A Massachusetts-born harbor master and livery keeper, a fire company foreman, and the man Astoria's Odd Fellows would not let step down.
By February 20, 1866, when James M. Whitcomb was raised a Master Mason in Island City Lodge No. 586 at Hunters Point, he had already been an Odd Fellow for nearly twenty years, having joined that order on April 5, 1846. Within a year he stood seventh on the charter roll of Advance Lodge No. 635. Masonry was never his first fraternity, and the order that came before it had made him a leader in Astoria long before the new lodge existed. He carried that standing with him into Advance, and the same circle of neighbors filled both. (1, 2, 18)
A Bay State Man at the Waterfront
The lodge's records describe him in three phrases: native of Massachusetts, harbor master, proprietor of a livery business. He was forty-three when raised, which points to a birth around 1823. A newspaper in 1896 called him eighty, which points to about 1816. The two figures never reconcile, and both are worth keeping in view. (1, 18)
The harbor master's post has a date. In March 1865 the New York Daily Herald listed the governor's appointments to the Senate, and among the harbor masters was James M. Whitcomb, named to succeed an earlier holder. The notice does not say which port he served, but it fits the lodge's entry. The two trades have something in common, since a harbor master decides where vessels lie in crowded water and a livery keeper rents out horses and carriages. An 1881 newspaper, telling a sad story about a young Astoria household, mentions in passing that the family hired a James Whitcomb to move their furniture. The paper gives no middle initial, but it is the sort of job a livery keeper took on. (8, 10)
Seven Weeks Before Risdale
Island City Lodge had been chartered in Long Island City in 1865 and met at Hunters Point. It would help charter Advance, so Whitcomb was raised in what amounted to the parent lodge. Forty-eight days after his raising, an English-born blacksmith named Charles Risdale was raised in the same lodge. On Advance's charter roll as Munsell prints it, Whitcomb is seventh, Risdale ninth, and Cornelius R. Morris, another blacksmith, eleventh. (1, 2, 4, 5)
Island City later merged with Mizpah Lodge of Elmhurst, and in the 1990s the combined lodge merged with Advance. They survive as Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586, carrying the number under which Whitcomb was raised. (4)
Fifty Years in the Order
He was initiated into the Odd Fellows on April 5, 1846, at Pacific Lodge in Flushing. Munsell records that Astoria Lodge No. 155 was instituted on October 10, 1850, and the Times Union later said it was organized mainly through Whitcomb's efforts. Munsell's list of noble grands before 1863 includes his name next to Morris's. By 1896 the paper called him the leading figure of the Astoria lodge for more than twenty years. He had been re-elected to its most important offices several times, and the members still insisted that he preside, though the paper put his age at eighty. (3, 18)
On April 6, 1896, Pacific Lodge marked his fiftieth anniversary. A large delegation from Astoria came to Flushing, there was music and a generous lunch, and the silver-haired veteran gave a brief account of his half century in the order. The paper noted that he and George Pople of Flushing were the two oldest Odd Fellows in Queens County. The New York Times had announced the coming celebration the day before, under its Long Island items. (17, 18)
The Foreman's Speech
His other early association was the Astoria fire service. In July 1860, Astoria Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 adopted resolutions on the death of Thomas Flood, whom it called a prompt and efficient associate. The engine house and apparatus were draped in black, and members wore mourning badges. The resolutions ran in the New York Times of August 4 over Whitcomb's name. The transcription gives his title as “Fireman,” which may be a misreading of “Foreman.” (6)
A month later, in September, the Brooklyn Daily Times reported that the company presented a silver trumpet to the new Chief of the Astoria Fire Department, Cornelius R. Morris. Foreman J. M. Whitcomb spoke for the company and pledged its obedience. Both the foreman who made that pledge and the chief who received it appear among the Odd Fellows' noble grands, and both are on Advance's charter roll. (2, 3, 7)
Treasurer of the New Lodge
Whitcomb's service to Advance did not end with the charter. In December 1869, the Brooklyn Eagle reported his election as Treasurer, alongside Charles Cranfield as Senior Warden and Martin Willis as Secretary. Three founders were helping conduct the lodge's affairs just a few years after it began. (2, 20)
The Eagle added that, after the officers were installed, the company sat down to a bountiful repast at Wm. Wilson's Hotel. It was another gathering of men whose connections reached beyond the lodge room, and Whitcomb was there not only as a founder but as an officer entrusted with the lodge's funds. (20)
Politics, Plainly Declared
The Republican side of Queens politics shows him in two other years. In September 1871 the New-York Tribune named James Whitcomb of Astoria among the Queens delegates chosen for the state convention at Syracuse. In October 1885 the Queens County Republican Convention at Jamaica nominated James M. Whitcomb for County Superintendent of the Poor. These sources do not say how the vote went. They do show that his standing in Astoria extended past its fraternal rooms. (9, 11)
Uncle Jim at the Board of Health
His most widely reported years came late. In early 1891, Whitcomb, a Fourth Ward school trustee, was in a dispute with the Long Island City Board of Education. The Tribune reported that he was doing the fighting for the trustees. He visited the school while carpenters were at work, saw a policeman near the entrance, and left without trying to stop them. Parents were indignant at the trustees' action. (12)
On the night of June 30, 1891, a Citizens' Committee, including Whitcomb, went to a Board of Health meeting over the condemnation of a Fourth Ward annex school building. The meeting ended in a scuffle between Mayor Patrick J. Gleason and committee member Alfred Nelson. The next day Whitcomb and others were arrested for assault and removing public documents. The papers told the story from both sides. The mayor said Whitcomb came at him with a big shillelagh. Whitcomb first denied having a cane, then admitted he had one but said he left it in the front room. He told the court he was a friend of the mayor, which got a laugh, and an affidavit he had signed described their relations as strained. (13, 14, 15)
By March 1892, when the mayor himself was tried on Nelson's complaint, the Herald was calling the witness “Uncle Jim.” He testified that he felt a jar, then a thud, and saw Nelson in the mayor's grasp. Pressed by the mayor's counsel on whether he hoped to see the mayor removed from office, he said that he did. The sources here do not give a verdict for Whitcomb. They do show that Samuel H. Anschell, the committee chairman and a deputy sheriff, was convicted in police court and had that decision set aside on appeal. (14, 15, 16)
A Name on Every Roll
A harbor master, a livery keeper, a fire company foreman, a school trustee, a political delegate, a founder and Treasurer of a Masonic lodge, and for fifty years an Odd Fellow. His place in Advance was more than a name on the charter. The election report puts him at work in the new lodge, serving alongside men he had known through Astoria's other institutions. (1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 12, 18, 20)
The lists kept finding him elsewhere, too. In July 1904 the Brooklyn Eagle printed a roll of old Queens Republican pioneers being honored at a gathering, and James M. Whitcomb was among the names. Advance Lodge's charter roll is one such list. Seventh of twenty-one, he is a reminder that the lodge began among men who already knew one another from the engine house, the Odd Fellows' rooms, and the polls. (2, 19)
Endnotes
Lodge and Organizational Records
- Advance Lodge No. 635, F. & A.M., membership records: James M. Whitcomb, forty-three, native of Massachusetts, harbor master and proprietor of livery business; raised February 20, 1866, Island City Lodge No. 586, Hunters Point. Return to text
- Advance Lodge No. 635, F. & A.M. (Astoria): charter member roll, as printed in Munsell's history of Long Island City, Queens. Dispensation 1866; charter 1867. Return to text
- Astoria Lodge No. 155, I.O.O.F.: institution date and list of noble grands before 1863, as printed in Munsell's history. Return to text
- Lodge lineage: Island City Lodge No. 586, chartered 1865; merger with Mizpah Lodge of Elmhurst (late 1970s); merger with Advance Lodge No. 635 (1990s); present Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586. Return to text
- Companion features: Charles Risdale, Cornelius R. Morris, and Martin Willis of Advance Lodge No. 635. Return to text
Newspapers
- New York Times, August 4, 1860, p. 3: resolutions of Astoria Hook and Ladder Company, on the death of Thomas Flood. Return to text
- Brooklyn Daily Times, September 7, 1860, p. 2: presentation to the Chief of the Astoria Fire Department. Return to text
- New York Daily Herald, March 23, 1865, p. 5: gubernatorial appointments, harbor masters. Return to text
- New-York Tribune, September 20, 1871, p. 5: Queens County convention, Syracuse delegates. Return to text
- Rochester Times-Union, August 17, 1881: reprint of New York World, August 16, regarding an Astoria household. Return to text
- Brooklyn Union, October 13, 1885, p. 1: Queens County Republican nominations. Return to text
- New-York Tribune, February 19, 1891, p. 12: Fourth Ward school dispute. Return to text
- Brooklyn Citizen, July 1, 1891, p. 2: arraignment of committee members. Return to text
- Evening World, July 11, 1891, p. 3: Anschell hearing. Return to text
- Brooklyn Daily Times, July 15, 1891, p. 1: Anschell trial and Whitcomb's testimony. Return to text
- New York Herald, March 26, 1892, p. 5, and March 29, 1892, p. 5: trial of Mayor Gleason. Return to text
- New York Times, April 5, 1896, p. 8: Long Island items. Return to text
- Brooklyn Times Union, April 7, 1896, p. 5: “Half a Century.” Return to text
- Brooklyn Eagle, July 24, 1904, p. 6: Queens Republican pioneers. Return to text
- Brooklyn Eagle, December 28, 1869, p. 3: “Masonic Election,” Advance Lodge No. 635, reporting James M. Whitcomb elected Treasurer, Charles Cranfield Senior Warden, and Martin Willis Secretary; installation followed by a supper at Wm. Wilson's Hotel. Return to text
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