USA > Washington DC > History of the Grand lodge and of freemasonry in the District of Columbia : with biographical appendix > Part 12
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The monument was formally dedicated July 25, 1903, under unusually impressive conditions.
At the semi-annual communication of May 8, 1901, a pe- tition was received from Bros. Frank H. Thomas, Isaac E. Shoemaker, Samuel O. Wendel and thirty-two others, praying for a charter to open and hold a lodge at Tenley, D. C., to
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be known as William R. Singleton Lodge, No. 30, and nomi- nating the brethren named above as the first three officers in the order given, and the charter being at once granted, the Grand Lodge, on the 28th of the same month, repaired to the meeting place, dedicated the hall, constituted the lodge, and installed the officers. The field thus occupied, an isolated suburb, has proven a fertile one, and the progressive char- acter of the membership has so improved the opportunities that No. 30 is already in the full tide of vigorous youth, and, with the rapid growth of the population in that direction, has before it an unusually promising future.
The cornerstone of their present building in Tenleytown, D. C., was laid November 19, 1908, and its dedication occurred.
September 26, 1901, the cornerstone of the Christian and Eleanora Ruppert Home, a benevolent institution, founded on a bequest of the late Bro. Christian Ruppert, and located near Anacostia, D. C., was laid in ancient form.
On the 23d of the following month the Grand Lodge, under the escort of Orient Commandery, No. 5, K. T., and a large number of Masons, proceeded in procession from Ninth and F Streets to the intersection of D Street and Indiana Avenue, N. W., and joined with the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction in dedicating the handsome bronze statue of the late Bro. Albert Pike, erected at that point by the latter body. The statue was unveiled by Bro. Henry L. Palmer, Grand Commander, and Bro. Josiah H. Drummond, P. G. C., of the Supreme Council of the Northern Jurisdiction; Bro. James D. Rich- ardson, Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction, and Bro. Raphael de Zayas Enriquez, of the Supreme Council of Mexico. After the dedicatory exercises by the Grand Lodge the monument was formally delivered to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia by the late Bro. Frederick Webber, Secretary-General, on behalf of the Supreme Council, and received on behalf of the
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District by Hon. H. B. F. Macfarland, Commissioner, in appropriate addresses.
During the year now closing the aggregate membership of the several blue lodges had passed the 6,000 mark and num- bered 6,257, showing the very substantial increase of 366 over the report of 1900.
The Masonic event of 1902 was the second great fair for the benefit of the new Temple fund, which was held in April of that year, and which is more fully enlarged upon in another chapter.
The celebration of the 150th anniversary of the initiation of W. Bro. George Washington, at Philadelphia, November 5, 1902, probably one of the most notable gatherings ever held within tiled walls, was attended by the Deputy Grand Master, the late Bro. George H. Walker, P. G. Master George W. Baird, and a delegation from Potomac Lodge, No. 5, of this city, bearing the famous Washington gavel, all of whom were the recipients of the most courteous treatment during their sojourn in our neighboring city.
The year 1902 marked the installation of the card-index system in the office of the Grand Secretary. The labor of bringing the system up to date was a strenuous task, but is now practically completed, and with the current additions forms an invaluable record, which is safe-guarded by being permanently placed in a fireproof vault in the new Temple. It is proper to state that a similar index has been prepared of the Royal Arch Masons of the District, and is in the custody of the Grand Secretary of the Grand Chapter of that body.
February 21, 1903, occurred a most memorable public cere- mony, that attendant upon the laying of the cornerstone of the War College in the grounds of the Washington Barracks. The Grand Lodge, escorted by Washington Commandery, No. 1, K. T., and headed by the Second Cavalry Band, pro- ceeded to the site and occupied the place reserved for them in the midst of a vast concourse, including the President of the United States, Bro. Theodore Roosevelt, the Cabinet. U. S. Senators and Representatives, members of the Diplo-
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matic Corps, the District Commissioners, and other invited guests, among whom were a large number of ladies. After addresses by the President, Hon. Elihu Root, Secretary of War, and Gen. S. B. M. Young, President of the War College, and an invocation by the Acting Grand Chaplain, Rev. Bro. Daniel W. Skellenger, the Grand Lodge took charge, and con- ducted the formal ceremony according to ancient usage, upon the conclusion of which an appropriate address was delivered by the then Grand Master, M. W. Bro. George H. Walker.
The death of P. G. Master Noble Danforth Larner, which occurred March 19, 1903, removed from Masonic circles a brilliant and indefatigable worker, and one who, as Grand Master in 1881 and 1882, and as Grand High Priest of this jurisdiction and G. G. High Priest of the United States, left the impress of his intellect and indomitable energy not only upon the District of Columbia, where he was for years a potential force in business, social, and religious life, but upon the Frater- nity generally, his reputation being national. The greatest monument to his busy life was the old Temple, Ninth and F Streets, N. W., for to him more than to any other one individ- ual must be given the credit of the inception and ultimately suc- cessful termination of that enterprise.
On June 27, 1903, the cornerstone of the handsome new Foundry Church, Sixteenth and Madison Streets, N. W., was laid by the Grand Lodge, the escort on this occasion being Columbia Commandery, No. 2, K. T.
A rather interesting point during the year grew out of the request of Gen. Anson Mills, U. S. A. (Retired), that the Grand Lodge lay the cornerstone of the Navy Department Annex, Seventeenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W. General Mills, in anticipation of favorable consideration of his request, had invited a large number of public officials and made other arrangements for the occasion, but upon the fact being brought to the attention of Grand Master Walker that the building was owned by a private individual, and the further fact that the stone to be laid was not in reality a cornerstone, but simply the plinth in one of the columns of
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the portico, he courteously declined to permit the Grand Lodge to participate, on the ground that the constitution of that body only permitted the laying of cornerstones of public buildings, and while, in view of the use to which the building was to be put, this point might be waived, the further fact of its being in no sense a cornerstone, the building proper having already been erected, precluded the use of a ritual filled with references to the " future edifice," and predicated upon a presumption that the stone was a part of the actual foundation.
By the end of 1903 another thousand mark had been passed, and the lodge membership footed up 7,064.
Aside from the occasions when the last rites were held over the remains of deceased brethren, among whom, in the year 1904, were Rev. Bro. Claudius B. Smith, for twenty-three years Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of the District, and P. G. Master Malcolm Seaton, the Grand Lodge appeared in public during that year three times, officiating at as many cornerstone, layings-that of Memorial Continental Hall Seventeenth and D Streets, N. W., April 19; Mt. Pleasant M. E. Church, Columbia Road, N. W., July 30, and tht: Second Presbyterian Church South, Twenty-second Street, between P Street and Massachusetts Avenue, N. W., Noveni- ber 26. The addresses of Grand Master James A. Wetmore on each of these occasions were of unusual interest and appropriateness and are well worthy of perusal.
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CHAPTER XII.
THE LATTER DAYS.
CENTENNIAL OF NAVAL LODGE-IMPORTANT PUBLIC FUNC- TIONS-THE WASHINGTON GAVEL-DEATHS OF M. W.
BROTHERS GEORGE H. WALKER, R. B. DONALDSON,
JOSĘ MARIA YZNAGA, DAVID G. DIXON, AND E. G. DAVIS.
"The future will but turn The old sands in the failing glass of Time." -STODDARD.
THE YEAR 1905 witnessed the introduction of what, to this jurisdiction, had previously been unknown-a daylight lodge; and was the logical outgrowth of the constantly increasing army of night workers peculiar to a great city, whose duties preclude their participation in the ordinary fraternal and social pleasures of the era.
On April 7 of that year Grand Master Lurtin R. Ginn. upon proper petition, granted a dispensation to a number of brethren to organize such a lodge. On May 10, following, at the second communication of the Grand Lodge, a petition in due form for a charter was received from these brethren, twenty-six in all, and a charter was ordered to issue to them to open and hold a lodge to be known as King Solomon's Lodge, No. 31, the first three officers to be Bros. William H. Singleton, Jose L. Atkins, and Philander C. Johnson, in the order named. The new lodge was duly constituted May 25, of the same year, and has since amply proven that its estab- lishment had indeed filled a long-felt want. It may be again
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remarked in passing, that the name " King Solomon's Lodge" had been selected for a lodge which struggled for existence in 1864, but which " died a-borning." But this latter pre- emptor of the title has well passed the formative period and, endowed with exceptional vitality, gives promise of a long and useful career.
One of the most elaborate and successful celebrations ever held by a subordinate lodge in this jurisdiction occurred in the week commencing May 14, 1905, when for a period of four days, beginning by attendance Sunday evening upon special divine service, Naval Lodge, No. 4, celebrated their centennial anniversary, in a series of brilliant meetings, receptions, and banquets, the most notable being that of May 15, 1905, when the Grand Lodge and other distinguished Masons were the honored guests. The history of this Lodge, including an account of the centennial celebration, has been preserved in a handsome volume, which was issued as a feature of the occasion.
Three cornerstone-layings occurred during the year 1905- that of the Masonic and Eastern Star Home, May 17; of the Eckington Presbyterian Church, North Capitol and Q Streets, May 22, and of the Whitney Avenue Memorial Church, May 26.
September 25, 1905, the Grand Lodge, by resolution, au- thorized the appointment of a committee to take under advise- ment and report some plan for the general celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the formation of the Grand Lodge of England in 1817. At the communication of Decem- ber 19, 1906, the committee reported that seventy-three Grand Lodges had been communicated with and their cooperation and suggestions requested, but that only twenty-four had re- sponded, and of these but two, the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Cuba, had definitely approved of the plan of a general celebration.
At the installation communication of 1905, in accordance with the suggestion of the Grand Master in his address and the favorable recommendation in reference thereto by the
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special committee on said address, the Grand Master appointed the following named brethren as a committee to arrange for the proper celebration of the Centennial of the Grand Lodge, occurring in 1911 : Bros. W. W. Jermane, Nathaniel Fugitt, Luther F. Speer, Andrew Wilson, Charles J. James, Thomas P. Morgan, and Frank H. Thomas. Of these two-Bros. Nathaniel Fugitt and Frank H. Thomas-passed away in the course of the two years following, and the vacancies thus created were filled by the appointment of Bros. Claude F. King and Roe Fulkerson. The personnel was again changed in 1909 by the resignation, on account of ill health, of the chairman, Bro. W. W. Jermane, and the appointment to that position of W. Bro. Jas. A. Wetmore, and the resignation of Bro. Thomas P. Morgan and the appointment of Bro. J. Harry Cunningham, and in 1910 by the resignation of W. Bro. Jas. A. Wetmore and the appointment as chairman of Bro. E. St. Clair Thompson.
At the same meeting and also by authority of the Grand Lodge, upon the recommendation of the same committee the Grand Master appointed W. Bro. Kenton N. Harper, of Naval Lodge, No. 4, as Historian, with directions to prepare a com- prehensive history of this Grand Lodge and of Freemasonry in the District of Columbia, to become one of the features of the above celebration.
The laying of the cornerstone of the Office Building of the House of Representatives, adjoining the Capitol, occurred April 14, 1906, and was the occasion of one of the greatest Masonic processions in the jurisdiction, the escort comprising the five commanderies and Grand Commandery, K. T., of the District, and large delegations from the subordinate lodges, headed and accompanied by the Marine and Engineer Bands. On arriving at the site, the Grand Lodge was conducted to a platform erected for the occasion, on which were seated Bro. Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States; Bro. Charles W. Fairbanks, Vice-President; Bro. Joseph G. Can- non, Speaker of the House of Representatives; Bro. James D. Richardson, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme
GEORGE C. WHITING, GRAND MASTER, 1857-1861, 1865-1867
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Council, A. A. S. R., for the Southern Jurisdiction ; members of the Cabinet; Justices of the Supreme Court; members of the Senate and House of Representatives; members of the Diplomatic Corps; officers of the Army and Navy, and an audience of 5,000 people, including a large number of ladies. After the Masonic ceremonies and an address by the Grand Master, M. W. Bro. Walter A. Brown, the President was pre- sented by Speaker Cannon, and delivered his celebrated ad- dress which has gone into history with the title "The Man with the Muck Rake."
During this month the handsome sum of $2,616.50 was promptly contributed by the Masonic bodies of the District and forwarded by wire to the Pacific Coast sufferers. Of this sum $523.30 was subsequently returned, as being in excess of the need, and upon its receipt the Grand Lodge at once donated its share of the sum returned to the Masonic and Eastern Star Home, which action was followed in due time by all the bodies interested.
May 5, 1906, death claimed one of the brightest minds in the list of Past Grand Masters ever given to the service of Masonry in this jurisdiction, in the person of M. W. Bro. George Harold Walker, whose life and works are given else- where, and whose taking off in the full vigor of middle life left a void difficult, indeed, to fill.
On June 19 of the same year the Grand Lodge laid the cornerstone of the P. E. Church of the Advent, Second and U Streets, N. W .; on October 16 proceeded by special train to the site of the Masonic and Eastern Star Home, and dedi- cated the completed west wing thereof, and on November 22, following, laid the cornerstone of the Synagogue of the Adas Israel Congregation, Sixth and I Streets, N. W.
The reports for the year 1906 show no falling off in the rapid increase which had marked the aggregate membership for some years, a total of 7,999 Master Masons appearing as in good standing at the end of the year.
A third successful fair was held for the Temple fund in May, 1907, and on June S was laid the cornerstone of the
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Temple, Thirteenth Street and New York Avenue, a detailed account of which event, together with the history of the move- ment from its inception, and a description of the building. etc., may be found in a special chapter devoted to the subject.
The Washington gavel, so-called from having been first used by President Washington in laying the cornerstone of the Capitol Building, was used on this occasion. It was made in 1793, from the marble used in the construction of the Capitol, is one of the most cherished relics of the jurisdiction. and is the property of Potomac Lodge, No. 5, to whose Master it was handed by Washington upon the conclusion of the cere- monies referred to. Altho in 1853 the Grand Lodge requested the transfer to it of the valued souvenir Potomac naturally did not feel justified in parting with it, and retains it, safeguarded beyond the possibility of loss, and never allows it to leave the custody of a special committee, said committee accompanying it on all its journeys. The various occasions on which it has been used or was present constituting a subject of sufficient interest to warrant a place in this work, the following list. prepared some years since by Bro. J. H. Yarnell, Secretary of Potomac Lodge, with later additions by the author, is here appended :
1793, September 18, cornerstone, United States Capitol.
1824, August 22, cornerstone, City Hall, D. C.
1829, August 8, laying the first stone of the Baltimore & Susquehanna R. R., on the 100th anniversary of the City of Baltimore, Md.
1847, May 1, cornerstone, Smithsonian Institution.
1848, July 1, cornerstone, Washington Monument.
1851, July 4, extension, U. S. Capitol.
1853, New Baptist Church, Thirteenth Street.
1853, Sixth Presbyterian Church.
1854, West Presbyterian Church.
1854, Metropolitan M. E. Church (Grant's and Mckinley's church ).
1854, Methodist Church, Georgetown, D. C.
1855, German Reformed Church.
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1857, Ebenezer M. E. Church.
1858, February 22, equestrian statue of General Washing- ton at Richmond, Va.
1858, August 9, cornerstone, Masonic Hall, Georgetown, D. C.
1859, New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Lincoln's church.
1860, February 22, Clark Mills' equestrian statue of Wash- ington, Washington, D. C.
1865, Washington Protestant Orphan Asylum.
1867, German Lutheran Church, Georgetown, D. C.
1867, First Baptist Church, Georgetown, D. C.
1867, November 10, cornerstone, soldiers' monument, An- tietanı.
1868, Lincoln memorial monument.
1868, Mt. Vernon Methodist Church.
1868, Metropolitan Presbyterian Church.
1868, Masonic Temple, Washington, D. C.
1870, Foundation, Steuben Monument, Scheutzen Park, D. C.
1870, Dedication Masonic Temple, Washington, D. C.
1872, Independent German Protestant Church.
1872, Masonic Temple, Philadelphia, Pa.
1873, Masonic Hall, Brightwood, D. C.
1877, All Soul's Church, D. C.
1881, Congregation of the Tabernacle.
1881, October 18, dedication Yorktown monument, York- town, Va.
1882, Post-office, Baltimore, Md.
1884, Washington Light Infantry Armory.
1885, February 21, completion Washington Monument. Washington, D. C.
1894, Cornerstone, Naval Lodge Building, D. C.
1896, October 21, American University, Washington, D. C
1897, North Carolina Avenue Presbyterian Church.
1897, Hebrew Tabernacle, Eighth Street between G and H Streets, Northwest.
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1897, Christian Church, Ninth and D Streets.
1898, Douglas Memorial Church, Eleventh and H Streets.
1898, August 10, cornerstone, Pennsylvania State Capitol. Harrisburg, Pa.
1899, Baptist Church, Thirtieth and N Streets, Northwest.
1899, Masonic Lodge, Gaithersburg, Md.
1899, December 14, Washington Centennial, Mount Ver- non, Va.
1902, November 5, sesqui-centennial initiation of Wash- ington into Masonry, Philadelphia.
1903, February 21, Army War College.
1903, May 1, Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis. 1903, Foundry M. E. Church.
1904, Memorial Continental Hall.
1905, May 17, Masonic and Eastern Star Home, D. C
1905, May 22, Eckington Presbyterian Church.
1906, Office Building of the House of Representatives.
1907, New Masonic Temple.
In addition, it was used at the celebration of the Centennial of the Grand Lodge of Maryland, at the laying of the corner- stones of the Baltimore City Hall, and the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Frederick, Md., and locally at some ceremony in connection with the opening of the C. & O. Canal and at the cornerstone layings of the old Market House and Bank of Columbia, Georgetown, D. C., the dates of the latter events not being available or important.
It was used officially by the following Presidents of the United States : 1793, George Washington, cornerstone, United States Capitol; 1847, James K. Polk, cornerstone, Smithson- ian; 1851, Millard Fillmore, extension, United States Capitol : 1860, James Buchanan, Clark Mills' statue of Washington : 1899, William McKinley, Washington Centennial, Mount Ver- non, Va .; 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, sesqui-centennial Wash- ington's initiation into Masonry, Philadelphia, Pa., and upon other occasions.
Two other cornerstones were laid during the year 1907- that of Bethany Baptist Church, Rhode Island Avenue and
CHARLES F. STANSBURY, GRAND MASTER, 1862, 1871-1874.
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Second Street, N. W., October 30, and that of Northminster Presbyterian Church, Eleventh Street and Rhode Island Ave- nue, N. W., November 5.
The death of P. G. Master Robert Bruce Donaldson, No- vember 22, 1907, was a serious loss to the local Fraternity. For many years the Dean of the Corps of P. G. Masters, a man of unusual attainments and ripened judgment, his advice had been sought, and cheerfully given, in all mooted questions for more than a generation, and his lovable disposition had endeared him to the brethren of this jurisdiction to a re- markable degree.
With the realization of the hope of years, the new Temple being now in actual course of construction, came a quickened life into Masonic circles, waning interest was renewed, and material prosperity followed naturally. The enthusiasm awakened by the early prospect of modern, commodious, and handsome quarters found its expression in many ways, and in none more strikingly than in the selection of the name " Temple" for a new lodge owing its formation entirely to the re-energizing effect of that project.
On October 12, 1907, on proper petition and representation, the Grand Master, M. W. Bro. Francis J. Woodman, issued a dispensation to certain brethren to organize a lodge, and at the annual communication of the same year, December 18, a char- ter was ordered to issue to Bros. Thomas C. Noyes, Louis C. Wilson, John Paul Earnest, and seventy-eight others, the largest charter list of record, to open and hold a lodge to be known as Temple Lodge, No. 32, the three brethren named being nominated in their order as the first three officers. Starting with the prestige of a host of locally well-known names on their roster, it inevitably followed that the success of this lodge was assured from the very start, an assurance which the several years of its existence has amply justified.
The formal dedication of the new Temple occurred Septem- ber 19, 1908, and is treated of in Chapter XIV, while a de- tailed account of this important event may be found in the Grand Lodge Proceedings, 1908, p. 24 et seq.
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The third communication of the Grand Lodge, held Sep- tember 26, 1908, was its last assemblage in the old Temple, and was commemorated by a farewell address by the Grand Chaplain, Rev. Brother Joseph Dawson. After closing in ample form, the brethren present joined hands and united in singing "Auld Lang Syne."
A " House Warming," extending from September 28 to October 10, in the new Temple, afforded the public an op- portunity to inspect the building, and incidentally added in the neighborhood of $10,000 to the treasury of the Temple Association.
November 19, 1908, the cornerstone of a building for the use of Wm. R. Singleton Lodge, No. 30, was laid at Tenley- town, D. C.
On April 11, 1909, P. G. Master José M. Yznaga, and on November 25, 1909, P. G. Master David G. Dixon, passed away. Both of these brethren had for years been closely and actively identified with local Masonry, were well known and beloved, and their demise was sincerely mourned.
At a special communication, November 20, 1909, the Grand Lodge took the necessary steps looking to the assumption of control of the new Temple, an event of importance, as being the only instance in the history of the jurisdiction where such control was consummated. The various movements leading up to and following this action are treated elsewhere.
On March 22, 1910, occurred the death of P. G. Master Eldred G. Davis, one of the most valued members of the Fraternity, and for a long time the chairman of the Commit- tee on Jurisprudence. His activity in Masonic work con- tinued up to the end, which came suddenly and cast a gloom over the entire jurisdiction.
On May 12, 1910, Grand Master George C. Ober, assisted by the other officers of the Grand Lodge, formally dedicated to Masonry the Cathedral of the Scottish Rite, long known as "The House of the Temple," at Third and E Streets. N. W., which had lately been acquired by the local subordinate bodies of the Rite.
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