Hugh B. Apperson

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.