 |
|
|
|
Oxford, Elon College and Charlotte: |
|
|
Children served by Masons sometimes grow up to serve Masons
|
Twelve years after the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas began, the 1949 program contained three small-type paragraphs about two boys who had been Shriners Hospital patients. There wasn’t even a headline over the box containing these words:
“On August 11, 1939, an eight-year-old boy was admitted to the Greenville Hospital. He was an emergency case due to acute osteomyelitis in his left leg. For a while he was a very sick lad and needed several blood transfusions. He went home September 25, 1939, then made many visits to the Clinic for examinations in the next few years. His last examination was made in 1946.
“Another lad, seven years old, was admitted to the Hospital in August, 1938, and was treated for a fracture of the left elbow. He was dismissed a few weeks later but made regular visits to the Clinic up to February, 1947.
“These two boys are teenagers today. Both are athletes. They are pretty good football players. They are the proudest boys on the field in Memorial Stadium today: Joe Astin of Laurens, SC, the osteomyelitis patient, and Don Caldwell of Union, SC, the lad who had the fractured elbow.
“Both are members of the 1949 Shrine Bowl team, representing South Carolina. Let’s give a cheer for our own graduates.”
* * *
Now fast-forward 52 years to November, 2001, in Oxford. Worshipful Brother Dan Charles Rice from Elon College is about to deliver the keynote address to an audience of 300 gathered to break ground on an expansion of the Masonic Home for Children. It is to be a priceless history of MHC written and presented by one of its former children who is destined to become Grand Master of NC Masons in 2009.
“Good morning and welcome to my home!
“Today we are breaking ground for some new cottages that will allow us to make some changes in the way things are done. Counting the old St. John’s Building, these cottages will be the third generation of cottages and the fourth generation of residences built here.
They will be more like a home and less like institutional buildings. I am certain that there are many people across North Carolina and even some here today that would say, ‘The Masonic Home for Children has done just fine for the last 128 years, so why should we change it now?’ Let me fill you in on just a little history about change here at the Masonic Home for Children at Oxford. Change has been constant here for the last 150 years.
“In 1851 the Masons of North Carolina decided that the state needed an institution of higher learning for its young men. They soon formulated a plan to build a men’s college at Oxford. St. John’s College opened in 1853 and experienced some small success during the next eight years. The Masons of the state were taking great pride in their new college until the Civil War started. That great conflict tore North Carolina apart and most of the students at St. John’s College left to fight in the war. The beautiful campus with its great forests of oak trees suddenly fell silent.The campus was abandoned for the next ten years.
“In 1865, when the war was over, there was little interest in getting the college started again. Brother John Mills approached the Grand Lodge in 1870 about the possibility of turning it into an orphans’ asylum. This was a controversial idea. There were people at that time who took in the war’s orphans just to get free labor. The vote at the Grand Lodge’s Annual Communication of 1871 was tied—totally deadlocked. Grand Master John Nichols went to the altar and prayed. He then cast the deciding vote to let John Mills start a home for the orphaned and destitute children of North Carolina. The Grand Lodge was able to give only a few thousand dollars to get the home started.
“The first child was received in 1873 and the Oxford Orphans’ Asylum was off and running. At that time, Oxford was the only orphanage in the state and proved to be a good substitute for the counties’ poor houses.
“The word ‘asylum’ carries some sinister connotations today, but its understanding then was simply as a place of refuge or a sanctuary from harm. It is funny that most of the alumni still affectionately refer to themselves as ‘sylum dogs.’ This nickname was give to the orphanage football players more than a hundred years ago and it seemed to fit our football team’s image over the years.
“By the time the orphanage received that first child, the State of North Carolina had stepped up and was helping the children with financial gifts. The state continued giving to our home until the early 1960s.
“In 1880 Buchanan Duke of Durham challenged the Masons to build some new dormitories for the children. He agreed to pay for half of each cottage as long as the Masons could raise the other half. By 1910 there were eight new cottages on the campus. These buildings were of brick made in a field behind Granville County Hospital. I picked up many remnants of those bricks years ago while hoeing corn in the field.
“World War I stopped all the building projects. The name of the home became Oxford Orphanage in 1922. Then the world economy began to recover and the Roaring Twenties rolled into Oxford. New buildings were started for almost every conceivable need.
“In 1924 it cost $100,000 to build and equip a new hospital on the campus. It contained surgical equipment and a complete dentist’s office. Remember that contagious diseases spread like wildfire back then and it was especially dangerous in an orphanage. Many ailments that are easily treated today were fatal in 1925. I still remember the old belt-driven dentist drills that would slow down when forcefully driven by Dr. Rufus Jones. I do not remember anyone being operated on at our hospital, but the old bone saws and other operating gadgets were in a glass case in the hospital. I will tell you that it gave a kid the creeps to look at that stuff. We used to tell ghost stories about kids having amputations and their discarded limbs haunting the hospital.
“I can honestly say that I got a well-deserved whipping in almost every classroom”
“In 1926 a new on-campus school was built and totally equipped. It housed kindergarten through 12th grade. It was a beautiful structure and lasted until the 1970s. Building and furnishing the school cost as much as the hospital. I started at the orphanage in the third grade in that school and can honestly say that I got a well-deserved whipping in almost every classroom.
“During this same period an electrical shop, a shoe shop and a print shop were built. The vocational training program was developed and continues today. The farm was expanded and new barns were built. I learned three things farming at Oxford Orphanage: one, it is hard work; two, that cow and chicken manure will wash off, and three, that if you have to farm, it is much easier to drive a tractor than to use a hoe or a mule.
“The baby cottage was also built during this period. In the 1924 annual report of the home, the campus physician highly recommended that they build a bathing pool to keep the boys from swimming in the contaminated creek. Well, the orphanage got its pool, but even 40 years later a lot of us boys took a trip every warm Saturday to the old swimming hole at the back of the farm.
“The orphanage spent $400,000 on new buildings in three years. This equates to $12 million today. To help offset this burden, a singing class made up of students traveled all across the state for six months of the year and collected donations. Some nights they took in only a dollar. On a good night they might get $10.
“The great depression of 1929 stopped the building projects on campus. They remained stopped until after World War II. During the thirties and forties many changes were made in the training, vocational, religious and educational programs. In the early 1950s the world was alive with hope and economic activity. Building started again with a new gymnasium, master’s cottage, chapel, administration building and a new cafeteria.
“The gym was a wonderful thing and we spent many an hour there. I got my first kiss in its shadows. In its basement we all learned to dance just well enough to get by. We lifted weights, had Halloween carnivals, played basketball and spent our weekends just piddling around that great building.
“The chapel was another story altogether. I remember the Rev. A. DeLeon Gray preaching to us for hours hoping that God could slow us down some because he was convinced that he could not. Most of us had our first encounter with God in the chapel. I really do wish that I had paid more attention to all of those sermons and Sunday School lessons.
“In the early sixties a new printshop was built as a vocational center. A decade-long building project was taking place with all the old dormitories being replaced. By the eighties many old buildings such as the hospital and school were being demolished. Many quiet tears were shed, but the happy memories will always exist. We can recall those places on those slow days when we close our eyes and get truly still.
“The loss of the old school changed the way things had been done. People had to rethink and formulate new ways to help the children. In the nineties a new media center was set up. The chapel was revitalized and spruced up. We changed our name to the Masonic Home for Children. Computers were introduced and wired to the internet all over the campus. We were instantly high tech with one foot in the 21st century.
“More than 150 years of almost constant change had taken place. Where are we now and what really matters? To figure this out I went back ninety years to the 39th annual report of the orphanage. It was in 1911 that Nettie Bemis, our supervisor, said, ‘To instruct children in the principles of right living and assist them in forming good character is part of the work of this home. We will present the children, both in school and in the cottage life high standards and ideals. We will endeavor to teach the children the formation of correct habits, the strict performance of duty and a love for truth and honesty. Believing that one good example is worth a thousand arguments, we will impress upon the children the importance of character building.’
“Fourteen years later, in 1925, Miss Nettie was saying, ‘One great service we can render the boys and girls, especially those of high school age, is to arouse in them an ambition for higher attainments, to send them out with the knowledge that through their own individual efforts, as far as possible, success will come.
“‘Nothing takes the place of personal talks with children, therefore we emphasize the importance of the personal touch with each individual to guide him in the path of rectitude and right—a thing so much needed in this day and time of thoughtless youth. These boys and girls are to help in managing the affairs of our country in the future, therefore they must be taught to live, to study, and to think, and to do things. They must have a chance to develop initiative, to stand up for their rights, to give and take in games, to practice fair dealing, self-control, and to develop strength of character and dependability.’
“Her words are as true today as they were 75 years ago.
“These great oak trees and this hallowed ground have quietly watched as God performed His magic on this place. He took the ruins of an abandoned college and built it into a great place. The leaders of this home despaired greatly over the dire circumstances in its early years. Can you imagine the exhaustion that the leaders felt in 1925 when 256 children had influenza and several died? The little graveyard on our farm, known as God’s Half Acre, is a quiet testament to the tough times experienced here. There are more than 60 graves of children who died while residents here. Their names are recorded on the tombstones but, with the erosion of time, their stories are lost from us forever.
“As a young boy I used to fish in the creek and visit a mulberry tree next to the graveyard. I spent hours wondering about those kids who were buried there. What were their plans, their dreams, and why did they have to die?
“In the 42 years since I arrived as a scared young boy at Oxford Orphanage, I have had plenty of time to ponder the good and bad about this place. My conclusion is that this is a place built by God and its cornerstone is love. There have been things that were not good, but eventually God corrected them, and the home has continued to thrive.
“The unseen things are what makes this home really great. It is the lessons learned, the experiences gained, the friendships cherished and the finding of the security blanket of God’s love that make this home truly special. Listen quietly to the voices of the children who grew up here more than a hundred years ago. They lived their lives, made their large or small marks on society and then passed on. We can hear the whispers of the breeze in the tops of these beautiful old trees, the voices of children past urging us to continue to make this home the best it can be!
“I firmly believe that the Masonic Home for Children is a light shining bright to help the needy children of this state. This home started out with the most humble beginning and has succeeded only because God has watched over it constantly for 128 years. The Masons of North Carolina are amazing when it comes to charity. In 1889 there were 400 children in this home and only 1,000 Masons in our state. The Masons will rally and support this project all the way to its completion. Alumni associations will support this project enthusiastically. The people of Granville County and North Carolina have always been and will continue to be supportive of this home.
“The state has historically been a tremendous help. In 1962 the state and this home parted ways over civil rights issues and control of the home. Some saw this as a racial issue but many saw it as government interference in the private affairs of this home. In fact, this home has for years served all of God’s children regardless of the color of their skin. We have signed the Civil Rights Compliance Act. The home is getting state licensure to assure ourselves and others of the safety and quality of care here. Those were two barriers that prevented us from helping state agencies assist children in need. There are desperate children who need our services but because of these problems, they could not join us here.
“As a result almost half of the beds in this home are empty. With the beginning of this project and the changes that we are currently making in regard to licensing, we feel we can now work hand in hand with the State of North Carolina to see that all the assets of this great home are utilized to help North Carolina’s ever-growing number of needy children.
“Close your eyes. Imagine what can be accomplished when you team up with the State of North Carolina, Granville County, the City of Oxford, the Masonic Home for Children, the Masons and all the other good people of our state working together to help children. The project we are about to start is, on the surface, about building cottages. But it is really the first step in reuniting the efforts of the state and the Masonic Home for Children.
“My prayer is that we can all pull in the same direction under the clear vision of God so that we can do His will and care for the children.”
|
 |
Produced by the public relations committee of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Masons in North Carolina,
2921 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27628 MMVIII
Author/editor: Walter J. Klein wklein(at)carolina.rr.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
