Part 631: Original and Reliable – E. A. Armstrong
Those first theaters created for the Southern Jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry were secured by the E. A. Armstrong Manufacturing Co. and subcontracted to Sosman & Landis. Both companies were in Chicago and both companies were run by Scottish Rite Masons. The key figure was Bestor G. Brown, a traveling salesman for E. A. Armstrong who was in charge of their Masonic Department. Brown was also involved in multiple fraternal orders and understood all necessary degree requirements. Brown opened the door to this enterprise, E. A. Armstrong provided the financial backing, and Sosman & Landis created something remarkable for staged degree work. Let’s look at the E. A. Armstrong company first, a fraternal supply company that got its start in Detroit during 1868. By the 1890s, they were building a new manufacturing plant in Chicago.
The E. A. Armstrong Company, manufacturers of and dealers in society and military supplies, were located at Nos. 149 and 151 Wabash Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, during 1893. The company had already run a successful business for two decades in Detroit, Michigan, moving to Chicago during the summer of 1892. At the time, the officers of the company were E. A. Armstrong, President; F. S. Armstrong, Vice-President; and F. C. King, Secretary (Chicago Tribune, 6 June 1893, page 3). In 1893 while finishing the construction of their factory, the company encountered some financial trouble. Newspapers across the country reported that the company would close its doors due to money owed and a court ruling.
The “Indianapolis Journal,” commented, “Mr. Armstrong said that the cause of the trouble was due to the drawing out of more money than they anticipated in the building of their new factory at Ninety-second street and the Grand Trunk road. ‘Every dollar’s worth of property that we owe on earth,’ said Mr. Armstrong, ‘is here in this business, and every dollar of it is in the hands of our assignee for the protection of our creditors. This suspension is only temporary at most” (6 Jun 1893, page 1). The company managed to survive, becoming the E. A Armstrong Manufacturing Company. They managed to corner the market on a significant client in the years to follow– Scottish Rite Consistories. Keep in mind that the Scottish Rite consists of four bodies: the Lodge of Perfection (4-14 degrees), Chapter of Rose Croix (15-18 degrees), Council of Kadosh (19- 30 degrees) and the Consistory (31-32 degrees). It is the Consistory that often led the construction of a theater that all of the Scottish Rite bodies used to stage degree productions.
By 1902, “Masonic Voice-Review” included an article about the E. A. Armstrong Manufacturing Company that included the “Eminent Sir Bestor G. Brown” as working in the Masonic Division of E. A. Armstrong Manufacturing Company of Chicago (page 282) Brown would later go onto become the western sales representative of the M. C. Lilley & Co., with his regional offices in Kansas City, Missouri, bringing all of his Scottish Rite contacts with him. He was the catch of the day when it came to securing Scottish Rite theater business.
Here is the article “Original and Reliable” from “Masonic Voice-Review:”
‘Made on honor; is a legend that every manufacturer should be ambitious to have justly applied to his product, and is certainly an evidence of the good faith, integrity and courage of the concern that brands every article turned out with the significant sentiment in question as its trademark and guarantee. The right to use this protective designation as applied to Masonic supplies has been earned by E. A. Armstrong Manufacturing Company, of Chicago, by more than thirty years of continuous production of the most reliable and serviceable articles to be found in the market. The business was organized in Detroit, Michigan in 1868 by Mr. E. A. Armstrong, who has been in charge of the business without interruption since the date. The business was removed to Chicago in 1893, and in the following year was reorganized, additional capital invested, and a stock company formed under the name of E. A. Armstrong Manufacturing Company.
The worthily popular products of this house have made the name “Armstrong” famous as the equivalent for reliability. None of the rights, patents or patterns employed in the production of “Armstrong Goods” and the “Armstrong Uniforms” have passed to other hands, and the Masonic requisites so long familiar to the Craft are still produced upon the same plans of superiority that originally secured favor for them, and are manufactured solely by this company. The guarantee that goes with every sale is that the goods will give perfect satisfaction and are absolutely as represented.
The E. A. Armstrong Manufacturing Company is entitled to point with pride to the preferment it has secured among the various bodies of the Scottish Rite throughout the country. Excepting the Consistory at Columbus, Ohio, they have furnished the equipment and paraphernalia for every Consistory in the United States that has been in the market for an outfit in the past five years – certainly a phenomenal showing, and one that commends the output of the concern in unmistakable terms. The Consistories that have been equipped within the period mentioned by the company are located at Indianapolis, Ind.; Little Rock, Ark.; Galveston, Tex.; Kansas City, Miss.; Wichita, Kan.; Guthrie, Okla.; Fargo, N.D.; and St. Louis, Mo.
The equipment of the St. Louis Consistory which represented an order of $6,200, was delivered in May of the present year. The secret of this practical monopoly of the Scottish Rite patronage by the Armstrong house is the inherent excellence of its goods and the uniformly courteous and honorable treatment accorded its patrons. The Eminent Sir Bestor G. Brown has special charge of the Masonic Department, and his intelligence and energetic methods coupled with a thorough knowledge of the requirements of the Craft has much to do with the notable success of this branch of the business.”
To be continued…
