John S. Stewart

John S. Stewart was the son of Charles Stewart, a charter member of Gray Lodge, its fifth Master, and Grand Master of Masons in Texas. He received his degrees in Gray Lodge in 1889: the Entered Apprentice on June 11, the Fellowcraft on September 25, and the Master Mason degree on November 12.

He climbed every step of the officer line, serving as Senior Steward, Junior Deacon, Senior Deacon, Junior Warden and Senior Warden before he was installed as Master in 1897. He was the first son of a Past Master of Gray Lodge to sit in the same chair as his father.

His year was one of lean times and hard decisions. In January 1898 the lodge finally settled its long rent dispute with the Grand Lodge, agreeing to pay $5 a month for the room it had occupied rent-free for a quarter century. Seeing that Gray was only a tenant and could lose its home whenever the Temple was sold, Past Master John G. Tod offered a resolution creating the lodge’s first Building Committee and a Building Fund of $100, to be fed by one-fourth of all money the lodge received. That modest fund grew into the money Gray later invested in the Holland-Gray Temple, its first share in a building of its own. The same year charter member A. A. Brinsmade rejoined the lodge, and when Brother R. D. Smith of Brazos Union Lodge No. 129 died in Houston and his own lodge declined to pay for his burial, Gray Lodge laid him to rest at its own expense.

He died on October 19, 1922, and was buried with Masonic honors by Gray Lodge in Glenwood Cemetery. The lodge’s minutes paid him this tribute:

“Illustrious son of an illustrious father . . . Master in 1897–98, in those days when our members were few and difficulties almost insuperable. Gray Lodge is heavily indebted to our Brother for its present happy and prosperous condition . . . Always mindful of the cry of the widow and orphan . . . His was a sunny, happy disposition, always seeing the silver lining of every cloud.”