Page 312 - Cornelius Hedges Story

299 The Cornelius Hedges Story

On the 12th, just one week after the close of Grand Lodge it was
again assembled in special communication to perform the funeral
services over his remains. He is buried at Deer Lodge and a hand-
some monument marks his resting-place. He left no will. His estate
was administered on and search made for any one entitled to inherit
the estate.
After long waiting, it was converted into cash, amounting to several
thousand dollars and declared escheated to the Territory. It passed
to the State Treasury and has been distributed among the school
districts. It would not be far from the fact to say that Bro. Pomeroy
fell a martyr to his zeal for Masonry. He was our fifteenth Grand
Master and the first to die. The business of the session was light and
so was the attendance. For the first time Grand Lodge assumed the
expense of publishing the picture of the Grand Master. Heretofore
each Grand Master had paid for his own picture. Two hundred
dollars was further voted the retiring Grand Master to reimburse him
for his expenses in visiting the Lodges. No one since has undertaken
to visit all the Lodges, so widely are they scattered that it would take
months, and thousands of miles of travel. Brother A. J. Davidson
of Helena was elected Grand Master and Butte selected as the next
place of meeting.
The Nineteenth Annual Communication was held at Butte,
commencing October 3, 1883, and continued two days, Brother A.
J. Davidson, Grand Master, presiding. The affairs of Grand Lodge
during the year were marked by no unusual event.Yellowstone Lodge,
No. 26, at Miles City received its charter, the special investigation
having reported conditions satisfactory. Two other Lodges were
granted dispensations and received charters from Grand Lodge, one
at Twin Bridges, on the stage road between Helena and Virginia City,
named West Gate, No. 27, the other at Stevensville in the Bitter Root
Valley, near Fort Owens, an Indian Agency of very early date, and
where Father Ravalli had a Catholic Church school and dispensary.
It was named Oriental and numbered 28. Membership had increased
to 939, and the treasury balance to $1,158.45. The address of the
Grand Master was brief. He was an active business man and an
old resident, with hosts of friends, always an active and exemplary
Mason, not much given to words in speech or writing. He called
attention to the very unsatisfactory method in vogue of examining
the returns of Lodges. At first transcripts were sent up, then the
original records, with expense and risk of loss. Bro. Davidson urged
district deputies to visit the Lodges and examine them.