WebsterTemple.com

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
Home Organizations Webster Lodge

History of Webster Lodge #84

E-mail Print PDF

 

    Grove Lodge #296 was granted dispensation on June 11th, 1868, and was chartered October 15th, 1868 with Brothers B.J. Bristol, F.B. Howe, Charles Kinght, Louis F. Bompart, George W. Gore, M.L. Gerould, O.C. Orrick and John W. Bowen as Charter Members.

    We understand this was the only Lodge in this section of the County, and members came from Fenton, Kirkwood, and other sections to this Lodge.

    The Lodge surrendered its Charter in 1874, and Bro. S.A. Moody who was Senior Warden that year took the furniture and stored it in a barn loft, and when #84 was organized, he produced it.

    Brother F.B. Howe took the Bible which had been presented by Mr. A.B.M. Thompson, and carried it with him to California.  When he heard of the organization of #84, he sent it back and Mr. Thompson, then quite an old man, presented it to the Lodge.

    In the spring of 1897, twenty-three years after the Grove Lodge was disbanded, Brother F.M. Anderson talked with Worshipful Brother C.W. Ferguson about starting a Lodge in Webster Groves and gave him a blank petition.

    Worshipful Brother Ferguson had not been in a Lodge for many years and knew nothing of the work.  The city had been incorporated the year before, and all things in the way of improvements were being considered.  He called a meeting in Brother Moody's office, which was in a small frame building where the Borelock Building now stands, and the meeting resulted in the organization of Webster Groves Lodge #84 with twenty-two Charter Members.

    As the Lodge must be free of debt, the members contributed from $5.00 to $25.00 each, had the old furniture cleaned up, put partitions in the only hall in town which was the third floor of the Brannan Building, and made a very presentable Lodge room.

    The hall was dedicated by some of the most prominent Masons in the State:

    RWB  Howard Watson - WM (Acting)

    RWB  John R. Parsons - SW (Acting)

    RWB W.R. Stubblefield - JW (Acting)

   MWB Dorsey A. Jamieson - Grand Master

   RWB Allan McDowell - Grand Lecturer

   MWB John D. Vincel - Grand Secretary

    Worshipful Brother McClure qualified for our first Senior Deacon, and from the beginning, the Lodge was proud of the quality of its work.

    February 21, 1899, the hall in the Bristol Building was dedicated.  It was a real Blue Lodge, all prepared in blue with a ceiling of stars.

    September 21, 1906, the hall in the Empire Building was dedicated.  Worshipful Brother Beattie had saved some beautiful columns from the wreckage of the World's Fair with which was made the beautiful effect in the East of the Lodge room.  With his own hands, he changed the plain old alter and stations of the Lodge to the beautiful ones we now possess, and built the three light columns.  New chairs, carpet, electric light fixtures and many other pieces of our furniture were bought at that time, the money being donated almost entirely by the members.

Last Updated on Monday, 14 June 2021 12:06  

Member Login