Ted Offerel Boswell

Ted O. Boswell was born at Morgan, Bosque County, Texas, on July 5, 1901, the son of Lou Bell and Octavia Reid Boswell. After attending public schools in Bosque and Hill Counties, he moved with his family to Houston in 1919 and finished high school there. He went to work for the railroad in 1923 and built a long career as a clerk with the Southern Pacific. From 1923 to 1925 he served in the National Guard as a corporal in the Houston Light Guard, Company G, 143rd Infantry. He married Irene McCullen on September 9, 1927, and was a member of Grace Methodist Church.

He became an Entered Apprentice in Gray Lodge on November 26, 1945, a Fellowcraft on January 9, 1946, and a Master Mason on February 18, 1946. He was Chaplain in 1948–1949, served in turn up the line, and was installed as the 84th Master in 1955 by Past Master Bryan Funderburke, Sr., assisted by Past Master Wm. P. Wantzloeben, with songs and novelties by the Arabia Temple Shrine Chanters.

He took office at a turning point. The annual return for 1955 showed 1,480 members, the largest in Gray Lodge’s first hundred years, but the net gain was only three, and thoughtful members could see the trend: Houstonians were moving to the suburbs, where new lodges were flourishing while downtown lodges struggled to hold their own. One of Worshipful Master Boswell’s first acts was to appoint himself, Past Grand Master John H. Crooker and Past Masters C. Howard Phifer, A. C. Finn, Jr., M. C. Davis and Roy S. Hall as a permanent committee to find a site for a future home for Gray Lodge. In May 1956 the Building Committee was authorized to draw on the Building Reserve Account to buy land.

Fifty-Year Awards went to H. L. Krehl of Hackensack, New Jersey, Ernest R. Gammon, Alfred C. Finn, Sr., Wm. J. Walden, S. F. Dixon and S. R. Houston, and the lodge approved petitions to form Mount Houston Lodge and North Houston Morning Lodge. The following year Past Master Boswell spoke in favor of the land purchase that gave the lodge its new site.

Brother Boswell became a Royal Arch Mason in Washington Chapter No. 2 on July 16, 1947, and a member of Houston Council No. 1, Royal and Select Masters. His brother, James L. Boswell, was a Past High Priest of Washington Chapter No. 2.