Past Masters
Albert Pike Lodge No. 303
1910’s
Alva L McDaniel
1919
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Hugh W Gill
1918
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Benjamin F Dunkin
1917
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Henry G Seelye
1916
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Waverly S Piper
1915
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Henry Wallenstein
1914
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James A Clark
1913
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Bret W Jaquith
1912
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Albert D Taylor
1911
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Ralph F Martin
1910
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Alva L McDaniel
Past Master, Albert Pike Masonic Lodge
Brother McDaniel worked for the Comley Lumber Co. and was later a partner with Kenneth Kier in Kier and McDaniel Sporting Goods. The lodge celebrated its 25th anniversary during his year.
Hugh W Gill
Past Master, Albert Pike Masonic Lodge
Brother Gill was a funeral director at the Gill Mortuary, which he joined as a partner with his father, Isaac W. Gill. His year brought another heavy load of degree work, and his officers wore dress suits for degree work. He gave the lodge the gold trowel presented to Third Degree candidates. Hugh W. Gill III (1979) and Hugh W. Gill IV (2009) also served as Masters of Albert Pike Lodge.
Benjamin F Dunkin
Past Master, Albert Pike Masonic Lodge
Brother Dunkin, a former principal of Wichita High School, presided over more degree work than any Master before him. The original Kansas Masonic Home burned early in his year, on the bitterly cold night of December 22, 1916. Five people died, but all the children were rescued, and several Albert Pike men were at the center of the response. The cornerstone of the new Home was laid on November 19, 1917.
He was elected the lodge’s Secretary in 1918 and was still serving in 1944. The lodge celebrated his 80th birthday in 1943.
Henry G Seelye
Past Master, Albert Pike Masonic Lodge
Brother Seelye, a dentist known as “Doc,” presided at the start of the lodge’s remarkable growth during World War I. He gave the lodge a Masonic patent that has been signed by every Master since.
Waverly S Piper
Past Master, Albert Pike Masonic Lodge
Brother Piper was in the sheet metal business. He was remembered as wholly reliable and steady, and the lodge reached 937 members in his year.
Henry Wallenstein
Past Master, Albert Pike Masonic Lodge
Brother Wallenstein, one of the lodge’s pioneers and an original petitioner, was the last of the petitioners to serve as Master. Born in Cincinnati, he came to Wichita at 27 and, with fellow petitioner Charles G. Cohn, ran the Wallenstein & Cohn Dry Goods Co., the Boston Store, opening its new building in 1907.
He was a 33rd-degree Mason and Grand Cross in the Scottish Rite, served as the Wichita Scottish Rite’s Director of the Work for about ten years, and was known for staging the degrees as drama. On the night of the 1916 Masonic Home fire he was among the Masons running the emergency headquarters in the Home’s chapel.
James A Clark
Past Master, Albert Pike Masonic Lodge
Brother Clark served as County Clerk. He was noted for the fineness of his floor work.
Bret W Jaquith
Past Master, Albert Pike Masonic Lodge
During Brother Jaquith’s year, Secretary A. J. Applegate was removed by the Grand Master and John H. Upton finished the term. Brother Jaquith died in 1916, the first of the lodge’s Past Masters to pass away.
Albert D Taylor
Past Master, Albert Pike Masonic Lodge
Brother Taylor was principal of Franklin School and affiliated with Albert Pike from Mulvane Lodge No. 201. The lodge long told the story of how, visiting Wichita years later, he had to be vouched for in his own lodge.
Ralph F Martin
Past Master, Albert Pike Masonic Lodge
Brother Martin owned Martin’s Art Store on North Main. A fine ritualist, he provided the individual frames for the Past Masters’ portraits in the lodge parlor. The lodge reached 747 members by the end of his year.