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Grand Lodge Of Tennessee.
was again overtaken with the sad calamity of another epidemic . Eight years ago Bro . Wheeler entered upon the work of founding , and h : iA sinco regularly published and zealously pushed forward the " idol of his heart , " tho Manomr Jt-iuel . He has made it a welcome visitor in many a brother's lumin , tho official organ of this and several neighbouring Grand Jurisdictions , and a standard authority
on Masonic law and usage in them all . Ho loved this Jewel , and it was his great wish and trust that it might fall into some good and able hands , and be carried on for the good of tho Craft , for many long years to come . Bro . Wheeler married , on 22 nd December 1859 , Miss Jonnio S . Chadwick . By this marriage there were born to him three
childrentwo sons and ono daughter—of whom the two last survive him . In less than two years after hi 3 initiation , so remarkable was his zeal , and so singular his mastery of tho work , he was ., by almost unanimous ohoice , made Worshipful Master of his Lodge , and he filled this offico no less than seven times during his membership of twenty years , also fulfilling tho dnties of the other offices . It was
then that his great powers aa an able and accomplished Mason had full play , and shone forth with such remarkable brilliancy . The conferring of a degree by Bro ; Wheoler was sure to fill his Lodge , room . Nor was he less apt in the thorough mastery of the laws and usages of our Order than in his wonderful power and ability in conferring the degrees . His devotion and sympathy to the sick , the
needy , and the distressed was unwearying . The widow ' s wail and tho orphan ' s cry never reached him in vain . At the session of the Grand Lodge in 1868 , Bro . Wheeler represented South Memphis Lodge No . 118 ; served on tho Committee on Examinations , and was elected Senior Grand Warden . In 1871-2 he served on the Committee on Dispensations and By-laws . At tho latter session the Masonic Jewel was indorsed by the Grand Lodge .
In 1874 ho was elected Grand Master , and delivered an eloquent eulogy on the life of Past Grand Master Bro . Samuol McManus , in a Lodge of Sorrow . In 1875 he presided as Grand Master ; and in 1876 and 1877 he attended as Past Grand Master , and served with singular ability and influence as a member of the Committee on Masonic Jurisprudence . This is our distinguished brother ' s Grand Lodge record ; and it leaves a legacy of incalculable worth to all the brethren of this G . Jurisdiction .
Near the middle of last August , Bro . Wheeler moved his famil y into Memphis , having been living Borne two miles out of the city . On surprise being expressed at this step , in consequence of tho terriblo plague in that city , Bro . Wheeler remarked " that he and his wife considered it their duty , and that they must keep together , and do all the good they could . " Armed with his noble spirit , he throw
himself right in the very face and forefront of danger , heedless of himself , and careful only that a friend , or a brother , or a little child , porhaps , might be saved . The grim and insatiate yellow-fever monster laid his doadly hand upon him , and on 7 th September 1878 , ho 3 'ielded up his brave , heroic , and manful spirit , and returned to the bosom of his Father and his God . Ho sleeps his last sleep in Elmwood , the silont city of our sacred dead .
At tho conclusion of tho address , M . W . James D . Richardson P . G . M . delivered one on "Our Dead " of tho past year , from which wo summarise the following — The Masonic year just closing has in truth been one in which Sorrow has spread her raven wing about ns , and Affliction folded us in her heavy mantle . From the Ohio to the Gulf tho Great Valley
of the Mississippi has recently been overwhelmed with an affliction unparalleled in its history . Pestilence and death hung like a sombre pall over this section of our land for more than seventy days , devastating its cities , villages , and hamlets , bearing away with remorseless touch hundreds , ay , thousands , of unfortunate victims . Families who , when they came together at the hearthstone each day
or night , had hitherto beheld no vacant chair , within the short period of ono week wore annihilated—not ono left to tell the sad story of their fate . In many cases entire households have lost those who earned each day their bread , and widows and orphans have been plunged into peril of death by actual famine . Amid this ordeal , these trying scenes , the situation in many places wa 3 such as to
develop and bring into action the manliest traits of character of the human heart . Friend , terrorised and dismayed at the severity and fatality of the attacks of the relentless ravager , abandoned friend ; parents deserted their childron ; children their parents ; brother fled from the presence of brother ; and even the husband , forgetful of his vows , administered not to the necessities of the dying wife ; yet on
this field of woe , desolation , and death , glorious specimens of manhood stood bravely forth and bado tho devourer stay his slaughter . Prominent among the forces actively employed to turn the tide of battle against the fell destroyer was onr own plague-tried and timehonoured Order . Wherever the conflict raged with greatest severity , and tho lines of the stubborn foe wero strongest and most difficult to
overcome , there were marshalled the veterans of Freemasonry . Inspired by tho sublime principles of tho Order , with no bugle blast nor trumpet sound , no shout of the popnlaee to impel them forward , earnestly they gave battle for the relief of grief-stricken humanity . Under the leadership of the kind-hearted but brave and heroic Wheeler , and the comrades who succeeded him when he fell , this
band of brethren discharged a noble duty ; and while the struggle cost nearly one hundred of them their lives , they fell at tho post of duty and of honour , and so sure as there i 3 truth in divine promise they have gone to a glorious reward . Our anxiety , however , need not be for them . Tho lone mariner far out on tho ocean , seeing ono by one the lights of heaven go out before tho rising storm , does not ask
what has become of those lights , or whether they shall shine again with brighter lustre , but rather he asks , What is to become of me ? aud how am I to guide my bark in safety to the shore after these natural pilots of the sky have disappeared ? By proper calculations , however , prepared by wise and skilful men , when the lights did shine and when no tempest raged , he is enabled , it may be , to grope in
Grand Lodge Of Tennessee.
darkness , but safely , to his desired port . And sneh consolation is ours on occasions like this . If the heroic deeds and bright examples of our lamented dead wore buried with them , how terribly deepened would be our sense of their loss to onr Order ! But it is not so . Such meu do not wholly die . They are survived by tho recollections of their worthy achievements ; they live in their deeds of truo
heroism—though unrecorded—which timo can never disturb , and which will plead for them in eternity ; they live in tho respect and gratitude of mankind ; they Hvo in that peculiar iutltiouco by which the thought of ono single commanding deed , as it runs along tho electric chain of human affairs , inspires others to similar deeds in endless progression , and thus makes its author an active and
powerful agent in tho events of life long after his mortal remains shall have crumbled in tho tomb . Time forbids that I should particularize as to the life , character , and death of eaoh of our brethren who thus fell , and who have gone to suoh rewards . Many there were who , without ostentation , heroically met the enemy by clay and by night , a recital of whose deeds of love
wonld fill volumes . It is not expected that all of these should bo mentioned by name ; it is not necessary . God knows them , and when this is said all his comprehended . If not a sparrow falls without his knowledgo , it cannot be that one of his creatures can lay down his life in the cause of suffering humanity and his devotion not be recognized . I will nob be charged , then , with making invidious
distinctions when I mention only the names of a few of the brave men who went down in tho struggle . And in doing this I feel that an apology is almost duo them , lest my words of praise serve to detract from the true measure of their renown . No words , however carofully prepared and eloquently spoken , can add ono tittle to the esteem in which not only our Order but the
civilised world holds the memory and character of the heroic Butler P . Anderson . Whenever his name is mentioned overy Freemason in the land , and every lover of humanity as well , should stand forth uncovered , and with bowed head reverently thank God that it ever entered into his heart to create suoh a man , and endow him with such godlike faculties .
The ties of blood are strong , and are often recognized when we witness tho spectacle of man endnring privations , and undergoing great personal inconveniences for tho sake of others . Mere pecuniary considerations sometimes incite men to seemingly commondable deeds of love ; but when we soo a man leave home , friends , relatives , those to whom he is bound by the nearest and closest ties of blood , to
fly to the relief of a strange people , and voluntarily lay down his life for them , as did this noblo man when the first wave of the rising tide struck an ill-fated but onco happy and prosperous little city in an adjoining Stato who can contemplate tho scene and not have stirred within him tho deepest and tenderest emotions of tho hoart ? Not for a moment standing to estimate tho fearful consequences of tho sacrifice ho was about to mako , but inspired by a zealous desire to aid his
dying countrymen , he sped to their relief . By day and by night ho softened their pillows , watched by their lonely bedsides and desolate hearth-stones , until he himself fell a victim to tho scourge . This real hero died in accordance with the prevailing spirit of his life—in tho spirit of prayer to God and of lovo to man . Well may a nation that watched his dying bed each day with anxious and trembling hearts , say , in the words which the greatest English poet applies to a legendary hero who had been the stay of his people in peril : —
Nothing is hero for tears ; nothing to wail Or knock the breast ; no weakness , no contempt , Dispraise or blame ; nothing but well and fair , And what may comfort us in a death so noble . His death was shortly followed by that of his bereaved widow , thus leaving in double orphanage the little ones with whom they
had been blossed . But thero was another noble spirit lost to earth to whom I will briefly refer , one who had not yet reached the primo of life . Young , generous , courageous , he freely laid down his life that others might live . Tho ardent , soul-felt prayers of a loving mother and fond sisters could avail nothing as against the unyielding demands of tho
dcspoiler , and thns the kind-hearted Worsham passed away . Edward E . T . Worsham was born on the 2 < lth December 1844 , in Cincinnati , and died on the 15 th day of September 1878 , in the city of Momphis . He was a most devoted zealous lover of Freemasonry , especially of tho Orders of Christian Knighthood . By his knowledgo of tho science and theory of the Order he had attained already its
highest honors . He was a member of Do Soto Lodge 299 , of Memphis . In 1875 he was its Master , having prior to that timo filled all the other stations of the Lodge . He was a member of Penn Chapter 22 R . A . M ., and of Eureka Council No . 6 Koyal and Select Masters , and of Cyrene Commandery No . 3 Knights Templar , all of Memphis . ¦ ¦ ..-, <[ was frequently complimented with official positions in those bodies .
In 1876 he was the E . Commander of Cyrene Commandery No . 3 K . T . In 1874 he was elected E . G . Captain General of the G . 'and Commandery of Tennessee ; the next year was promoted to the station of E . Grand Generalissimo . In 1876 ho was elected V . E . Dept . Grand Commander , and in 1877 , in his own- city , surrounded by his frionds , and with their unanimous approval , was chosen to the highest and
most honourable post in tho gift of the Grand Commandery of tho State . Long and vividly will tho Templars of Tennessee , who were in that hospitable city , remember how the heart of that cstimablo woman , his doting and affectionate mother , was made glad with rejoicing when the information was communioated to her that her boy , as she fondly called him , had been thus honoured . This exalted
position is not often conferred upon one so young ; but for twelve months he faithfully met and discharged the duties of the trust committed to him , and at the expiration of his term , in this city last May , surrendered to the same distinguished body which had thus honoured him , untarnished the jewel he had worn . His death will be keenly felt by the Masons of the whole State , but especially of his own city , where ho was prompt in his attendance upon the meetings
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Grand Lodge Of Tennessee.
was again overtaken with the sad calamity of another epidemic . Eight years ago Bro . Wheeler entered upon the work of founding , and h : iA sinco regularly published and zealously pushed forward the " idol of his heart , " tho Manomr Jt-iuel . He has made it a welcome visitor in many a brother's lumin , tho official organ of this and several neighbouring Grand Jurisdictions , and a standard authority
on Masonic law and usage in them all . Ho loved this Jewel , and it was his great wish and trust that it might fall into some good and able hands , and be carried on for the good of tho Craft , for many long years to come . Bro . Wheeler married , on 22 nd December 1859 , Miss Jonnio S . Chadwick . By this marriage there were born to him three
childrentwo sons and ono daughter—of whom the two last survive him . In less than two years after hi 3 initiation , so remarkable was his zeal , and so singular his mastery of tho work , he was ., by almost unanimous ohoice , made Worshipful Master of his Lodge , and he filled this offico no less than seven times during his membership of twenty years , also fulfilling tho dnties of the other offices . It was
then that his great powers aa an able and accomplished Mason had full play , and shone forth with such remarkable brilliancy . The conferring of a degree by Bro ; Wheoler was sure to fill his Lodge , room . Nor was he less apt in the thorough mastery of the laws and usages of our Order than in his wonderful power and ability in conferring the degrees . His devotion and sympathy to the sick , the
needy , and the distressed was unwearying . The widow ' s wail and tho orphan ' s cry never reached him in vain . At the session of the Grand Lodge in 1868 , Bro . Wheeler represented South Memphis Lodge No . 118 ; served on tho Committee on Examinations , and was elected Senior Grand Warden . In 1871-2 he served on the Committee on Dispensations and By-laws . At tho latter session the Masonic Jewel was indorsed by the Grand Lodge .
In 1874 ho was elected Grand Master , and delivered an eloquent eulogy on the life of Past Grand Master Bro . Samuol McManus , in a Lodge of Sorrow . In 1875 he presided as Grand Master ; and in 1876 and 1877 he attended as Past Grand Master , and served with singular ability and influence as a member of the Committee on Masonic Jurisprudence . This is our distinguished brother ' s Grand Lodge record ; and it leaves a legacy of incalculable worth to all the brethren of this G . Jurisdiction .
Near the middle of last August , Bro . Wheeler moved his famil y into Memphis , having been living Borne two miles out of the city . On surprise being expressed at this step , in consequence of tho terriblo plague in that city , Bro . Wheeler remarked " that he and his wife considered it their duty , and that they must keep together , and do all the good they could . " Armed with his noble spirit , he throw
himself right in the very face and forefront of danger , heedless of himself , and careful only that a friend , or a brother , or a little child , porhaps , might be saved . The grim and insatiate yellow-fever monster laid his doadly hand upon him , and on 7 th September 1878 , ho 3 'ielded up his brave , heroic , and manful spirit , and returned to the bosom of his Father and his God . Ho sleeps his last sleep in Elmwood , the silont city of our sacred dead .
At tho conclusion of tho address , M . W . James D . Richardson P . G . M . delivered one on "Our Dead " of tho past year , from which wo summarise the following — The Masonic year just closing has in truth been one in which Sorrow has spread her raven wing about ns , and Affliction folded us in her heavy mantle . From the Ohio to the Gulf tho Great Valley
of the Mississippi has recently been overwhelmed with an affliction unparalleled in its history . Pestilence and death hung like a sombre pall over this section of our land for more than seventy days , devastating its cities , villages , and hamlets , bearing away with remorseless touch hundreds , ay , thousands , of unfortunate victims . Families who , when they came together at the hearthstone each day
or night , had hitherto beheld no vacant chair , within the short period of ono week wore annihilated—not ono left to tell the sad story of their fate . In many cases entire households have lost those who earned each day their bread , and widows and orphans have been plunged into peril of death by actual famine . Amid this ordeal , these trying scenes , the situation in many places wa 3 such as to
develop and bring into action the manliest traits of character of the human heart . Friend , terrorised and dismayed at the severity and fatality of the attacks of the relentless ravager , abandoned friend ; parents deserted their childron ; children their parents ; brother fled from the presence of brother ; and even the husband , forgetful of his vows , administered not to the necessities of the dying wife ; yet on
this field of woe , desolation , and death , glorious specimens of manhood stood bravely forth and bado tho devourer stay his slaughter . Prominent among the forces actively employed to turn the tide of battle against the fell destroyer was onr own plague-tried and timehonoured Order . Wherever the conflict raged with greatest severity , and tho lines of the stubborn foe wero strongest and most difficult to
overcome , there were marshalled the veterans of Freemasonry . Inspired by tho sublime principles of tho Order , with no bugle blast nor trumpet sound , no shout of the popnlaee to impel them forward , earnestly they gave battle for the relief of grief-stricken humanity . Under the leadership of the kind-hearted but brave and heroic Wheeler , and the comrades who succeeded him when he fell , this
band of brethren discharged a noble duty ; and while the struggle cost nearly one hundred of them their lives , they fell at tho post of duty and of honour , and so sure as there i 3 truth in divine promise they have gone to a glorious reward . Our anxiety , however , need not be for them . Tho lone mariner far out on tho ocean , seeing ono by one the lights of heaven go out before tho rising storm , does not ask
what has become of those lights , or whether they shall shine again with brighter lustre , but rather he asks , What is to become of me ? aud how am I to guide my bark in safety to the shore after these natural pilots of the sky have disappeared ? By proper calculations , however , prepared by wise and skilful men , when the lights did shine and when no tempest raged , he is enabled , it may be , to grope in
Grand Lodge Of Tennessee.
darkness , but safely , to his desired port . And sneh consolation is ours on occasions like this . If the heroic deeds and bright examples of our lamented dead wore buried with them , how terribly deepened would be our sense of their loss to onr Order ! But it is not so . Such meu do not wholly die . They are survived by tho recollections of their worthy achievements ; they live in their deeds of truo
heroism—though unrecorded—which timo can never disturb , and which will plead for them in eternity ; they live in tho respect and gratitude of mankind ; they Hvo in that peculiar iutltiouco by which the thought of ono single commanding deed , as it runs along tho electric chain of human affairs , inspires others to similar deeds in endless progression , and thus makes its author an active and
powerful agent in tho events of life long after his mortal remains shall have crumbled in tho tomb . Time forbids that I should particularize as to the life , character , and death of eaoh of our brethren who thus fell , and who have gone to suoh rewards . Many there were who , without ostentation , heroically met the enemy by clay and by night , a recital of whose deeds of love
wonld fill volumes . It is not expected that all of these should bo mentioned by name ; it is not necessary . God knows them , and when this is said all his comprehended . If not a sparrow falls without his knowledgo , it cannot be that one of his creatures can lay down his life in the cause of suffering humanity and his devotion not be recognized . I will nob be charged , then , with making invidious
distinctions when I mention only the names of a few of the brave men who went down in tho struggle . And in doing this I feel that an apology is almost duo them , lest my words of praise serve to detract from the true measure of their renown . No words , however carofully prepared and eloquently spoken , can add ono tittle to the esteem in which not only our Order but the
civilised world holds the memory and character of the heroic Butler P . Anderson . Whenever his name is mentioned overy Freemason in the land , and every lover of humanity as well , should stand forth uncovered , and with bowed head reverently thank God that it ever entered into his heart to create suoh a man , and endow him with such godlike faculties .
The ties of blood are strong , and are often recognized when we witness tho spectacle of man endnring privations , and undergoing great personal inconveniences for tho sake of others . Mere pecuniary considerations sometimes incite men to seemingly commondable deeds of love ; but when we soo a man leave home , friends , relatives , those to whom he is bound by the nearest and closest ties of blood , to
fly to the relief of a strange people , and voluntarily lay down his life for them , as did this noblo man when the first wave of the rising tide struck an ill-fated but onco happy and prosperous little city in an adjoining Stato who can contemplate tho scene and not have stirred within him tho deepest and tenderest emotions of tho hoart ? Not for a moment standing to estimate tho fearful consequences of tho sacrifice ho was about to mako , but inspired by a zealous desire to aid his
dying countrymen , he sped to their relief . By day and by night ho softened their pillows , watched by their lonely bedsides and desolate hearth-stones , until he himself fell a victim to tho scourge . This real hero died in accordance with the prevailing spirit of his life—in tho spirit of prayer to God and of lovo to man . Well may a nation that watched his dying bed each day with anxious and trembling hearts , say , in the words which the greatest English poet applies to a legendary hero who had been the stay of his people in peril : —
Nothing is hero for tears ; nothing to wail Or knock the breast ; no weakness , no contempt , Dispraise or blame ; nothing but well and fair , And what may comfort us in a death so noble . His death was shortly followed by that of his bereaved widow , thus leaving in double orphanage the little ones with whom they
had been blossed . But thero was another noble spirit lost to earth to whom I will briefly refer , one who had not yet reached the primo of life . Young , generous , courageous , he freely laid down his life that others might live . Tho ardent , soul-felt prayers of a loving mother and fond sisters could avail nothing as against the unyielding demands of tho
dcspoiler , and thns the kind-hearted Worsham passed away . Edward E . T . Worsham was born on the 2 < lth December 1844 , in Cincinnati , and died on the 15 th day of September 1878 , in the city of Momphis . He was a most devoted zealous lover of Freemasonry , especially of tho Orders of Christian Knighthood . By his knowledgo of tho science and theory of the Order he had attained already its
highest honors . He was a member of Do Soto Lodge 299 , of Memphis . In 1875 he was its Master , having prior to that timo filled all the other stations of the Lodge . He was a member of Penn Chapter 22 R . A . M ., and of Eureka Council No . 6 Koyal and Select Masters , and of Cyrene Commandery No . 3 Knights Templar , all of Memphis . ¦ ¦ ..-, <[ was frequently complimented with official positions in those bodies .
In 1876 he was the E . Commander of Cyrene Commandery No . 3 K . T . In 1874 he was elected E . G . Captain General of the G . 'and Commandery of Tennessee ; the next year was promoted to the station of E . Grand Generalissimo . In 1876 ho was elected V . E . Dept . Grand Commander , and in 1877 , in his own- city , surrounded by his frionds , and with their unanimous approval , was chosen to the highest and
most honourable post in tho gift of the Grand Commandery of tho State . Long and vividly will tho Templars of Tennessee , who were in that hospitable city , remember how the heart of that cstimablo woman , his doting and affectionate mother , was made glad with rejoicing when the information was communioated to her that her boy , as she fondly called him , had been thus honoured . This exalted
position is not often conferred upon one so young ; but for twelve months he faithfully met and discharged the duties of the trust committed to him , and at the expiration of his term , in this city last May , surrendered to the same distinguished body which had thus honoured him , untarnished the jewel he had worn . His death will be keenly felt by the Masons of the whole State , but especially of his own city , where ho was prompt in his attendance upon the meetings