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Revision as of 19:19, 8 July 2012

EDWIN BRADFORD HOLMES 1853-1924

EdwinHolmes1925.jpg

Deputy Grand Master, 1894
Grand Master, 1895-1896.


TERM

1895 1896

MEMORIAL

From Proceedings, Page 1924-711, Grand Master's Address:

Brethren: There came news to us today that saddened us all, and at this time I regret to announce the passing of Most Worshipful Edwin B. Holmes, a Past Grand Master of Massachusetts, one who through the years has given unstintingly of his time and of his thought to the welfare of the Craft. He was a member of our Board of Directors, he was chairman of the House Committee, he was treasurer of the Education and Charity funds. In all these positions he showed himself a man of skill and a man of devotion. We regret his passing more than we can tell, and yet who is there of us that would question the infinite kindness, or call it anything but infinite kindness, when it bids one come from beneath the burden of mortality, come from within the embrace of weakness into the place and life of light and strength. We bid him godspeed.

From Proceedings, Page 1925-57:

Since the last Communication of the Grand Lodge we have been called to part with one of the most distinguished of our Permanent Members. M. W. Bro. Edwin B. Holmes, senior Past Grand Master, died very suddenly on Sunday, the 28th of December. M.W. Bro. Holmes had not been in his usual health for more than a year, but he attended to business up to the very last, and his condition was not such as to cause any immediate anxiety.

His unexpected passing brought a great shock to his many friends and associates in business and in Masonic circles. M.W. Bro. Holmes was Grand Master in 1895 and 1896. From that time on his services to the Grand Lodge were faithful and distinguished. He was one of the hard workers upon whom we relied for important services which were of the utmost value to the Fraternity, but by their nature were little known or understood except by those with whom he was most closely associated. Immediately upon his retirement from the Grand Mastership he became a member of the Board of Directors where he served for many years, and up to the time of his death was Chairman of the House Committee; the sub-committee which has charge of the care and administration of this Temple. He was also for many years the Treasurer of the Masonic Education and Charity Trust. When one realizes that this Board of Trustees administers some fifty-five separate funds running all the way from nearly a half million of dollars down to one hundred dollars, and that each of these funds is kept and administered entirely separately from the others, each having its own individual investments, one realizes somewhat the importance and complexity of the task. The Grand Lodge suffers the ross of one of its most efficient and devoted officials. The Brethren mourn the loss of a wise counselor and faithful friend.

From Proceedings, Page 1925-176:

Edwin Bradford Holmes, senior Past Grand Master of this Most Worshipful Grand Lodge, died at his home, 33 Winthrop Road, Brookline, on Sunday, December 28, 1924.

He was born in North Abington, Mass., on the 3d of January, 1853. He traced his ancestry back to Thomas Holmes, of CoIchester, England, in the first part of the sixteenth century, whose son John Holmes migrated to this country and is first mentioned in the records of the Plymouth Colony in 1632 as John Holmes, Gent. His great-grandfather, John Holmes, served in the army for eight years during the Revolutionary period and his grandfather served in the War of 1812. His mother's maiden name was Mary Elizabeth Ford.

Brother Holmes was educated in the public schools of Abington and at Easton's Commercial CoIIege in Boston. In 1870 he entered the employ of Coverly, Rogers & Co., wholesale dealers in boots and shoes, as a clerk in the office. In 1872, after the great Boston fire, he was employed by Bachelder & Lincoln, shoe dealers in Dock Square, as clerk in the wholesale department, and on January 1, 1878, became a partner in the firm. He withdrew therefrom on December 31, 1880, and on January 1, 1881, in connection with Horace B. Parker and Edward A. Perkins formed the firm of Parker, Holmes & Co., wholesale boot and shoe dealers, at 141 Federal Street. On December 31, 1888, Mr. Parker retired from the firm and on January 1, 1904, the business was moved to 600 Atlantic Avenue and Mr. Charles A. Perkins and Mr. Edward W. Perkins were admitted as partners. On January 1, 1910, Brother Holmes' son, Edwin P., was admitted as a partner and in 1913 the other interests were purchased and father and son continued. the business thereafter.

Brother Holmes was the first President of the Shoe Wholesalers Association of New England and also the first President of the Shoe Wholesalers Association of the United States, and in addition to his special business he was for years Vice-President and Director of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company and a Director of the Boylston National Bank, in both of which positions he was widely recognized for his power and personality. Mr. Holmes had traveled extensively both in this country and in Europe. He was an enthusiastic hunter of big game, having tracked them in the mountains of Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and Alaska.

He was a member of the following societies: Algonquin, Exchange, Brae Burn, and Boston Yacht Clubs, the Beacon Society, and the United States Power Boat Squadron.

He was married at North Abington, Mass., January 12, 1880, to Miss Sarah Frances Pratt, daughter of Isaac Reed Pratt and Sarah Wiliiams Ford, and three children were the fruit of this union, Mary Frances, Edwin Pratt, and Francis Bradford.

Brother Holmes' Masonic record was as follows: He received the degrees in Revere Lodge, Boston, in 1875; was elected to membership in that Lodge May 4 of that year; was its Worshipful Master in 1886, and was Treasurer from 1888 to 1894 inclusive. He was exalted in St. Andrew's Royal Arch Chapter January 3, 1877, and was elected to membership the 7th of February of that year. He received the degrees in Boston Council of Royal and Select Masters and became a member November 22, 1906. He was Knighted in DeMoIay Commandery February 28, 1877, and elected to membership March 28 following; was Eminent Commancler in 1897 and Trustee of the Commandery Fund from 1888 to 1892 inclusive. He received the fourteenth grade in Boston Lodge of Perfection March 25, 1878, the fifteenth and sixteenth grades in Giies F. Yates Council, Princes of Jerusalem, April 12, 1878, the seventeenth and eighteenth grades in Mount Olivet Chapter of Rose Croix, April 19, 1878, and the nineteenth to thirty-second grades inclusive in Massachusetts Consistory, April 26, 1878. He was crowned as an Honorary Member of the Supreme Council of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, thirty-third degree, at Pittsburgh, September 15, 1896. He received the degree of the Royal Order of Scotland at Boston, September 30, 1912.

Brother Holmes received Honorary Membership in Revere Lodge January 3, 1888, in King Solomon's Lodge September 10, 1895, in the Carbon Lodge No. 2910, England, April 21, 1902, in DeMolay Commandery September 28, 1896, and in St. Bernard Commandery June 12, 1907. He was Deputy Grand Master in 1894 and Most Worshipful Grand Master in 1895 and 1896.

In this Grand Lodge he was first elected a member of the Board of Directors in 1887. In 1906 he became a member of the House Committee on which he served most efficiently up to the time of his death. He was a Trustee of the Masonic Education and Charity Trust, having been first elected on March 10, 1892. He was Treasurer of the Masonic Education and Charity Trust, first elected October 13, 1911. As a member of the Board of Directors, and Chairman of the House Committee, as Trustee of Masonic Education and Charity Trust, and as Treasurer of the Board, Brother Holmes' services ended only when he was called from earth.

In behalf of the Grand Commandery of Massachusetts and Rhode Island he was a member of the Executive Board Triennial Committee of the twenty-sixth Triennial Conclave in 1895 and Chairman of the Committee on Publications. Brother Holmes was a man of marvelous energy, and to whatever cause he espoused he gave of his strength and ability without stint or measure.

His conduct of his extensive business was such as to win the confidence of all with whom he was associated and to establish his well-deserved reputation for integrity. His wide experience equipped him with wisdom in all financial and business affairs and to minute details he gave abundant time and attention. Few men have had the welfare of this Grand Lodge more at heart than he, not only during the term of Grand Mastership, but through the long years that he has served in various capacities. With a weight of responsibilities resting upon him that would have staggered most men his devotion to Masonry was such that nothing that he might do for the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was too great or too small to command his full and conscientious service. His duty as a Director or Trustee he considered a sacred trust and he strove to discharge that trust to the very best of his ability.

He has left a large place vacant in the ranks of those who have been most prominent in the administration of our affairs, and the record of his name among those inscribed upon the tablet that preserves the memory of the men to whose wisdom we owe the erection of this Temple in which we meet, will be supplemented by our personal recollection of our association with him in the promotion of the purposes to which we are dedicated as Masons.

His funeral services were held at his home on December 31, many of the officers and members of the Grand Lodge and delegations from the New England Shoe and Leather Association, the Boston Boot and Shoe Club, and the New England Shoe Wholesalers Association attending. Our Grand Master, Rev. Dudley H. Ferrell, and Rev. Ashley D. Leavitt, pastor of the Harvard Congregational Church, officiated and the burial was at Forest Hills Cemetery.

Our earnest sympathy goes out to the family circle from which he has been parted and we shall think of him as freed from his long struggle with pain and illness and welcomed into the joy and peace of the Celestial Grand Lodge where the Infinite Architect of the Universe presides.

Fraternally,
John Albert Blake,
Dana J. Flanders,
Melvin M. Johnson,
Committee.

NOTES

CHARTERS GRANTED

RULINGS




Grand Masters