I met him at least once, at my grandparents' 50th anniversary, though I have no memory of him. He was a 57 year member and Past Venerable Master of the Santa Rosa Scottish Rite Bodies, 33rd Degree Knight Commander of the Court of Honor of Scottish Rite, Chairman Emeritus in Masonry, 1987 Scottish Rite Man of the Year, and the first President of Sonoma County Historical Museum Foundation. He was also in the Real Estate business with his Uncle, Fred B. Wendt. My grandmother had kept several clippings from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat about Rayford.

In the nineteen seventies, Rayford was the "keeper" of the Masonic Lodge historical collection which was described in some detail in a Press Democrat article from 1976, and was the primary historical collection for Santa Rosa before the Sonoma County Museum came into existence. Though not really mentioned in this particular article, the collection had actually been assembled by Sid Kurlander. Sid Kurlander was born over his father's cigar store in Santa Rosa on Fourth Street in 1879. When he grew up, he took over the family business and expanded it into a successful wholesale tobacco and candy company. In Gaye LeBaron's "Insight" column, she writes of him: "Through the early part of this century, Kurlander collected things -- a Samurai sword belonging to Fountaining's Kanaye Nagasawa, the nooses from the lynching in 1920, a padlock from the old jail, mountains of hotel registers and business records, heaps of old photographs." Kurlander was also active in the Masonic Order and, in the 1930s set up a small museum with his collection in the old Scottish Rite Temple on B Street. At his death in 1958, he willed the custody of his historical treasures to the Scottish Rite, stipulating that the only charge for public viewing be "a container" for donations to crippled children through the Shriners.

A John Spencer took over taking care of the collection and when he passed away, Rayford Leggett took over. From what was said in the 1976 articles, Rayford had several of his own things in the collection. It was also implied that the collection would eventually end up in some kind of historical museum and plans were under foot to convert the old Post Office. Rayford went on to be the first president of the Sonoma County Historical Museum Foundation. One would assumed from the 1976 newspaper article, that the Sonoma County Museum took over the collection that Rayford was maintaining when it came into existence. However, what actually happened was something of a town scandal.

The old Masonic Temple was torn down to make room for the big Macy's complex in downtown Santa Rosa. A new Masonic building had been constructed out on the Sonoma Highway. The Masonic collection had been boxed up and stored in crates in the new building. Then in May of 1985, the Masons invited "collectors and dealers from all over the country" to come to town. They held a "giant" and very private auction one weekend and sold the whole collection (except for the books) to pay for the mortgage on the Masonic building.

The County Museum had to scrape together $1800 to buy a portion of the collection. Dennis Kurlander, the grandson of Sid Kurlander, found out about the auction after it was all over, when a gun collector friend of his showed up to his house with some of his family's photos. According, to LeBaron, "Dennis, so angry he could scarcely talk, got a copy of the auction flyer, a copy of his grandfather's will and went looking for the family lawyer."

Rayford Leggett when he was confronted by the press simply said that there was no longer any room for the collection in the new building. However the Masons would still keep the nickel plated .45 revolver which rancher Al Chamberlain used to kill Santa Rosa's police chief, Charlie O'Neal, in 1935, as well as the three nooses used to "hang the members of the Spud Murphy Gang from a locust tree at Santa Rosa's Rural Cemetery in 1920, the second to last lynching in California ." The last lynching being in San Jose in St. James Park, in the mid 1920's.

Sometime after the auction, Rayford showed up at a meeting of the Empire Breakfast Club, which was having a "necktie party" for Police Chief Sal Rosano, wearing one of these nooses. Not only was the joke in bad taste, but the nooses should be in the county museum complained LeBaron. Dennis Kurlander was also complaining that the nooses belonged to the Kurlander family and that Masons had not followed the instructions of the will. Apparently every thing must have gotten straightened out in the end and most of the collection did end up in the museum. Though it appears that Amelia Wendt's wedding dress from 1892, which was on the original Masonic inventory list, remained with the family after the controversy.