by John Dowd
For more than a century, the Ionic Lodge No. 38 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons has been a part of life in the Bitterroot Valley, offering its members a place to build friendships and improve themselves while giving back to the community.
The lodge traces its presence in the valley to around 1897. Its current building, a familiar part of Hamilton’s history, has housed the lodge since 1915.
For Roderick “Dutch” Brewer, a past master of the lodge, Freemasonry is less about secrecy or ceremony than it is about personal growth and the relationships formed along the way “Masonry” is, Brewer explained, fundamentally about the pursuit of improving oneself.
Brewer came to the organization after a golfing partner asked if he wanted to learn more about the Freemasons. At the time, Brewer said, he was looking for something. His background as a history major also made the organization’s long history particularly appealing. “The history was fascinating to me,” Brewer said.
Freemasonry traces its modern roots to the formation of organized grand lodges in the 1700s, although Masonic traditions draw on older stonemason guilds and symbolism. The fraternity spread throughout Europe and eventually to North America, where local lodges became gathering places for men from different backgrounds. Today, Masonic organizations around the world emphasize fellowship, moral development, charity and service.
For Brewer, however, the people he encountered ultimately became just as important as the history. He described fellow Masons as honorable, noble, charitable and intelligent, saying he enjoyed their company and the opportunity to grow as a person. “They were simply impressive.”
He described the lodge as “the one place two people, diametrically different, can talk, laugh and get along.”
That ability to bring people together is part of what Brewer values about the lodge. Politics and religion are not discussed in the lodge, particularly in a way that could turn those subjects into arguments. Members can hold their own political views and practice their own religions outside the lodge.
There are relatively few requirements for membership, Brewer said. Members must be male, believe in a higher power and believe in the existence of a human soul. Beyond those requirements, members can come from different religious, political and philosophical backgrounds.
The lodge does not recruit members. Instead, prospective Masons must find their own way to the organization. That does not mean members cannot answer questions about Freemasonry, Brewer said, although there are portions of Masonic practice that members keep private.
The lodge also opens its doors to the broader community through presentations held Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. The programs cover a wide range of subjects, from history to common-sense medicine. “I just love Tuesday nights; It feels so safe,” Brewer said.
Those presentations are one part of a broader effort by Ionic Lodge No. 38 to make its building and its members a resource for the Bitterroot Valley.
The lodge hosts programs covering topics such as hunter safety, first aid, estate planning and college safety. The hunter safety program focuses on safety, first aid, communication and emergency planning for hunters, fishermen and backcountry explorers, with presentations developed and delivered by medical professionals, law enforcement officers and experienced outdoorsmen.
The first aid program covers emergency first aid practices and recommendations for first aid kits and home medicine cabinets. An estate-planning presentation addresses basic estate-planning documents and considerations, including local funeral home programs.
The college safety program is geared toward recent high school graduates, particularly young women preparing for their first year of college. The program addresses avoiding dangerous situations, staying safe and options for conflict resolution, with presentations developed by law enforcement officers and parents.
The lodge has also sought to recognize people who serve the community.
It established an annual First Responder Awards program recognizing the Hamilton Volunteer Fire Department, Hamilton Police Department, Ravalli County Sheriff’s deputies, ambulance services and the Montana Highway Patrol.
Brewer said the lodge started the awards because members “felt there wasn’t that kind of recognition here, in the valley.”
The lodge did not hold the ceremony this year because some of the participating organizations wanted to hold their own award ceremonies. Lodge members wanted to recognize all of the groups together rather than only some of them, Brewer said. They hope to bring the event back in the future if all of the groups are on board.
The lodge has also hosted an annual dinner with the Hamilton Volunteer Fire Department as a way of showing appreciation for the department’s service to the community.
Its community activities extend to children and families as well. The lodge’s Bikes4Books and Kindles4Kids programs provide bicycles, electronic reading devices or, more recently, gift cards to Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton to students in the Hamilton and Darby school districts. Teachers select winners or organize drawings. Bikes4Books is the lodge’s longest-running community program, Brewer said, and has been held annually for roughly 10 to 15 years.
The lodge also supports organizations throughout the valley. It provides meeting space and storage for the Hamilton chapter of Project Healing Waters, which meets twice a month and uses the space to store fly-fishing and fly-tying equipment.
The lodge supports Veterans Victory Alliance and Moon Eagle River Ranch in Sula through financial and volunteer labor. It has donated food and cooking labor for the Veterans Resource Fair and provides space for activities benefiting local organizations.
The Bitterroot Children’s Museum is another beneficiary. The lodge provides event space for the museum’s annual Gingerbread House activity and, this year, hosted a month-long Tinker Toys display and toy-building workshop.
The lodge also holds annual donation drives and supports fundraising efforts for Hamilton S.A.F.E.
Not every community event can continue every year. The lodge’s free haunted house, which has been open to the public as an activity for local children, will not be held this year. Members are undertaking renovations to the building, and the work will conflict with the lodge’s ability to host the haunted house. Lodge members hope to bring the event back in the future.
For Brewer, all of those efforts come back to the same principle that first drew him to Masonry: becoming a better person while helping the people around you.
More than a century after Ionic Lodge No. 38 established itself in the Bitterroot Valley, its members continue to meet in the same building, welcome the public for Tuesday-night presentations and look for ways to serve their community.
And for Brewer, the value of the lodge remains as much about the people as the programs. It is a place, he said, where people who may have little else in common can sit together, talk, laugh and get along.
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