Distinctly Montana Magazine

66 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • FA L L 2 0 2 4 The Freemasons and the Vigilantes Bound in Blood O N APRIL 27, 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition passed into what is now Montana via the Yellowstone River, and so Meri- wether Lewis became the first Mason to set foot in our fair state. Or perhaps it was Clark, depending on who was standing in the front of the boat. After all, Lewis had been trying to convince Clark to join his fraternal Brotherhood as far back as Pittsburgh, as the pair waited out the construction of their first keelboat. History doesn't record whether Clark had agreed to do so by the time they'd entered Montana, but he would officially join the Freema- sons on September 18, 1809, in St. Lou- is Lodge No. 111, two days after it was founded. It would take some time for the seeds of freemasonry to take root in Montana, but, slowly and surely, they did; fifty or so years later, three men held the first formal opening and closing of a lodge on the Mul- lan Road on September 23, 1862. There, at the seat of the Rockies, Nathaniel P. Langford, George Gere, and David Charlton* performed the rituals that marked their brotherhood as Freemasons. Langford, later a writ- er of several essential works of Montana history, proclaimed that "never was the fraternal clasp more cordial than when in the glo- ry of that beautiful autumnal evening, we opened and closed the first Lodge ever assembled in Montana... and when we left the summit of that glorious range of mountains, to descend to our camp, each felt that he had been made better and happier for this confidential interchange of Masonic sentiment." The moment is captured in a mural by legendary Western art- ist and Charlie Russell protege Olaf Seltzer. Commissioned for the Grand Lodge in Helena, the painting now stands in Mon- tana's freemasonry museum, where it stirringly represents the moment as a heroic, even foundational event in history. And by any measure, it was, for the Freemasons proved integral to Montana's history, and the nation's; villainized by some, lion- ized by others, they succeeded, over their 200 years in Montana, in establishing over 82 lodges and initiating thousands into the sacred mysteries of their ancient order. Two months after the opening of Montana's first impromptu lodge, Montana's Freemasons held their first funeral. The de- ceased was one William Bell, and as tra- dition has it as he was on his deathbed he requested a true Masonic funeral. Lang- ford, moved, called for all Freemasons currently in Montana to attend. Lang- ford didn't expect many to show and was moved to find that 76 men came to honor their Brother.** To Langford and to the other Masons present, the unexpected appearance of so many of their brethren showed that, on the frontier, Masonry could be a pow- erful tool to build and keep social rela- tionships. It must have provided at least a degree of comfort to Masons of the day that, at least in princi- ple, any fellow Masons they encountered while in the wilderness would be a trusted Brother to them. One story, related by Langford at an address given to assem- bled Masons, demonstrates the value of being a member of a global fraternity that is at once far-reaching, and very secretive. A few days before the first meeting on the Mullan Road, a few riders dressed as mountain men descended from the hills to speak to the Fisk expedition. All but one of the riders passed by, but the last one stopped to speak, asking who owned the wagon train, how many men were present, and so forth. Langford happened to overhear as the rider, apparently indistinguishable from any oth- er frontier character except that Langford worried, for a moment, that he was perhaps a road agent, asked a strange question: "'Was there a man named H. A. Biff in your train?" Langford watched as a member of the expedition told the rider that "no such man" was with them. "'Did you ever hear of such a man?" No, they responded. They "know of no one of that name." Langford, as a devoted Brother, knew that H. A. Biff was a refer- ence to Hiram Abiff, legendary chief architect of Solomon and **Some say this is the source of the number 77 (the assembled men plus the dead man) in 3-7-77. *These three men, some say, are the source of the 3 in 3-7-77, the oft-debated "mystic numbers" that symbolize, at least in the collective imagination, Montana's vigilantes. by NICK MITCHELL Merriwether Lewis's Masonic apron, on display at the Grand Lodge Museum and Library in Helena.

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