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HENRY ENDICOTT 1824-1913

Senior Grand Warden, 1873
Grand Master, 1887-1889

TERM

1887 1888 1889

MEMORIAL

From Proceedings, Page 1913-281:

M.W. HENRY ENDICOTT, who for two years past had been the senior permanent member of the Grand Lodge and its senior surviving Past Grand Master, died at his home in Cambridge Nov. 8, 1913. He was born in Canton, Nov. 14, 1824, and thus in less than a week would have reached the age of eighty-nine years. He belonged to that branch of the Endicott family which originally settled in Wells, Me., but had been domiciled in Canton for more than a hundred and fifty years. One of his brothers, Charles Endicott, was State Treasurer of Massachusetts for the five years from 1876 to 1881, having previously been State Auditor from 1870 to 1876, and another brother, Augustus B. Endicott, was for thirteen years sheriff of Norfolk County.

Henry Endicott never aspired to political preferment. He was educated in the public schools of Canton, and was married at Fitchburg in 1851 to Abigail Hastings Browning of Petersham. Soon after his marriage he established himself as a manufacturer of engines and boilers in Boston, and removed his works to Cambridge in 1858, from which time, while refusing public office, he became a prominent factor in the business and financial life of that city, although he retired from manufacturing in 1874. He held office in the Harvard Trust Company and the Cambridge Gas Light Company and was president of the Cambridgeport Savings Bank. In all these and other financial associations he was known and revered for his sterling integrity and business capacity, while his genial temperament made him the friend of those with whom he had dealings and the kindness he showed to others reacted in respect and. affection for him. No truer word Was ever spoken than by the paper which chronicled his death when it named him the grand old man of Cambridge and everybody's friend. Especially appropriate is this description as it relates to his connection of more than fifty years with the Masonic institution. He received the Degrees of Masonry in Amicable Lodge in 1860, and became a member of that Lodge in 1861. In 1864, 1865, and 1866 he was its Worshipful Master. In 1867 he was Master of Mizpah Lodge under Dispensation, retaining the position for two years after the Lodge received its Charter. Our law did not then allow dual membership, but Amicable Lodge in 1868 made him an Honorary Member.

In 1872 he was elected Senior Grand Warden for 1873, after having been for two years District Deputy Grand Master of the Fourth Masonic District and a member of the Board of Directors from the beginning of 1871. The latter office he held until his election as Grand Master, and upon the close of his term of office he was immediately returned to the Board and continued upon it until the end of the year 1902, making his service upon the Board continuous for a period of thirty-three years.

In December, 1886, he was elected Grand Master by a unanimous vote. His three years' term as Grand Master was a period of Masonic activity. He constituted Converse Lodge of Malden, Winthrop Lodge of Winthrop, Golden Rule Lodge of Wakefield, and Thomas Talbot Lodge of Billerica. He laid the corner'stone of the Town Halls at Southbridge and Winchester, of the United States Post Office at Springfield, of the City Hall in his own City of Cambridge, and of the extension o{ the. State House on Beacon Hill. He dedicated Masonic halls at Malden, Georgetown, Yarmouth, and Somerville, and the monument in honor of our first Grand Master, Henry Price at Townsend, and the Pilgrim Monument at Plymouth. At the latter place the rain descended and a flood came; and his exposure to the elements was such that he was obliged to delegate the laying of the corner-stone of the Courthouse at Fall River, a week later, to M.W. Brother Nickerson. At each of the ceremonials in which he participated he delivered an address and these addresses, terse and vigorous, differing each from the other, are stamped with the originality of the man who prepared them and bear the impress as well of scholarly taste and elegance of diction. His administration was a successful one, not alone in its immediate results but in its effect upon the future of the Grand Lodge.

His Masonic record was in other tespects long and interesting. He was exalted in Saint Paul's Chapter April 1, 1861, was its Scribe in 1863, its King in 1864, and was at the head of the Chapter in 1865 and 1866. He was High Priest of Cambridge Chapter while it was under dispensation in 1864 and was elected Grand King of the Grand Chapter Sept. 11, 1866. He received the degrees in Boston Council of Royal and Select Masters in 1868, and became a Life Member but never accepted office. He was Knighted in Boston Commandery in 1861. After holding minor positions he was its Captain-General in 1869, its Generalissimo in 1870 and 1871, and Commander in 1872 and 1873, immediately preceding Samuel C. Lawrence in that office, and he was for many years the Senior past Commander. In the Scottish Rite he received the degrees in 1864, and was crowned as Sovereign Grand Inspector-General ten years later.

Brother Endieott was a sufferer from rheumatism during the last years of his life, which prevented his participation in our meetings. His last attendance upon the Grand Lodge was in June, 1906, but in the following year he accompanied the Grand Master at the funeral of Rev. Bro. Charles A. Skinner, our Grand Chaplain, and he was a spectator at the laying of the corner-stone of the Masonic Temple in Cambridge in 1910, but did not leave his carriage. He was at this time unable to attend Divine worship, but was deeply interested, in the First Parish Chureh of Cambridge. A member of his family writes: "As a young man, he was influenced by Theodore Parker, and I think his feeling for him never changed. I believe he could repeat by heart the whole of Parker's famous sermon on immortality, and the worn copy of it (preached in 1846), is on his desk still. He had no use for arbitrary dogma or creed, but he was essentially reverent by nature and conviction, and although he never had much to say on religious matters, "he believed greatly in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man."

His movements for several years being circumscribed by his inability to leave his chair, he was comforted and cheered by the companionship of the wife with whom he passed more than sixty-two years of wedded life, and the attendance of his daughter, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He delighted in the visits of those with whom he had been associated and all who came to pay their tribute of friendship or respect were welcome. All men delighted to do him honor.

At the wish of his family his funeral services were held at his own house and were simple in character, but no more representative body of friends, business associates, and Brethren of the mystic tie ever assembled than gathered around the casket of Henry Endicott. Upon his grave we have left the wreath of ivy, for his memory will ever be green, but that wreath has borne upon the one side the ear of wheat, the emblem of a life rounded out to completeness, and upon the other the spray of acacia, by which, our emblem of immortality, we can best express our hope and belief that beyond the gate of suffering and death we may be greeted by him again.

Respectfully submitted,
John Albert Blake,
John Hamilton,
George H. Payne,
Committee.

SPEECHES

AS JUNIOR PAST GRAND MASTER, DECEMBER 1889

From Proceedings, Page 1889-250, at the Feast of St. John:

THE GRAND MASTER. — I have been much indebted to my illustrious predecessor for advice in regard to the duties and responsibilities of the office of Grand Master, and he has given only one piece of advice which I am unable to concur in, — he advised me not to call on him to say anything this evening. I cannot follow that advice, and I know you would not forgive me if I did. Brethren, the health and prosperity of R.W. Henry Endicott, Junior Past Grand Master.

MOST WORSHIPFUL GRAND MASTER, — I thank you for the kind manner in which you have introduced me, and I thank you also, Brethren, for your friendly reception. I think I have talked so much for the last three years that I may be permitted to remain rather silent for a time, and listen to others. I do not intend to underestimate the privileges of the last three years, however, either in speaking or anything else, for they were very pleasant ones. My labors have been neither difficult nor perplexing, compared with those of some of my predecessors.

I think I may say that I have tried to do my best and have given both time and thought to the duties of the office I have held. It has been very pleasant to visit the Lodges with the Grand Officers, for our Brethren all over the State have been so uniformly courteous and cordial in their reception, of us, that each visitation proved an occasion not to be forgotten. It has been a welcome duty, too, to preside at these annual Feasts and to call up one Brother after another to delight you with his wit or instruct you with his wisdom. At the same time, Brethren, I cannot leave this office with regret, when I see it pass into the keeping of one so fully competent to maintain its traditions as our Most Worshipful Bro. Wells.

I look forward to the next three years, (I trust I may say three years), with perfect confidence in the man we have chosen to guide us through them. I know that he will receive the same cordial support and brotherly good-will that I have experienced and that have filled the duties of the office with inspiration.

Brethren, I congratulate him for the honor you have conferred on him; and in the same breath I congratulate you on having secured a man so well fitted to hold this position, and one under whose leadership we shall go on towards a future of ever-increasing honor and usefulness.

FEAST OF ST. JOHN, DECEMBER 1893

From Proceedings, Page 1893-204; remarks on the late Grand Master Briggs, who died in office the previous summer:

MOST WORSHIPFUL: I thank you very sincerely for the kind preface you have given to the few words that I may say this evening. After the vacation from speechmaking which I have enjoyed for the past few years, no one will expect me to say much, for you know how soon one gets out, of practice in that sort of thing. I am glad to stand here once more, however, and express my sense of the real privilege and pleasure that it is to meet you here once a year in this way. We realize that privilege, especially when we allow our thoughts to slip back to other years, and recall how these annual meetings have been golden mile-stones in our lives.

At no other time do the faces of those who have been accustomed to meet with us, but who have left us for the unknown world beyond, appear before us so vividly as here, where we have listened to their voices and felt our hearts warm to them in friendship. It is a privilege to say a few words in memory of him who, one year ago to-day, was installed as Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts. He has gone from us, apparently in the full vigor of manhood touched by none of the weaknesses that usually accompany advancing years, but able to enjoy the work, the friendships, and the pleasures of a rich, full life. It is given to, few men to see their life's efforts crowned with a fuller measure of success than was the case with our friend and Brother.

The business career of no man in the city of Boston was ever more sincere in its aims, more generous and just in its methods, more honorable in its standards, more fortunate in its reputation. We, who have known him closely for so many years, and who have enjoyed his kind hospitality and been delighted by his own unfailing cheerfulness, know that his place among us can never be filled.

To-night we greet as our Grand Master one upon whom the mantle of authority sits well. We gladly hail him as worthy of the high honor to which his Brethren have elected him. Let us bring to him our congratulations, and assure him of our hearty and loyal support.

CHARTERS GRANTED

• 12/14/1887 Converse, Malden
• 03/14/1888 Winthrop, Winthrop
• 12/12/1888 Golden Rule, Wakefield
• 12/11/1889 Thomas Talbot, Billerica.

RULINGS

None.

Grand Masters