M. W. B. Allen Andrews was born on August 11, 1849, in Muncie, Indiana. As the greater part of his life was lived in, and his Masonic activities were largely confined to the State of Ohio. It is a little difficult to indicate his prominence as a lawyer and a citizen of Ohio, and the remarkably valuable services which he rendered to the Scottish Rite in that State.
He received his schooling in the country schools of Indiana and Ohio, in the National Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio, and in Liber College, Liber, Indiana. He commenced to teach at the age of nineteen and taught in the schools of Darke County and in Greenville, Ohio, until he was appointed Superintendent of the Public Schools at New Madison, Ohio.
He read law in the office of Allen & Devor at Greenville, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar of Ohio March 24, 1874, while still teaching in the Greenville schools. He first entered on the practice of law in May 1874, as a member of the firm of Riffel & Andrews at Greenville, Ohio. He moved to Hamilton March 1, 1876, where he practiced law with distinguished success for fifty years.
His Masonic career was equally continuous and brilliant. He was raised to the Sublime degree of a Master Mason in Ft. Black Lodge No. 413 of New Madison, Ohio, in August 1873. A few years later he withdrew from Ft. Black Lodge and affiliated with Greenville Lodge No. 143, at Greenville, Ohio, and after a short membership in Greenville Lodge he again transferred to Washington Lodge No. 17, at Hamilton, Ohio, of which lodge he remained a member for forty- nine years, during which time he was active in the work of building up that lodge and served as its Senior Warden and Worshipful Master for six years, from 1879 to 1885.
He received the degrees of a Royal Arch Mason in Hamilton Chapter No. 21, at Han1ilton, Ohio, and served as its High Priest for two years.
He received his degrees as a Royal and Select Master in Hamilton Council No. 19, at Hamilton, Ohio. In October, 1882, was knighted in Miami Commandery No. 22, at Lebanon, Ohio, and became a member of Hamilton Commandery No. 41, at Hamilton, Ohio, which he served as Prelate and Eminent Commander for two years.
He received his degrees in the Scottish Rite in Gabriel Lodge of Perfection, Miami Council of Princes of Jerusalem, and Dayton Chapter of Rose Croix, at Dayton, Ohio, in February 1886, and in Ohio Consistory at Cincinnati, Ohio, in May of the same year. In this latter body he served as Grand Orator for more than thirty years. Both as a jury trial lawyer and as a Masonic Orator he had few peers.
He received the coronet of a Commander of the Thirty-third degree in the Supreme Council for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction in 1893. He served as Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge F. & A. M. of Ohio in 1886, 1887 and 1888; as Senior Grand Warden, Deputy Grand Master and Grand Master from 1889 to 1894, and continuously from that time was a member of the Committee on Jurisprudence of the Grand Lodge, and since 1905 presided over that committee as its chairman.
He served two years as president of the Ohio State Bar Association. Allen Andrews came into Ohio Masonic prominence at the meeting the Grand Lodge held at Dayton in 1887. We were then at the start of the Cerneau rebellion, which was led by many prominent and active Masons. The Grand Master and the Deputy Grand Master were loyal to the legitimate bodies of Freemasonry in Ohio. But many very active and prominent Masons in the State took the position that members of a Blue Lodge could have no knowledge of the legitimacy of what they termed the so-called higher bodies. It became a vital question as to whether Masonry in Ohio was to be governed by its Grand Lodge or by such organizations as saw fit to call themselves “Grand Masonic Organizations.”
At first, the actual stand of the majority of the governing Masons of the State was doubtful, in fact, so doubtful was it that at the meeting of the Grand Lodge in 1887 a Cerneau got the floor. While making his speech, based upon the principle that a Blue Lodge Mason was entirely ignorant of other organizations calling themselves Masonic, was elected Senior Warden. Then, for the first time, Allen Andrews came into the prominence, which he maintained during the rest of his life. He answered the speech, which had just been made so effectively that, notwithstanding the prejudice, which had been created, while he was making his address to the Grand Lodge, he was elected Junior Grand Warden.
This raised the direct question as to whether or not the view of the Grand Warden or the view of the Junior Grand Warden shou1d prevail, The meeting of the Grand Lodge for the following year was held at Toledo. During that year many Cerneaus were expelled from their Lodges, and charters were taken up by the then Grand Master where it was attempted to carry on the work of a lodge under the Cerneau forms. In order that there might be a full representation of the intelligent and well informed Masons of the State, the question of the action of the Masters of the Lodges in the trials and expulsions and that of the Grand Master in arresting the charters of the various Lodges was referred to a committee of fifteen, consisting of the Committee on Jurisprudence, the Committee on Grievances and the Committee on Chartered and Dispensations.
Before the meeting in Toledo, Allen Andrews and Barton Smith drew a tentative report on this subject, which was submitted to and approved by the other members of the joint committee, and reported to the Grand Lodge. In order that there might be no doubt as to the opinions of the members of the Grand Lodge and that there night be no attempt by anyone to cast unlawful ballots, the roll of the Grand Lodge was called, and each delegate to the Grand Lodge vas permitted to vote upon the subject, with the result that more than two-thirds of the Grand Lodge voted that the Grand Lodge was sovereign power governing Masonry, and that no person claiming to be a Mason would be permitted either to establish a body not governed by the Grand Lodge of Ohio, or hold any office for the purpose of disregarding the laws of the Grand Lodge.
The report of this committee and of the vote of each individual delegate entitled to vote in the Grand Lodge is found in the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Ohio for the year 1888 and has formed the basis of all Masonic legislation in the United States since its adoption.
Allen Andrews and Barton Smith were authorized by the Grand Lodge to defend the numerous attempts by litigation to set aside the law of the Grand Lodge, with the result, after several years of effort, that the Supreme Court of Ohio decided that the Grand Lodge was the sole judge of the qualification and conduct of its members, and that there were no civil rights involved. So far as we know, this rule of law has been recognized throughout the United States, and no attempt as been made to limit or vary it. No man, however high he may stand in the community, or however many letters or figures he may put after his name, is permitted in the United States to remain a Mason in violation of the laws of the Grand Lodge of the State in which he resides.
To this end, Allen Andrews contributed in a superlative degree. He was a man of remarkable and convincing eloquence, having the unusual faculty of translating the most difficult and involved problems into simple language that could be understood by all men. His reports as chairman of the Committee on Jurisprudence from 1904 until the last meeting of the Grand Lodge in 1925 are classical statements of sound Masonic doctrine, and so long as Masonry stands, they will remain the basis of Masonic jurisprudence in the United States.
Death came to M. W. B. Allen Andrews, March 25, 1925, in Hamilton, Ohio. His internment was in Greenwood Cemetery, Section C, Lot 62, Hamilton, Ohio.