Pierre Leon Queyrouze

Pierre Leon Queyrouze was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1855 and graduated from Caron’s School at the age of 16. He came to Texas in 1873 and took a position with the International and Great Northern Railroad. Two years later he joined the clerical staff in the creditor’s department of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad, and he eventually rose to general agent of the entire Atlantic system of the Southern Pacific.

He received his Masonic degrees in Gray Lodge in 1883: the Entered Apprentice on April 2, the Fellowcraft on June 5, and the Master Mason degree on July 16. He was elected Junior Warden in 1884 and Senior Warden in 1885. A few months after becoming Senior Warden he was transferred to New Orleans. When he returned to Houston he was elected Master in 1887.

On September 14, 1887, only months into his year in the East, he was stricken with apoplexy. He recovered in part, and hopes for his full recovery were high, until a second attack on January 16, 1889. He died the next day, January 17, 1889, at just 34 years of age, and was buried with Masonic honors in Glenwood Cemetery.

The minutes of Gray Lodge record how highly his Brethren regarded him:

“His voice was always welcome to our ears, and his hand gave the hearty clasp of a true friend . . . He was true to every obligation, true to mother, true to wife, true to country, and all that made him a Mason . . . Gray Lodge has never had on her roll of members one who appreciated the beauties of Masonry more . . . His great ambition was to test all the problems of life by virtue’s square, and guide his footsteps by the rule of truth.”

He was the first Senior Warden of San Jacinto Lodge of Perfection in 1884 and served as its Venerable Master in 1887. He held only the 14° in 1884, but he evidently received the remaining Scottish Rite degrees while in New Orleans, for the Houston Post refers to him as a 32° Mason. His widow later presented Gray Lodge with a copy of Gould’s History of Freemasonry in his memory.