Deseret Evening News

The Only Female Freemason.
The only female Freemason in the world lives in Oakland. Her name is Mrs. Salome Anderson, and her portrait adorns the temple of Live Oak lodge, No. 61, where it is placed in a position of honor among the pictures of the past masters. The story of how she became one of the craft is interesting. She was born in Alsace-Lorraine in 1815, and becoming an orphan at an early age she went to Paris to reside with her uncle, who was a zealous and prominent Mason. The lodge meetings were held in his house, and with the curiosity of her sex she concealed herself in the room during a couple of the sessions, and thus learned some of the mysteries of the order.
She was, however, caught while thus hiding, and the secrets that she had discovered were then made a sacred trust, for she was received into the fraternity. She located in Oakland in 1854, and in 1855 her husband was elected to the city council. He died in 1857 and since then she has devoted herself almost entirely to charity, her attention being, however, foremostly directed to Masonic enterprises. She was elected a member of the board of trustees of the Masonic temple, a circumstance unparalleled in the history of Freemasonry. She is also a charter member of Golden Gate chapter, No. 1, Order of the Eastern Star, and is a member of Oak Leaf chapter, No. 8.-San Francisco News Letter.