Robert M. Elgin
Pictured are
Martha Peterson (Left), project coordinator for Glenwood Cemetry,
C. Louis Hopkins (Center), the illustrious centennial grand master
of the Grand Council, and Richard Ambrus (Right), president of Glenwood
Cemetery.
On Sunday April 22, 2007, Ancient York Masons and members of the
Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of Texas gathered at Glenwood
Cemetery in Houston Texas to honor Robert Morriss Elgin (1825 to
1913), with a special ceremony and footstone as part of their Centennial
Year celebration.
The Grand Council had existed in Texas from 1856 to 1864, when it
demised. Robert M. Elgin was their last Puissant Grand Master in
1864. In 1907 he was still alive and active in Freemasonry and helped
to rehabilitate the Grand Council, and became their first Illustrious
Grand Master. Elgin was a member of the Austin, Texas York Rite
bodies.
The Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters is part of the York
Rite of Freemasonry, which is made up of four distinct bodies; the
Grand Lodge of Texas, the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Texs, the
Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of Texas and the Grand
Commandery of Knights Templar of Texas. Elgin served two other Grand
Masonic bodies as the chief presiding officer The Grand Lodge of
Texas in 1865 and the Grand Commandery in 1866.
Elgin, additionally served in the Mexican War under General Taylor
in Company F of the Brenham Militia,the Texas General Land Office
as Chief Clerk, and later as the Land Commissioner for the Houston
and Central Texas Railway. The Town of Elgin was renamed in his
honor from Glasscock. Later in life Elgin would become a prominent
businessman in Houston, Texas as one of the owners of the Dealy-Aden
and Elgin Printing Company.
Cliff Cameron, D. D., KYCH
Grand Historian and Chairman,
History and Preservation Committee 2007
Grand Council of Royal & Select Masters of Texas
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