Hugh B. Apperson
Biography
per Lodge Archivesb. 20 June 1871, Newtonards, Ireland
m. 1896 (Jean McNiece)
d. 01 Jan 1938, Ridgefield, Wash.
Masonic
Ridgefield (Daylight) Lodge, No. 237, unless otherwise noted.Petition: Siloam Lodge (Westborough, Mass.)
EA: 11 Mar 1895
(Siloam Lodge)
FC: 08 Apr 1895
(Siloam Lodge)
MM: 06 May 1895
(Siloam Lodge)
Offices: Treas. 1921, JW 1922, SW 1923, WM 1924, JD 1925
Other Masonic Affiliations (Scottish Rite, Shriners, etc.) unknown.The Mason
At the age of 23, Hugh B. Apperson was made a mason in 1895 at Siloam Lodge in Westborough, Massachusetts--his membership card lists his occupation as Nurse. A charter member of Ridgefield Lodge, No. 237, Worshipful Bro. Apperson served first as Treasurer in 1921 and Worshipful Master in 1924.
The Man
Hugh Brown Apperson was born June 20th 1871 in Newtonards, Ireland. He married Jean McNeice in 1896 in Ballymoney, Ireland.
In 1893, Hugh came to the United States for the World's Fair in Chicago, Ill., in 1893, and stayed until 1896, when he "returned to Ireland where he was married to Miss Jean McNiece, and shortly following the marriage they returned to the United States to settle in Philadelphia. Later they went to Nome, Alaska, where Mr. Apperson was in the financial department of the Nome Mining Company.
"During his residence in Ireland," his obituary in The Columbian continues, "Mr. Apperson served his law apprenticeship in Belfast, and when the family moved to Ridgefield 26 years ago [circa 1912] he opened law offices here. He was a member of the Washington Bar association, and was a past patron of the Ridgefield Eastern Star and a past master of the Ridgefield Masonic lodge."
On Jan 1st 1938, at the age of 66, Bro. Apperson left this plane for the Celestial Lodge, his body now resting at the Park Hill Cemetery in Vancouver, Wash. He was survived by his widow, Jean Apperson; and three siblings still in Ireland, George, Frank, and Mary.
And
These advertisements for the rental of "six parlour houses off Newtonards Road," or a "splendid residence" on Victoria Avenue, ran for at least one week in The Belfast News-Letter (March 12-16, 1897), shortly after Apperson (aged 25 now) had returned to Ireland from the United States to marry his bride Jean.
Also
That same newspaper recounted the meeting of a Prince Albert Lodge, No. 27, with a Br. Hugh B. Apperson present--however, this was printed on Jan. 24th, 1888, when Hugh would have been only 16 years old, and no information about this Lodge could be found online at the time of this writing.
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