San Francisco
County
Biographies
CHARLES
OSCAR BURTON
(Grand Secretary American Legion of Honor.)
The pioneers of our State, who had the
opportunity of knowing what the fraternal Organizations did for the distressed
at that time, were deeply impressed, and as a rule have devoted a large portion
of their time in fostering and extending their beneficence. A striking example
of this experience is found in the career of Bro. Burton, who came to this
State in 1849 from New York, his native State.
In 1852 he was elected a member of
Charity Lodge, No. 6, I. O. O. F., at Stockton. He soon passed through the
Chair of the lodge as also those of Parker Encampment of which he was a Charter
member, and became both a Past Grand and Past Patriarch. He was admitted a
Member of the Grand Lodge in 1855 and of the Grand Encampment the next year. In
1865 he was elected Grand Master of the State and served one year. In 1874 he
represented the jurisdiction of California in the Sovereign Grand Lodge which
met that year at Atlanta, Georgia.
He is a P. M. W. of Valley Lodge,
No. 30, A. O. U. W.; and was one of the Charter Members of Washington Council,
480, American Legion of Honor, and First Commander and one of its
representatives at several sessions of the Grand Lodge. He has served as Grand
Secretary of the American Legion of Honor for several years with signal
ability, and is now holding that office. He brought to this important official
position the varied and ripe experience he had
acquired in other orders, and has been one of the chief factors in building up
this growing order on the Pacific Coast. He is also a member of several other
fraternal associations. Bro. Burton is in the prime of life, surrounded by a
very interesting family, one of the stewards of the Central Methodist Episcopal
Church and an active worker in the Sabbath School, and one of the prominent
leaders in fraternal and beneficiary societies.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Illustrated Fraternal Directory Including
Educational Institutions on the Pacific Coast, Page 256, Publ. Bancroft
Co., San Francisco. Cal. 1889.
© 2012 Cecelia M. Setty.
San Francisco County Biographies