Oklahoma Grand Lodge temporarily pulls charter, shutters building
Kingston Masonic Lodge #287 was closed on July 31 when the Grand Lodge Oklahoma temporarily pulled the lodge’s charter. This action resulted in the lodge’s doors being padlocked and its assets being turned over to the Grand Lodge.
The Kingston Masonic Lodge #287 had approximately $60,000 in assets with Edward Jones, said a long-time member of the lodge with knowledge of the situation.
The Madill Record accepted this member’s request to remain anonymous so they could speak openly about recent happenings at the lodge.
Grand Lodge grand secretary Bobby Laws confirmed the action and said there is a pending investigation.
“This is strictly a temporary thing at this point,” Laws said. “There will be no action until representatives for all the lodges meet for our annual meeting on November 9.”
Laws added there would not be criminal charges at this time. Laws would not comment about claims of mismanagement and embezzlement that were shared with The Madill Record via e-mail on July 31 after our print deadline for the August 1 issue.
“No further details will be provided until after the Grand Lodge votes in November,” Laws said.
The source indicated that former treasurer, Ron Kifer, kept detailed records of the alleged financial misdeeds committed by other lodge officers.
As of August 6, the Grand Lodge listed the following as Kingston Lodge #287 officers: Erick Wyatt, worshipful master; Merle Steele, senior warden; and Arthur Masters, junior warden. Steele is Wyatt’s father in law.
Neither Wyatt nor Masters were available to make a comment for this story.
However, Steele did provide his opinion of what motivated the Grand Lodge’s actions.
“In my estimation, the Grand Lodge is broke,” Steele said. “The Kingston Lodge had close to $70,000 in assets and they want the money.”
Treasurer’s view
According to Kifer, who was in his first year as treasurer, he was asked to take Lodge #287’s financial books to the Grand Lodge in April after questioning the lodge’s check writing process.
“I was doing my job,” Kifer said. “The officers said they would be calling the [Marshall County] sheriff on me if I didn’t bring the books back by 10 o’clock. The Grand Lodge knew where the books were so they said there would be no calling the sheriff.”
Kifer said he noticed that the lodge was not paying bills on time or withholding money.
“[Officers] weren’t turning in receipts,” he said. “With no receipts, I had no idea of what money went to. This included unexplained cash withdrawals. They had circumvented the treasurer’s office [when] writing checks. That was a no, no.”
Kifer said the standard process includes bills going first to the lodge’s secretary, who writes a warrant, which is a written authorization for the payment or receipt of money according to dictionary.com. From there, the treasurer pays the bill and then shows the other officers (worshipful master, senior warden and junior warden) that the bill has been paid.
“We have strict rules for how money is supposed to be handled,” Kifer said.
As a result of his visit to the Grand Lodge in Guthrie, Lodge #287 was given 90 days to correct their accounting practices, Kifer said. This included a visit by Michael L. Dixon, grand master for the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, to Kingston.
Then on July 15, Kifer was dismissed by his fellow officers.
“It was either go along with us or you’re out,” he said.
One officer’s rebuttal
Steele said he has been a Mason for many years. He denied any financial wrongdoing.
“Everything had receipts,” he said. “I don’t know why they’d fabricate that.”
Steele’s ire was focused on the Grand Lodge in Guthrie and its leadership.
“I specifically asked the grandmaster [Dixon] and their flunkies why they were here to close the lodge and they said they couldn’t tell me. I asked what happened to the money. What we have up there in Guthrie is a lot of fat old gentlemen with time on their hands.”
From his perspective, Kingston’s lodge was singled out, Steele said.
“There are two lodges, one in Wapanucka and another I can’t recall that have only held one meeting in the last 12 months,” he said. “Why haven’t they been chastised?”
An inside view
The long-time lodge member told The Madill Record that if the claims of embezzlement or financial mismanagement are true, there will be lasting damage to the Kingston Lodge and community at large.
“Everything we do is charitable,” the member said. “People don’t realize, but Masons give $1 million to charity each day.”
The member added that while the action of temporarily removing the lodge’s charter may seem extreme, it was a necessary action.
“It’s what most members felt need to be done to change our current administration” the member said. “I’ve got 55 years invested in this and now that’s down the tube. I lot have a lot of years in the Masonic Lodge.”
According to the member, Kingston Masonic Lodge #287 has seen a recent decline in membership.
“15 to 20 people on average came to meetings and it’s down to six or seven,” the member said. “A lot of people have stopped coming or moved their membership to the Creekmore Lodge in Madill.”
Kifer called the situation a great embarrassment.
“As Masons, this is not what we do,” he said. “Why they took this road I can’t explain. There have been problems with this lodge for the last few years. These guys got into it with the women of the Eastern Star and now they don’t meet at our lodge anymore. Our hope this once this is settled, we can reopen the lodge at a later date.”