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Episode 147: 18:53 Working Tools Series - The Mason’s Boy · Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries

• 0:00
  An engraved gold pocket watch set in motion one of Freemasonry's most remarkable stories.
• 0:07
  Given in gratitude for a mother's kindness, it became a lifeline for her orphaned son and a symbol of a promise kept across thousands of miles When the train pulled into Sacramento on an October afternoon in 1878, it carried an unusual passenger, a boy about four and a half years old, traveling across the country under the care of strangers Around his neck hung an identification tag entrusting him to the Masonic fraternity.
• 0:41
  He became known simply as the Mason's boy.
• 0:45
  His name was Walter Carey Wilcox, and the small gold watch found among his mother's belongings had helped bring him this far neither Walter nor the watch had begun their journey in California, yet both would become part of its Masonic history Only weeks earlier, yellow fever had devastated New Orleans.
• 1:08
  Walter contracted the disease and survived, but his mother did not.
• 1:13
  His father, Henry E.
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  Wilcox, a New Orleans Mason, had died from injuries sustained in a steamship accident when Walter was just five months old.
• 1:23
  Now the child was orphaned in a city overwhelmed by illness and loss.
• 1:29
  Then someone noticed the watch Years before, Walter's mother had cared for a dying Freemason named James Pratt in Florida.
• 1:40
  After his death, she arranged for his remains to be returned to his lodge in Chicago for a Masonic funeral.
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  In gratitude, members of Garden City Lodge No.
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  14 sent her a gold watch engraved with Masonic emblems.
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  It was meant as a token of thanks.
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  It became her son's lifeline.
• 2:01
  when those arranging her burial discovered the watch and its engraving, they contacted the Masons in New Orleans.
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  Word spread through the fraternity, and a plan took shape.
• 2:12
  Little Walter would travel nearly twenty-five hundred miles by rail to Oakland, California, where his grandmother, Hannah Carey, could give him a home On October 3rd, 1878, the little boy began his journey with a packing ticket tied around his neck.
• 2:30
  His route took him through Louisville and Chicago before continuing west.
• 2:35
  Although he traveled without a parent, he would not make the journey without care.
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  At station after station, Masons met him with meals, clothing, toys, and reassurance.
• 2:50
  Railroad conductors helped pass him from one delegation to the next.
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  Newspapers and Masonic publications followed his progress, making the journey of the Mason's boy a widely shared story of fraternity in action.
• 3:08
  In Sacramento, a large gathering of Masons awaited his arrival.
• 3:12
  Among them was California Grand Master Nathaniel G.
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  Curtis, who reportedly carried the weary, weakened child from the train.
• 3:21
  Those gathered contributed gold coins for his immediate welfare Little Walter then continued to Oakland with William Knox and Mrs.
• 3:31
  William Petre.
• 3:33
  A new identification tag bearing the seal of Sacramento Commandery Number 2 Knights Templar accompanied him on his final stage of the journey.
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  But reaching his grandmother was only the beginning of the fraternity's commitment.
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  Grand Secretary Alexander Abel had already corresponded with Grandmother Hannah Carey and arranged for Walter to become a ward of the Grand Lodge of California.
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  An initial allocation of six hundred dollars supported his care, with regular payments provided for his needs.
• 4:08
  posed photographs bearing titles such as The Mason's Boy and The Mason's Orphan circulated among the fraternity.
• 4:17
  One widely distributed photograph sold for a dollar to raise additional funds The help continued when Walter's health faltered.
• 4:28
  In 1880, a serious case of measles required him to leave California with his grandmother to be cared for by friends.
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  Money for the journey was scarce.
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  Nathan W.
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  Spalding brought their circumstances to the attention of A.N.
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  Towne, general superintendent of the Central Pacific Railroad, who supplied two first-class tickets and coordinated assistance for their return.
• 4:56
  When Walter recovered in Ohio in 1881, Abel wrote him a letter that expressed both affection and hope:"I am glad to see you write that you are a mason's boy, and I hope that when you grow up to be a man, you will be a good mason and try to help other mason's little boys." The Grand Lodge continued supporting Walter until his grandmother died in 1888.
• 5:23
  After her death, it was discovered that she had saved the money provided to her as a trust for his education.
• 5:30
  Spaulding, who served as Grand Treasurer from 1885 to 1892, formally adopted Walter and raised him as his own son.
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  Frequent illnesses had interrupted the boy's schooling, but with steady care and encouragement, he became a strong student The child who had crossed America wearing a tag around his neck eventually built a life in California.
• 5:56
  With Masonic assistance, he found work in the auditing department at Wells Fargo Company.
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  On May 11, 1895, he was raised a Master Mason at Oakland Lodge No.
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  188 The fraternity that had carried him west now welcomed him as a brother.
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  Walter later became a dentist in Stockton.
• 6:19
  In 1901, he and his wife, Jeanette, were listed as members of the Order of the Eastern Star.
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  He spent his later years in Fresno, where he died on December 11, 1952 Pocket watches are often admired for what they reveal about their owners, their taste, their profession, their place in history.
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  This one revealed something else.
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  Its greatest value lie neither in its gold case nor in the movement inside, but in an emblem that strangers recognized and chose to honor.
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  A mother's act of kindness had inspired a gift.
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  That gift, in turn, inspired a network of people to protect her son.
• 7:07
  The watch measured time.
• 7:09
  The people who answered its message changed the course of a life