From The Concordia Weekly Expositor Republican, August 10, 1882, page 3:
A Lodge of Sorrow.
St. Johns Lodge, No. 113, A.F.&A.M of Friday, August 4, 1882, at 1 o'clock p.m. was called together by order of the W.M. to pay the last sad rites in masonry to the remains of our dearly beloved and venerable brother, Jeremiah Burns, whose spirit left the body on Wednesday evening, August 2d, 1882, at 11 p.m. Most of the brethren of St. Johns and many from Prairie Queen Lodge were in the sorrowful procession. Carriages were taken from the lodge to the house of his son, Br. J.J. Burns, then to Pleasant Hill cemetery where his body was laid to rest with the solemn and impressive ceremonies of the Masonic order; thence to the lodge.
In a review of Br. Jeremiah Burn's life we find he was born in Tennessee, Oct. 13th, 1802. When about nine years old his parents removed to Kentucky, and a few years after to Missouri, then a frontier state. When about thirty years of age he was made a Master Mason at Pattensburg, Mo., so for fifty years we find he has worked in the moral vineyard, by plumb, square and level. He did no unite with any of the Christian Churches but believed that through Christ only could man be saved, and he endeavored to so act and live, that when life's journey was ended here the Grand Architect of the Universe could appear and accept his work, and his spirit become a living stone in that spiritual temple, that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. He was twice married, and twice widowed - the father of fourteen children, ten of whom survive.
St. Johns Lodge
Resolved, that as a slight token of respect or the memory of our brother, the officers working tools be draped in mourning for thirty days, and these proceedings be incorporated in the minutes of St. Johns Lodge.
By order of the Lodge.
M. Reasoner,
E. S. Budreau,

The first page of the Last Will and Testament of William Baxter, father-in-law to Jeremiah Burns.