BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Granville O. Haller: 1871-1873
Granville O. Haller, Master of Whidby Island Lodge, No. 15,
and a Past Master of Port Townsend Lodge, No. 6, was chosen
as Grand Master for the ensuing year. He was a professional
soldier and had served in the Seminole, Mexican, Indian and
Civil Wars. He came to the Dalles in 1852 and was a captain
in the Indian uprisings in 1855. After the Civil War he retired
from the Army for a time with the rank of major and operated
a sawmill at Port Townsend and a farm on Whidby Island. He
rejoined the military service in 1879 and retired permanently
in 1882 with the rank of colonel. He was born January 31, 1819
at York, PA.
His early Masonic History has been lost, but he became the
first Master of Port Townsend Lodge in 1859. He was a
resident of Seattle when he died in that city on May 2, 1897.
At that time, he was a member of Arcana Lodge, No. 87, there. He was reelected Grand Master for a
second term.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ John T. Jordan: 1870-1871
John T. Jordan of Seattle, Master of St. John’s Lodge, was
elevated to head Washington Masons. He was a building
contractor and built many of Seattle’s pioneer structures. He
was born in Raymond, Maine, Jan. 1, 1832 and emigrated to
California when he was only 18 years old in 1850.
He came to Seattle in 1858 and was raised in St. John’s Lodge
in 1861. He served as its Master three terms. Like so many
Masons in pioneer days and since, he became a leader in his
community. He was mayor of Seattle in 1874-75 and a regent
of the University of Washington. He dropped dead March 3,
1886 as he entered a meeting of a society to which he belonged.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ William H. Troup: 1869-1870
Grand Lodge chose William H. Troup of Vancouver as it’s new
leader. He was a steamboat captain on the Columbia and Cowlitz
Rivers and had spent most of his life as a seafaring man.
He was born in London on April 16, 1827, and was made a Mason
in Washington Lodge, No. 4, in 1858 shortly after he settled in
Vancouver. He served as Master of that Lodge in 1864. He was
for years a captain of the vessels of the Oregon Steam
Navigational Co. He died in Vancouver on April 8, 1882 of
paralysis. Grand Master Ralph Guichard said of him in Grand
Lodge that year: “Though Brother Troupe was not an active
member at the time of his death, he was yet a true and consistent
Mason during his checkered life.”
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Benjamin E. Lombard: 1868-1869
Most Worshipful Brother Benjamin E. Lombard, Grand
Master of Masons of the Washington Territory, 1868-69, was
born in Turner, Maine, on May 11, 1825. He received the
Entered Apprentice Degree in Alna Lodge, No. 43, at
Damariscotta, Maine on October 7,1854; and raised to the
Sublime Degree on October 25, 1854. On December 3, 1857,
he was installed as Junior Warden.
He came direct to Port Madison, in the Washington Territory,
in the Spring of 1860, and found employment aa a ship-
carpenter, and numerous are the evidences that he was a
skillful and industrious operative mason.
On August 14, 1860, Most Worshipful Brother James Biles
granted a Dispensation to a number of brethren at Port Madison
to open a Lodge, under the name of Kane Lodge U.D.; Brother
Lombard would be appointed as the first Worshipful Master. He would remain so for the first two years
after the Lodge was duly chartered as Kane Lodge No. 8.
In 1863, he was elected Senior Grand Warden, and in 1868, was elected Grand Master. It is said that his
administration was marked with great prudence and justice, and was eminently satisfactory to the Craft.
He would return to the quarries of Kane Lodge No. 8, and again serve as its Master during the years 1869
and 1870.
Until 1871, with rare exception, he would remain an active participant in the affairs of the Grand Lodge
as a counsellor and thoroughly informed Mason. His services were most valuable to the body and to the
fraternity throughout the Territory.
In civic life, Most Worshipful Brother Lombard held several important offices, among which were those
of Judge of the Probate Court, as also Representative in the Territorial Legislature, from Kitsap County.
In all these positions, he was faithful to every trust, zealous in the performance of duty, earnest, honest,
industrious, prompt and most obliging.
Due to declining health, our Most Worshipful Brother returned to his native Maine. He died at Auburn,
Maine, on June 25, 1872, and was buried with Masonic honors by the brethren of Tranquil Lodge, No. 29,
at Oak Hill Cemetery in Auburn, Worshipful Master Almon C. Pray presiding.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Elwood Evans: 1865-1866
It is difficult to get away from Elwood Evans while reading
about the political history of Washington Territory. Born in
Philadelphia December 29, 1828, he was appointed by
President Millard Fillmore as Deputy Collector of Customs
under Simpson P. Moses and opened their office in Olympia
on November 15, 1852. Admitted to the bar shortly after
setting up shop, Evans became one of the Territory’s earliest
lawyers. His initial stay in Washington Territory was brief, in
late 1852 he went to Washington, D.C. to campaign for the
creation of a territory separate from Oregon. Evans served as
an aide to Gov. Stevens during the overland expedition to
Washington Territory in 1853. He served as the Chief Clerk of
the House during the First Session (1854) and was later elected
to fill an unexpired term of a House member. At the same time
he filled the role of Thurston County School Superintendent.
An active member of the Whig Party, he led his colleagues into
the newly formed Republican Party by the end of the 1850s. In January 1859 he was instrumental in the
incorporation of Olympia and was elected the President (Mayor), serving 1859-1861. Although Evans
lobbied hard for an appointment to the office of Governor, he was never successful. Yet he was frequently
in a position to be Acting- Governor. He was made Territorial Secretary during the Lincoln Administration
and assumed the right to select a public printer, and awarded the post to Olympian Thornton McElroy.
Brother Evans served as Master of Olympia Lodge No. 1 in 1864 and 1865, and would also be elected as
Grand Master in 1865. However, his path to the Oriental Chair could best be described as circuitous. To
quote from the History of Olympia Lodge: “At this particular period in the history of No. 5 (remember
that Olympia No. 1 was previously Olympia No. 5, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Oregon),
it is quite apparent that sinister motives actuated certain members in their ballots on petitioners. There was
good material rejected without apparent cause – men of good reputation who had borne their parts in the
struggle against the Indians and were in every way good citizens, whose exclusion from the Fraternity
reflected little credit on the guilty ones. As an evidence, Elwood Evans was rejected twice before
admission.”
In 1868 he would return to public service as Chief Clerk in the House, and made valuable contributions
in compiling the Code of 1869. He was elected to the House in the mid-1870s, rising to the office of
Speaker. He apparently took over the office of Territorial Librarian simply to move the facility to the
capitol campus. It was during this time he seriously started compiling his history of the region, as Norman
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Clark observed, “Among the most literate of the territorial barristers, his experiences left him with an
intense interest in the drama of those early years, and he had already presented manuscripts to the most
enterprising historian of the West, H.H. Bancroft of San Francisco.” After he completed his Librarian
term, he moved to Tacoma. In 1881 he compiled, along with fellow past Librarian John Paul Judson, the
Laws of Washington Territory. He was elected as a member of the First Session of the Washington State
House.
Most Worshipful Brother Elwood Evans laid down his working tools on January 28, 1898.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Asa L. Brown: 1864-1865
Asa L. Brown, Master of Walla Walla Lodge, No. 7, was
elected Grand Master. He was born May 3, 1828 at
Westport, N.Y. and he learned the blacksmithing trade in
Illinois. He was another Washington pioneer who joined the
California gold rush in 1849. He returned to Illinois in 1856,
and again came West to Walla Walla in 1862.
He affiliated with Walla Walla, No. 7 on a dimit from
Marcelline No. 114 of Illinois. He lived in Washington
Territory only five years. He removed to Plattsville,
Wisconsin in 1867 and entered the mercantile business
there. He took a dimit from Walla Walla Lodge and
affiliated with Melody Lodge, No. 2, of Wisconsin, and
served as its Master, and latter as its Secretary. He died at
Plattsville on Aug. 28, 1908.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Thomas M. Reed: 1862-1864, 1866-1867
Grand Master – December 1862 - November 1863
Grand Master – November 1863 - November 1864
Grand Master – September 1866 - September 1867
st
1 Grand Secretary – December 1858 - December 1862
Grand Secretary – November 1865 - September 1866
Grand Secretary – September 1867 - October 1905
Thomas Milburne Reed
Taken from “Not Made with Hands,” the Centennial History of the M:W: Grand Lodge of F.& A.M. of
Washington and Alaska, [Volume I], Page 169
— By: V:W: Paul W. Harvey, Grand Historian, 1933-34, 1934-35 & 1958-59
Three In a Century
The Grand Lodge of Washington has had the remarkable good fortune of having been served by three dedicated
men who measured up to the high requirements of the office. Especially fortuitous is the happy circumstance
that these three Grand Secretaries have spanned a century among them, and that the last of them is still running
strong.
They were and are Thomas M. Reed, Horace W. Tyler and John I. Preissner.
“Uncle Tom” Reed was our first Grand Secretary. He served from the day Grand Lodge was founded in 1858 until
his death in 1905, except for three years when he was Grand Master and one year in 1864 when he was in Idaho
Territory on private and official business. Past Grand Master Thornton F. McElroy was elected Grand Secretary in
1862, Past Grand Master Elwood Evans in 1863 and 1864, and R.W. Brother W. H. Wood in 1866, when Brother
Reed was called upon to serve a third year as Grand Master. His tenure as Grand Secretary covered almost 43 years.
M⸫W⸫ Brother Tyler occupied the post for 39 years.
M⸫W⸫ Brother Preissner has now served more than 14 years.
Their service adds up to 96 years. No figures are available to show that in the last century three Grand Secretaries
in any other Jurisdiction have equalled this record.
Thomas Milburne Reed
M⸫W⸫ Thomas Milburne Reed
Grand Master December 1862 – November 1863
November 1863 – November 1864
September 1866 – September 1867
Grand Secretary December 1858 – December 1862
November 1865 – September 1866
September 1867 – October 1905**
** Died in Office, October 7, 1905, Horace W. Tyler appointed to fill vacancy.
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Thomas Milburne Reed was born Dec. 8, 1825 at Sharpsburg, in Bath County, Kentucky. He was of Scotch
Presbyterian descent and he early displayed a strong, independent character. He demonstrated this when he
applied for the Masonic Degrees. The Morgan Affair still had its repercussions when he was a young man, and
some of his relatives and friends were bitter enemies of Masonry without knowing anything about it.
Young Tom Reed decided to investigate for himself. He talked with several respected members of the Fraternity,
decided that the public bias against Masonry was based on falsehood, and concluded that
he should identify himself with the Craft. He was raised in Halloway Lodge, No.153, in his home county on June
7, 1847, soon after he reached his majority. Kentucky Lodges conducted their business in the First Degree, and he
was elected Secretary of his Lodge even before he was made a Master Mason. Never did he cease his labors for
our institution through the 58 remaining years of his long life.
He worked on a Kentucky farm, taught school for a brief time and clerked in a store. He felt the surge of
patriotism during the war with Mexico and volunteered in a local company, but it was not called to active duty.
To California For Gold
The course of his life was changed when he heard the news of the gold discovery in California in 1848. He
determined to seek his fortune in the West. He and a friend travelled by way of the Isthmus of Panama and
reached San Francisco on July 26, 1849 after a journey of five months.
He prospected for gold for two years with small success. He then decided to capitalize on the knowledge of
merchandising he had acquired in Kentucky and he opened a general store at Georgetown in El Dorado County in
the Mother Lode country. His business prospered and so did his Masonry. He become the Master of two California
Lodges, Georgetown No.25 and Acacia No.92. He was appointed Grand Marshal of California in 1857. However
before that year expired he decided to sell his business at Georgetown, which had declined as a mining center, and
to settle on Puget Sound.
This young Forty-Niner had acquired wide knowledge and experience during his eight years in California. He
had served as Postmaster, County Treasurer and Supervisor, and as a Justice of the Peace in addition to
conducting his own business. He had studied law in order to fill the Justice of the Peace post with more ability.
He was admitted to the bar and he came to be regarded as a capable attorney, but he practiced for only a short
time in Idaho.
Was Territorial Legislator
Tom Reed debarked from a ship at Seattle in 1857, and immediately went to Olympia, the leading town in the
Territory. There he reentered the mercantile business, and likewise resumed his connection with Wells Fargo
& Co. as its local agent in its banking and express business. Gold mining was still on his mind and he became
interested in some properties at Florence in the Idaho country. He spent considerable time there while retaining
his home in Olympia.
He was elected to the Washington Territorial Legislature from Idaho County and served as its Speaker in 1862-63, and
he was Prosecuting Attorney and Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue in Idaho for a season. He was elected to the
first Legislature of the new Idaho Territory from Nez Perce County in 1864.
For a second time Brother Reed endeavored in vain to serve his country at war. He was chosen captain of a
company of volunteers raised at Olympia, but it was not called into service for the Union because of the cost and
trouble of moving it to the seat of battle.
The end of the Civil War found him back at his Olympia home. From 1865 to 1872 he was chief clerk in the
office of the U.S. Surveyor General. He devoted most of his effort from 1872 to 1880 to surveying public lands
in Western Washington, in either a private or official capacity. He was elected to the Territorial Council, upper
branch of the Legislature, in 1877 as representative of Lewis and Thurston Counties. He then was chosen
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Territorial Auditor, and held this post from 1878 to 1888. He was a member of the convention which framed the
present Washington State Constitution in 1889.
First State Auditor
Running for State Auditor, he led the Republican ticket at the first general state election in 1889, proof that he
had the confidence of the people of the new commonwealth. After his term as Auditor ended in 1893, he devoted
less and less time to private affairs and more and more to his increasing duties as Grand Secretary. This post
finally occupied all his time and energy.
Those who knew him well described “Uncle Tom” as a dignified man of fine presence. He was rather tall but
slender. He walked and sat upright. He was neat in his dress. He was by no means an extrovert, but he was
genial. He had a reputation as a fine whist player. While he was patient and kindly, his temper could be aroused
and his speech could become vehement.
He founded an influential family. He was thrice married, two of his wives
having died. His first marriage was in Kentucky in 1853 when he made a trip
to his old home from California. Two sons were born to this union, Thomas
Milburne Reed, Jr., was a Superior Court Judge at Olympia, and later U.S.
Commissioner at Nome, Alaska. He became an organizer and Master of
Anvil Lodge, No.140, t here, the most westerly Masonic Lodge in North
America. Marcus Edward (Mark ) Reed, became president of the Simpson
Logging Co. of Shelton, Speaker of the House of the State Legislature, and a
political leader in the state. He was a Past Master of Olympia Lodge, No.1, and
prominent in Masonic affairs for years.
Our Grand Secretary by his second marriage was the father of a daughter
who became the wife of Dr. George W. Ingham of Olympia, and by his
third wife of a son, Garneti Avery Reed, who was also a Mason and a
respected resident of Shelton.
William G. Reed, grandson of Thomas M. Reed and son of Mark Reed, is
now head of the Simpson Logging Co., which long ago broke its bonds in
Mason County and expanded afar into Oregon, California and other states.
This present head of the family resides in Seattle and is one of the farseeing industrialists of the Pacific
Northwest, and is an officer or director of important financial and business enterprises.
A Founder of Grand Lodge
Our future Grand Secretary affiliated with Olympia Lodge on July 5, 1858. His experience and learning in
Masonry made him an outstanding member, and he became Master of the Lodge two years later. It has been
recited in an earlier chapter how he took a leading part, and perhaps the foremost role, in the formation of
Grand Lodge; how he made trips to Steilacoom and Grand Mound to arouse the interest of the brethren there, and
how he enlisted the cooperation of Washington Lodge at Vancouver through its Past Master, Judge O. B.
McFadden, at that time Chief Justice of Washington Territory.
rd
As already written, Brother Reed was installed as our first Grand Secretary on his 33 birthday on Dec. 8,
1858. He was also our first Grand Lecturer, and as such took the first strong steps to establish uniformity in
our work. He was largely responsible for our early rituals and laws, and for their evolution over several decades.
As our Foreign Correspondent for 30 years he became an authority on Masonry throughout the world. He came
from a small Jurisdiction far off in an isolated corner of the nation, but his reviews were so clear and his
observations so judicious and so imbued with Masonic principles that he had a strong influence on the
Fraternity wherever dispersed.
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He Inspired Early Leaders
Those who worked with him in the difficult pioneer days of struggle, and sometimes of disappointment, credit
him with searching out young Masons of ability, and encouraging them to assume responsibility in their own
Lodges and in Grand Lodge. It has been asserted that the high quality of our early Grand Masters, when our Craft
was fighting for a foothold, was largely due to Tom Reed.
th
When death overtook him on Oct. 7, 1905 in his 80 year, he was esteemed as the most notable Mason in our
Grand Jurisdiction, and the one who had done most for it. He was also the Grand Secretary of longest service
in the nation.
“For nearly half a century he has been the most important factor in Freemasonry in Washington,” Grand Master
Abraham Lincoln Miller told Grand Lodge in 1906. “It is interwoven with his life, and neither can be complete
without the other.”
Brother Miller reported that “on a beautiful October afternoon, with a cloudless sky, attended by a large concourse
of his brethren and friends, we carried his remains to a lovely spot.” That was in the Olympia Masonic Cemetery,
where so many Masons have stood in reverence before his monument over the years. Past Grand Master Louis
Ziecler, his bosom friend, came from Spokane to conduct the Masonic services as he had promised to do, should
occasion ever require it, a score of years before.
A bust of Brother Reed was presented to Grand Lodge at its 1906 Session, which voted unanimously that
“when our Home is established it be designated the Reed Memorial Home.” That was not done, but a perpetual
memorial was erected in his remembrance when Thomas M. Reed Lodge, No.225, was chartered in Seattle in
1919.
John Arthur’s Eulogy
In his beautiful and inspired eulogy at the 1906 Session Past Grand Master John Arthur said of his dear friend
and associate:
“There was nothing wishy-washy in the character, the conduct, the Masonry or the daily walk or conversation
of this man; he was a stalwart in every phase of his life; he was the outspoken enemy of all indirection; he was
the soul of honor in all transactions with his fellow men; his unselfish devotion to the public interest and needs
of the community in which he lived brought him to the verge of financial ruin and cost him a fortune; his
guiding star alike in public and private life was the strictest integrity; and
“Thus he bore, without abuse
“The Grand old name of Gentleman.”
Brother Reed’s life and career was the subject of Grand Orator Bertil E. Johnson of Destiny Lodge, No.197, of
Tacoma in 1937. Judge Johnson said in a longer retrospect that his outstanding impulse was to “be charitable
to all mankind, be ever-loving, kind and tolerant. He often had been heard to say, ‘If you cannot speak a good
word of
a man, then it were better to remain silent.’”
And finally Past Grand Master William H. Upton wrote of him: “Thomas Milburne Reed has been not only far
and away the most influential man ever connected with Washington Masonry, but one of the broadest and
soundest teachers of Masonry which America has produced.”
While Brother Reed was our Grand Secretary the Fraternity grew from 113 members in 1858 to 9,880 in 1905,
and from 4 Lodges to 137. No inconsiderable part of this growth was due to his vision, his steady labor toward a
defined goal and his mastery and practice of the Masonic philosophy.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Daniel Bagley: 1861-1862
The Rev. Daniel Bagley, our 4th Most Worshipful Grand
Master (1861 – 1862), was a Methodist preacher who traveled
west in covered wagons with his family in 1852 as part of the
Bethel Party. This wagon train included several individuals,
such as Dexter Horton and Thomas Mercer, who would also
have a profound influence on the growth of Seattle. Along
with his wife, Susannah Whipple Bagley, and son, Clarence
Bagley, he arrived in Seattle in October 1860.
Born on September 7, 1818, in Crawford County,
Pennsylvania. Bagley worked on his father's farm clearing the
land and doing chores. In 1840, he married Massachusetts-
raised Susannah Rogers Whipple. Their honeymoon was spent
moving to new land on the prairie of Illinois. After becoming
a Methodist minister in 1842, he traveled the state of Illinois
as a circuit preacher.
In 1865, Daniel Bagley established what became known as Seattle's "Brown Church" at the northwest
corner of 2nd Avenue and Madison Street. According to his son, the Brown Church's Sunday School "had
become the largest in the territory with 171 officers, teachers, and pupils." Daniel also taught at the school,
his son Clarence substituting for his father in the classroom on occasion.
Religious duties did not interfere with Bagley's secular interests. Besides preaching he became a key
advocate for the Territorial University (now known as the University of Washington) and its location in
Seattle. Bagley was elected president of the university's board of commissioners, becoming in effect the
school's first guiding spirit. He asked his friend, Asa Shinn Mercer, to serve as the school's first acting
president – at no salary. In 1894, when the new university grounds were established in North Seattle, and
the Denny Hall cornerstone was laid, Bagley spoke movingly at the ceremonies about the university's
early days. A plaque rests today at the University Street entrance of the Olympic-Four Seasons Hotel
attesting to the efforts of Arthur Denny and Daniel Bagley to build a territorial university on that site.
In later life, Rev. Bagley undertook the management of what became known as the Newcastle Coal Mines
on the eastside of Lake Washington. He and others ran the Lake Washington Coal Company, which had
been organized in 1866. After 1885, he returned fulltime to his first profession, roaming from church to
church as visiting pastor in Ballard, Columbia City, Yesler Street, and South Park.
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Daniel Bagley was a Master Mason from his Illinois days, and upon his death on April 26, 1905, he
received full honors from Seattle's historic St. John's Lodge. Neal Hines wrote that when Daniel Bagley
died at age 87, "In all his years nothing had daunted (him) -- not the hardships of the trail from Illinois,
not the rigors of the circuit riding in Oregon, not the whims and doubts of territorial legislatures -- and
only the single tree on the old university grounds had outlasted him, a tree long gone from downtown
Seattle.”
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Selucius Garfielde: 1860-1861
Most Worshipful Brother Selucius Garfielde (he insisted on
the “e” at the end of his name) was born at Shoreham, Vermont
on December 8, 1822, exactly three years before his life-long
friend, Thomas Milburne Reed. It is stated that he was a first
cousin of the father of President Garfield.
At the age of 13 he started out, first to Gallipolis, Ohio, and
then to Paris, Kentucky, without money, to acquire an
education and make his way in the world; and from that time
he received no financial aid from parents or friends. At 15, he
began teaching; at 18, entered college at Augusta where he was
graduated in 1842. He then taught school for two years in
Mason and Fleming Counties in Kentucky and in 1844 was
admitted to the bar and married.
Brother Garfielde was brought to Masonic Light in Holloway
Lodge, No. 153, Sherburne, Kentucky, in the autumn of 1847. Brother Thomas M. Reed, as a member of
that Lodge, assisted in conferring the degrees upon him; and, in turn, Garfielde subsequently presided in
Sherburne Chapter, No. 47, when Brother Reed was therein exalted to the Holy Royal Arch. Brother
Garfielde also took the Cryptic and Scottish Rite degrees, the latter including the 32d degree, in Boston in
1853. He affiliated with Olympia Lodge (then a part of the Oregon Jurisdiction) on September 19, 1857.
He would be elected as Grand Master of our jurisdiction in 1860. Upon leaving office, he was granted a
dimit from membership in Washington.
Garfielde’s political career began in 1849 when he was elected, as a Democrat, in a county having a Whig
majority of 600 or 800, to be a member of the State Constitutional Convention.
The following year he lost his wife, and the three children she had borne him all died in early infancy.
Bowed down with sorrow, he sailed for California, around the Horn. In September, 1851, he was found
by his boyhood friend, Thomas Milburne Reed, lying ill and destitute, alone, on a bed of loose straw in a
small tent in the outskirts of Sacramento. Tenderly nursed back to health by that brother of the mystic tie,
he resumed the practice of the law, at Georgetown, California, and entered upon a public and political
career. In 1852, Garfielde was elected to the California State Assembly as a Democrat from El Dorado
County. He served a single term, from January 3 to May 19, 1853. While in the Legislature, he was
appointed on a commission to compile the first California Code.
Active in Democratic politics, he was elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1856,
where he became a supporter of Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Though Douglas lost the Democratic
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nomination to James Buchanan, Garfielde proved a loyal Democrat traveling heavily through what were
then the western and northwestern states, delivering thousands of public speeches in support of Buchanan.
He earned a wide reputation as a "captivating" public speaker.
President Buchanan proved grateful to Garfielde for his campaign efforts, and appointed him Receiver of
Public Monies for the Land Office in the Washington Territory. Garfielde emigrated to Olympia,
Washington Territory, that spring. Almost immediately, he became a supporter of Isaac Stevens, then
campaigning for election as Washington Territory's first Territorial Delegate to Congress. When Stevens
ran for re-election in 1858, Garfielde abandoned him early in the campaign. He feared that Stevens would
lose the general election, jeopardizing Garfielde's position at the land office.
By 1859, Garfield's political views had shifted. A staunch Unionist, Garfielde (still a Democrat) now allied
himself with the newly formed Republican Party. William Winlock Miller, a former prominent federal
official in the Oregon Territory who had become an important businessman in the region, advised Stevens
to deprive Garfielde of his land office position. Stevens attempted to do so in January 1860. But Democrats
in Kentucky rallied to Garfielde's defense, forcing Stevens to hold off. By late May, however, Garfielde's
support had withered in light of his pro-Republican activities, and Stevens was able to block Garfielde's
reappointment. Garfielde's term as receiver of public moneys ended on August 16, 1860.
Garfielde sought the Democratic Party nomination for Territorial Delegate in 1861. Stevens saw
unification of the Democratic Party as the only solution to the national crisis over slavery, which was
threatening to tear the United States apart. Garfielde, however, broke with pro-secession Democrats,
putting him at odds with Stevens. At the Democratic Party's territorial convention, pro-Union forces
obtained a ruling from the chair that proxy votes could not be counted. This heavily damaged Stevens'
chances for renomination as Territorial Delegate. After two rounds of balloting, some of Stevens'
supporters became disgusted with their treatment by the chair and walked out. His candidacy crippled,
Isaac Stevens withdrew his name from contention. The convention then split, with pro-Union forces
nominating Garfielde and pro-secession forces nominating territorial judge Edward Lander. Republicans,
meanwhile, nominated attorney William H. Wallace. Garfielde and Lander spent the campaign attacking
one another, and on election day Wallace won election to Congress with 43 percent of the vote.
Garfielde switched political parties, becoming a Republican sometime between November 1861 and
January 1864. Garfielde continued to practice law, but he also continued to be actively involved in politics.
In the Territorial Delegate election of 1864, he stumped throughout the territory for Republican candidate
Arthur A. Denny. By 1865, Garfielde could be counted among the top Republican contenders for any
office he chose. In 1866, the Republicans denied Denny the nomination, choosing instead Alvan Flanders.
Garfielde's popularity was such that, at the beginning of the convention, even he received a few votes to
be the party nominee.
President Andrew Johnson appointed him surveyor general of Washington Territory in 1866, and he
served in that position until early 1869. Garfielde continued to have outside interests as well. About 1868,
Garfielde joined with Daniel Bagley, P.H. Lewis, Josiah Settle, and George F. Whitworth to buy up several
abandoned coal mining claims east of Seattle. They formed the Lake Washington Company, and won
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passage of legislation in the state legislature creating the Coal Creek Road Company. The road firm's goal
was to build a road east to the coal fields. In 1870, the owners sold out to new investors, reaping a profit
of 500 percent.
In 1868, Garfielde sought and won the Republican Party's nomination for Territorial Delegate. His
nomination was not without problems. Garfielde's inconstant political views and his flowery oratory had
alienated many, who felt he was a political opportunist. They nicknamed him "Selucius the Babbler".
Opposition to Garfielde's nomination was so strong that Alvan Flanders, the incumbent Territorial
Delegate who had been denied renomination, and Christopher C. Hewitt, Chief Justice of the Washington
Territorial Supreme Court, distributed a circular declaring the state Republican Party near collapse. They
and the other signatories to the circular (which numbered more than 50 prominent Republicans) declared
the party nomination process fraudulent and demanded radical reorganization of the party machinery.
These and other accusations led to a significant backlash against the disaffected Republicans, who quickly
retreated from their positions and declined to nominate their own candidate. The damage done, however,
was significant. Garfielde won election over Marshall F. Moore by just 149 votes out of more than 5,300
cast. Due to a change in the date of the election, Garfielde's term of office lasted nearly three years. He
began serving on March 4, 1869, but the House declined to seat him until December 1870. Garfielde won
re-election to Congress in 1870 over Walla Walla Democrat J.D. Mix by a more comfortable 735 votes
out of more than 6,200 cast.
Garfielde lost re-election to Congress in 1872. Garfielde's desire to make money on outside business
interests did not abate during his tenure in Congress. In 1871, Jay Cooke, the investment banker who
controlled the Northern Pacific Railway (NP), hired Garfielde to stump throughout the Washington
Territory to promote the railway's interests among voters. Cooke hired Garfielde, in part, because he
believed this would please Frederick Billings, then the head of the NP's land office. But Billings heartily
disliked Garfield, accusing him of being "too much of a politician" and arguing that it was unseemly for
a sitting member of Congress to engage in such blatant promotion of a specific business interest. Billings
also believed that Garfielde had allied himself too closely to independent loggers who routinely stolen
timber from NP forest lands. Garfielde believed his work for the railway and the loggers would win him
the votes he needed for re-election. But Garfielde did not count on the massive influx of new voters into
the Washington Territory, most of whom were Democrats. Garfielde was defeated in 1872 in his bid for
a third term by Democrat Obadiah Benton McFadden by 761 votes out of 7,700 cast. He left office on
March 3, 1873.
Garfielde remained influential in Republican politics, however. President Ulysses S. Grant, elected to a
second term as President in November 1872, appointed him customs collector for the Puget Sound District
on March 26, 1873. Garfielde left Washington, D.C., and moved to Seattle where he engaged in the
practice of law and served as customs collector until June 22, 1874.
Garfielde returned to Washington, D.C., shortly after losing his customs job. He established several
gambling parlors in the city, and although frequently raided he never served jail time. He had long
exhibited a number of habits, many of which—like gambling, heavy drinking, and womanizing—were
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considered bad if not outright immoral by good citizens of the day. Suffice to say his conduct was a matter
st
of great discussion at the 21 Annual Communication in 1878.
Garfielde fell ill with both pleurisy and pneumonia in April 1883. He began deteriorating quickly and died
at his home on April 13, 1883. He was buried at Glenwood Cemetery in D.C., with only the stones
“Garfield” (no “e”) to mark his grave. His standing as Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
Washington Territory, Masonic rites were not observed at his funeral as he had not affiliated with any
lodge in the D.C. area.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ James Biles: 1859-1860, 1867-1868
James Biles was a native of Virginia, but he had reached
Kentucky by 1853 when he embarked on the Oregon Trail with
his wife Nancy and their seven children. They were members of
the wagon train, called the "Longmire Party," Biles serving as
leader and captain, that blazed a trail over the Natches Pass in the
Cascade Mountains. It was the first wagon train to come directly
into Western Washington without first going to Oregon.
When the group encountered a seemingly impenetrable 30 foot
bluff about 25 miles north of Mount Rainier, Biles came up with
the idea to make ropes from oxen hides, tie them to the wagons
and lower the wagons over the cliff, thus allowing the party to
avoid being stuck in the late fall snows of the mountains. He
settled first on Grand Mound Prairie where he built a tannery. He
moved to Tumwater, and in 1859 built the Biles Tannery on the
site of the old Olympia Brewery.
He filled many places of honor and trust in his county, and represented his district several times in the
Territorial Legislature. Of particular note he was appointed to be part of a commission to superintend the
erection of the Capitol building at Olympia. As a Mason he was always honored and esteemed by his
brethren, and was always a faithful worker in the quarries. He was one of the few brethren who met in
convention on the 7th day of December 1858, and formed the Grand Lodge of Washington. He was elected
its first Senior Grand Warden, and in 1859 the brethren elected him as the second Grand Master of the
Jurisdiction. He would then serve as Grand Treasurer from 1860 to 1867, when he was again elected
Grand Master.
During his second tenure Most Worshipful Brother Biles introduced Freemasonry into the distant territory
of Alaska by his granting of a Dispensation for the establishment of Alaska Lodge at Sitka on April 14,
1868.
Most Worshipful Brother James Biles was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky, on March 3, 1812, and
passed from the mortal coil on February 5, 1888.
P a g e | 318
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Thornton F. McElroy: 1858-1869
The last of 12 children in his family, Thornton Fielding
McElroy was born in West Middleton, Pennsylvania, on
July 24, 1825. His father was a Methodist clergyman who
came to the United States from Ireland in 1790. He died the
year after Thornton was born. Thornton's mother then took
the family to Ohio to be with her parents. McElroy left
home at 18 and found a job as an apprentice printer at the
Free Press in Pittsfield, Illinois, where he met Sarah Bates.
The two were married in 1847.
Despite urgings to the contrary from his family, he decided
to come West, and arrived in Oregon City, Oregon, in 1849.
He left his wife, Sarah, behind, planning to call for her
when he was settled. Neither anticipated that five long
years would pass before they would be reunited. He found
employment with the Oregon Spectator, a pioneer newspaper in Oregon City, but he was lured to
California by the gold discovery. He soon returned to Oregon City, however, and became a member of
Multnomah Lodge.
When he was made a Mason is unknown, as the records of Multnomah Lodge were destroyed by fire. He
was, however, listed as a member of Multnomah Lodge in the records of the Grand Lodge of Oregon in
1852.
Brother McElroy was ambitious and possessed of a strong will. He decided to cast his lot with the Puget
Sound country and in 1852 he came to Olympia to establish a weekly newspaper. About that time he
would become the first Worshipful Master of Olympia Lodge No. 5 under the jurisdiction of the Grand
Lodge of Oregon, serving seven consecutive terms. During his tenure as Worshipful Master, he was
elected Junior Grand Warden of Oregon in 1854, served as one of its inspectors in 1856 and was appointed
to important Oregon Grand Lodge committees in 1854, 1855 and 1857. He would be elected as the first
Grand Master of the newly formed Grand Lodge of Washington in 1858.
On September 11 of 1852 he and J. W. Wiley started publication of the Columbian, the first newspaper
north of the Columbia River. This newspaper advocated formation of a new territory north of the
Columbia, and to be named the Territory of Columbia. It was from this that the newspaper took its name.
Editor McElroy also promoted a road across the Cascades to bring farmers and industrialists into the Puget
Sound region.
P a g e | 319
Though reluctant, Sarah would travel West to join Thornton in April of 1854. After a period of adjustment,
Sarah found pioneer life quite enjoyable. She wrote her mother about the "delightful parties" at
Christmastime. She enjoyed gardening and became active in Episcopal Church affairs. Their first and only
child, a son named Harry, "just because she liked the name," was born on February 23, 1861.
In 1863 McElroy was elected public printer of the Washington Territory. By this time he had learned the
political process, made the proper alliances, and had set up the first print shop independent of a newspaper
in the territory, the Union Book and Job Office. His principal ally was Elwood Evans, Secretary of the
Territory and a powerful political figure. The legislatures elected a public printer each year and awarded
him a one year contract for all the territory's printing work. With the help of Evans and some skillful
political maneuvering, McElroy held the position for four years.
He would then devote his full attention to private banking as Olympia was without a bank until 1890. He
did his banking with Phillips, Horton & Company in Seattle, established in 1870, the forerunner of Seafirst
Bank. McElroy was careful with his money and invested his earnings wisely, "taking property mortgages
for security." Active in civic affairs, he was appointed a Commissioner for the proposed new railroad, was
a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Town of Olympia (appointed by the Territorial Legislature,
January 28, 1859), as well as its first treasurer (February to April 1859), and held the office of Mayor of
Olympia (1875).
Most Worshipful Brother Thornton Fielding McElroy – the first Worshipful Master of a Lodge in the
Washington Territory, the first Grand Master of the Jurisdiction of Washington, founding father of the
Washington Territory and the State of Washington – was called from labor on February 4, 1885, having
acquired the "riches" he sought when he left Illinois some 36 years earlier, but in a far different manner
than he had envisioned.
P a g e | 320
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