Tela
TELA LODGE
Location: Tela, Honduras
Dispensation presented to: Leon M. Abbott, 01/16/1919
Current Status: dispensation declined, 06/10/1919
EXPATRIATES IN HONDURAS
In November 1918, Rt. Wor. Bro. H. W. Hollingshorst, on behalf of "about twenty F. & A. Master Masons," wrote to Grand Secretary Frederick A. Hamilton to propose the establishment of a lodge in Tela, Honduras, in what he called the "American Zone". This "Zone" was the town of Tela Nueva, built by the United Fruit Company to house its expatriate employees. Tela was also the railhead for the Tela Railroad, a subsidiary of United Fruit.
Bro. Hollingshorst explicitly requested a dispensation for a lodge under Massachusetts jurisdiction. He detailed the state of Masonry in Honduras, noting the presence of three lodges in Honduras under a Scottish Rite Valley located in Guatemala, and he judged it not advisable for Americans to affiliate with them. "The Lodge we are now soliciting will be exclusively American," he wrote, "and working in the English language." He then detailed his Masonic bona fides, including Blue Lodge, Scottish Rite and Shrine affiliations in the state of Louisiana.
On December 17, Brother Hamilton noted Grand Master Abbott's interest in the proposal, and indicated that he would write to Rt. Wor. Bro. John A. Davilla, Grand Secretary of Louisiana; also, that Bro. Hollingshorst would be required to fill out the proper paperwork for a dispensation, including a list of petitioners and their Masonic status.
Brother Davilla's reply on December 21 confirmed Hollingshorst's credentials but noted that "this application has been before the Grand Lodge of Louisiana on two or three occasions and that each Grand Master has been averse to considering it for the reason that the Grand Lodge of Louisiana is opposed to instituting Lodges outside of its territorial jurisdiction."
There were a few further exchanges between the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts and Brother Hollingshorst, particularly with respect to transportation; the latter noted that there was but poor transportation between Honduras and Panama; thus the lodge (according to Hamilton) would be "entirely dependent upon Massachusetts" for direction and administration. Ultimately, that determined the fate of the petition. On June 10, 1919, Grand Master Abbott wrote to Brother Hollingshorst and "regretfully" declined the petition, noting that "the remoteness and inaccessibility of your city from the Grand East of this Grand Lodge, or even from our District Grand Lodge of the Canal Zone, are such that the difficulty and expense of maintaining and properly supervising the matters of that place seem insuperable."
