Special Events in Florala, Lockhart & Paxton

The "Rattlesnake Rodeo", is sponsored by the Opp Jaycees on the first weekend in March. The annual event, now in its 37th year, features arts and crafts, food (including Southern Fried Rattlesnake!), Nashville entertainment and of course, rattlesnakes! Each year a Rattlesnake Queen is crowned, along with prizes given to the brave person responsible for bringing in the largest rattler. Other events include a dance contest, greased pole climb and numerous rattlesnake demonstrations with live rattlers are given throughout the weekend. A wonderful event for the entire family, you can be sure that you will long remember this most unusual and rare festival! A large portion of the proceeds from each Rattlesnake Rodeo is donated to various local charities. Also, on each day of the Rodeo, Nashville artists perform center stage at the Channell-Lee Stadium, as well as many local bands sharing the spotlight during the day. The Rodeo is attended by more than 30,000 people each year, and the Opp Jaycees are proud to report NO snake bites in 37 years!

"Old Home Folks Day", held the first Saturday in October. This unique festival features present day arts and crafts as well as those crafts of the past. History is relived through exhibits and live reenactments.

Masonic Celebration
"ONE HUNDRED GREAT" has reference to the one hundred years of the Masonic Day Celebration. This celebration has been observed for one hundred years without a single omission, through the years of the Spanish-American War, World War I, the years of the depression, World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the present Vietnam situation. It has become a tradition for people who were once residents of the Florala area to return to Florala on the occasion of the Masonic Day Celebration because they would get to meet with their friends who still reside here as well as the former citizens of this area. It has become a homecoming day for the many
who have moved away from Florala.

The Masonic celebration is observed on June 24th each year which is the anniversary of Saint John the Baptist. According to Masonic traditions this day is designated as days for festivals, installations and celebrations. On June 24th the Masonic lodges of this area have publicly installed their newly elected officers and have planned entertainment for everyone from the youngest to the oldest person present, whether they belong to the Order or not.

On Saint John's Day, June 24th, 1717, the first Grand Lodge in England was established and although it has been 253 years since that momentous event the picturesque City of Florala has entertained thousands of visitors. This celebration is believed to be the oldest continuous Masonic Day Celebration in the world.

The writer of this article remembers very vividly that back in the "Teens" when the two great events of the year we looked forward to was the 24th of June Celebration and Christmas. He remembers that on one celebration during the years of the World War II era that the mothers made costumes of material of red-white-blue with tall hat depicting the picture of "Uncle Sam" and the children and adults marched in a parade of that celebration. He also remembers when wooden barrels were placed on each block of the business section with a dipper tied to it and a block of ice and water was inside. At that time stands were erected in front of most business houses by churches, civic clubs or individual groups and sold cold drinks, candy, hamburgers and lemonade made in a big wash tub. The lemonade sold for 5 cents a glass and later in the evening cut to 2 glasses for 5 cents and still later all you could drink for 5 cents. On occasions it often rained in the big tubs making the profit on lemonade still greater.

Masonry in this area can be traced back to 1850, according to Brother Virgil Williams who lived to be about 90 years old. Bro. Williams remembered when the lodge that ultimately became Florala's Fidelity, originated around 1850, and held its meetings in an old log house on a site near the present Fink Water Mill 7 miles southeast of Florala. He stated that 40 or 50 Masons living in Florida and Alabama belonged to the early lodge and some of them would ride horseback as many as 50 or 60 miles to be present at the meetings. It took some of them two or three days to complete the trip. The original name of this lodge is not known but it later became Chapel Hill, then Lake City, and finally Florala's Fidelity.

In 1852, a large two story log house was erected at Chapel Hill for the purpose of a combined church and Masonic Lodge. The ground floor was used as a church and the second as the lodge. When the Masons started holding meetings in their new lodge at Chapel Hill, the lodge at the water mill
site was abandoned.

We lodge at Chapel Hill functioned successfully until the outbreak of the Civil War. So many of the members were called into military service, the lodge disbanded until the end of hostilities. When peace came, the lodge was reorganized in 1870. The first officers of the newly reorganized Chapel Hill Lodge No. 377 were James Williams, Worshipful Master; Levi Garrison, Senior Warden; William Boulcom, Junior Warden; Lewis Miller, Treasurer; William Cawthon, Senior Deacon; and Murray Cawthon, Secretary, together with the following members: Richard Geohagan, Lorenza D. Jordan, John Cawthon, William Steel, Issac Wilkins, Seth S. Fountain, Thomas D. Calon, John Daniel, David Allen, John W. Williams, Robert Bell, Obediah Edge, Thomas J. Williams, James Chance, and James B. Lassiter.
The members of the newly chartered lodge held the first Masonic Day Celebration in December 1871 by publicly installing their officers and inviting their families and friends to attend the installation and a dinner on the ground affair.

In 1873 the lodge moved to the Florala area and changed the name to Lake City Lodge No. 377, Lake City being the name of the local post office. In 1879 the post office name was changed to Lake View, Alabama and in 1895 to Florala, Alabama.

Fidelity Lodge No 685 was organized in 1908 with the following officers: L. H, Brazzell, Worshipful Master; H. H. McDougald, Senior Warden; J. T. Helms, Junior Warden; J. McLane, Treasurer; Troy C. Penton, Secretary; B. F. Lutrell, Senior Deacon; R. J. Perry, Junior Deacon, and J. H. Burgess Tiler, together with a total of 29 members. This lodge was organized because the majority of the members of Lake City Lodge were farmers and insisted on holding the lodge meeting on Saturday morning, the meeting sometimes lasted all day. The members of the Lake City Lodge that were merchants wanted to change the meeting to a night meeting so that they could attend as Saturday was the busiest day for them. The merchant members organized the Fidelity Lodge No. 685 and for five years two Masonic lodges existed in Florala. In 1913 the Lake City Lodge consolidated with Fidelity Lodge and Masonic celebrations continued under Fidelity Lodge since.

In 1913 more than 5,000 people attended the celebration and J. Thomas Heflin was the speaker.

In 1914 THE L&N Railway hauled over the Opp Branch and Yellow River Division over 600 excursionists. Six special coaches were added at Georgiana and every space was occupied by enthusiastic celebrants.

It would, no doubt, be enlightening and appropriate to recount some of the more important events Masonry has influenced in history, not only in our country, but throughout the world.

Prior to St. John's Day, members of the Masonic Order were obligated to the religion of the country in which they lived. A revision of the old constitution and charges started a world movement toward intellectual, religious, and civil liberty. This important change came at a time when religious bigotry was rampant, when sects and creeds were fighting against them, when public and private morals were at a low ebb. It had incalculable results in bringing freedom to America and other nations of the world.

Masons played a most important role in the American Revolution. In 1774 when the clouds of political adversity were gathering thick and fast over the country, a Congress of delegates from different colonies was convened at Philadelphia and George Washington was a delegate from Virginia. There were assembled in that council chamber men who had never met before from New England, from the banks of the Potomac, Delaware, Susquehanna, and from far down in the sunny South. But these men knew and trusted one another, for if a few of them had been excluded, they could have opened their session on the Master's Degree in Masonry. Over the deliberations
of that convention, Peyton Randolph, Provincial Grand Master of Virginia, presided. It was a collection of the greatest men upon the continent in point of abilities, virtues, and fortunes.

The Revolutionary War was a distinctly Masonic enterprise. The Boston Tea Party was organized in St. Andrew's Lodge, at, an adjourned meeting, and every member of the party which threw tea into the harbor was a member of that Lodge. Paul Revere was Junior Warden of that Lodge and the man who set the lantern in the Old South Church was also a member. More than 50 of the 56 signees of the Declaration of Independence were members of the Masonic Fraternity. All but four of five of the members of the Constitutional Convention were Masons. Richard Henry Lee, who moved the resolu-
tion of Independence in the Continental Congress, was a Mason. Lee, and all five members of that committee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston, were members of the order. 'Ice American flag was made by the widow of John Ross, a Mason. Washington took the oath of office as President of the United States upon the Bible brought from St. John's Lodge No. 1, New York and the oath was administered by Chancellor Livingston, Grand Master, of the State of New York. The Governors of every one of the original 13 States at the time Washington was inaugurated were Masons.

LaFayette of France who aided Washington said that the generals that caused so much trouble during the Revolution were those that did not belong to the order. Washington demanded that LaFayette become a Mason and Von Steuben, coming from Germany. All of Washington's brigadier generals except one were Masons. The Constitution of the United States was written by Masons.

Free speech, free religion, and free schools, were the gifts of Masonry to America and these were opposed by all anti-Masonic institutions. The four Major Generals who almost ruined Washington and the cause of freedom were the four who were not Masons.

Many of the Presidents of the United States have been Masons.

At the time of the American Revolution there were not more than 3,000 Jews in all of North America. Of the 46 prominent Jews who are known to have been members of the craft, more than one-half of them were officers in the Continental Army.

Without Masonry the land we are so proud of would have been vastly different.

TO THE MEMORY OF THE 22 MASONS WHO ON DECEMBER 7, 1871, RECEIVED THE CHARTER FOR CHAPEL HILL LODGE # 377 AND HELD THE FIRST MASONIC CELEBRATION
JAMES WILLIAMS WORSHIPFUL MASTER
LEVI GARRISON SENIOR WARDEN		WILLIAM BOULCOM JUNIOR WARDEN
LEWIS MILLER TREASURER		WILLIAM CAWTHON SENIOR DEACON
	MURRAY CAWTHON SECRETARY
RICHARD GEOHAGAN LORENZA D. JORDAN JOHN CAWTHON WILLIAM STEEL ISSAC WILKINS	SETH S. FOUNTAIN THOMAS D. CALON JOHN DANIEL DAVID ALLEN JOHN W. WILLIAMS	ROBERT BELL OBEDIAH EDGE THOMAS J. WILLIAMS JAMES CHANCE JAMES B. LASSITER
NOTE -- NAMES WERE LISTED JUST AS THEY WERE RECORDED IN THE RECORDS OF THE GRAND LODGE