San Francisco
County
Biographies
WILLIAM
FILMER
When Burns, the immortal poet, wrote the
couplet---
“The
time will come, as come it must,
When man to man shall brithers
be—an’a’ that,”
he no doubt was giving expression to his own
experience among his boon companions. There are men in every community whose
sympathetic nature, kind-heartedness and benevolence find kindred spirits who
associate together in fraternal and benevolent societies for more efficient
work in deeds of charity and relieving distress. The subject of this sketch is
a good representative of this class, who find their greatest happiness in
holding up the hands of their neighbor and frater
(sic) “whithersoever dispersed around the globe.” He was born at Chatham,
county of Kent, England, December 20, 1825. At 14 years of age he commenced to
learn the art of printing, and at the age of 18 years he landed in Boston,
where he pursued his avocation with the late Samuel Dickinson, the founder of
the Dickinson Type Foundry.
Mr. Filmer
commenced to experiment in the use of the electrotype in 1849, as applied to
printing purposes, which has grown to be a business of mammoth proportions and
world-wide use. In 1853 he removed to New York city,
and in 1858 was made a Master Mason in Keystone Lodge, F. & A. M. In the
following year he advanced through the Chapter Degrees in Empire Chapter, of
which the late Edward Hayes was High Priest. During the next year he had
conferred upon him all the Degrees in Scottish Rite Masonry,
and in 1861 attained the Masonic rank of a Thirty-third Degree Mason. In 1865
he came to San Francisco, and in 1879 he demited
(sic) from Keystone Lodge, F. & A. M.---of which he had been a member for
over 20 years---and was one of the founders and Charter member of King
Solomon’s Lodge, No. 260, of San Francisco. He was elected their first
Treasurer; has been continuously re-elected, and is the present incumbent.
The Filmer
& Rollins Electrotype Co., of which Mr. Filmer is
President, is the largest and most complete in its appointments and scope of
work on the Pacific Coast, and among the prominent plants of the United States.
Mr. Filmer
is a fine type of the solid Englishman; courteous, frank and reliable. In
business and fraternal circles he has the reputation of being an honest,
upright citizen, whose integrity is undoubted and whose word is his bond. The
name, Fraternity, is to him a shibboleth that means a universality of
brotherhood, and a magic cord that draws
“good men and true” together, for their common weal and happiness.
Through good or bad report; in misfortune or prosperity, he has maintained his
nobility of character; and among those who know him best in the charmed circle
of fraternal society life, or in commercial life, he is held in the highest
esteem.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Illustrated Fraternal Directory Including
Educational Institutions on the Pacific Coast, Page 142, Publ. Bancroft
Co., San Francisco. Cal. 1889.
© 2012 Cecelia
M. Setty.
San Francisco County Biographies