Part 703: The Louisville Scottish Rite and Frederick Webber, 1907
I am getting ready to attend USITT in Louisville, Kentucky, and visit another Scottish Rite theater. I was perusing old newspapers to familiarize myself with the history of the Louisville Scottish Rite bodies, before hitting the road, and stumbled across in interesting article from 1907. Keep in mind that this was the same year the cornerstone was laid for the Wichita Scottish Rite and the Southern Jurisdiction was experiencing a building boom like never before.
In 1907, Frederick Webber, Secretary General of the Scottish Rite, passed away. This article is certainly worth reading, especially if you are a Scottish Rite Mason. He was one of the last men from that great generation of Scottish Rite Masons who personally experienced the transformation of their order.
The article about Webber was published in the Evening Star on November 5, 1907.
“The venerable Frederick Webber, secretary general of the Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Masons of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, died at his residence, No. 523 3rd Street northwest, shortly after 8 o’clock last evening. He was the dean of the Supreme Council, and had been active Inspector General for Kentucky since 1859, thirty-eight years.
Mr. Webber was a native of Ireland, having been born in Cork city June 21, 1827, and died in his eighty-first year. He removed to the United States in 1843 and located in Louisville Ky., which was his home for many years, and although he long resided in Washington, he always considered that he lived in Louisville. He was for a number of years actively engaged in business in the Kentucky metropolis before the civil war.
During that conflict he served as a quartermaster in the Union army, and was at various times under the command of Gens. Anderson, Sherman, Rosecrans and Don Carlos Buell, the latter a fellow-townsman of Louisville. After the war he again engaged in business, but in 1878 came to this city and took office in the adjutant general’s office, being subsequently engaged in the Treasury Department. For a long term of years, however, he had devoted himself exclusively to the advancement of the Scottish Rite of Masonry in his capacity of secretary general, in which he had served under Gen. Albert Pike and all his successors in the office of Grand Commander.
His Masonic career was a long and brilliant one, and exactly co-extensive with his manhood, for he was initiated in Antiquity Lodge, F.A.A.M., of Louisville, Ky., on his twenty-first birthday and died a member of more than sixty years later. He was the last of its surviving charter members and also enjoyed the unique Masonic distinction of having been a charter member of several other Masonic bodies, including the Louisville Consistory, A.A.S.R., and its subordinate organizations.
His activity in Masonic work in the Blue Grass state led to his being crowned at Charleston, S.C., March 28, 1859, as an active inspector general, thirty-third degree for Kentucky, which high and honorable Masonic station he occupied until his death combining its duties with those of the secretary generalship from his nomination to the latter office.
Although he had been very ill for the three weeks preceding the recent sessions of the Supreme Council, Mr. Webber pluckily left his bed and went through the hard work of the session with the same energy and fidelity that characterized all his official work. He was received with every attention by his colleagues, some of them older in years than himself, but none of them older in years than himself, but none of them older in the service of the council. He seemed to greatly improve during the week’s session, and his friends looked to quite an extended lease of life for him. He was last at the House of the Temple and at his familiar desk on Saturday.
The half-masted flag on the House of the Temple today gives expression to the deep sorrow that prevails among the official staff of Scottish Masons generally.
Sovereign Grand Commander James D. Richardson communicated by wire this morning with each of the active members of the Supreme Council, and during the day many telegrams came to the House of the Tempe and to the residence of the deceased, couched in terms of praise for the “Grand Old Man,” as he was affectionately called, and condolences for his family.
The sovereign grand commander said this afternoon, “The death of ‘Brother Fred’ touches me so deeply that I feel I cannot at this time make any expression of sentiment that would satisfy me. He was tenderly and truly loved by all of the Supreme Council, its active and honorary members.”
To be continued…
