Advance Lodge History · Related Biography: John I. Lovell · Related Biography: James M. Whitcomb
A Mason, a School Commissioner, and the Lodge That Bore His Name
A Northumberland-born Long Island City man spent more than six decades in Freemasonry, held public office under the city’s last mayor, and organized a benevolent lodge bearing his name.
When John Allen died at his Flushing home on September 13, 1936, the newspapers counted his years in Freemasonry in the dozens: sixty-six by one paper’s reckoning, sixty-five by another’s. He belonged to Advance Lodge No. 635, F. and A.M., and had received a Grand Lodge service medal the year before.[1][2]
He had also organized a second lodge. It carried his name, belonged to a different order, and appeared regularly in reports of Astoria’s fraternal life in the 1880s and 1890s.
The two organizations should not be confused. Advance was a Masonic lodge. John Allen Lodge No. 330 belonged to the Ancient Order of United Workmen. The surviving sources connect them through particular men, not through a shared governing structure.
Allen’s biography brings those connections into focus: public office in Long Island City, decades of Masonic membership, responsibilities within Advance Lodge, and an organizing role in another benevolent institution.
A Boy from Northumberland
Allen was born in Northumberland, England, about 1849. According to his obituary, he crossed the Atlantic with his parents as a boy, spent fifty-nine years in Long Island City, and lived in Flushing for his final fourteen years.[1]
Before Long Island City became part of Greater New York, he served as a School Commissioner under Mayor Patrick Gleason. The New York Times obituary headline described him as an aide of the man it identified as Long Island City’s last mayor.[2]
Public service and lodge membership were separate parts of Allen’s life, but both placed him within the institutions of his community. Advance Lodge’s historical records likewise identify him among brethren associated with public affairs.[3]
Those records do not establish his private reasons for joining either fraternity. They do show a man whose affiliations extended beyond a single organization.
A Name on Another Door
John Allen Lodge appears in the local press by June 1886.
Reporting on the Ancient Order of United Workmen in Kings and Queens, the Brooklyn Union mentioned John Allen Lodge “of Astoria.” The notice places an active lodge in the neighborhood by that date.[4]
Fifteen years later, the Brooklyn Daily Times announced that John Allen Lodge No. 330, A.O.U.W., would celebrate its fifteenth anniversary with a smoker at Strack’s Casino.[5]
That anniversary points back to 1886 as the reported founding year. It does not establish an exact charter date, and the announcement alone does not prove that the celebration took place as planned.
Allen’s 1936 obituary supplied the personal connection. It reported that, besides belonging to Advance Lodge of Masons, he “organized the John Allen Lodge of United Workers, a benevolent organization.”[2]
“Organized” is the source’s word. It does not establish that Allen acted alone, financed the lodge, or personally administered its benefits.
“United Workers” is also the obituary’s wording. The earlier local notices identify the organization as the A.O.U.W.—the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
The parent order began in Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1868 under John Jordan Upchurch, himself a Freemason. Its early labor-management aspirations gave way to an increasing emphasis on fraternal death-benefit protection.[6]
Upchurch’s Masonic affiliation did not make the Workmen a branch of Freemasonry. The order developed its own institutions and obligations. Nor can its national benefit arrangements be assigned automatically to John Allen Lodge: the local notices cited here do not establish the lodge’s particular benefit terms or payment history.
They reveal its sociability more clearly.
In June 1887, the Daily Times announced the lodge’s first annual picnic at Bowery Bay Beach.[7] In January 1888, it reported a crowded invitation ball at the Astoria Assembly Rooms, naming a John Allen and wife among those present. John Allen Jr. served as general manager.[8]
By May 1899, the paper was announcing a smoker at the members’ reported headquarters, “165 Fulton street, Astoria.”[9]
That is a historical address, not evidence of property ownership. It also belongs to an announcement rather than a subsequent account of the event.
Where the Circles Touched
Henry Clay Johnson provides the clearest reported example of leadership in both organizations.
His 1918 obituary in the Brooklyn Eagle identifies him as a past master of Advance Lodge No. 635 and a past master of John Allen Lodge No. 330, A.O.U.W. It also describes him as an A.O.U.W. district deputy for Queens and Suffolk.[10]
A Henry C. Johnson appears as past master workman in the 1887 picnic notice. [7]
This is the distinction that matters: an individual could hold responsibilities in two fraternities while each organization retained its separate identity.
James M. Whitcomb’s biography offers another route into that broader subject—the relationship between a man’s Masonic life and his participation in another fraternal order.
Allen’s own place in Advance Lodge’s social world appears in a report from December 1887.
The wives of members surprised their husbands at a regular meeting in the lodge rooms on Fulton Street. The gathering later continued at the home of Supervisor-elect George H. Smith.
There, Mrs. Smith presented retiring Master John Henshaw with a “little goat,” accompanied by a mock-solemn speech about the supposed dangers of Masonic initiation. “John Allen and wife” appeared among the guests.[11]
Attendance alone would not establish Allen’s membership. His obituary supplies that separate evidence. The earlier report adds a glimpse of the social setting in which he and his wife participated.
Keeper of the Lodge’s Business
By the early twentieth century, Allen appears in reports of Advance Lodge’s formal business.
In its account of the December 29, 1903, election, the Brooklyn Daily Times reported that “Worshipful Brother Allen presided during the elections,” while Henry D. Taylor acted as installing officer.[12]
A second report of the election listed Wor. Bro. John Allen among the trustees, alongside Fred Skene and William K. Moore.[13]
The notices identify responsibilities, but they do not provide a complete chronology of Allen’s offices. The honorific should not be used to invent particular years of service as Master.
His appearance as a trustee nevertheless places him within the lodge’s administration, not simply among its social guests.
The same reporting connects his name with men whose other activities shaped the lodge’s history. Frederick Skene, for example, belongs to the wider story of Advance Lodge’s relationship with Queens public life.
Allen’s record is quieter. Here he presides at an election; there he is listed with fellow trustees. Such notices preserve the routine work through which an organization continued from one year to the next.
They do not tell us his temperament or explain why he accepted those duties.
Stone and Procession
In November 1915, Advance Lodge marked a more public occasion: the laying of the cornerstone of its new temple.
The Brooklyn Eagle reported that eight hundred Masons took part in a procession led by a band from Mecca Temple and accompanied by Knights Templar delegations. They marched from the lodge’s rooms at Main Street and Fulton Avenue to the building site on Grand Avenue near Crescent Street.[14]
Grand Master George Freifeld laid the cornerstone. The reported cost of the brick-and-stone temple was about $18,000.
Henry Martin read a history of the lodge, which had been chartered in 1867. Henry C. Johnson delivered the oration.[14]
Allen appears in the reception committee list. Although portions of the newspaper’s OCR are damaged, the supplied reading identifies him among those assigned that responsibility.
That is the role the source supports. It does not establish precisely where he stood, whom he greeted, or what he said.
The lodge histories credit other men with the temple’s design, finances, and building work. Allen should not acquire those responsibilities simply because he participated in the cornerstone ceremony.[3]
For that part of the story, John I. Lovell’s role in the temple project provides a useful companion biography.
Allen’s committee appointment places him within the ceremonial work of a lodge preparing for a new home. By then he was about sixty-six.
A Medal, a Church, a Daughter
The year before his death, Allen received a service medal from the Grand Lodge. The obituary accounts agree on the longevity of his Masonic association, although they differ by one year in their totals: sixty-six years in the Times Union and sixty-five in the New York Times.[1][2]
He died on September 13, 1936, aged eighty-seven, at 144-15 Bayside Avenue in Flushing. His daughter Bessie survived him.
The funeral notice announced Advance Lodge’s fraternal services at his home for the evening of September 15, followed the next morning by religious services at the Church of the Redeemer, Crescent and Temple Streets, Astoria. Burial was to follow in Flushing Cemetery.[1]
The geography brought his final observances back toward the neighborhood associated with his long fraternal life.
The records leave different kinds of traces. An obituary remembers an organizer. An election report identifies a presiding brother and trustee. A cornerstone account names a reception committee member. A social column places him beside his wife among other lodge guests.
None of these alone explains John Allen. Together, they show participation extending across decades and across distinct institutions.
One lodge bore his name. Another counted him among its long-serving members. His story belongs to both, without making them the same organization.
Source Notes
The references below identify the sources supplied for this article. Notes flag damaged OCR and other limitations where relevant. Newspaper archive links have not been supplied and are not reconstructed here.
- Times Union (Brooklyn), “John Allen Dies; Mason 66 Years,” September 14, 1936, 20. Source for the obituary account and announced funeral arrangements. ↩
2. New York Times, “John Allen Dead; A Mason 65 Years; An Aide of Patrick Gleason, Who Served as Long Island City’s Last Mayor,” September 15, 1936. The two obituary accounts differ by one year on Allen’s Masonic service. “United Workers” is this obituary’s wording; the parent organization’s correct name was Ancient Order of United Workmen. ↩
3. Advance Lodge No. 635, F. and A.M., Astoria and Long Island City: lodge histories and officer lists compiled by Brete Murphy, including the historical address by Brother Henry Martin and later typed lodge histories. Unpublished research materials; no archive identifier supplied. ↩
4. Brooklyn Union, “Order of United Workmen,” June 6, 1886, 6. OCR damaged in places. ↩
5. Brooklyn Daily Times, “John Allen Lodge Entertainment,” May 10, 1901, 9. Anniversary announcement, not a subsequent report establishing that the event occurred. ↩
6. “Many Fraternal Groups Grew from Masonic Seed, Part 2,” Phoenixmasonry. Secondary background on the A.O.U.W. and its founder; not evidence of John Allen Lodge’s particular benefit arrangements. ↩
7. Brooklyn Daily Times, “Picnic of John Allen Lodge No. 330 A.O.U.W.,” June 25, 1887, 1. OCR garbles part of the officer list, including the suffix after “John Allen.” The identification of Henry C. Johnson as Henry Clay Johnson remains qualified. ↩
8. Brooklyn Daily Times, “The Ball of the John Allen Lodge at Astoria Last Evening,” January 17, 1888, 1. Attendance does not establish membership; the relationship between John Allen and John Allen Jr. is not established by this report. ↩
9. Brooklyn Daily Times, “A Chance to Smoke,” May 12, 1899, 9. Identifies reported headquarters at 165 Fulton Street, Astoria; does not establish property ownership or that the announced event occurred. ↩
10. Brooklyn Eagle, “Henry Clay Johnson Politician, Dies,” June 12, 1918, 9. OCR damaged near the lodge names. ↩
11. Brooklyn Daily Times, “Present of a Little Goat,” December 14, 1887, 1. ↩
12. Brooklyn Daily Times, “Officers Elected,” January 2, 1904, 9. Reports the December 29, 1903, election. ↩
13. Brooklyn Daily Times, “Masonic,” January 9, 1904, 20. Further reporting on the election and trustees. ↩
14. Brooklyn Eagle, “Lay Cornerstone for Masonic Temple,” November 21, 1915, 81. OCR damaged in places, including portions of the reception committee list. The article uses only the charter year because the exact date requires reconciliation with other lodge-history accounts. ↩
Continue Exploring Advance Lodge
Advance Lodge No. 635: The Lodge and Its History
Return to the broader history of the Astoria lodge, its origins, and its journey toward a permanent home.
John I. Lovell: The Mason Who Helped Build the Temple
Follow another Advance Lodge member through the work of securing and building the lodge’s temple.
James M. Whitcomb: Fifty Years an Odd Fellow
Explore another biography connecting Advance Lodge with an individual’s participation in a separate fraternal order.
