William Victor Lambe

They had six children, Pauline (Peg) May, Edward John (Ted), William (Duff), Carrie Belle, Alice Josephine, and Bessie Marie.

He also served Euclid Lodge as Senior Warden in 1885, as Senior Deacon in 1887, and as Junior Steward in 1893, 1894, and 1895.

Funeral services for the late William V. Lambe, former Wheaton postmaster and pioneer DuPage County resident, were held today at Wheaton. Services were in charge of Wheaton Lodge 269, A.F. & A.M., of which Mr. Lambe was a past master. Burial was made in the family plot at Warrenville Cemetery where Mr. Lambe's father, grandfather and grandmother also are interred.

William Victor Lambe was born on his father's farm, located on what is now Ogden Avenue about two miles west of Naperville, on Oct. 14, 1856. A year later the family moved to Warrenville where Mr. Lambe spent his boyhood and in 1873 into the homestead opposite the old Warrenville mill site, facing the forest preserve where Mr. Lambe's sister still lives.

In 1895 Mr. Lambe purchased the Warrenville mill from his father, Edward Lambe and operated it until this famous DuPage landmark was destroyed by fire two years later.

In 1878 Mr. Lambe married Sarah Jane Wallace, who survives him. To them were born six children, all of whom survive; E. J. Lambe, William Lambe, Mrs. Simpson Foulis and Mrs. A. E. Grove, all of Wheaton; Mrs. Pauline DeGrasse of Wenatchee, Wash., and Mrs. H. G. Sleep of Warrenville. Two sisters survive, Mrs. R. C. Adams of Wheaton and Miss C. A. Lambe of Warrenville. Mr. Lambe's only brother, Paul, preceded him in death by a little more than a week, his funeral having been held in Chicago on Feb. 8. There were 18 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Mr. Lambe moved to Wheaton in 1898 and for 15 years operated a grocery store. In 1912 he was appointed postmaster by the then President Woodrow Wilson, and served nine years. On his retirement the family moved to Naperville where he has lived ever since.

Mr. Lambe has been an active Mason more than half a century. He joined Euclid Lodge at Naperville in 1884 and served four years as master. Later when he moved to Wheaton he affiliated with the local masonic body and served two terms as its Master.

William Victor Lambe was born on a farm near Naperville, Ill. on October 4, 1856. His boyhood was spent in Warrenville, where his father operated the historic Warrenville mill on the DuPage River, the site of the present Forest Preserve. In later years, Mr. Lambe took over the mill from his father and operated it himself for several years until it was destroyed by fire in 1897.

In 1878 he was united in marriage with Sarah Jane Wallace and to this union were born six children, all of whom, with Mrs. Lambe, survive him: Edward J. Lambe of Wheaton, Mrs. Pauline deGrasse of Wenatchee, Wash., William Lambe of Wheaton, Mrs. H. G. Sleep of Warrenville, Mrs. Simpson Foulis of Wheaton, and Mrs. Arthur E. Grove of Wheaton. There are 18 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Left to mourn him are also two sisters, Mrs. R. C. Adams of Wheaton and Miss C. A. Lambe of Warrenville. His only brother, Paul E. Lambe of Chicago, was laid to rest one week ago today.

Following the destruction of his mill, Mr. Lambe moved to Wheaton in 1898 and purchased the grocery story of Emil Ehinger, who will be well remembered by old-time Wheaton residents. The store was located where the Gary-Wheaton Bank now stands and Mr. Lambe continued its operation for 15 years.

When Woodrow Wilson came to the presidency in 1912 he appointed Mr. Lambe as postmaster, a position which he continued to hold throughout the Wilson administration, relinquishing it in 1921. After leaving the post office, Mr. Lambe retired from active business and moved to Naperville where he continued to reside until his death.

It is difficult, almost impossible, to define in mere words the place he held in the Masonic fraternity, or to pronounce a fitting eulogy to his memory. His services to the craft were so many and so varied that it would be impossible to enumerate them all. Masonry was the great enthusiasm of his life, and only his wife and family were closer to his heart.

Masonry was to him not merely a lodge to be joined. It was a philosophy to be studied and a life to be lived.

The simple tenets of a Masons faith appealed to him immediately because he was essentially a simple man. It was easy for him to grasp the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. Temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice, the most excellent tenets of Free Masonry came naturally to him. They were his every-day habits of life.

Within the portals of Free Masonry he met men of wealth and distinction and he met men in the humbler walks of life, but each to him was on the same plane of common brotherhood.

His services to the Craft were many and varied. Four times he served his mother lodge, Euclid Lodge of Naperville, as Worshipful Master. He was commissioned as a Grand Lecturer by the Most Worshipful Grand Master of that day, a position calling for perfection in the ritualistic work of the Craft and for wide knowledge of Masonic law and precedent. He served in that position with credit to himself and honor to his lodge.

When the affairs of Wheaton Lodge came to a critical stage, he was prevailed upon to leave his Masonic home in Naperville and come here, to serve two terms as Worshipful Master, and to instruct his brethren so effectually in Masonic affairs that when he laid aside the gavel there were others qualified to take up the responsibilities he has laid down.

It was a proud moment for him, perhaps the proudest of many proud moments, when he was able to see his eldest son elevated to the office of Master of Wheaton Lodge, the position which the father had so ably graced.

It has been many years since advancing age forced our Right Worshipful Brother to lay aside the working tools of active Masonry, but his interest never wanted and he always made it a point to attend the annual celebration in honor of the Past Masters.

To Wheaton Lodge, as its eldest past master, he has been guide, philosopher and friend. No Master who followed him has failed to feel his influence. No member but looks up to Brother Lambe as an example, the influence of which will continue until the last of the present generation of Masons has followed him to the tomb.

What is true of Wheaton Lodge is also true of Euclid Lodge of which Brother Lambe was an honorary member, and we are privileged today to have with us, uniting in this memorial service the Worshipful Master of Euclid Lodge and a goodly number of its members.

The greatest of living writers on Masonic subjects, the Rev. Joseph Fort Newton, might have had our brother Lambe in mind, when in one of his works he defined a Mason. He said:

When is a man a Mason? When he can love the birds and the trees, and hear the music in the laughter of a little child; when he can look into a wayside puddle and see something beyond the mud, and into the face of the most degraded and forlorn of his fellow creatures and see something beyond sin. When he is eager to labor, eager to be happy if happiness is to be his portion, but if the day be marked for sorrow, strong to endure it. In his hand a sword for evil, in his heart a bit of a song, glad to live and not afraid to die.

Our brother has gone from us and in our lodge and our hearts will be a vacant place for many, many years. We shall feel as the Poet Masefield felt in describing the passing of a friend when he said: He passed as when a lusty cedar, green with boughs, falls with a great shout and leaves a lonesome place against the sky.

The exact date and name of the person who wrote it were not included in this transcription found in my grandmother's (Pauline deGrasse) wonderful collection of family memorabilia.