MAGLJPattee
JESSE PEASLEE PATTEE 1804-1863
Junior Grand Warden, 1861
MEMORIAL
From Proceedings, Page VI-460, 1863:
Whereas, It has pleased the Almighty Disposer of events to send the messenger of death again among us, admonishing us, by the removal of young as well as old of our frailty, Avhile not only the aged but the vigorous and useful are taken from our midst, and
Whereas, In the removal by death of our late beloved Bro. Jesse P. Pattee we are called to mourn the removal of one beloved and honored for his devotion to masonic duty.
Therefore, Resolved. That while we grieve that we must for a while be separated from one who with us was so active and zealous, who devoted so much of his time, his thoughts and his means, for the promotion of true masonic culture, we desire to gather from his example a new motive to fidelity and a new incentive to devote, as he did, our best exertions for the promotion of all that is true, manly, generous and brotherly in our masonic relations.
Resolved. That while we deplore his loss, we are comforted in the reflection that as he was while with us faithful over a few things, we believe that he will be admitted to the reward of the faithful and the true.
Resolved. That we deeply sympathize with his family in their bereavement and with the Lodge over which he formerly resided.
Resolved. That a copy of these proceedings be sent to his family and entered on the records, of the Grand Lodge.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
From Arlington Historical Society Blog, 08/27/2009:
"Jesse Peaslee Pattee (1804-1863) was both a Master of Hiram Lodge and its landlord, for Hiram Lodge met in Menotomy Hall, the second story of Mr. Pattee’s own bake shop. A large room, fifteen by forty feet with an oval ceiling, Menotomy Hall was a fitting home for the lodge’s fifty members—especially in winter as the large bakery chimney was inches from the Senior Warden’s chair.
"Wor. Pattee was born August 12, 1804 in Warner, New Hampshire. His grandfather, Asa Pattee, a captain of the militia in the French and Indian War, was a Loyalist, building the first frame house in Warner. On the wrong side of history, but on the right side of financial exchanges, Mr. Pattee became the largest landowner in town. His son, John Pattee, Jesse’s father, was also a successful farmer with huge flocks of livestock and children, (he had sixteen; Jesse was the fourteenth) and a prodigious memory for Bible verses. He relished hosting visiting ministers for scriptural skirmishes, excelled at medical matters and set bones as finely as he wielded a pen.
"Jesse P. Pattee attended Hopkinton Academy in neighboring Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Hopkinton Academy was founded by Dr. Ebenezer Lerned (1762-1831), who coincidentally had earlier in his career, taught in West Cambridge, bequeathing to the town $300 for the establishment of a juvenile library, one of the nation’s first.
"Jesse Pattee taught school himself until moving to West Cambridge in 1824. He learned the bakery business and finally bought Cotting’s bakery in West Cambridge about 1829. Inheriting his father’s fine hand, he also taught penmanship in Cambridge and Brookline.
"He married a local girl, Adeline Hill, who was the granddaughter of Minuteman Solomon Bowman, in 1831, and purchased the lot at the corner of Academy and Massachusetts Avenue, which became the local landmark, Pattee’s Bakery and later Menotomy Hall. The Pattees had three children: William Henry, b. 1833; John Augustus, b. 1836; and Mary Eliza, b. 1843. In a delightful insight into a presumably happy marriage, in the Arlington Historical Society archives are tickets from a visit to Niagara Falls in September, 1850 for Mrs. Adeline and Mr. Jesse P. Pattee.
"He was an ardent and active Mason, businessman, and civic booster, being lead investor in the West Cambridge Street Railway Company. Along with William Whittemore, Jesse Pattee was a founding member of the West Cambridge Universalist Church. He served also as Justice of the Peace, town tax collector, and as a General Court representative in the 1840’s.
"He joined Hiram Lodge, June 6, 1844, serving as Master, 1852-1854. In 1861 he became Jr. Grand Warden of the Grand lodge of Massachusetts. Mr. Pattee was also a member of St. Paul’s Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Boston.
Sources include: AHS archives, Parker, “Town of Arlington,” and William Richard Cutter, “Historic homes and places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs
