Representative Henry Pelham Holmes Bromwell

Henry Pelham Holmes Bromwell (August 26, 1823 – January 9, 1903) was an American lawyer, judge, Republican politician from Illinois and Colorado, and a prominent Freemason noted for his influential work on Masonic geometry and symbolism. He served two terms as a U.S. Representative from Illinois from March 4, 1865, to March 3, 1869, and later became a leading legal and legislative figure in Colorado, where he was appointed to compile the state’s statutes. Over the course of his life he also developed a distinctive Masonic rite, the Free and Accepted Architects, and authored the extensive treatise Restorations of Masonic Geometry and Symbolry, published posthumously by the Grand Lodge of Colorado.

Bromwell was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 26, 1823. In 1824 he moved with his parents to Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1836 the family relocated again to Cumberland County, Illinois. He attended private schools in both Ohio and Illinois, including Marshall Academy in Marshall, Illinois, where he distinguished himself as a student and, in 1844, became an instructor. His reputation for scholarship was such that in 1867 McKendree College conferred upon him an honorary Master of Arts degree in recognition of his wide learning and intellectual standing.

In 1848 Bromwell moved with his family to Vandalia, Illinois, where he worked on his father’s newspaper, The Age of Steam, while studying law. He was admitted to the bar in 1853 and began practicing law in Vandalia, where he quickly entered public life. Soon after his admission to the bar he was elected county judge of Fayette County, Illinois, serving also as ex officio chairman of the county board and being charged with the task of rebuilding the county courthouse. During his Vandalia years he practiced in the same legal circles as Abraham Lincoln and was described as “a member of the same bar as Mr. Lincoln.” Sharing Lincoln’s political views, Bromwell and Lincoln were regarded as warm friends and political allies. In 1857 Bromwell moved to Charleston, Illinois, where he continued his legal practice. In 1860 he was elected a presidential elector on the Republican ticket for Abraham Lincoln, reflecting his growing prominence within the Republican Party in Illinois.

Bromwell’s formal political career at the national level began with his election as a Republican to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, representing Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1865, to March 3, 1869. His service in Congress coincided with the immediate post–Civil War and early Reconstruction era, a significant period in American history during which he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Illinois constituents. As a member of the Republican Party, he contributed to debates and legislation in a Congress grappling with the restoration of the Union, the status of the former Confederate states, and the rights of newly freed African Americans. After leaving Congress in 1869, he resumed the practice of law.

In October–November 1870 Bromwell moved to Colorado Territory, arriving there on November 10, 1870. He continued his legal career and was soon entrusted with important public responsibilities. He was appointed to compile the statutes of the territory and later of the new State of Colorado, a task that placed him at the center of the development of Colorado’s legal framework. He was elected a member of the territorial legislature for the 1873–1874 session, described as “the highest legislative body of the territory.” In 1875 he was elected a delegate to Colorado’s constitutional convention, where he helped shape the fundamental law of the soon-to-be state. After statehood, Bromwell was elected to the first Legislature of the State of Colorado in 1878, serving in the House of Representatives. In 1881 he was appointed commissioner to revise the laws of the state, further cementing his role as a principal architect of Colorado’s statutory law.

Bromwell’s personal life was marked by both family and tragedy. On June 20, 1858, he married Emily E. Payne. The couple had three children: Henrietta Elizabeth Bromwell (1859–1946), who survived to adulthood; Henry Pelham Payne Bromwell (1862–1881), who studied law but died of typhoid fever in Denver at the age of nineteen; and Emma M. Bromwell (1864–1865), who died in infancy. Emily E. Payne Bromwell died in February 1865, around the same time as their daughter Emma, leaving Bromwell a widower with two surviving young children. These personal losses, combined with his demanding professional and Masonic commitments, contributed to the strain on his health in later years.

Freemasonry formed a central and enduring part of Bromwell’s life and legacy. He was initiated into Freemasonry in Vandalia, Illinois, in 1854, becoming a member of Temperance Lodge No. 16. He served that lodge as Worshipful Master from 1856 to 1857. After his move to Charleston he affiliated with Charleston Lodge No. 35, serving as Worshipful Master there from 1858 to 1863 and as Grand Orator for the Grand Lodge of Illinois. In recognition of his leadership and oratorical gifts, he was chosen Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Illinois in 1864 or 1865 (contemporary reports differ on the exact year). Following his relocation to Colorado in 1870, Bromwell joined Denver Lodge No. 5 in 1874 and that same year served as Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge of Colorado. In 1889, during the annual communication of the Grand Lodge of Colorado, he was unanimously elected the first honorary member of that Grand Lodge “in consideration of his distinguished services to the Craft” and as a token of esteem for his high Masonic and personal character. He remained the only honorary member of the Grand Lodge of Colorado up to the time of his death. When he moved to Colorado he was also recognized as the state’s first Honorary Grand Master, reflecting his stature among Colorado Masons.

Bromwell was the originator of the Free and Accepted Architects, a new branch or rite within Freemasonry whose object, as he conceived it, was “to restore and preserve the lost work [rituals] of the ancient craft.” The rite, based on a geometrical system he had evolved in 1859, was intended to impart to students of the Craft a deeper knowledge of Masonic symbolism not otherwise obtainable. The original rite consisted of two degrees, “Select Architects” and “Most Excellent Architect,” to which a third degree, “Royal Architects,” was added on May 26, 1875. On March 1, 1862, a grand lodge of Free and Accepted Architects was formed under the title King David’s Grand Lodge F. & A. A. Over its twenty-one years of existence, this Grand Lodge had nine Grand Master Architects and chartered or mentioned five lodges in its minutes: King David’s No. 1 in Charleston, Illinois; King Solomon’s No. 2 in Washington, D.C.; King Hiram’s No. 3 in Springfield, Illinois; Hillsborow No. 4 in Hillsboro, Illinois; and Pentalpha No. 5 in Denver, Colorado, with a dispensation issued to Triangle Lodge in Los Angeles, California. The Grand Lodge moved its seat to Denver in 1879, holding its first meeting there on June 9 of that year. It continued until March 6, 1883, when it held its last recorded meeting. Afterward, Frank Church, the Grand Master Architect, continued obligating individuals into the rite, and several attempts were made to revive the Grand Lodge, but all failed. Decades later, on December 29, 1958, Harry W. Bundy, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Colorado, gained access to the rite, obligated several individuals, and reopened the Grand Lodge of Architects, electing George B. Clark as Grand Master Architect and Bundy as Grand Secretary. On February 20, 1959, the Grand Lodge met in Washington, D.C., elected a full slate of fifteen officers, and then turned the ritual over to the Allied Masonic Degrees and placed it in the custody of the Grand College of Rites, with the understanding that there would be no further initiations and that the rite would remain dormant.

In 1884 Bromwell began work on what became his life’s major literary project, Restorations of Masonic Geometry and Symbolry, a massive treatise on the esoteric nature of sacred geometry and Masonic symbolism. According to a resolution of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, the book was described as “the most remarkable contribution, along the lines of which it treats, yet made to Masonic literature.” It was claimed that Bromwell devoted sixteen hours a day for six years and two months to the preparation of this “ponderous volume,” which he characterized as “a dissertation on the lost knowledge of the Lodge.” Chapter Nine, titled “The Floor of the Lodge” and devoted to the floors of the three lodges, was said to have occupied two years and two months of his labor alone. Some later Masonic scholars, such as Henry Wilson Coil, challenged these claims and were critical of the work, arguing that there was insufficient historical material on ancient or medieval lodge workings to justify such an extensive treatment and suggesting that the lapse of the Free and Accepted Architects lodges and the obscurity of the book indicated its limited value. Nonetheless, Bromwell’s work retained a devoted following among certain Masonic circles. In the year of his death, the Henry P. H. Bromwell Masonic Publication Company was formed for the sole purpose of publishing Restorations of Masonic Geometry and Symbolry, with a board of directors composed entirely of Past Grand Masters. At its 1903 meeting, the Grand Lodge of Colorado considered how best to honor Bromwell’s work and voted to guarantee $2,000 toward the expenses of publication, having been assured that it would be “one of the most valuable Masonic publications ever produced.” The book was finally published in 1905 under the auspices of the Grand Lodge of Colorado.

After some twenty years of declining health, Bromwell died in Denver, Colorado, on January 9, 1903. He was interred in Riverside Cemetery in Denver. On January 11, 1903, the Grand Lodge of Colorado conducted his funeral service, with Past Grand Master Lawrence Greenleaf acting as Grand Master. Eight Past Grand Masters served as pallbearers, and religious services were conducted at Bromwell’s residence. His death marked the close of a career that spanned law, politics, and Freemasonry in both Illinois and Colorado, leaving a legacy preserved in congressional records, Colorado’s legal foundations, and Masonic literature and ritual.