Grant A. Schroter
From WesternStarWiki
Grant Alfred Schroeter 1869-1949
Schroeter was born in Shasta January 14, 1869 and died there July 28, 1949. As a boy of sixteen, after finishing the ninth grade in school, he apprenticed himself for three years to Samuel Isaacs and John Hayden to learn the blacksmith's trade. His pay for this period was only $100 a year, but at the end of it, he went to work in a shop at Igo, about ten miles southwest of Shasta, at journeyman's wages. And thereafter until 1898, when he bought William McKeag's merchandising establishment, across the street from the Masonic Temple in Shasta, he worked in various shops in Shasta, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties.
According to his biographer, Raymond A. Jackson, Schroeter was also "a gold miner at heart" and, when not blacksmithing or merchandising, spent much of his time prospecting for the yellow metal. But unlike most gold miners, he never drifted very far from home.
Schroeter was made a Mason in Western Star Lodge early in 1900, and at the regular election of officers the following fall, he was appointed Senior Steward. In 1901, he advanced to the office of Junior Warden; in 1902, he was elected Master of the Lodge. Thereafter, he filled various offices, regularly and pro tem, until 1916, when he was elected secretary for the first of thirty-two consecutive terms.
During his term as Master, Schroeter displayed a certain oratorical ability that improved as the years went by. His deep trembling voice and simple, unaffected eloquence appealed to everyone who knew him and made him much sought after for funeral services. A partial list compiled in 1949 revealed that he had officiated at no less than 55 funerals up to that time-- and they were not all for Masons. His "immortal words"... really made it easier for the bereaved to lay their loved ones to eternal rest.
To the people around Shasta, Schroeter was a "Masonic institution." He loved his Lodge, he loves its traditions, and he loved the men who belonged to it. He was so imbued with its old-time spirit that, about a year before its 100th anniversary, he began to leave his shirt collar unbuttoned and grow his sideburns in emulation of its first Junior Warden, Peter Lassen. His long life had bridged the gay between the old days and the present, and when he died, the brethren of Western Star indeed had cause for sorrow.[1]
Brother of Gunther [2]
References
- ↑ Whitsell, Leon O. (Ed.) (1950). One Hundred Years of Freemasonry in California. San Francisco: Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons of California.
- ↑ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~shastaca/sha1920.html
