Raised in 1866 and named among the lodge’s charter members, William M. Berger later sat in the Master’s chair of Advance Lodge in 1878.
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Some men appear on a lodge’s early pages as signatures. William M. Berger appears twice, once at the founding and once at the head of the lodge. He was a charter member of Advance Lodge No. 635 in Astoria, and a dozen years after the lodge took shape he served as its Master. In between, the record is quiet, but the arc is clear enough: a young merchant who joined the effort at the beginning and was still part of its leadership when the lodge had grown into its own history.
A Mason of Weeks, a Founder of Years
Berger’s entry in the lodge’s expanded history is brief and specific. He was 24, a native of New York, and a merchant, raised on June 18, 1866, in Island City Lodge No. 586 at Hunterspoint. That makes his birth year roughly 1842, if the age was recorded at that time. Island City Lodge had been chartered in 1865, so it was itself a young lodge when it raised him.
The timing is the notable thing. Advance Lodge received its dispensation in 1866, the same year Berger was raised, and its charter followed in 1867. He did not arrive as a veteran Mason bringing experience from elsewhere. He was among the newest men in the room, and he was counted among the founders anyway.
One Name, Two Spellings
Anyone who goes looking for Berger in the lodge’s records will find a small wrinkle. Henry Martin’s cornerstone address of November 20, 1915, lists the charter members, and there the name appears as William A. Berger. The more detailed roster in the expanded lodge history gives William M. Berger, and so does the Brooklyn Eagle’s list of past masters.
The weight of the evidence favors the M., and that is the form used here. The variation is a reminder of how much of early lodge history reaches us through later hands, copied and recopied by men writing decades after the fact.
The Chair in 1878
On November 30, 1913, the Brooklyn Eagle ran a notice under the headline “Masons of Astoria to Build New Home,” the lodge having just decided to build the temple on Grand Avenue. As part of the story, the paper printed the roll of Advance Lodge’s past masters. William M. Berger is listed for 1878.
A succession table in the lodge’s history material places him after Edwin A. Cadwell, who held the chair in 1877, which fits that date. The records available so far do not describe what Berger did as Master, and it would be a mistake to guess.
Henry Martin’s history offers a useful measure of what the office meant in those years. Seven of the charter members later became Masters of the lodge, and Berger was one of them. That is the pattern of a young institution being run by the men who had built it. The lodge’s founders were not retiring to an honorary row. They were taking the chair in turn.
What the Records Hold
There is more to learn. Berger’s merchant business, his family, his years in Astoria, and the end of his life are all missing from the material at hand, and they would deepen the portrait considerably.
What the surviving lines establish is enough to place him: a New York-born merchant, raised in 1866, a charter member, and a Master. For a lodge that would one day build its own temple, he belongs to the generation that made the temple possible, and his name sits at both ends of that early story.
Endnotes
Lodge Records
- Henry Martin, “Historical Data of Advance Lodge No. 635, F. & A. M.,” cornerstone address, November 20, 1915 (charter-member list, listed as “William A. Berger”).
- Expanded lodge history, charter-member roster: “William M. Berger, 24, native of New York, merchant. Raised June 18, 1866 in Island City Lodge, No. 586, Hunterspoint.”
- Advance Lodge officer succession table (Master in 1877, Edwin A. Cadwell, followed by William M. Berger).
Newspapers
- Brooklyn Eagle, November 30, 1913, p. 63, “Masons of Astoria to Build New Home” (past masters list: William M. Berger, 1878).
Organizational Records
- Island City Lodge No. 586, Hunterspoint (Long Island City): raising of William M. Berger, June 18, 1866, as recorded in the Advance Lodge rosters.
Continue Reading
- Advance Lodge No. 635: Lodge History — Explore the lodge’s founding, early leadership, and later history.
- John I. Lovell of Advance Lodge No. 635 — Follow another life connected to the lodge.
- A Cornerstone, a Dinner, and a Borough in a Hurry — Continue into the lodge’s later building era.
- The Lodges That Built Queens: Start Here — Explore the full series.
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