Most Worshipful Brother Christian Henry Fischer

Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Utah 1936.

It is not an easy matter to select from the long story of the activities of our Grand Master such items as will approximate to a fair or true picture of the Man. Then, too, so much has been done by him concerning which he is the principal custodian, and a well known characteristic of the Grand Master makes him indisposed to share any of this first-hand information with others. However, we did inveigle. him into furnishing us with a few meagre facts about himself, but nothing about what he has been doing for Utah Masonry all these years. Here is one item:

"Fifty years ago on December 6th of this year, there landed in Castle Garden, an emigrant boy who had left want, distress and militarism behind him, looking for a new home in the land of opportunity."

Brother Fischer was born in Wurttemberg, Germany, February 24, 1870, and left motherless at the age of five months. He was educated in the grammar schools; attended the Lutheran Church and Sunday School, and was confirmed in that church at the age of fourteen. Two years later he secured his "father's consent and the Kaiser's permission to come to the Land of the Free." He states that he "landed with a few dollars, a weak heart, but a strong and willing back"! At the end of four years in the Eastern states-during a part of which period he worked long hours for a weekly wage which today would pay for exactly forty minutes of the precious time of a garage mechanic-he came to Utah, in June, 1890, and began working for the Union Pacific, at Ogden.

On March 27, 1894, he was married to Elizabeth Warwick, in the city just named. To this union five children were born, four daughters and one son. To this family group three grandchildren have been added.

Soon after his marriage Brother Fischer severed his connection with the railroad and moved to Salt Lake and this city has since been his home. Here, as he expresses it, he has "dabbled around in the coal business, more or less, ever since."

Now for a glance at our Grand Master's Masonic record, so far as space will permit.

He was initiated in Wasatch Lodge No.1, (Salt Lake) February 16, 1900; passed, February 27, and raised, March 23, of the same year. He was elected Treasurer of his Lodge in December, 1911, and has served in that position continuously to the present, with the exception of the years 1921 and 1922, when he was elected Senior Warden and Worshipful Master of Wasatch Lodge.

In Grand Lodge Brother Fischer served in various appointive offices and in January, 1934, he was elected Junior Grand Warden; in the following year, Deputy Grand Master, and at the 65th Annual Communication of Grand Lodge, January 22, 1936, he was the unanimous choice of his Brethren for Grand Master.

He was exalted as a Royal Arch Mason in Utah Chapter No.1, February 24, 1909; greeted as a Select Master in Utah Council No.1, R. & S. M., May 25, 1909, and received the Orders of Knighthood in Utah Commandery No.1, K. T., December 2, 1909.

In Scottish Rite, Brother Fischer received the degrees, from the 4th to the 32nd inclusive, with the first class of the Utah Bodies May 11, 1903. In October, 1913, he was elected to receive the rank and decoration of a Knight Commander of the Court of Honor, and in October, 1919, he was elected to receive the Thirty-third Degree with the rank and dignity of Inspector General Honorary and an Honorary Member of the Supreme Council, S. J.

He was Venerable Master of Jordan Lodge of Perfection from March 25, 1909, to March 17, 1910, and Master of Kadosh, Utah Consistory, January 25, 1912, to January 16, 1913. He has been a Trustee of Utah Consistory No.1, Inc., for years; was Treasurer of the Bodies until made Almoner six years ago, which position he still holds. He was a member of the Building Committee which erected the New Masonic Temple, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Masonic Temple Association, and chairman of the House Committee.

The Grand Master was created a Noble of the Mystic Shrine October 21, 1903; served as Illustrious Potentate of EI Kalab Temple in 1912; elected Treasurer in 1919, and re-elected every year since; he was chosen Representative to the Imperial Council for the year 1921 and has been continued in that position ever since. In 1920 he was appointed manager of the Shrine Band and Patrol and still occupies that position. When the Salt Lake Unit of the Hospitals for Crippled Children was opened in January, 1925, he was made a member of the local Board of Governors and has been one of the most earnest and zealous workers in behalf of that great charity. His name was the first to appear on the roll of Permanent Contributing members to the Hospital Fund.

The foregoing paragraphs give a brief, bare outline, from the records, of some of the connections and activities of Grand Master Fischer. That would be a story of exceptional interest, could it be told, of his consistent, unobtrusive and unselfish service in behalf of others. But enough has been said, we think, to show that our new Grand Master has not been a "drone in the Masonic hive."

Utah Grand Lodge Proceedings, 1936.

PGM, Christian Henry Fischer died on May 26, 1946 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Utah Grand Lodge Proceedings, 1947, page 147.