Judge David D. Creekmore, 32°
11824 Midhurst, Knoxville, Tennessee 37922-4750

A Civil War anecdote from the author's family history demonstrates the strength
of the Masonic bond.

My maternal grandparents were married in 1897. During my grandmother's late life, she resided in a nursing home, dying in 1963. Before WW II, she had packed trunks with the belongings from her home, so, after her death, we were left with the task of going through her numerous papers and other items. I was in college at the time, and, since I had the most free time in the family, I was assigned the task of going through and sorting what was stored in the trunks to see what, if anything, was worth salvaging.

The trunks had been stored in a local warehouse and had, at one time or another, become wet. You can imagine how onerous a 21-year-old college student would find such a task, particularly when the weather was nice and there were many other more pleasant things to do. The process took months, as the trunks had to be transported from the warehouse to our garage, opened and allowed to dry out, and then their contents sorted.

One day, I had assigned myself the task of getting through one of the larger trunks, which was of the old-fashioned bow-top steamer type. It had the initial "H" on it, standing for my grandmother's maiden name. The trunk had been wet about half way up, and most of the items in it had either turned to mush or were in such bad shape that I had to discard them.

Two boxes occupied one corner of the trunk. They appeared to be old cigar boxes tacked shut. One contained a series of letters from my great grandfather to my great grandmother, and her letters to him while he served in the Union Army during the Civil War. To realize properly the significance of this, you must understand that East Tennessee, although part of the South, was an area that never seceded in spirit from the United States. Tennessee sent more regiments to the Union Army than to the Confederate Army. The area of my grandparents, upper Eastern Tennessee, was the most vehement supporter of the Union. Thus, my great grandfather, following his beliefs, left his home in the Rocky Valley Section of Jefferson County and, traveling by night because the area was occupied by Confederate troops, made his way into Kentucky. There he joined a regiment of Tennessee troops that were fighting for the Union.

The partly legible letters contained the day-to-day description of the life of a soldier serving in an infantry regiment during the Civil War, and my great grandmother's letters contained the saga of a young woman with two children living in an area which was occupied by the enemy, namely the Confederacy. She described the privations of trying to farm and raise two children by herself under these difficult circumstances. I became fascinated by the letters and spent the greater part of the day deciphering the spidery handwriting of both my great grandparents. Toward the end of the day, after I had salvaged as many of the letters as possible, I decided that I would open the second box to see what treasures it might hold.

It contained a small leather-bound diary. When I opened the diary, sewn inside with thread that had disintegrated with age, was a Masonic emblem inside a circle. A ring had been added to the top so that it could be worn as a pendent. Having little Masonic background, that I knew of, in my family, I did not immediately know what it was. Since it was getting late in the day, I removed the emblem from the diary and put it away. During the next week, I had no opportunity to deal further with either the diary or the trunks, but my uncle by marriage, Ed Gilliam, had come down from Kentucky for a short visit. He, as it turned out, was a Past Worshipful Master of Hugh Harris Lodge No. 938 in Corbin, Kentucky. Upon entering my room, he noticed the Masonic emblem and asked where it had come from. I told him, and he said it was Masonic, but did not comment further.

The diary itself had been wet, and the ink had run to a great degree, but I set out to decipher it the best I could, and what I found turned me toward the pursuit of becoming a member of the Fraternity of Masonry and learning as much about it as I possibly could. Apparently, my great grandmother had kept the diary from the time her husband left home to join the Union Army until the time he returned. The first few pages spoke of his preparations for leaving, his gathering of clothing and obtaining his own weapon, since he had been told that none were available to issue to the troops when he arrived in Kentucky. He made sure he had stout boots and knew the route he could reasonably expect to take from Jefferson County, Tennessee, to Perryville, Kentucky, where the regiment was to be formed. My great grandmother assisted him in all these efforts.

Then came the page that started my mind to working. It said: "Just as he left, he went into Dandridge. When he returned, he brought two emblems, one of which was about three inches in height and the other one in the form of a locket. He affixed the large emblem on the gatepost of the house and gave me the small one and told me that I should wear it around my neck on a chain until he returned home. If he did not return, then I should wear it the rest of my life."

Reading further through the diary, I found an entry in September 1863 that read as follows: "Today a company of cavalry came to the house, led by a captain. We knew that General Longstreet had issued orders that the homes and farms of all Union sympathizers should be raided for food for his troops and animals for his cavalry, and that the homes of Union sympathizers who refused to sign a loyalty oath were to be burned. The troops dismounted, and two sergeants lit their torches. The captain then dismounted and started to the house. He saw the emblem on the gatepost and instructed his sergeants to stand fast and walked to my porch. He saw the emblem around my neck and asked me where I had come by it. I told him that my husband had placed the emblem on the gatepost and had placed the emblem around my neck and instructed me to wear it until he returned safely, or for the rest of my life. The captain, whom I knew, as his family was from Grassy Branch [a small community nearby], called to his men and ordered them to mount and ride away. One of his sergeants objected, and he told them that they would 'not take advantage of the widow's son or of the family of a brother.'"

In this part of the world, even after the Civil War, there were many murders and fights, including a gunfight in the main street of town in the early 1870s between former Confederate sympathizers and former Union sympathizers. Hatred ran deep. The Civil War was called "The Brothers War" because brother fought against brother in opposing armies.

At the end of the diary, the last entry revealed that when my great grandfather returned home, my great grandmother sewed the emblem he had placed around her neck into the cover of the diary and put it away.

Knowing how deeply feelings ran in this area about the Civil War and knowing how many homes were burned and how many people were made homeless by both sides because of their beliefs, to realize that an officer in the Confederate Army would instruct his men not to touch the property or family of a "Brother" showed me that the Fraternity of Freemasonry transcended hatred so bitter that it could lead to murder. I immediately decided to discover as much as I could about the Masonic Order, and, if at all possible, become a member. Any organization that had that type of strength and the strength of character necessary to carry out such orders, as happened in my great grandmother's case, was an organization to which I wanted to belong.

I contacted my uncle-in-law, Ed Gilliam, a Mason, and asked him what did I have to do, who must I see to learn about and to join the Masonic Order. His words to me were, "You have taken the first step." That was nearly 40 years ago. To this day, and to my dying day, I will never regret my decision to become a member of the Masonic Order. I could recite, over and over again, my experiences with Brother Masons through the years. None of these would have been possible if the words of my great grandmother's diary, from 135 years ago, had not led me to the path of Freemasonry.

David D. Creekmore is a member of Cherokee Lodge No. 728, Knoxville, Tennessee, the Knoxville Scottish Rite Bodies, and Kerbela Shrine in Knoxville. He also belongs to May Chapter No. 25, Order of the Eastern Star. Bro. Creekmore served as a General Sessions Judge in Knox County, Tennessee, for 14 years and has been active in the practice of law since leaving that bench in 1986. A member of the U.S. Army and Army Reserve, he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. He is also retired as Municipal Judge for the town of Farragut, Tennessee, and is a past Vice-President of the State Judicial Conference for the State of Tennessee. A Past Post Judge Advocate of Post 2 in the American Legion, he is active in civic affairs in his hometown of Knoxville.