Samuel Robert Henderson

Samuel Robert Henderson was born at Elkton, Giles County, Tennessee, on April 29, 1868, and came to Texas at the age of 18. He made his career with the Southern Pacific lines, where he became general car foreman. He married Lela Highsmith on October 3, 1897.

He received his degrees in St. John’s Lodge No. 53 at Tyler in 1902: the Entered Apprentice on June 17, the Fellowcraft on July 14, and the Master Mason degree on August 9. He was appointed Junior Deacon there in 1903, the same year he moved to Houston. He affiliated with Gray Lodge on April 15, 1908, was elected Junior Warden for 1911–1912, and was installed as the 41st Master in 1912 by Past Master Frank C. Jones, assisted by Past Master J. T. Slaughter.

His year was one of farewells. Past Master James R. Cade died in November 1912 and was buried in Glenwood by Gray Lodge with a Templar escort. On Christmas Day the lodge buried charter member W. D. Cleveland, a leading Houston businessman. On March 16, 1913, Theodore Uglow Lubbock, the last surviving charter member, died, and with him “the last tie with the originators of Gray Lodge was no more.”

The lodge’s charity reached far beyond Houston that year. It sent $150 to the new Home for Aged Masons at Arlington, $25 to Grapeland Lodge No. 473 after fire destroyed its building, $100 for Master Masons in flood-stricken Ohio, $10 toward a temple for Rapid City Lodge No. 25 in South Dakota, and $25 for the widow and children of Brother Pino Suárez, the late vice-president of Mexico. It also answered a request from Hope Lodge No. 481 of Comanche to help find a missing boy. Early in 1913 six long-serving Brethren, including J. Burgheim, C. H. Milby and Past Master J. H. Rothwell, were elected life members.

He was a Past Thrice Illustrious Master of Houston Council No. 1, Royal and Select Masters. In 1955 he received his Fifty-Year Service Award from the Grand Lodge of Texas. His wife died in 1956, and he died on April 25, 1958. He was laid to rest in the Forest Park Mausoleum with Masonic ceremonies.