Duval County FlArchives Biographies.....Webster, Wilber P. April 27, 1858 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 September 8, 2015, 11:14 pm Source: Vol. II pg.70-71 The Lewis Publishing Co. 1923 Author: History of Florida, Past and Present WILBER PAGE WEBSTER. The Masonic fraternity is possibly the oldest organized institution known to civilized man. Its present ritual is only some 200 years old, but back of that the order can be traced in one way or another to the days of the early Egyptian dynasties. Through many centuries and in many countries it has been doing a beneficent work. It is the only international society; it is the only human institution that has no boundary lines and enters into every country where a measure of civilization prevails and one God is recognized. In our own country its membership of 1,000,000 or more comprises the cream of our citizenship. From George Washington down to our present day our greatest and best men have felt honored in being affiliated with this ancient and yet vigorous institution. Never soliciting membership, never answering criticisms, moving along in the even tenor of its way, doing good to humanity, with the advance of civilization it grows stronger year-by-year, and men wonder why. The reasons are not far to seek. In a world of rapid change, it is conservative and unchangeable. In a world of political unrest, no politics comes within his portals. In a world of many social strata, it is absolutely democratic, and upon the floors of its lodges all members meet upon equality. The widow and the orphan know it but to bless; the distressed brother in a far country meets something even beyond charity. That it lives and thrives and waxes more vigorous with the centuries is a just tribute to its work, worth and merit. In every state of our Union there is found some one man who is to the Masonic fraternity of his jurisdiction what a great general is to his army. In Florida that man is WILBER P. WEBSTER, of Jacksonville, grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of Florida, of the Grand Chapter, and recorder of the Grand Commandery and Grand Counsel. Mr. Webster is a native of Massachusetts, born at Plymouth, April 27, 1858. He comes from the earliest Puritan settlement in America, and is descended from that JOHN WEBSTER who came from Ipswich, Suffolk County, England, and settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1634. The genealogy of this branch of the Webster family was published at Augusta, Maine, in 1884, being compiled by WILLIAM B. LAPHAM and Dr. J. O. WEBSTER. If the Webster family had done nothing more than contribute to our country DANIEL WEBSTER and NOAH WEBSTER, it would have been entitled to the gratitude of the nation. But this family has done much more, in every generation from the old Puritan colonists down to the present time has furnished the country with excellent and useful citizens in various walks of life. Mr. Webster’s father was Dr. NORMAN WEBSTER and his mother’s maiden name was CORDELIA S. TOWNE. Among his early ancestors may be mentioned ELDER BREWSTER, who came over from England to America in the Mayflower, and a collateral relative was HANNAH DUSTIN, of Massachusetts Colonial fame. In the period of the Revolutionary war one of Mr. Webster’s ancestors, JONATHAN WEBSTER, was a delegate to the Massachusetts Convention of 1775, and by order of the convention wrote a report to the Provincial Congress regarding the business of organizing the “Minute Men.” Mr. Webster’s education was acquired in the common schools and the high school at St. Albans, Vermont. About 1861 his father made removal from Massachusetts and settled in the southern part of the State of Vermont, where he resided until about 1870, when he moved to Gainesville, Florida. In 1876 young Webster, then a youth of eighteen years, began active work in the lumber business at Mount Carrie, Florida. Later he spent some years in the retail drug business at Jacksonville, and still later resumed his activities in the lumber industry, being located at Bostwick, this state. In the meantime he had become interested in Masonry, and after the closing out his business at Bostwick he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where in 1890 he received the degrees in Lodge, Chapter and Commandery and became an active worker in those bodies. His efficiency and Masonic spirit led the brethren in 1896 to elect him secretary of the Grand Lodge, which necessitated his giving up all other business. He was grand high priest of the Grand Chapter in 1898 and grand commander of the Grand Commandery, Knights Templar, in 1896. In 1899, the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons added to his Grand Lodge duties by making him their secretary, and in that same year the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar elected him recorder. All of these positions he has since held with distinguished ability. On September 7, 1893, Mr. Webster was united in marriage with Mrs. MARY (VANNAH) DAVIS, daughter of FRANCIS and CATHERINE VANNAH. Mr. Webster takes no active interest in politics. He votes his convictions, and his affiliations are with the republican party. In civic movements he is always ready to lend his aid and influence in behalf of enterprises which show themselves worthy. In addition to being a thirty-third degree Scottish Rite Mason, he is an active member of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce. In his religious convictions he is a Presbyterian, and is a ruling elder in that church and clerk of the session of the First Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville, to which Mrs. Webster also belongs. Prominent among the Masons, Mr. Webster occupies a position of influence and usefulness in the State of Florida. He comes of a family which has added luster to our history, and it is but fair to him to say that in his hands there will be no diminution of this fame. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/duval/bios/webster159bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/flfiles/ File size: 6.3 Kb