Memories of the Study Club that formed White River Lodge 
Hal F. Butler,  Charter Member of White River Masonic Lodge #62

In 1952 I had the honor of being raised to the Degree of Master Mason at the Chalcedony Lodge in Holbrook, Arizona.
 
To attend the degree work and the study sessions, which were held at night, all Masons living in the Show Low, McNary, and Whiteriver area had to drive long distances to attend the meetings in Holbrook. This put us in the late hours of getting home. In 1958 a group of Masons living in the southern part of Navajo County decided to petition the Grand Lodge of Arizona to establish a new Lodge in Show Low, Arizona. The Grand Lodge was receptive to the idea. However, a number of rigid and strict Grand Lodge requirements had to meet.
 
A study group of 20 Masons came together. We met three times per week in the Reidhead Lumber Company boardroom of which I was the general manager at the time. We agreed we had members proficient in Lodge procedures; we assigned other Masons to learn lectures and charges. We needed a meeting room about the size of a regular lodge room. It happened that Brother Charles Stark had a basement in the Cash and Carry building he owned that he was not using on the Deuce of Clubs that is the main street in Show Low. He allowed us to use the basement for one dollar per year.
 
We immediately raised the money needed for the supplies needed to partition and frame the necessary rooms using donated labor provided by the Masons.  Once complete we began conducing training sessions and were meeting three times per week. Brother Charles Stark was acting Worshipful Master, Bill Wilburn was acting as Senior Warden, and I was acting Junior Warden.
 
After one year we felt we were proficient enough to call the Grand Lodge for a review and approval of the three degrees to ask for a dispensation form the new Lodge. However, at that time four or five members who were a large part of the first echelon of our lodge group were either terminated or transferred from their jobs at the Southwest Lumber Mills in McNary, Arizona. You can imagine the disappointment and loss we suffered after coming so far then coming up short of a quorum to carry out the work. We removed the petitions in the Cash and Carry building. Charles Stark sold the business to Eban Lewis.
 
A commitment from a few dedicated Masons from Whiteriver, Arizona pledged enough support whereby the movement could continue. We now had a majority of members from the Whiteriver area. We agreed that the new proposed lodge would be named White River after the stream, not the town. The newly founded group obtained a lease agreement from the Elks Lodge to use their facilities until we could build a lodge of our own. The rest is another phase in the life of the Lodge.
 
Hal F. Butler


  

Hal Butler was a charter member of White River Lodge Number 62. Over the years he has given great support for the Lodge. He was a dual membership with Chalcedony Lodge in Holbrook. He was raised in Chalcedony Lodge on November 11, 1952.