History of Bestor G.
Brown Lodge
No. 433 A.F. & A.M.
Page 4
At the end of the period
allowed under the dispensation,
December 31, 1922, twenty-five had been raised to Master
Mason, and the charter membership stood at one hundred
and thirteen.
A petition for a charter bearing the names of all the
members
and a transcription of the proceedings of the Lodge were sent
to the Grand Secretary at Topeka in January, 1923. At the
Grand Lodge meeting in February, the committee on Lodges
recommended that the petition for charter of Bestor G,
Brown Lodge be favorably acted upon, and our charter was
issued effective March 1, 1923. On March 8, at a meeting
held for the purpose of constituting and consecrating Bestor
G. Brown Lodge No. 433, the Most Worshipful Grand
Master of the Grand Lodge of Kansas, Richard E. Bird,
attended the ceremonies with other officers of the Grand
Lodge or their representatives. Bestor G. Brown Lodge No.
433 was "constituted and formed into a Regular Lodge of
Free and Accepted Masons, with power to meet as a regular
lodge, constituted in conformity to the rites of our order and
the charges of our Ancient and Honorable Fraternity".
Most Worshipful Grand Master Richard
E. Bird then
installed the following officers:
W.M. Bro. Edgar W. Ingram
S. W. Bro. Leon C. Amend
J. W. Bro. George C. Tredick
Treas. Bro. Cameron J. Hemphill
Sec. Bro. John M. Naramore
S. D. Bro, James A. Glover
J. D. Bro. Clyde S. Shelley
S. S. Bro. William J. Baurle
J. S. Bro. Elmer C. Beezley
Tyler Bro, Homer L. Piper
After the
installation of the above officers, the
Grand Lodge
gave the Grand Honors and retired from the meeting. Four
petitions for the Mysteries and two for Membership were
received and referred and the lodge closed in form on the Third
Degree as Bestor
G. Brown Lodge No. 433.
The growth and ultimate
success of our lodge was practically
assured from the time it was formed. Many well-wishers and
supporters belonging to other lodges, and indeed the other
Masonic bodies themselves aided greatly in helping the venture
in its formative and early stages. The greater part of the
equipment for furnishing the lodge hall, was contributed by
individuals and organizations in the true Masonic spirit of
aiding and supporting any project for the good of the
Brotherhood. Among the paraphernalia given our "baby lodge"
were the aprons for officers and
members, the jewels and their
hangers, rods and stands, candidate garments, the gavels, a
United States flag with staff and stand, a
Tyler’s sword, cable
tows, hoodwinks and canvas, a middle chamber set, an altar,
three Holy Bibles, officer's
pedestals, a set of working tools, an
organ and a stool, a letter "G", a roll top desk and chair, a Low
Twelve Clock, and a sprig of Acacia and stand. To have had to
purchase these items would have been a great burden on the
members of any newly formed lodge. Financial aid in the form
of a two thousand dollar loan was made by one of the
Wichita
lodges, which sum was repaid with interest when our finances
permitted. We should all be deeply appreciative of the warm
reception and assistance given to Bestor G. Brown Lodge by
those in a position to help make its future a success.
Our lodge is named in memory
of Bestor G. Brown and it might
be well to include here a brief outline of his life and work, for
we live in a time, each busy with the work of today, and are apt
to forget or overlook the results, however great, by those who
have gone before us.