Midwest Historic Masonic Lodge Association, Inc.

This coming weekend, 18 and 19 April, is the Civil War Event at Cowtown! I will be out at the Lodge Hall both days. Come out and see how the 1865 Master's Carpets were used to give the three Lodge Degrees!

This SATURDAY, Old Cowtown Museum: Farm Encounters: Plowing by Hand.... meet out at the Farm for HANDS-ON learning as we explore the history and importance of hand plows used in 1870s Kansas.

The plow evolved rapidly with shifts in industrialized agriculture, emerging in the late 1800s as modern farming techniques took hold.

Attendees will participate in a hands-on look at Old Cowtown Museum’s collection of farm equipment and have a chance to try their hand at operating a walking plow.

Some physical activity is required, and the ground in the event area will be uneven.

Duration: 2 hr…. 2 PM to 4 PM.

Participants will be required to sign a waiver at check-in. This program is only available to adults 18 and older.

Adults: $15.00
Members: $5.00

Space is limited! Participants are encouraged to sign up in advance here: https://kswichitaweb.myvscloud.com/web.../web/search.html...

You can also sign up in person at the Visitor Center or by phone at 316-350-3311.

Event by Old Cowtown Museum
1865 W Museum Blvd, Wichita, KS, United States, Kansas 67203

There's a reason why we're the #2 place to visit in Wichita (just behind the iconic Keeper of the Plains at #1)! We're a 23-acre open-air museum where history comes alive every day! If you've been meaning to visit, consider this your invitation to come mosey on down to our little town.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g39143-d258508-Reviews-Old_Cowtown_Museum-Wichita_Kansas.html

After the Civil War, the great Texas cattle drives thundered northward, reshaping the plains. Abilene received 35,000 head in 1867, 75,000 in 1868, and by 1871, nearly 600,000 longhorns were moving up the trails.

Any town that wanted to survive—let alone prosper—needed a piece of that trade. Wichita understood this with perfect clarity.

In the spring of 1871, four Wichita men—Mike Meagher, Joseph M. Steele, James Mead, and Nathaniel A. English—rode out before sunrise with one goal: turn a herd and change Wichita’s future. History would remember them as the “Four Horsemen.”

As the prairie brightened, they rode into a cattle camp. Mead immediately recognized the man standing with the drovers. “Henry Shanklin!? You’ve passed our town.”

Shanklin, a Kansas Pacific Railroad agent, didn’t deny it. Park City—Wichita’s ambitious rival—had hired him to steer herds their way. He had skipped the Wichita cutoff on purpose.

Meagher only tapped the heavy saddlebag at his knee. “That might be… but we do have this.”

What followed was frontier diplomacy at its finest.

Steele warned the drovers they were “liable to miss the best market and a paradise of a town.”

Mead described Wichita as a real, thriving place—while Park City, he said, was little more than a dream hammered to a signpost.

English admitted there might be “misunderstandings” with local farmers, but Wichita would compensate for any trouble, even drowned cows in the river.

Shanklin bristled. “A bribe! Just what I’d expect from a sneaky Wichita crowd.”

Meagher grinned. “Not a bribe. Compensation for backtracking ten miles.”

The herd owners weighed the money, the promises, and the future of their cattle. Finally, the herd owner nodded, and the herd turned toward Wichita.

By 1872, Wichita saw 350,000 longhorns and $2 million in stockyard sales—about $53 million today.

The city exploded with saloons, brothels, keno halls, and gambling houses. Cowboys were given the “freedom of the city,” and Wichita became a cowtown. More importantly, Wichita swiftly grew into a full-fledged town.

• The cattle trade (1871–1876) turned Wichita into a magnet for drovers, merchants, saloonkeepers, and speculators.

• Railroad arrival in 1872 made Wichita a true shipping point, accelerating migration and investment.

• Aggressive boosterism by men like Mead, Steele, English, and Meagher drew settlers, businesses, and capital.

• Park City’s collapse funneled even more growth into Wichita.

By 1875, Wichita was no longer a frontier outpost—it was a booming cowtown with national attention.

Old Cowtown Museum preserves Wichita’s history from 1865 to 1880 and celebrates with special events throughout the year.

This image was taken during the Chisholm Trail 150th Celebrations.

Did you know that Old Cowtown Museum is the official headquarters of the Chisholm Trail International Chisholm Trail Association?

A group that strives to protect the Cattle Trails, which is important to our hometown, as the Chisholm not only created the growth for Wichita to sustain, but also runs through our town, too.

The Midwest Historic Masonic Lodge Association has been dedicated to preserving the rich history of Masons in our region for over a decade. Our exhibit at Old Cow Town Museum welcomes around 10,000 visitors each year, and we are proud to be a part of this vibrant community. Now, we are embarking on a new journey to research and publish biographies of Masons from the 1860s to 1890s who played crucial roles in shaping the Midwest but have been forgotten over time. Our first biography on Br. George D'Amour will be published soon, and we are excited to continue this important work with the story of Br. Charles Warren Hill, Sr. Your support will help us expand our exhibit and continue sharing these inspiring stories. Please like, comment, and share this post to help us reach more people who care about preserving our history. Thank you for your support!

Friends, Ladies and Brothers,
It is time to either start or continue your support of MHMLA!

Last year MHMLA (Midwest Historic Masonic Lodge Association) completed the project to curate, restore and present the 1865 Sheerer’s Masonic Carpets in the Masonic Hall at Old Cowtown Museum! We receive great comments from the public and from Masons! Come check them out for yourself. Learn how we used to present our degree work!

This year we shifted our focus to educating the public, and Craft, about the important impacts that our unsung Brothers and Sisters have had on our communities, states, regions, and nation. Our first effort focuses on writing and publishing biographies of the first Masons of Wichita in 1870. However, if you want to research and document another candidate we can put a team together for that! We expect to publish Br. George D’Amour’s biography this Spring, possibly through the Midwest Historical and Genealogical Society in Wichita, KS and the Journal of the Kansas Historical Society (there may be two versions – the ‘current research’ version with MHGS and a possible ‘new information’ version with responses to queries from the Grand Lodge of Colorado and the Grand Lodge of Kansas, and perhaps some on-the-ground research!).

Our next efforts will be to publish the biographies of Br. Charles W. Hill and Br. Solomon Kohn.

If you have a suggestion for researching and publishing new original biographies of Masons and Eastern Star Sisters, please contact me!

All of this effort is to educate the general public about our Craft and our Members. The Craft does a great job of educating Masons, but a terrible job of educating the public about Masons and Masonry! Help us change that!

We are recognized by IRS Pub 78 (https://nccs.urban.org/nccs/datasets/pub78/) (IEN: 45-3802322) as an IRS 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

Donations are open to the public.

Anyone can donate at our GoFundMe (https://gofund.me/f08bb94f6).

We are a Masonic Organization recognized by the Grand Lodge of Kansas, AF&AM. Therefore, the organization membership is restricted to recognized Masonic organizations (EOS, York Rite, Scottish Rite, Shrine, etc.) and active members of recognized Masonic organizations.

To donate, to become a member or for more information, see the Membership Tab on our web site at www.historicmasonry.org.

Great history and presenters!

We are excited to announce Old Cowtown Museum's 2026 Winter Lecture Series!

The series kicks off this Saturday, January 10, with Director of Education and Interpretation Anthony Horsch delving into the complexities of The Evolving Victorian Woman. On January 24, Elizabeth Ernst Miller will discuss Farmbook: 19th C. Newspapers as Social Media and the omnipresence of anonymous trolls, even in the late 1800s.

On February 14, explore Victorian Valentines Traditions and Courting with Elizabeth Tarter. On February 28, Elijah Turner will focus on Bluecoats and Braves to discuss how the 7th Cavalry and the Plains Indian Wars impacted Kansas.

On March 14, Katherine Eppich Catlin will sink her teeth into The Lurid (and somewhat true) Tale of the Bloody Benders. And we'll glide into the final lecture of the series on March 28 with The History of Roller Skating.

All lectures take place at 2 p.m. on select Saturday afternoons from January through March in the Visitor's Center and admission is just $3. Of course, Old Cowtown members and volunteers get in free!

Stop by to learn a little and enjoy the winter downtime at Old Cowtown!

To our ladies!

Wishing a very merry Christmas to the Brothers of the Craft and their families wherever they be. Bless you all during this Holy Day Season.

See our updated GoFundMe at https://gofundme.com/u/e9cbcf9b-2a90-4fb6-b57a-a0409629c3cc