they raised the mostefficient way.
For example, typically they wereputting it into CDs and treasury
(32:14):
bills.
The return on those very little,it's a very safe investment.
Yes, it's a very safeinvestment, but no return.
Right.
people began to realize thatthere, there were some issues
with the way charity was beingdelivered in Minnesota.
Each of these funds, uh, had itsown administration.
(32:35):
They had an office somewhere,they had, uh, uh, employees and,
and, uh, so they were reallyduplicating efforts naturally
became siloed.
Yeah.
And again, with stepping on eachother's toes, chasing the same
donors, they even have eventsthat conflicted with each other.
No kidding.
Yeah.
So.
there was a need out there totake some sort of action to make
(32:58):
it more efficient.
things began to happen in thenineties.
Along that route, uh, uh, thedecision was made to invest the
funds uh, under professionalmanagement to maximize the
returns, and that paid offimmediately and continues to pay
off.
But by the early two thousands,it was clear that more action
(33:18):
needed to be taken.
And that's again, when we haveanother visionary who steps up
and makes things happen.
There have been some talk aboutmaybe consolidating these
charities into one group andthen uh, uh, making it more
efficient along that line.
But it's just like the MasonicHome in the 19th century.
There was a lot of talk aboutit, right?
(33:39):
And maybe some talk kindacasual, but nobody ever made it
happen.
And then past Grand Master, EricTon beak.
Stepped up and had the idea or,or, or took the action to
consolidate all this.
He was uniquely positioned to doit again, just like the other
changes from one era to another.
(34:00):
I mean, you could say that,Minnesota Masonry found itself
in its first hundred years, andthen in the next 50 years it
found its soul with the, uh.
The cancer hospital and things.
But now, uh, in the two, in thetwo thousands, it began to find
its spirit and that's where EricNiton beak, who was positioned
(34:21):
because of his experience withthe, uh, running different
charities and, uh, his financialbackground in, in, at nor West
Bank, bank, um, his pastexperiences, grandma Master came
up with the, I.
The idea of forming MinnesotaMasonic charities and, and
making it happen, gettingeveryone under the same
(34:42):
umbrella, so to speak.
Yes.
And that, that was no easy task.
Sure.
Because yeah, you've got thesedifferent charitable, the
foundation, the cancer center,and the uh, and the home.
All of which are operatingsomewhat independently, and
there's always a resistance togiving up that independence
change.
We just can't handle, we, yeah.
And Masons are not notorious fortheir, their ability to, to, to
(35:05):
change.
But I think enough peoplerealized it, and some of the
early opponents of this camearound very quickly when they
discovered the benefits.
And, uh, as a result, MinnesotaMosan Charities was formed in
2006.
That eliminated the, theduplicate offices and, and
(35:26):
duplicate costs.
So it made it much moreefficient with the, uh, the,
planned investments I.
Made it much more, uh, efficientas far as the managing its funds
and being able to make the mostof it.
they were able to consolidateand actually pay off some of the
pledges that these independentorganizations had made, but were
(35:50):
having trouble fundraising to,uh, follow through.
So the result was, it turnedthe, kind of the independent,
uh, uh, fundraising andcharitable activities into one
consolidated powerhouse thatwould still work through the
lodges, through matching funds.
Uh.
(36:11):
But could also do some of thebig things, uh, pledges to the
cancer center at the U of M, butthat, it didn't stop there.
In the last, uh, I don't know,the last 10 years, I think we've
donated about a hundred milliondollars or at least pledged a
hundred million to I.
Cancer Center, the Center forthe Developing Brain, the
(36:31):
Masonic Children's Hospital.
And uh, uh, I think the, the,the most recent one is the
Masonic, uh, center on HealthyAging.
Healthy Aging, yeah.
The Masonic Institute on Biologyand Metabolism.
Mm-hmm.
Which now the full spectrum iscovered from children's health,
cancer, the healthy agingcomponents, all in, it's around
$195 million in that 70 plusyear partnership.
(36:55):
Yeah.
and it, it just continues tolook great into the future.
It's a great way to maximizethe, and leverage the, the
fundraising ability of MinnesotaMasonry and, uh, focus it in
such a way that it, uh, obtains,um, maximum results.
(37:15):
And what a special thing for usas Minnesota Masons to have this
story.
Not every state shares this typeof legacy that we've been
fortunate enough to be a partof.
Giving back to those in need,giving back to the greater good.
That whole building communitypiece is truly, truly amazing.
(37:36):
It's, it's so special and, andwe throw out some big numbers
over the years.
This is, this is a lot of money.
Mm-hmm.
But our members are also Masonsin Minnesota and even in this
region.
Are also seeing the value ofwhatever they can give is going
to that greater good.
Mm-hmm.
Dr.
Douglas Yee said it and I quotehim all the time, none of us
(37:59):
knows who's$5$50 or$500 will bethat amount that pushes research
into a new breakthrough levelthat could be part of cures.
It's a wonderful thing to giveback in that regard to that
greater good to MinnesotaMasonic Charities, and
(38:21):
especially for us as Masonshere.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
The, uh, the, the advances thatMinnesota Masonry has funded
over the years are known, notjust here locally.
They're, they're known acrossthe world.
Part of that is Minnesota hasalways had a good reputation as
far as the, the medical school,medical research that it
(38:44):
conducts.
Uh, we're also home to the MayoClinic, which actually, believe
it or not, at one time the MayoClinic was housed in the, uh,
Rochester Masonic Temple.
That's right, because the Mayoswere Masons.
Masons, yeah.
But, uh, It is world, worldrenowned now and, and truly
(39:04):
going back to, uh, LeroyMatson's vision.
It is something that hasbenefited mankind at large
through Minnesota MasonicCharities and these
professionals, the physiciansand the researchers are
collaborating with otherspecialists in their same.
Capacity all over the world.
Mm-hmm.
(39:24):
Man, that that really, it gaveme shivers when you said that
the work that has been done hereover this kind of this, it's
really been fascinating too, tohear about these three phases,
these three eras, but all of thework that has been done, his
vision came true.
It has impacted the world.
Mm-hmm.
You can look at the history ofMinnesota Masonic charity, as I
said, in three stages.
(39:45):
You've got the, its youth, it'suh, maybe it's teen years, and
then it's adulthood and it'sstill got a long way to go.
And, uh, or you could look at itas a, you know, the entered
apprentice, the fellow craft.
Yes.
And we're now in the MasterMason stage.
And that, that will go on for along time.
I'm, I'm sure.
It, it's something we're proudto be a part of.
(40:07):
And, uh, we'll continue for, foras far as the eye can see
forever.
That infinite perspective makesit even more special.
Now, the working title of thebook is our Guiding Star.
I.
I won't hold you to this, butwhat's the anticipated release
as you're, you're working onthis very diligently, what are
we looking at as far as apublish and a release?
(40:29):
Well, I hope to have the, thefirst draft done by the end of
July.
I.
Have it, uh, ready for, uh,editing by the end of, uh,
August.
if all goes according to plan,we'll have it out before Grand
Lodge next year.
Excellent.
So ideally by April of 2026 wecan dive into this.
That's correct.
(40:50):
Paul Denfield, thank you forbeing in studio today and for
the diligent work and theresearch you're doing that
really brings our story to life.
And Reed, thank you for havingme.
I love telling this story.
This has been another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
We appreciate you listening.
Hello again, everyone.
(00:00):
Welcome back.
It's another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
Happy to be joined in studiotoday.
It's been a little over a yearsince you were last with us,
Paul Denfield.
Thanks for having me, Reid.
You are the author of Sherman'sWood Ticks.
We talked about that in ourprevious conversation, A
non-fiction work about theextraordinary story of the
(00:21):
eighth Minnesota VolunteerInfantry Regiment during the
Civil War.
I powered through that bookshortly after our conversation
last year.
excellent work.
you are an attorney serving asAssociate General Counsel for a
public records legal servicesprovider.
also a frequent speaker onpublic record filing, recording,
(00:42):
and search issues.
A Also a proud and activeFreemason housemaster of
Cataract Lodge number two inMinneapolis.
And currently you are working onthe history of Masonic charity
in Minnesota.
A project that I would have toimagine is well vast to say the
least.
Where do we even start on aproject like this?
(01:04):
Tell us more.
Well, the, the place to start, Iguess, is at the beginning.
So I, I was taking a look at,uh, some of the histories of the
earliest lodges in Minnesota,the proceedings of the first
Grand Lodge of Minnesota, justto see where charity was in
their mind.
And I, I can tell you thatcharity was first and foremost,
(01:25):
uh, during the early stages ofMasonry in Minnesota.
In fact, the working title forthe book.
Came from the Grand Master'saddress at the first annual
communication of the Grand Lodgeof Minnesota.
the full quote is, uh, letCharity be our guiding star.
So from, from Masonry'sinception in Minnesota, charity
(01:45):
has been, uh, a very importantpart of the Masonic experience.
we're grateful to have you instudio to talk about this
project.
What have you discovered on thisjourney of research so far?
It's gotta be a lot to tell.
There is a lot to tell andthere's been, uh, a lot of, a
lot of challenges for, forMasons and providing charity
(02:06):
over the years and, uh.
And, uh, a very much a change infocus.
It's evolved quite a bit overtime.
Masonic charity in Minnesota hasgone through three distinct
stages.
Right now we're in the thirdstage where you could call it an
era or uh, whatever.
But, I found it interesting thatthe number three popped up
(02:27):
because of course.
Three is a very important numberto Mason's three degrees.
There's, uh, the, the numberthree has many different, uh,
symbolic meanings in masonry.
A lot of prominence.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it, and, and, uh, it, itdoes in many areas as well, like
alchemy, for example, the, the,the three stages of alchemy and,
(02:48):
uh.
The three eras of masonry can belikened to, I guess, maybe three
degrees in masonry or the threestages of alchemy.
The first stage, which lastedalmost a hundred years, was, I
guess the rough equivalent ofyouth or, uh, the first stage
of, uh, alchemy making thingsbetter.
(03:11):
Uh, what it really boiled downto was masonry.
Was in a growth stage.
It was discovering itself.
Uh, it was determining what itwas and who we are as Masons in
Minnesota.
And during that growth where wewent from, uh, approximately 60
Masons in Minnesota when theGrand Lodge was formed to 60,000
(03:36):
by the early 1950s.
Over that time, uh, the GrandLodge was focused on.
Chartering new lodges goingthrough the process of, uh,
building the, the, the lodgebuildings, dealing with new
members, performing rituals,very inward focused.
And while Masonic charity wasimportant during that time, it
(03:58):
also tended to be inwardfocused.
It was focused on, uh, you know,providing, or helping aiding and
assisting brother Masons andtheir families.
Uh, the good news is with sucha, at the very beginning anyway,
with such a small number ofmasons, there wasn't a lot of
need.
And as the number grew overtime, um, it, it was an
(04:22):
important part of, and, and isan important part of who we are
as Masons to, uh, help Aidanassist our, our brethren and
their families.
But the need there was not thatgreat.
Still as the population aged,uh, the population of Masons in
Minnesota aged, there was a needto deal with the elderly masons
(04:44):
and, and destitute masons who.
Uh, became that way over time.
So, uh, again, the Masoniccharity was inward focused, but
it was focused on some bigthings.
And one of those big things wasthe building of a home where,
uh, masons that, uh, weredestitute or, or needed special
care where they could live and,and for their families as well.
(05:08):
And actually the first talk ofa, of a home in the sense of a
a, a home for this purpose wasway back in 1857.
And that was, uh, at a grandlodge, uh, communication.
An a TC Pearson, who was the,uh, master at the time, talked
about building a Masonic home inSt.
Paul, but.
He was not talking about a homein the sense of a nursing home
(05:32):
facility or something like that.
It was a home for the lodgeswhere multiple lodges could, uh,
meet.
I.
think of it as a, a Masonictemple, and then as kind of an
afterthought, he said, oh yes,and it'll be big enough.
We can have a couple of rooms onthe first floor for, uh,
destitute masons and theirfamilies to, to stay if need be.
(05:55):
And that was in 1857.
1857, huh?
And, uh, again, you, you think,well, that's not a whole lot of.
Thought about Masonic charityfor, to help Aidan assist other
Masons.
But again, remember how fewMasons there were in Minnesota
at the time, and how few of themneeded assistance at the time,
(06:18):
but it planted the seed and thatseed was discussed over and over
and over again for the next 50years.
Twofold, generations passed.
Before action was taken on it.
Now there, there have been a lotof talk in the 1880s and into
the 1890s about, well, we got agrowing need for this type of
(06:40):
facility someplace where, uh,you know, uh, elderly masons or
otherwise destitute masons andtheir families can, uh, can
spend the rest of their years.
And nothing much happened.
There was a lot of talk, therewere a couple of committees
formed to kind of explore it.
Discussion To a fault.
Yes.
Yeah.
(07:00):
In 1906, Gideon Ives, pastMaster of or pa, past Grand of
Masons of Minnesota, pushedthrough a resolution to form a
committee and begin gatheringfunds for the erection of a.
Home.
And, uh, that passed and thecommittees were appointed and a,
(07:23):
uh, entity was formed with thestate of Minnesota so that they
had a corporation that couldaccept and manage the funds that
came in as donations.
Now they set some parameters onthis.
I said, we, we aren't gonna doanything with the home until we
have a hundred thousand dollarsin the bank.
That's big money.
Back then it was.
(07:44):
Remember this is 1906, a hundredthousand dollars goes an awful
long way.
So they began collecting themoney in 1906.
Now, Gideon Ives was an idealleader for this project, and
this is something we see, uh,throughout the history of
Masonic charity, where we movefrom one era into another.
It typically is because there'sone driving force behind it.
(08:09):
And in this case, back in, uh,1906, it was, it was Gideon
Ives.
Now, I've, as, as I said, Iveswas, uh, ideally suited for this
because He had already beenthrough this and he had been
Grand Master of Masons inMinnesota.
So he was well positioned totake on this project.
And, uh, beginning in 1906 thathe did, he, he was able to
(08:33):
rally, uh, enough, uh, peoplewithin Masonry.
He got, uh, and one of his big,um, accomplishments was he got
the Eastern Star on board.
I cannot emphasize enough howimportant the order of the
Eastern Star was in raising thefunds for the Masonic home and
(08:53):
for keeping, uh, uh, for keepingthe fundraising going after the
initial, part of the home wasbuilt What I have read about
that, a crucial collaborationIndeed, they, uh, they raised
money for the home.
in 1920 when the home wasopened, they continued that work
and we're instrumental inexpanding to, uh, at, at, when
(09:15):
the home opened, it was just theold Savage Estate.
But that wasn't enough tosatisfy the demand for rooms.
And as a result, the, thedecision was made very quickly
to go ahead and build the mainguest lodge, which is the
defining architecture of theMasonic home today.
It's what, uh, comes to mindwhen people think of the Masonic
(09:36):
home.
Do you anticipate having somephotos of this in the book to
see the, how it rolled out?
I do.
Excellent.
Uh, it's a matter of, uh, whereto get the photos.
Uh, I'm sure there's plenty inour archives at the, uh, uh,
heritage Center.
There's, uh, certainly some atthe Minnesota Historical Society
(09:56):
that we can we'll get permissionto use, but we'll get those in
the book.
Yes.
It's still hard to imagine atime when we didn't have.
The professional amenities wehave today when a loved one, a
family member, parent needs morecare than we can provide for
(10:17):
them, either them home andindependent or living with us.
And at that time, there wasnothing of the sort safe to say,
this was pretty groundbreakingat the time.
it was there.
I mean, there were institutionsfor people that were destitute,
uh, but they weren't necessarilyvery nice.
Uh, think of the county poorfarms, uh, that were, uh, many,
(10:39):
many states had poor farms, uh,uh, for this purpose.
And, um.
The Masonic home was reallydifferent.
the, uh, Gideon Ives after heretired when the home first
opened, he passed the torch to,uh, Stewart Gamble, another, uh,
another prominent MinnesotaMason, who, uh, had a lot of
(11:00):
energy and worked to raise fundsto, uh, expand the Masonic home.
But he, he insisted thateveryone refer to the residents
here.
Not as inmates or residents, butas guests.
The idea was this is, ourmasonic home for our masons and
(11:23):
their families.
They are guests, even if they'redestitute, they're guests.
That was an importantdistinction, and that's why the,
the building in which we now sitwas referred to as the main
guest lodge, uh, at the time.
And I, I don't know if it stillis, but uh, it referred to our
guests.
Love that.
(11:43):
So you talked about how we'vegone through these three
distinct eras, the first ofwhich culminated then with the
building of the home in 1920.
What was the next.
Phase, like, well, it didn'tculminate with that.
It continued the, the Masonichome, uh, was in demand and it
needed to be expanded.
(12:03):
So we did that first in 1927with the, uh, main guest lodge,
uh, the farm across the street,uh, from where we sit now.
Was expanded and, and upgraded,and various other improvements
were made up until the 1950swhen the, the original, the old
home, the Savage Mansion hadreached the end of its useful
(12:26):
life and they tore that down.
Can you give a little more intelon that for someone that wasn't
familiar with.
The grounds at that time.
Mm-hmm.
And historically speaking, soit, it was Bloomington Township,
correct?
Yeah.
Bloomington was not a, a cityyet.
It was a township.
And, and there was like thismansion that was owned by Marian
Savage.
(12:46):
Uh, Marian Savage.
For those that don't know, uh,was the owner of a horse so
famous that it, it.
Rivaled any celebrity athletetoday?
The, the horse was none otherthan the great Dan Patch and,
um, Dan Patch, uh, set all sortsof records.
(13:08):
He's a harness horse, right?
He was a harness horse.
Yeah.
A harness racer.
Well, Marian Savage, the owner.
Had about 700 acres of landbetween the south side of the
Minnesota River where he had thefarm, where dam patch was kept
in the training facilities.
And then he had about 270 acreson the north side of the river
(13:29):
in Bloomington, from the riverup, uh, to about where Old
Shakopee Road is now or portionsof that.
And on the top of the bluff, hebuilt a very expensive mansion.
That looked out to the southover the river to the, to his,
uh, to his holdings in the whatis now Savage, of course.
(13:50):
And it was that mansion that wasthe original Masonic home
because when it opened in 1920,there was no, there were no
other buildings here.
They put the, the firstresidence in that mansion and,
uh, took care of them in there.
the only problem with thatmansion was it was not designed.
As a care facility of any typeor a residential facility.
(14:12):
It was a home.
Talk about stairs.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it, it, uh, it served itspurpose until the main guest
lodge opened.
It was, uh, later when demandrose to, to a point they had to
reopen it and, and use it for,for some space, for, for guests.
But, uh, eventually, you know,it was a wood frame structure.
(14:35):
It was not designed for thispurpose.
So by 1950, they, they did haveto tear it down.
It had, uh, pretty well wornout.
For our listeners who arehistory buffs, by the way, there
are images of all of thesethings on display at the Masonic
Heritage Center if you'reinterested.
It's really cool.
Yeah.
That, uh, uh, it's a shame thatthat mansion isn't still there
because it was really agrandiose structure.
(14:57):
Yeah.
And, and would be verybeautiful.
But, it just, uh, it sadly itwasn't worth saving.
So when, uh, in any event when,uh, Savage passed away, he and
his horse passed away within aday of each other.
Uh, the horse went first andthen, uh, he, he had been ailing
and, uh, just pushed him overthe edge.
That was, he died a couple dayslater?
(15:18):
Yeah.
Wow.
And that was, uh, in, uh, Ithink in late 1916.
Well, his estate, uh, was deeplyin debt and, I, I haven't been
able to find a will.
There may be one out there, buthe, he had a lot of creditors
for the estate and, uh, therewas provision made for his
surviving spouse, but theyneeded to sell the land to pay
(15:40):
off the debts'cause thecreditors are banging on the
door of the, at the, uh, in theprobate court.
And it was ma uh, for it workedto the, uh, favor of the Masonic
home because they were able tobuy the Porsche north of the
river.
Where the mansion was and wherethe Masonic home is today, about
200 and roughly 270 acres.
(16:02):
And they got it at a fire saleprice.
And that's what made the Masonichome possible here, is they were
able to buy it cheap enough.
They still had to raiseadditional money because after
buying it, they didn't haveenough to build on it and, and
to, uh, operate at the levelthat they wanted, but at least
they had the, they had the, the.
(16:24):
Land that they needed in orderto erect the Masonic home.
Was Marian Savage a Mason?
I don't think so.
I haven't found any record ofit.
Um, he may have had ties toMasonry.
Uh, one of our colleagues, uh,uh, historian, believes there
was some sort of connection, buthe, he can't prove it.
(16:46):
No solid evidence of a rightlodge or something.
Okay.
Just curious about that.
Yeah.
So, once, uh, once we reachedthe 1950s, the Masonic home had
been expanding.
Things are going well, butMasonry was still focused
internally.
There were some external thingsthat Masonry did for charity.
For example, uh, many MasonicLodges when they were first
(17:10):
formed in Minnesota.
Would do something for theircommunity.
And one popular thing was toestablish cemeteries.
And if you look at the lodges,the earliest lodges of Minnesota
that formed, they, they formedalong the rivers because that
was the main form oftransportation back in the day.
I.
You, for example, followMississippi River up north you
have, uh, uh, Monticello Lodge,and then you have Clearwater
(17:33):
Lodge, and then you have, aNorth Star Lodge all, uh, in St.
Cloud all along the MississippiRiver.
Every one of those lodgesestablished a cemetery in their
early days outside of townbecause at the time.
People needed a place to, tobury and to memorialize their,
their loved ones.
(17:54):
So would the lodge own that?
The, the lodge would, uh, thelodge typically owned it, But,
and the same thing, if you gosouth, for example, Mankato had
a Masonic Cemetery.
It didn't last real long as aMasonic cemetery, but they
established it and got it, gotit going.
I'm not mistaken.
Corinthian and Farmington stilldoes, or they still have a
(18:15):
connection to that localcemetery.
They may very well.
A lot of lodges, uh, uh, didthat type of work early on.
So it's no surprise that you'llsee cemeteries known as, uh, old
Masonic Cemetery or AcaciaCemetery or North Star Cemetery,
all named after a.
Either the lodge or something,uh, symbolic to masonry.
(18:37):
There's a actually, uh, uh, atleast two Acacia Cemeteries of
Minnesota.
One being in, uh, Clearwater,which that was established I
think in the 1857.
1858, right after the lodge was.
But you've also got AcaciaCemetery over, uh, uh, across
the river from St.
Paul, which was established inthe 20th century.
(18:57):
And that was, uh, a big projectof a lot of lodges that came
together.
To design and build that.
And, uh, that, again, that wasprimarily is a Masonic cemetery.
It's, I believe, since beenopened up to a, a, a broader
spectrum.
Sure.
But, um, all of these thingswere again, primarily, focused
(19:18):
on the local communitycharitable acts, uh, the Masonic
home.
Did take in non masons.
If they were indigent, it wasset up that it could do that.
I don't know, I dunno how manythey actually took in, but they
would do that for the community.
They had to abide by all therules to be admitted to the
Masonic home.
And there were plenty of those,uh, people might, people would
(19:39):
be surprised.
Learn that to get entrance intothe Masonic home, you had to
turn over all your assets.
To the Masonic home, and thatwould cover your care and
everything during the time youwere there.
And often it, well, typically itwasn't anywhere near enough to
cover the expenses of being inthe home, especially if you were
indigent.
But, uh, you would turn thatover and, um, that's one of the
(20:01):
ways that the home was funded.
Although it was not a majorityof the funding, it covered only
a, a.
It was a substantial portion,but it was certainly far less
than half of the cost of, ofrunning the home came from the,
the residents themselves.
How did they handle that then,as far as funding and budgets
(20:21):
and needing operating?
Well, uh, the Masons ofMinnesota came through Grand
Lodge back in the twenties andposed a per capita, um, on, uh,
annual per capita on top of the,as part of the dues.
And so that money, uh, was theprimary funding source for the
Masonic home for many, manyyears.
But by the, by the 1950s, theMasonic home, you know, it, it
(20:45):
had, it was more mature.
Masonry had really found itsniche and, and found itself.
In 1954, Leroy Matson, anAssociate Justice on the Supreme
Court, became Grand Master ofMasons of Minnesota.
And at that time he came up,with the idea that Masonry
needed to do.
(21:06):
More than just look after itsown.
And what he did is he, he cameup with the thought that we
should be doing a grand gesturethat will benefit the world at
large.
He wanted something, uh, visiblethat would benefit everyone to
(21:26):
beyond Minnesota and beyond.
Mm-hmm.
And in fact, he, um, he saidthat masonry.
Is a tool to be used, not a formto be served.
And that's a quote I've heardmultiple gram masters use since,
and maybe he borrowed that too.
But, he, he, he considered it avital force to be used.
(21:49):
so in the summer of 1954.
Leroy Matson invited, uh, anumber of prominent masons up to
a cabin that he owned on LeachLake, and he brought'em up one
at a time.
He's included the grand lineand, and others that he
considered influential, and hesat down with them one-on-one
and asked, what can we do asmasons, as a, as a big project,
(22:13):
uh, a big charitable effort thatwill benefit humanity as a
whole?
And, uh, the various, uh, peoplethat were up there put in their
2 cents worth and thought aboutit.
but one thing, it, it keptcoming back to one idea and that
was, uh, something in themedical field.
And as it progressed, uh, uh,doctors who he had brought up
(22:36):
there emphasized the need for acancer hospital At the time, uh,
cancer was, cancer was prettymuch a death sentence.
And the, uh, hospitals were notreally interested in treating it
because the, I guess theattitude was what, you know,
we're a hospital, we treatpeople and make them better.
(22:58):
We can't do that with cancerpatients.
Moreover, cancer cancer wasconsidered, uh, it had a bit of
a stigma to it at the time.
Really?
So there was, there reallywasn't anything available for
the victims of cancer and theirfamilies, and it was a
devastating disease then, as itis now.
it was, uh, expensive.
It was, uh, uh, it cost a lot ofmoney to treat if you could find
(23:23):
a place where, where you couldget good treatment.
And, uh, it imposed just aterrible burden on, on families,
both financially and, andmentally.
There was one place in the TwinCities, there was a charity
hospital, uh, in St.
Paul that took in indigentcancer patients, but that was
about it.
And they, they had a longwaiting list, so the.
(23:46):
Decision was, uh, that MinnesotaMasonry would take it upon
itself to build a cancerhospital.
And so they approached theUniversity of Minnesota.
The University of Minnesota wasthrilled at the idea they need,
they needed something like that,and they were willing to support
it.
Uh, as part of the exploration,uh, masons, uh, in Minnesota
(24:10):
realized that they had noability whatsoever to run a
hospital.
they needed the, the buy-in fromthe University of Minnesota,
university of Minnesota wasthrilled.
They really wanted to take onthis project, create a cancer
hospital and use it as aresearch hospital as well.
So, the grandma Master Matsonappointed a, a committee to go
(24:31):
out and come up with a plan and,uh, a fundraising plan as well.
it was called the committee of ahundred.
They met at the Scottish Rite inMinneapolis, uh, for the first
time, uh, late in 18 or 1954.
Sorry, I'm sitting here in thenine 19th century at times.
Uh, but, uh, they met at theScottish Rite, uh, in late 1954.
(24:55):
came up with a plan.
And after that they appointed anexecutive committee that would,
uh, focus on the fundraising.
this was led, they brought in afellow named Donald Cowling, who
was a very interestingcharacter.
He had been the president ofCarlton College.
He had been born in England.
Come to the United States,obtain several degrees from Ivy
(25:17):
League colleges at a very youngage, and then, uh, come to
Minnesota and taken over aspresident of Carlton College.
When he took over at Carlton in1909, he.
I think the fundraising was inthe thousands of dollars per
year.
He boosted that up to, uh, uh,you know, many magnitudes more
(25:37):
than that, and, uh, you know, totens of thousands than hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
He was a master fundraiser.
So he was at Carlton until hisretirement, uh uh, uh, sometime
around 1950, I believe, or maybein the 1940s.
Then he used those skills tohelp raise money for the
(25:57):
University of Minnesota MedicalProgram.
He was a perfect fit.
For this very project because,uh, what they did is they
decided we're gonna build thiscancer hospital.
It's gonna cost a milliondollars.
Masons pledged half of that$500,000.
And the rest, the U of M uh,planned to get through federal,
(26:21):
uh, funding sources.
Well.
Cowling was a master fundraiserand it didn't take long to get
the ball rolling.
They actually had a division oflabor when it came to that.
They, uh, Donald Cowling andLeroy Matson worked on the large
donors, the uh, the wealthyindividuals, foundations and
(26:42):
things like that.
But there were two other, uh,masons who were assigned to
work.
the smaller level, which was thelodge level.
And these were Clyde Heman andFrank Emrich.
And what they did during that,during 1955 is they visited
every lodge in the state to sellthe concept of that cancer
(27:05):
hospital.
To, uh, get each lodge toappoint a, um, an administrator
for this project.
Wow.
And by the time they were done,uh, they had, approximately
3,500 Masons who were workingacross the state on this
fundraising project.
(27:25):
And collecting money fromvirtually every Mason and member
of the Eastern Star.
And again, it's important tounderstand the Eastern Star
played a critical role, if not alead role in many cases.
the, um, uh, worthy matron atthe time was, uh, Mildred Dietz,
and, uh, she dedicated her yearto raising money.
(27:47):
For the, the cancer hospital.
And very effectively, you know,again, traveling the state,
visiting the, uh, the EasternStar chapters probably also,
yeah.
Visiting every chapter onEastern Star side too.
in fact, it, it was sosuccessful that it di before,
before Long the Minnesota Masonspledged the whole million.
(28:10):
Took the federal funding outtathe picture.
Wow.
And of course, U of M wasprobably quite happy with that
because even back in the 1950s,federal funding entailed, uh,
all sorts of, uh, paperwork andred tape.
Yeah.
Red tape that goes with it.
So what a, what a massivesuccess it was.
And, and the cancer hospitalopened in 1958.
(28:32):
And it was a very quick project.
It opened with three levels,basement and two, two other
levels above ground.
and that quickly filled, theyneeded more room and, um.
Minnesota Masonry came throughagain and pledged, uh, uh, the
cost of adding two more storiesto the hospital.
(28:52):
And those were opened in theearly 1960s.
well between the Grand Lodge ofMinnesota and the Eastern Star,
uh, funding has been just aboutcontinual ever since that time.
So over 70 years of apartnership?
Exactly.
The Grand Lodge expanded kind ofthe, the concepts.
By this point, we really havetwo major.
charities.
(29:12):
We've got the, um, Masonic Home,which was incorporated, uh, on
its own, and we've got theCancer Center Fund, which was
also incorporated on its own.
They were under the control ofthe Grand Lodge largely, but
they were separate legalentities, so that kind of
mitigated the, the directcontrol of the Grand Lodge and
gave them some independence.
(29:36):
By 1970, uh, the Grand Lodgealso formed the Minnesota
Masonic Foundation, which was,uh, another charitable entity,
which was, which was formed tomanage scholarships and, uh,
some other projects.
for example, they, uh, at onetime they had a project to
distribute glucose monitors toschools all around the, the
(29:57):
state and train the schoolnurses 1970.
Uh, in the 1970s.
Yeah.
That had to be somewhat rare atthat time.
Yeah.
there was a real need for itbecause, uh, diabetic children
really didn't get treatment atschool and the schools didn't
know how to deal with it.
I.
What would happen is, uh, kidswould wind up, uh, having, uh, a
(30:21):
crisis before they knew whatwas, that there was something
wrong and they would haul'em offin an ambulance.
once the glucose monitorsstarted getting out there and
the training, uh.
For school personnel, they wouldbe, they would be able to
monitor glucose levelsthroughout the day and avoid
getting to the crisis point by,uh, uh, taking whatever action
was necessary to ensure that thechildren's blood sugar didn't
(30:43):
get outta whack.
So that was, uh.
A success, although it, it, itwasn't a long lived effort.
Uh, I think state programs tookover eventually and, and, uh,
Had to be the catalyst thoughfor wider awareness of how to
treat that.
Imagine now a poor kid having totake an ambulance ride to the
hospital.
(31:03):
Yeah.
Simply because of a lack ofknowledge or ability to handle a
blood sugar situation.
Yeah, that, that was exactly it.
There were, the schools weren'ttrained to deal with it at the
time, and this was a way ofhelping raise that awareness and
getting the training out there.
Other projects.
The foundation was responsiblefor scholarships.
They had a scholarship programand they developed some of the
(31:28):
things that we use inscholarships today through
Minnesota Masonic Charities, forexample, matching funds.
Yes.
That was something that thatbegan with the foundation and
there were other things thatthey did, but As we got into the
1990s, we have the MinnesotaMasonic Foundation, we have the
Cancer Center fund, we have thethe Minnesota Masonic Home Fund,
(31:51):
and all of these are out raisingmoney, and they're all operating
somewhat independently, and theybegan to step on each other's
toes and they were chasing thesame donors.
They weren't always investingmoney.
That they raised the mostefficient way.
For example, typically they wereputting it into CDs and treasury
(32:14):
bills.
The return on those very little,it's a very safe investment.
Yes, it's a very safeinvestment, but no return.
Right.
people began to realize thatthere, there were some issues
with the way charity was beingdelivered in Minnesota.
Each of these funds, uh, had itsown administration.
(32:35):
They had an office somewhere,they had, uh, uh, employees and,
and, uh, so they were reallyduplicating efforts naturally
became siloed.
Yeah.
And again, with stepping on eachother's toes, chasing the same
donors, they even have eventsthat conflicted with each other.
No kidding.
Yeah.
So.
there was a need out there totake some sort of action to make
(32:58):
it more efficient.
things began to happen in thenineties.
Along that route, uh, uh, thedecision was made to invest the
funds uh, under professionalmanagement to maximize the
returns, and that paid offimmediately and continues to pay
off.
But by the early two thousands,it was clear that more action
(33:18):
needed to be taken.
And that's again, when we haveanother visionary who steps up
and makes things happen.
There have been some talk aboutmaybe consolidating these
charities into one group andthen uh, uh, making it more
efficient along that line.
But it's just like the MasonicHome in the 19th century.
There was a lot of talk aboutit, right?
(33:39):
And maybe some talk kindacasual, but nobody ever made it
happen.
And then past Grand Master, EricTon beak.
Stepped up and had the idea or,or, or took the action to
consolidate all this.
He was uniquely positioned to doit again, just like the other
changes from one era to another.
(34:00):
I mean, you could say that,Minnesota Masonry found itself
in its first hundred years, andthen in the next 50 years it
found its soul with the, uh.
The cancer hospital and things.
But now, uh, in the two, in thetwo thousands, it began to find
its spirit and that's where EricNiton beak, who was positioned
(34:21):
because of his experience withthe, uh, running different
charities and, uh, his financialbackground in, in, at nor West
Bank, bank, um, his pastexperiences, grandma Master came
up with the, I.
The idea of forming MinnesotaMasonic charities and, and
making it happen, gettingeveryone under the same
(34:42):
umbrella, so to speak.
Yes.
And that, that was no easy task.
Sure.
Because yeah, you've got thesedifferent charitable, the
foundation, the cancer center,and the uh, and the home.
All of which are operatingsomewhat independently, and
there's always a resistance togiving up that independence
change.
We just can't handle, we, yeah.
And Masons are not notorious fortheir, their ability to, to, to
(35:05):
change.
But I think enough peoplerealized it, and some of the
early opponents of this camearound very quickly when they
discovered the benefits.
And, uh, as a result, MinnesotaMosan Charities was formed in
2006.
That eliminated the, theduplicate offices and, and
(35:26):
duplicate costs.
So it made it much moreefficient with the, uh, the,
planned investments I.
Made it much more, uh, efficientas far as the managing its funds
and being able to make the mostof it.
they were able to consolidateand actually pay off some of the
pledges that these independentorganizations had made, but were
(35:50):
having trouble fundraising to,uh, follow through.
So the result was, it turnedthe, kind of the independent,
uh, uh, fundraising andcharitable activities into one
consolidated powerhouse thatwould still work through the
lodges, through matching funds.
Uh.
(36:11):
But could also do some of thebig things, uh, pledges to the
cancer center at the U of M, butthat, it didn't stop there.
In the last, uh, I don't know,the last 10 years, I think we've
donated about a hundred milliondollars or at least pledged a
hundred million to I.
Cancer Center, the Center forthe Developing Brain, the
(36:31):
Masonic Children's Hospital.
And uh, uh, I think the, the,the most recent one is the
Masonic, uh, center on HealthyAging.
Healthy Aging, yeah.
The Masonic Institute on Biologyand Metabolism.
Mm-hmm.
Which now the full spectrum iscovered from children's health,
cancer, the healthy agingcomponents, all in, it's around
$195 million in that 70 plusyear partnership.
(36:55):
Yeah.
and it, it just continues tolook great into the future.
It's a great way to maximizethe, and leverage the, the
fundraising ability of MinnesotaMasonry and, uh, focus it in
such a way that it, uh, obtains,um, maximum results.
(37:15):
And what a special thing for usas Minnesota Masons to have this
story.
Not every state shares this typeof legacy that we've been
fortunate enough to be a partof.
Giving back to those in need,giving back to the greater good.
That whole building communitypiece is truly, truly amazing.
(37:36):
It's, it's so special and, andwe throw out some big numbers
over the years.
This is, this is a lot of money.
Mm-hmm.
But our members are also Masonsin Minnesota and even in this
region.
Are also seeing the value ofwhatever they can give is going
to that greater good.
Mm-hmm.
Dr.
Douglas Yee said it and I quotehim all the time, none of us
(37:59):
knows who's$5$50 or$500 will bethat amount that pushes research
into a new breakthrough levelthat could be part of cures.
It's a wonderful thing to giveback in that regard to that
greater good to MinnesotaMasonic Charities, and
(38:21):
especially for us as Masonshere.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
The, uh, the, the advances thatMinnesota Masonry has funded
over the years are known, notjust here locally.
They're, they're known acrossthe world.
Part of that is Minnesota hasalways had a good reputation as
far as the, the medical school,medical research that it
(38:44):
conducts.
Uh, we're also home to the MayoClinic, which actually, believe
it or not, at one time the MayoClinic was housed in the, uh,
Rochester Masonic Temple.
That's right, because the Mayoswere Masons.
Masons, yeah.
But, uh, It is world, worldrenowned now and, and truly
(39:04):
going back to, uh, LeroyMatson's vision.
It is something that hasbenefited mankind at large
through Minnesota MasonicCharities and these
professionals, the physiciansand the researchers are
collaborating with otherspecialists in their same.
Capacity all over the world.
Mm-hmm.
(39:24):
Man, that that really, it gaveme shivers when you said that
the work that has been done hereover this kind of this, it's
really been fascinating too, tohear about these three phases,
these three eras, but all of thework that has been done, his
vision came true.
It has impacted the world.
Mm-hmm.
You can look at the history ofMinnesota Masonic charity, as I
said, in three stages.
(39:45):
You've got the, its youth, it'suh, maybe it's teen years, and
then it's adulthood and it'sstill got a long way to go.
And, uh, or you could look at itas a, you know, the entered
apprentice, the fellow craft.
Yes.
And we're now in the MasterMason stage.
And that, that will go on for along time.
I'm, I'm sure.
It, it's something we're proudto be a part of.
(40:07):
And, uh, we'll continue for, foras far as the eye can see
forever.
That infinite perspective makesit even more special.
Now, the working title of thebook is our Guiding Star.
I.
I won't hold you to this, butwhat's the anticipated release
as you're, you're working onthis very diligently, what are
we looking at as far as apublish and a release?
(40:29):
Well, I hope to have the, thefirst draft done by the end of
July.
I.
Have it, uh, ready for, uh,editing by the end of, uh,
August.
if all goes according to plan,we'll have it out before Grand
Lodge next year.
Excellent.
So ideally by April of 2026 wecan dive into this.
That's correct.
(40:50):
Paul Denfield, thank you forbeing in studio today and for
the diligent work and theresearch you're doing that
really brings our story to life.
And Reed, thank you for havingme.
I love telling this story.
This has been another episode ofMinnesota Masonic Histories and
Mysteries.
We appreciate you listening.
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