How great was the influence of the Masonic fraternity on the early years of Washington, both as a Territory and as a State is an open debate. There can be little dispute that the Monticello Convention document sent Congress requesting the creation of a proposed Columbia Territory, reads like many Masonic documents but it is well to remember that the rhetoric and terminology used in this document was typical of nearly all documents of the period. A caveat on the Masonic influence should be that a number of the early political leaders were also members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, an organization that in the 19th Century claimed more members than Masonry.

Masonic affiliation of many early politicians is noted in a number of biographical lists but without reference to lodge or location. So it may be reasonable to assume that a number of the early elected or appointed territory and state officials were members of the Craft. The first elected state governor [1889-1893] Elisha Peyre Ferry served as territorial governor [1872-1880] and also as Grand Master from 1878-1879. The third Grand Master Selucius Garfielde served two terms as Territorial Delegate [1869-1873]. The twenty-fifth Grand Master [1883-1884] Levi Ankeny served six years as U. S. Senator beginning 1903. In the first sixty years as a State only four Governors appear not to have been members of the Craft, in the last almost sixty years starting with Arthur B. Langley [1949] not a single Mason has been found in the Executive Offices in Olympia.

The Washington Territorial Legislature held its first 1853 meeting in the Olympia No. 5 Lodge building. Perhaps the real reason was not that it was a Masonic building but because it was the only building in the town that was large enough and could be adapted to the legislative needs. Never the less the Masonic Craft can point with pride to the fact that a Masonic hall was the home of the first legislative session. In 1928 Masons laid the cornerstone of the present legislative building so Washington both as a Territory and State can claim Masonry in its foundation.

Were these men political leaders because they were Masons or Masons because they were political leaders? Did the Craft offer them some unwritten benefit? Just as today, it is a question that cannot be answered. This paper is not intended to answer the question of what part Masonry played in their life as an office holder. Perhaps a more in depth research of their accomplishments in office and their activities in their respective lodges would answer this question but it can be easily seen and understandable that almost none were Masters.

Territorial Governors were Presidential appointees, most often appointed as political patronage; more than one had no permanent relationship with Washington. In the earliest years, with terms of office often but two years long and before the arrival of dependable railroad service they may have spent little or no time in the Territory. For that reason there were secretaries such as Charles Mason who acted as Governor. Territorial delegates were originally elected/appointed by the legislature as were Senators prior to the ratification of the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution. Also terms of US Senators and Representatives changed with the adoption of the 1933 Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution moving the start of the new term of office to January 3rd.

Because of the length of the information in this list of Washington politicians, what is shown here is a complete listing of Governors, Territorial Delegates to Congress and Senators. Of Representatives in Congress, with one exception, only those known or believed to have been Masons are listed. As mentioned earlier some may well have been a member of a lodge in another jurisdiction and never affiliated with a lodge in Washington for that reason this list is by no means definitive. The purpose is only to list whenever possible, their Masonic affiliation in Washington and give a little of their political history and background. Where the list says “no record found” it indicates that the person does not appear in the Grand Lodge of Washington files.

It might be appropriate from a Masonic standpoint to make note of the fact that Ford Q. Elvidge, Grand Master 1944-1945 for period of time served as the Governor of Guam. He also has the distinction of being the only Deputy Grand Master to act as Grand Master when Grand Master Don E. Kizer died in office.

V\W \ CoeTug Morgan , Past Grand Historian, Grand Lodge of Washington
Past Master, Daylight Lodge No. 232, Seattle’s Lodge of the Arts

TERRITORIAL

1. Isaac Ingalls Stevens – D [1853-1857] no record found

2. Charles H. Mason – D [Acting 1854,1855,1857] no record found

3. LaFayette or Fayette McMullen – D [1857-1859] no record found

4. Charles H. Mason – D [Acting 1858-1859] no record found

5. Richard Dickerson Gholson – D [1859-1861] no record found

6. Henry M. McGill – unknown [Acting 1860-1861] no record found

7. William Henson Wallace – R [1861] Joined Steilacoom Lodge #2, {Steilacoom} January 7, 1860, demitted in 1863 and then rejoined December 3, 1870. He also served as first Master 1854 and three more times, 1871, 1877 and 1879.

Background: Born in Troy, Ohio July 19, 1811. He was a member of the Iowa territorial House of Representatives in 1838, moved to Washington in 1853 and was member of the Washington Territorial Legislature in 1855 and 1856, President Lincoln appointed him Territorial Governor April 1861 but he was not confirmed because he had been elected as the Delegate [Republican] to the Thirty-seventh Congress [March 4, 1861-March 3, 1863]. In 1863 Lincoln appointed him the first Governor of the Territory of Idaho. He later become a Probate Judge in Washington and died February 7, 1879 interment at the Fort Steilacoom Cemetery. He was Uncle of Lewis Wallace a governor of Arizona Territory and author of the novel Ben Hur.

8. L. Jay Turner – unknown [Acting 1861-1862] no record found

9. William Pickering – R [1862-1866] no record found

10. George Edward Cole – D [1866-1867] no record found

11. Marshall F. Moore – R [1867-1869] He is shown on some several lists as a Mason and while Grand Lodge records show a Marshal F. Moore on the Goldendale Lodge No. 31 list, the dates are in conflict and cannot be reconciled.

Background: Was born in Broome County, New York on February 12, 1829. A graduate of Yale, he studied law and set up practice in New Orleans for five years. He then moved to Sioux City, Iowan and was elected prosecuting attorney for the city. He then was promoted to common pleas court judge. He was a major general [attaining the rank March 13, 1865] in an Iowa unit of the Union Army during the Civil War. He fought in the battles including Shiloh, Chickamauga, Jonesboro and Missionary Ridge. He was appointed [March 4, 1867] by President [Brother] Andrew Johnson to serve as Territorial Governor for two years. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Delegate the Congress in 1868. The records show that he died in Olympia on February 25, 1870. At that time, his death was believed to have been caused in a large measure from wounds he suffered during the Civil War.

12. Alvan Flanders – R [1869-1870] no record found

13. Edward Selig Salomon – R [1870-1872] Masonic records show him as elected a member of Olympia Lodge No. 1 {Olympia} on July 20, 1872 and served as Master in 1873 and 1874. He demitted February 19, 1881

Background: Born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, December 25, 1836. He received the equivalent of the high school education in Germany. When he came to the United States in not recorded. He was a Cook County Illinois clerk and in 1860 a Chicago city alderman. He served in the Union Army, fought at the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chattanooga and Look-out Mountain, ending the war as a brevetted brigadier general. He was President Ulysses Grant’s first appointment to be the Washington Territorial Governor serving two years beginning April 1870. Both he and his cousin Edward P. were active in the early formation years of the Republican Party; the latter was Governor of Wisconsin during the Civil War, a fact that in all likelihood was responsible for the cousin’s position as a general in the Union Army. He later moved to California and served two years in that state’s assembly as an assemblyman from the 42nd District 1889-1891. He died in July 13, 1913. He appears to have been the only Jewish Territorial Governor.

14. Elisha Peyre Ferry – R [1872-1880] Member of Harmony Lodge No. 18 {Olympia} was Master 1873, 1874, 1875, Grand Master 1878-1879. He did not preside over the Grand Lodge session in 1879 because his gubernatorial duties took him to the east side of the territory at the same time.

Background: Born in Monroe County, Michigan, August 9, 1825, he spent his early life in Fort Wayne, Indiana where he studied law. He was admitted to practice before the Indiana Supreme Court at the age of twenty. He was Mayor of Waukegan, Illinois 1850, Presidential Elector for Illinois in 1852 [Franklin Pierce], a delegate to the Illinois State Constitutional Convention in 1862, and an assistant adjutant general on the Illinois governor’s staff during the Civil War. President Ulysses Grant appointed him the Washington Territorial surveyor-general in 1869, an office that brought him to Olympia and in April 1872 Grant appointed him Territorial Governor, an office he filled until 1880. He was the first person to serve eight years, which would point to his influence in the Republican Party. After his eight years as Governor he went to Seattle to practice law and in 1887 became president of Puget Sound Bank. He was the first Governor of the State of Washington taking office on November 11, 1889 [1889-1893]. He died October 14, 1895 and is buried in Seattle’s Historic Lake View Cemetery. Ferry County in Northeastern Washington is named for him. You might even say he was so popular that a whole Puget Sound fleet was named after him.

15. William Augustus Newell – R [1880-1884] Shown as a Mason on some lists, but not in the Washington records, most likely in Allentown, New Jersey

Background: Born in Warren County Ohio on September 5, 1817, he resided most of his life in Allentown, New Jersey where he died August 8, 1901and is buried. He attended Rutgers College and studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania working as a physician and surgeon in Allentown. He served as U.S. Representative from New Jersey’s 2nd District 1847 to 1851 as Whig. When John Quincy Adams collapsed and died in the House Chambers on February 23, 1848, Newell attended him. He was also the Lincoln family physician for a time in 1860. He was elected again 1865 to 1867 as a Republican being defeated in 1866 for re-election. He joined and was an active member of the new Republican Party from its beginning. He was the New Jersey Governor from 1857 to 1860 and made another unsuccessful bid for the office in 1877, defeated by General George McClellan. He was a delegate to the 1864 Republican Convention that re-nominated Lincoln for President and Andrew Johnson Vice President. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him Territorial Governor April 1880 and for the two years after his governorship he was Indian Inspector. During his four years in office the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed in 1883 from Wisconsin to Tacoma. Of Newell, sounding very Masonic, Edmond Meany wrote “. . . his purse was always slender . . . Not a few cases of poor people whose needs he served without cost and for whom he bought medicines at times when he himself was in need of money.”

16. Watson Carvossa Squire – R [1884-1887] no record found

17. Eugene Semple – R [1887-1889] no record found

18. Miles Conway Moore – R [1889] no record found

1. Elisha P. Ferry – R [1889-1893] Harmony Lodge #18 See Territorial Governors

2. John Harte McGraw – R [1893-1897] He was made a Mason in Forest Lodge No. 148 in Springfield, Maine in 1876 and affiliated with St. John’s Lodge No. 9 [Seattle] on June 24, 1882 but appears never to have been officer in the lodge

Background: Was born in Barkers Plantation, Penobscot County, Maine on October 4, 1850. His father drowned and his mother remarried so he left home at the age of fourteen. He and a brother tried a business that failed so he came west. He arrived in Seattle, December 28, 1878 and took a job as a clerk in the Occidental Hotel [now the site of Seattle’s sinking garage at Yesler and James]. That same year he joined St. John’s Lodge he was elected King County sheriff, a position he held for two more elections until 1886. In 1885 there were anti-Chinese riots in Seattle and he tried upholding the law and protecting the Chinese so his stand was not popular at the time leading to his defeat. But he was re-elected sheriff again in 1888 and later Seattle city marshal then became chief of police. In 1892 as a Republican he was elected governor. Much of the size of today’s University of Washington’s campus is owed to McGraw who with members of St. John’s Lodge managed to convince reluctant legislators to authorize the purchase of some 583 acres of land for the cost of $28,213.75. In 1893 he signed legislation that appropriated $150,000 for construction on the new campus, authorized the regents to lease the original campus now in the center of downtown Seattle and also provided accreditation for high schools in the state. He was Republican Party State Chairman in 1892, president of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce from 1905 to 1909, the first president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Pacific Coast Cities. A statue of him stands at the intersections of Fifth Avenue, Stewart Street and Westlake Avenue in Seattle and it gives tribute to his efforts that led to the eventual construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. He took office as governor on January 9, 1893. He died June 23, 1910 and was interned in Seattle’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Queen Anne Hill.

3. John H. Rogers – P/D [Populist/Democrat] [1897-1901] no record found

4. Henry McBride – R [1901-1905] Raised in Garfield Lodge #41 {Sprague}, April 26, 1890, dropped NPD 1922

Background: Took the oath of office as Governor on December 26, 1901, the first man to succeed to the governorship from Lieutenant Governor when John Rogers died while in office. He was born February 7, 1856 in Farmington, Utah. As a young man he attended Trinity College in Connecticut and after leaving college headed to California for two years coming to Washington in 1882 and settling in Oak Harbor to teach. He studied law in his spare time and later moved to the Skagit County seat La Conner because it was a bigger and a better place to study law. In 1887 he moved to Mount Vernon to set up practice and when the 1891 legislature formed a new Superior Court to embrace Island and Skagit County, he was appointed its first judge and in 1892 was elected to a full four year term. He died in Seattle on October 6, 1937

5. Albert Edward Mead – R [1905-1909] Raised in Bellingham Bay Lodge #44 {Bellingham}, June 14, 1905

Background: Born December 12, and on some list December 14, 1861 in Manhattan Kansas. It appears that the family moved a lot in the plains and Midwest for he is shown as having attended common school in Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and in 1882 he graduated from Southern Illinois Normal University at Carbondale. He spent another two years at the Union College of the Law in Chicago being admitted to the bar in 1885. He then set up a law practice in Leoti, Kansas where he practiced for four years until 1889 when he moved to Blaine and set up his own law firm. By 1892 he was elected Mayor of Blaine and also to the State House of Representatives. In 1898 he became Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney and was reelected in 1900. He was the last person elected governor chosen by a party convention. His inauguration as Governor was January 9, 1905 and during his term the direct primary law was enacted for the State. He died in Bellingham died March 19, 1913.

6. Samuel Goodlove Cosgrove – R [1909 – died in office] Affiliated November 27, 1883 with Evening Star Lodge #30 {Pomeroy}, but Grand Lodge records do not indicate from what lodge nor when he was raised. He demitted February 19, 1887

Background: He was born April 10, 1847 in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. The Washington State Senate Journal for January 27, 1905 says that on motion of Senator Cotterill, the Senate adjourned at 3 o’clock to the house chamber “For the purpose of witnessing the inauguration of Samuel G. Cosgrove as Governor of the State of Washington.” It is described that Gosgrove entered the joint session with Governor Mead escorted by a committee. It is said that he was carried into the capitol building on a stretcher to take the oath. The Journal continues, “On being introduced by Lieutenant Governor Hay, Governor Cosgrove, pale and emaciated made a brief address that sorely taxed the small remnant of his strength. He ended his speech asking a special favor that he be granted a Leave of Absence to go in search of health that he could come back “to be governor in deed and truth.” A formal letter requesting the leave of absence can be found in the Washington Secretary of State Archives.

Where he attended public school is not listed but he graduated from Wesleyan University of Ohio in 1873 and then became a high school principal in Cleveland. He served in the infantry during the Civil War. In 1880 he moved to Nevada to try his hand at mining having little or no success, then to California. Finding no more success there he moved to Pomery, Washington in 1882. A popular figure in the community, he was elected mayor five times. He was a member of the Washington State Constitutional Convention in 1889. He was a presidential elector in 1900 [William McKinley] and 1904 [Theodore Roosevelt]. In early 1900s he was offered a seat on the State Supreme Court but refused the chance. The newly adopted direct primary law put him in a good position to run for governor and he was elected in November 1908. Shortly after his election he became ill and went to Paso Robles, California for treatment and recovery. He returned just long enough to belatedly take the oath of office. Called the “One Day Governor” after his request for a leave of absence was granted he returned to Paso Robles where he died March 28, 1909. His remains were returned to Olympia and he was buried there in the Masonic Cemetery.

7. Marion E. Hay – R [1909-1913] Raised in Acacia Lodge #58 {Davenport}, November 22, 1890, he demitted and affiliated with Prairie Lodge #120 {Hartline} July 25, 1891, in January 1903 he demitted from Prairie and on February 9, 1903 affiliated with Tuscan Lodge #81{Wilbur}.

Background: Officially assumed the office of governor on the death of Cosgrove, March 28, 1909 but when the latter took a leave of absence and left the state he became the acting governor. He was born December 9, 1865 in rural Wisconsin and educated in the county schools and at Bayless Commercial Business College in Dubuque, Iowa. He first clerked in stores in Jackson, Minnesota from 1882 until 1888 when he moved west to settle first in Davenport and then Wilbur where he began what developed into a highly successful general merchandizing business. By 1890 he had moved to Spokane and formed the Big Bend Land Company and started accumulating property, farms, city realty and even invested in large areas of land in Mexico. When he officially moved into the executive office he said, “As is well known, I became a candidate for the office of lieutenant governor without the slightest thought that I would ever be called upon to fill the executive position. Now that these duties have devolved upon me, I shall perform them to the best of my ability.” As governor he threw his support behind a State Constitutional Amendment adopted in 1910 returning to women the right to vote in state elections, a right the Territorial Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional in the 1860s. During his term he signed the bill that provided for the initiative and referendum procedures. At the time of his passing in Spokane November 21, 1933 he was considered to be one of the largest landowners in the State He is entombed in the mausoleum at the Riverside Memorial Park in Spokane

8. Ernest Lister – D [1913-1919 – died in office] Raised in Lebanon Lodge #104 {Tacoma}, September 24, 1906

Background: The first governor to be elected to two terms he, first took the oath of office on January 11, 1913, the only Democrat elected to state office that year and after being re-elected for a second time took the oath on January 8, 1917. Born June 15, 1870 in Halifax, Yorkshire England and at age fourteen with the rest of his, family moved to Tacoma. His uncle David Lister was the first mayor of incorporated City of Tacoma. His father J. H. Lister started the Pioneer Iron Foundry and Ernest first learned a trade working there as an iron molder. He was a member of the Molders Union and later a national convention delegate. At the young age of twenty-three in 1894, still working as an iron molder he was elected as a Tacoma City Councilman. He formed his own highly successful business “Lister Manufacturing Co., specializing in lumber and finished wood products. Early in the development of paved roads he also entered the newly emerging paving contracting business. In 1898 Governor John Rogers who was always considered his mentor, appointed him chairman of the State Board of Control. His decision to run for the gubernatorial office was made a short three weeks before the election and after the brief campaign he won the election. He became ill in early 1919, requested a leave of absence and was voted $5000.00 by the legislature to help on the trip planned for his recovery. However he died in Seattle Swedish Hospital on June 14, 1919. Grand Master Thomas Skaggs conducted Masonic Funeral Services. He is interred at the Old Tacoma Cemetery in Tacoma. His wife took his place as one of but a few women delegates to the 1920 Democratic Convention and his niece Edna was the Progressive Party Candidate for Secretary of State in 1948

9. Louis Folwell Hart – R [1919-1925] Raised in Centennial Lodge #25 {Snohomish} June 17, 1893 and demitted December 11, 1901 to become a petitioner for Dispensation for Ferry Lodge No. 111 in Republic on November 16, 1899 and was chosen as the first Master of that Lodge. He relocated to Tacoma and then affiliated with Fern Hill Lodge #80 {Tacoma} December 20, 1902 – Served as Master in 1908.

Background: As Lieutenant Governor, he succeeded to the Executive Office on Lister’s death June 14, 1919 and was re-elected in his own right two years later taking the oath of office on January 10, 1921. He was born January 4, 1862 in High Point, Missouri. He headed to Washington in 1889 and seems to have found his way to Snohomish. Out of food and money be asked a stranger for help and was given a silver dollar that he attributed to getting him started. He had heard that Washington was a promising place for lawyers. He was also active in the dairy industry. His varied business interest took him to both sides of the state. During his term of office, construction was started on the current Executive [Capitol} Building. A strong supporter of highways and road development, he is recognized as one of the fathers of the “good roads” movement in Washington. He died December 5, 1929.

10. Roland H. Hartley – R [1925-1933] no record found

11. Clarence Daniel Martin – D [1933-1941] Raised in Temple Lodge #42 {Cheney} May 6, 1933

Background: Cheney, Washington can claim him as a native and lifetime resident. Born in the Eastern Washington town, June 29, 1887 he grew up and attended school there and in time graduated from Cheney Normal School [now Eastern Washington University] and in 1906 from the University of Washington. With his father he owned a highly successful Flour Milling Company plus other ventures. He served three terms as mayor of Cheney. He served as a delegate to the Democrat Convention in 1920 and 1924. His first inauguration was on January 9, 1933 and he took the oath a second time on January 11, 1937.He was the last persons to fill the governor’s office who was born while Washington was a territory and to date he is the last Governor who can truly be said to have been from Eastern Washington. [Governor Mike Lowry was born and raised in St. Johns but spent most of his life in Seattle.] In 1940 when Senator Louis B. Schwellenback was appointed to the Federal bench, Martin was expected to run for the open position but chose instead to run for another term as governor and lost the election. Died October 11, 1955

12. Arthur B. Langley – R [1941-1945] no record found

13. Monrad [Mon] Charles Wallgren – D [1945-1949] Raised in Peninsular Lodge #95 {Everett}, August 19, 1920, dropped NPD December 1952

Background: Born April 17, 1891 in Des Moines, Iowa. His parents moved to Galveston, Texas in 1894 and to Everett in 1901. He attended public schools and also Business College in Everett and later [1914] the Washington State School of Optometry in Spokane. He served in the Coast Artillery Corps of the National Guard from 1917 to 1919 and was adjutant of the 3rd Battalion of the Guard 1921-1922. He was first elected to Congress in 1933 from the 2nd Congressional District and reelected each time after that. In 1940 when Senator Louis B. Schwellenback was appointed to the Federal Bench, the expected and leading candidate Clarence Martin decided not the run for the vacant position; Wallgren threw his hat in the ring and won. Schwellenbach resigned on December 19th and Governor Martin appointed him to the vacant position giving him twelve days seniority. His replacement in the 2nd District was another Mason, Henry Jackson. Wallgren defeated Arthur Langley for the governor’s office in 1944 taking the oath office on January 10, 1945 but in turn was defeated by Langley four years later. As a WW I veteran he was in the American Legion and also a member of the Elks, the Eagles, the Rotary and a number of Masonic bodies. He died September 18, 1961 as the result of injuries suffered after being struck by a car while he was giving assistance to another driver needing help. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Everett.

14. Arthur B. Langley – R [1949-1957] no record found

15. Albert D. Rosellini – D [1957-1965] no record found

16. John Spellman – R [1981-1985] no record found

17. Booth Gardner – D [1985-1993] no record found

18. Mike Lowry – D [1993-1997] No record found

19. Gary Locke – D [1997-2005] No record found

20. Christine Gregiore – D [2005 - incumbent] no Eastern Star record

1. Columbia Lancaster [1854-1855] no record found

2. James Patton Anderson [1855-1857] Olympia Lodge #1 {Olympia}, elected to membership December 27, 1853 but Grand Lodge records do not show from where or when he was raised, demitted May 5, 1860

Background: Born February 16, 1822 near Winchester, Tennessee. He graduated from Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania and then studied laws at Montrose Law School in Frankfort, Kentucky’ was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Hernando, Mississippi from 1842 to 1846. He raised a company of volunteers for the Mexican War and was elected lieutenant colonel of the Second Battalion, Mississippi Rifles. He was a member of the Mississippi State Legislature in 1850 and was appointed United States Marshal for Washington Territory in 1853 and settled in Olympia. He was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fourth Congress March 1855- March 3, 1857. President James Buchanan appointed him Territorial Governor in 1857 but he declined the honor and instead moved to his plantation “Casasbianca” near Monticello, Florida. He served in the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States and during the Civil War rose to the rank of major general by February 17, 1864 assigned to the command of the district of Florida. After the war he settled in Memphis, Tennessee where he died September 20, 1872.

3. Isaac I. Stevens [1857-1861 – two terms] no record found

4. William Henson Wallace [1861-1863] Steilacoom #2 – See Territorial Governors

5. George Edward Cole [1863-1865] no record found

6. Arthur A. Denny [1865-1867] petitioned but was rejected

7. Alvan Flanders [1867-1869] no record found

8. Selucius Garfield [1869-1873 – two terms] Olympia Lodge #1 {Olympia}, elected to membership September 19, 1857, Grand Master 1860-1861. It would appear he had been made a Mason in Kentucky but there is no record of where or when nor of his ever having been Master or Warden of a lodge. He seems to have been rather controversial as a Grand Master. After he retired as Grand Master and at his request he was granted a demit from membership by the Grand Lodge itself, the Grand Lodge then turned around and said they were in error doing so. His Grand Lodge records show a note that leaves the entire matter unclear. There is no record of Masonic activities after about 1865. See the Grand Lodge history, “Not Made With Hands” for more information.

Background: Born December 8, 1822 in Shoreham, VT. Little is recorded about his early life, schooling or where he studied law. In all likelihood, as with most early 19th Century lawyers, he apprenticed himself to a successful lawyer for a period of time and then simply started practicing never passing bar exams, etc. Later he moved to Gallipolis, Ohio and then Paris, Kentucky where he worked in newspapers and was a member of the Kentucky State constitutional convention in 1849. He immigrated to California in 1851 and within a year was a member of the State Assembly. The following year the legislature elected him to a committee to codify the State laws. He moved to Washington Territory and was the receiver of public money from 1857 to 1860. He served as surveyor general of the territory from 1866 to 1869 and was elected as a Republican Territorial Delegate to the Forty-first and Forty-second Congress and was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1872. He is reputed to have been quite renowned as an orator. He was appointed collector of customs for Puget Sound in 1873, moved to Seattle where he practiced law as well as in Washington DC where he spent much of his time until his death in that city April 13, 1881.

9. Obadiah Benton McFadden [1873-1875] shown as a Mason on some lists, not found in Grand Lodge of Washington records.

Background: McFadden was born in West Middletown, Pennsylvania on November 18, 1815 and after going to public school attended McKeever Academy in that same town. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1843. He was a member of the State House of Representatives and later elected prothonotary or principal clerk of Washington County Pennsylvania. He was appointed an associate justice of the supreme court of Oregon Territory in 1853 and the next year to the same position in the Washington Territory. From 1858 to 1861 he was chief justice. He then became a member of the legislative council and was chosen its president in 1861. He resumed the practice law in Olympia and engaged in agricultural pursuits in various areas of the Puget Sound region. He was elected as a Democrat delegate to the Forty-third Congress [March 4, 1873-March 4, 1874] but did not stand for re-nomination in 1874. He died in Olympia June 25, 1875 and is buried in the Masonic Cemetery.

10. Orange Jacobs [1875-1879] St. John’s #9 {Seattle}. He was made a Mason in Meridian Sun Lodge No. 49 in Sturgis, Michigan and affiliated with St. John’s Lodge No. 9 on August 26, 1882. Grand Lodge records do not say when he was raised. It would appear he was active in lodge affairs but never held any elected lodge office.

Background: Jacobs was born near Geneseo, Livingston County New York May 2, 1827. His parents moved to Michigan Territory in 1831 and he attended the common schools. He attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1851. A year later he moved to Oregon Territory and settled in Jacksonville [near Medford] where he practiced law as well as edited and published the Jacksonville Sentinel until he moved to Washington Territory in 1859. He was appointed to be a member of the Territorial Supreme Court in 1869 and was chief justice from 1871 to 1875. In 1871 the Court ruled in United States vs. Taylor, a case which Washington State Chief Justice Gerry L. Alexander described in the November 2003 Bar News “foreshadowed the famous “Bolt decision” of the modern era, it determined that the treaty rights of Indians to fish in usual and accustomed waters could not be lawfully obstructed by a non-Indian homesteader who erected a fence that prevented Indians from exercising that right.

He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-forth and Forty-fifth Congresses from March 4, 1875 to March 3, 1879. He was not a candidate for a third term and resumed his law practice in Seattle where he served as mayor in 1880. He served in the Territorial Legislature 1885-1887 and in 1889 on the Seattle Charter Revision Commission, starting in 1890 was the city corporation counsel. From 1896 to 1900 he was a King County Superior Court Judge. Along with other members of St. John’s Lodge he was very instrumental in obtaining legislative funding for the University of Washington. He died in Seattle, May 21, 1914 and is buried at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery

11. Thomas Hurley Brents [1879-1885 – three terms] no record found

12. Charles Stewart Voorhees [1885-1889 – two terms] no record found

13. John Beard Allen [1889-1889] no record found

1. John Beard Allen – R [1889-1893] Walla Walla County - no record found.

2. Watson Carvasso Squire – R [1889-1897] King County – no record found

3. John Beard Allen – R [1893-1895] see above

4. John Lockwood Wilson – R [1895-1899] Spokane County – no record found

5. George Turner – SR [Silver Republican] [1897-1903] Spokane County - Was Raised in Spokane #34 {Spokane} May 1886 but the exact day is missing in the Grand Lodge records.

Background: Turner was born in Edina, Missouri on February 25, 1850 and attended the common schools. During the Civil War he was a young telegraph operator with the Union forces for four years from 1861 to 1865. He was admitted to the bar in 1869 and sent up practice in Mobile, Alabama. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him the United States marshal for the southern and middle district of Alabama from 1876 to 1880. In 1885 President Grover Cleveland appointed him an associate justice on the Washington Territory Supreme Court. He served until 1888 when he set up law practice in Spokane and became active in mining. He was a member of the convention that framed the constitution of the State of Washington. He was unsuccessful as a Republican candidate for the Senate in 1889 and in 1893 but in 1896 did win election as part of what was called a fusionist ticket of Silver Republicans, Democrats and Populists. He served one term from March 4, 1897 until March 3, 1903 deciding not to seek a second term and returned to the practice of law. He was a member of the Alaska Boundary Tribunal in 1903 and the following year was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor. He was the United States counsel in 1910 at The Hague Conference on northeastern fishing arbitration with Great Britain. President William Howard Taft appointed him a member of the International Joint Commission created to prevent boundary disputes between the United States and Canada. He served on the commission from 1911 through 1914 and as the United States counsel for the Commission from 1981 until 1924. His name was placed in nomination for Vice President at the Democratic convention in 1916. He continued to practice law in Spokane for many years and died there January 26, 1932 and is interred in the Greenwood Cemetery.

6. Addison G. Foster – R [1899-1905] Pierce County - no record found

7. Levi Ankeny – R [1903-1909] Walla Walla County – Walla Walla Lodge #7 {Walla Walla}, Grand Lodge records show that he affiliated with the lodge on February 28, 1879 and became its Master in 1882.. He had received his degrees in Willamette Lodge No. 2 in Portland in 1866. He was elected Grand Master in 1883 after having served the previous year as Senior Grand Warden.

Background: Born near St. Joseph, Missouri on August 1, 1844. Sometime in 1850 his parents took the Oregon Trail to Portland and there he attended the local rural schools and also the Kingsley Academy. As a young man he first became a pack train merchant in Orofino, Florence and other Idaho mining districts. In addition the mining endeavors, he engaged in different business ventures including the cattle business in South Eastern Washington, Lewiston and the surrounding area. Shortly after obtaining his majority he was elected the first mayor of Lewiston. In 1873 he returned to Portland and in 1878 moved to Walla Walla to engage in banking by opening the first national bank in the state. He was appointed to be a member of the Pan American Exposition Commission held in Chicago and became its chairman. After one term as Republican senator the legislature did not re-elect him. While in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Coast and Insular Survey [58th and 59th Congress], and served on the Committee on Irrigation [50th Congress] and the Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation [60th Congress.] After his defeat for reelection he returned to Walla Walla and continued in the banking business until his death March 29, 1929. He is buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Walla Walla.

8. Samuel H. Piles – R [1905-1911] King County – no record found

9. Wesley L. Jones – R [1909-1932] King County - no record found

10. Miles Poindexter – R-Progressive-R [1911-1923] Spokane County- Raised in Oriental Lodge #74 {Spokane} December 4, 1920

Background: Born in Memphis Tennessee April 22, 1868, he attended Fancy Hill Academy in Virginia and then Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia graduating with a law degree in 1891 and promptly headed west to settle in Walla Walla. He was admitted to the Washington Bar and by 1892 was prosecuting attorney for Walla Walla County. Five years later, 1897 he moved to Spokane to set up law practice and served as Spokane County prosecuting attorney from 1898 to 1904 and then for four years as a superior court judge. He was elected to one term in Sixty-first Congress [March 4, 1909 to March 3, 1911] and elected to two senatorial terms, [March 11, 1911 to March 3, 1923] but was unsuccessful for reelection in 1922. He had aspirations to be the 1920 Republican nominee for president at the convention that chose Warren Harding but being from a small western state he was not considered a viable candidate. President Harding appointed him as the Ambassador to Peru, 1923-1928. He returned and ran again for the US Senate in 1928 and after the unsuccessful attempt, returned to his home in ‘Elk Cliff,” Greenlee in Rockbridge County, Virginia. He died there September 21, 1946 and is interred in the Presbyterian Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia

11. Clarence C. Dill – D [1923-1935] Spokane County – Raised in Manito Lodge #246 {Spokane} August 11, 1924

Background: Was born near Fredericktown, Ohio September 21, 1884. He was educated in the public schools and was a teacher before returning to Ohio Wesleyan University graduating in 1907. He taught school in Dubuque Iowa for two years before moving to Spokane and also taught there while studying for the bar to which he was admitted in 1910. He was deputy prosecuting attorney in Spokane and was elected to the House of Representatives to serve in the Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Congress [March 4, 1915- March 3, 1919] being defeated for reelection in 1918. In 1922 he was elected as a Democrat to the Senate serving from March 4, 1923 to January 3, 1935 but chose not to stand for reelection in 1934. He was an unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate in 1940. Because of his work while in congress he is often called “The Father of Grand Coulee Dam,” and the “Federal Radio Act.” He died January 14, 1978 and is interned in Spokane’s’ Fairmont Memorial Park.

12. Elijah S. Grammer – R [1932-1933] King County – Affiliated with Eureka Lodge #20 {Seattle}, September 14, 1909 from Garfield Lodge No. 480 in Arkansas.

Background: Was born in Quincy, Missouri on April 3, 1868 and attended common schools. He studied at Bentonville College in Arkansas and moved to Washington Territory in 1887. He began as a logger and became a general manager of camps in the Tacoma area. In 1892 he returned to Bentonville College for more education and then returned the Washington in 1901 settling in Seattle. He owned and managed several different logging and related companies. He was president of the Washington Employers’ Association for two years 1916-1917. During the First World War as a US Army Major he was assigned to the spruce production division. On November 22, 1932 he was appointed by Governor Roland H. Hartley as Republican to fill the balance of the term of Wesley L. Jones who died in office. He was not a candidate for reelection and returned to the logging business and served as an officer in both investment and railway companies. He died in Seattle on November 19, 1936 and is interred in Lakeview Cemetery.

13. Homer Truett Bone – D [1933-1944] Pierce County - Raised in Evergreen Lodge #5, {Tacoma} March 17, 1926

Background: Was born in Franklin, Indiana on January 25, 1883. He attended the local public schools; he later worked for the postal service and in the accounting and credit department of a furniture company. In 1911 graduated from the Tacoma Law School, was admitted to the bar. He was deputy prosecuting attorney for Pierce County in 1912 and the corporation counsel for the Port of Tacoma from 1918 to 1932. He first ran for the House of Representatives as an unsuccessful Farmer-Labor Party candidate in 1920. In 1922 he was elected to the Washington Sate House of Representatives and in 1928 was again unsuccessful as Republican candidate for Congress. In 1932 he was elected as a Democrat to the Senate and served until his resignation November 13, 1944. While in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Patents [76th through 78th Congresses]. President Roosevelt appointed him to a place on the of the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals bench in San Francisco on April 1, 1944 and he was immediately confirmed the same day. However he held off submitting his official resignation until after the November election so that the Governor could appoint the newly elected Senator to gain some valuable extra seniority. He held service on the bench until 1956 taking Senior Judge status January 1, 1956. After leaving the active bench, he practiced law in San Francisco until 1968 when he returned to Tacoma where he died March 11, 1970. His ashes are interred in Oakwood Cemetery in Tacoma.

14. Lewis B. Schwellenbach – D [1935-1940] Grant County – no record found

15. Monrad C. Wallgren – D [1940-1945] Snohomish County - see Governors

16. Warren G. “Maggie” Magnuson – D [1944-1981] King County – no record found

17. Hugh B. Mitchell – D [1945-1946] Snohomish County – no record found

18. Harry P. Cain – R [1946-1953] Pierce County – no record found

19. Henry Martin [Scoop] Jackson – D [1953-1983] Snohomish County - died in office – Raised in Everett Lodge #137 {Everett} July 24, 1939

Background: Was born in Everett on May 31, 1912 and attended Everett public school, Stanford University and in 1935 he graduated from the University of Washington School of Law and was admitted to the bar that same year. Three years later, 1938 he was elected Snohomish County prosecuting attorney. In 1940 he was elected to replace Mon Wallgren as U. S. Representative for the 2nd District. His interest in the maritime industry took him as an advisor to the American delegation to the international Maritime Conference in Copenhagen, Demark and the following year was elect president of the conference at its 1946 Seattle meeting. He was elected to the house five times and in 1952 successfully ran against Senator Harry Cain for a seat in the U. S. Senate where he served until his untimely death September 1, 1983 while at home in Everett. Long an influential member of the Senate, he was chairman of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee [88th through 95th Congresses] and served other important committees. Perhaps one of the most important and influential laws passed by Congress in the late 1960s was the National Environmental Policy Act signed by President Richard Nixon on January 1, 1970, a Jackson sponsored bill. In 1960 he was the Democratic National Committee chairman as well as an unsuccessful candidate for that party’s presidential nomination in 1972 and 1976. He was interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Everett. On July 26, 1984 President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom

20. Slade Gorton – R [1981-1987] Thurston County – no record found

21. Daniel J. Evans – R [1983-1989] King County – no record found

22. Brock Adams – D [1987-1993] King County – no record found

23. Slade Gorton – R [1989-1993] King County – no record found

24. Patricia “Patty” Murray – D [1993- incumbent] King County – no Eastern Star record known

25. Maria E. Cantwell – D [2001- incumbent] Snohomish County - no Eastern Star record known

Background: Born in Eire County, Pennsylvania November 6, 1848 his parents removed to Wisconsin in 1859 where he attended common school. In 1865 he enlisted as a private in the Ninth Wisconsin Battery. In 1867 after the war he went to Pennsylvania and in time studied law in New York to be admitted to the bar in 1871. The next year he moved to Nebraska and set up practice in Tecumseh. He was a member of the State house of representatives 1874-1876 and the assistant United States district attorney from 1876 until 1880 when he moved to Washington Territory and settled in Colfax practicing law there until 1888 when he move to Tacoma. He was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Congresses [1893-1897] but was unsuccessful in a bid for reelection to the Fifty-sixth Congress in 1896. He resumed his law practice in Tacoma where he died February 26, 1914 and is interred in Tacoma Cemetery.

Samuel Clarence Hyde – R [1895-1897] at large – Raised in Oriental Lodge #74 {Spokane} August 12, 1918

Background: Born April 22, 1842 in Fort Ticonderoga New York and his family moved to Wisconsin while he was young and there he attended common schools. During the Civil War he served in the Seventeenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and later worked as a surveyor in northern Michigan and Wisconsin. He studied law a the University of Iowa in Iowa City, was admitted to the bar in 1876 and practiced in Rock Rapids, Iowa. The following year he moved to western Washington Puget Sound area and by 1880 had relocated to Spokane as a lawyer. Almost at once he became the Spokane County prosecuting attorney [1880-1886]. He served as a Republican in the Fifty-fourth Congress [1895-1897] but was defeated in his bid for re-election. He continued as a justice of the peace from 1904 until his death March 7, 1922 in Spokane and is interred in Fairmount Cemetery.

William Carey Jones – Silver Republican [1897-1899] at large – He may have been a member of the Craft but Grand Lodge records provide no clear-cut proof. A William. C. Jones is shown as having affiliated with St. John’s No. 9 on March 28, 1883 and demitted from the lodge on December 24, 1883 and another record shows a William C. Jones elected to membership in Temple No. 42 on February 28, 1885 and demitting April 21, 1893. Neither record gives birth nor does death date so it is questionable if it is one and the same person. Membership in Temple Lodge in Cheney is plausible.

Background: Born in Remsen, New York on April 5, 1855, he attended the public schools. It is not quite clear when he moved to Wisconsin or when he attended the West Salem Wisconsin Seminary. He is shown to have graduated from the University of Wisconsin law school in Madison in 1876 and admitted to the bar that same year. He first practiced law in Madelian, Wisconsin serving as city attorney until 1883 when he moved to Cheney, Washington to become that city’s attorney for five years from 1884 to 1889. He moved to Spokane in 1887 and was Washington Territorial twelfth district prosecuting attorney from 1886 to 1889. When Washington was admitted into the union, he was elected State Attorney General and served nearly two terms until 1897. Active in the State Republican party he was a delegate to every Territorial and State convention from 1884 until 1894. In 1896 he was chairman of the State central committee of the Free Coinage Republican Party and was elected as a Silver Republican to the Fifty-fifth Congress [1897-1899] but was defeated for re-election in 1898. He then changed parties and became a Democrat attending every state convention from 1904 to 1924. Upon returning to private life in Spokane, he resumed his law practice until his death June 14, 1927. His remains were cremated and the ashes scattered over Liberty Lake near Spokane

Francis Willington Cushman – R [1899-1909] at large – died in office - Raised in Tacoma Lodge #22 {Tacoma} August 21, 1900

Background: He was born May 8, 1867 in Brighton, Iowa and was a public school student then attended the Academy in Pleasant Plain, Iowa. In 1885 he moved becoming a ranch hand and teacher in Albany County Wyoming. He studied law and in 1889 was admitted to the bar and started his law practice in Bassett, Nebraska. In 1891 he moved to Tacoma and set up a new law office. He was in Troop B, First Cavalry of the Washington National Guard from 1896 to 1903 when cavalry rode horses. He was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-sixth and the next five succeeding Congresses, from 1899 until his death while in office. He first was elected as a Representative at Large; in 1908 he was elected to represent the 2nd Congressional District. While on the trip to New York City he died on July 6, 1909, just over five months after starting his sixth term. His remains were cremated and the ashes are in the Tacoma Cemetery.

William Ewart Humphrey – R [1903-1917] 1903-1909 at large, 1909-1917 1st District – Member of Arcana Lodge #87 {Seattle} and the records show that he received all his degrees by courtesy and was Raised on May 20, 1912 in Pentalpha Lodge #23 in the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia.

Background: Was born in Alamo, Indiana on March 31, 1862 and attended common schools and continued his education at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana graduating in 1887. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1887 and practiced in Crawfordsville before moving to Seattle in 1893 to establish his own law office. He was corporation counsel for the city for four years, 1898 to 1902 when he was elected as a Republican to a seat in the Fifty-eight Congress and to six following Congresses serving from 1903 until 1917. He chose not to run for Congress in 1916 and instead became an unsuccessful Senatorial aspirant. After his failure to gain the Senate seat, he returned to his law practice. President Calvin Coolidge appointed him to the Federal Trade Commission on February 25, 1925 and he served until 1933. He died in Washington DC on February 14, 1934 and his interment was in Oak Hill Cemetery in Crawfordsville, Indiana

Miles Poindexter – R [1909-1911] 3rd District – see senators

Albert Johnson – R [1913-1933] 1913-1915 2nd District, 1915-1933 3rd District – A member of Hoquiam Lodge #64 he was raised by courtesy in George C. Whiting Lodge #22 in the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia

Background: Was born in Springfield, Illinois March 5, 1869. The family moved to Kansas and he attended the public schools and high schools in Atchison and Hiawatha, Kansas. He started as a reporter on the St. Joseph Missouri, Herald and from 1888-1891 was with the St. Louis Missouri Glob-Democrat. He was the managing editor of the New Haven Register in 1896 and 1897 and then went to Washington D.C. to become news editor of the Post for a short period of time before moving to Tacoma in 1898 where he took the editorship of the Tacoma News where he continued until 1906. In 1907 he relocated to Hoquiam and became the editor and publisher of the Grays Harbor Washingtonian. He was elected to congress in 1912 and served from March 4, 1913 until March 3, 1933 having been unsuccessful in a bid for re-election to a twelfth term in the Seventy-third Congress. While in congress he was a captain in the Chemical Warfare Service during WWI. During the special session of the new Sixty-seventh Congress called by newly elected President Warren G. Harding, as chairman of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization he proposed a total ban on all immigration into the country. He retired from the newspaper enterprise in 1934. He died January 17, 1957 in the Veterans Hospital at American Lake at Fort Lewis and is buried in the Sunset Memorial Park in Hoquiam.

William L. LaFollette – R [1911-1919] 1911-1915 3rd District, 1915-1919 4th District – Raised in Whitman Lodge #49 {Pullman} on May 27, 1910 he was dropped NPD in 1931.

Background: Another Indiana native, born in Thorntown on November 30, 1860 and attended what was called graded schools in that town. It appears that at the same time he clerked in a store, maybe part of the jewelry trade. At the age of sixteen he left for Washington Territory but went first to Oregon’s Willamette Valley and by 1877 had moved to the Palouse country. There he became involved in stock production, fruit growing, as an orchard owner and other agricultural businesses in Whitman County. By 1908 he had sold his fruit interests and settled in Pullman. He was a member of the State house of representatives for one term [1899-1901]. He was a member of the World’s Fair Commission and in charge of the Washington Building at the Chicago Exposition in 1893. He was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-second and the next three Congresses [1911-1919. He was defeated for re-election in 1918 and moved to Spokane for three years and then spent two years in Princess Anne, Maryland. He went back into his former business activities in 1927 when he moved to Colfax where he died December 20, 1934 and his final resting place is in the Colfax Cemetery.

Clarence C. Dill – D [1915-1919] 5th District [see details under senators]

John Franklin Miller -- R [1917-1931] 1st District -- There is no record in Grand Lodge files but he is shown as a Mason on one listing. He is interred in Acacia Memorial Park in Seattle which at the time of his death was primarily a Masonic Cemetery

Background: Also born in Indiana, June 9, 1862 on a farm near South Bend. A public schools student he graduated from the law department of Valparaiso University [Indiana] in 1887 and was admitted to the bar the same year. The following year he moved to Seattle to practice law. From 1890 to 1894 he was King County prosecuting attorney and then from 1905 to 1908 was a deputy prosecuting attorney. In 1908 he was elected Republican mayor of Seattle served two years. He served seven terms as a Republican starting with the Sixty-fifth Congress [1917-1931 but lost the election in 1930 to another member of the Craft, Ralph Horr. In 1919 he was a member of the congressional delegation that joined with the Secretary of War to visit the American troops in France and Germany. After his defeat for reelection he returned to his law practice and died in Seattle on May 28, 1936 with his interment in the mausoleum at Acacia Memorial Park. His uncle and namesake was a Republican US Senator [1881-1886 – died in office] from California

John William Summers – R [1919-1933] 4th District – Was Raised in Walla Walla Lodge #7 {Walla Walla} on March 14, 1910

Background: Again, a Hoosier born near Valeene Indiana on April 29, 1870, he attended the public schools there and then graduated from the Southern Indiana Normal College in Mitchell in 1889. He studied medicine and graduated from the Kentucky School of Medicine in Louisville in 1892. He did post graduate work in the Louisville Medical College as well as New York City, London, Berlin and at the University of Vienna. He started practicing medicine in Matton Illinois. He moved to Walla Walla in 1908 to open a medical practice and also became engaged in various agricultural ventures and fruit rising. He was a member of the State house of representatives in 1917-1919. In November 1918 he was elected as a Republican to the US House of Representatives and served seven terms [1919-1933] being defeated for reelection by another Mason, Knute Hill. After his defeat he returned to his other former activities and medical practice. He died in Walla Walla on September 25, 1937 and was interred in Mountain View Cemetery.

John Stanley Webster – R [1919-1923] 5th District - Was Raised in Tyrian Lodge #96 {Spokane} October 25, 1919 and was dropped NPD 1943.

Background: Kentucky born, February 22, 1877, he attended the public schools and also Smith’s Classical School for Boys. He studied law at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, admitted to the bar in 1899 and returned to his place of birth, Cynthiana, Kentucky to set up law practice from 1902 to 1906. He moved to Spokane in May of 1906. The next year he became the chief assistant prosecuting attorney for Spokane County [1907-1909] and in 1909 took a seat on the Spokane County superior court serving on that bench until 1916 when he was elected and served a two-year term on the State Supreme Court. He was elected to the Sixty-sixth, Sixty-seventh and Sixty-eighth Congresses serving from March 4, 1919 until May 8, 1923 when he resigned to become United States district judge for the eastern district of Washington. He served in that position until he retired on August 31, 1939 because of ill health. He remained a Spokane resident until his death there at the age of eighty-five on December 24, 1962. His ashes were place in the Oakesdale Cemetery at Oakesdale.

Samuel Billingsley Hill – D [1923-1937] 5th District - Badger Mountain Lodge #57 {Waterville}

Background: Born April 2, 1875 in Franklin, Arkansas, he attended common school and the law school or department of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. In 1898, the same year he graduated he was admitted to the bar and started his practice in Danville. In 1904 he moved to Waterville and continued to practice law until he became the prosecuting attorney for Douglas County 1907 to 1911. He was a superior court judge for Douglas and Grant Counties from 1917-to 1924 when he was elected as a Democrat to fill the seat that J. Stanley Webster vacated in the Sixty-ninth Congress. He was re-elected for the next five terms serving from September 23, 1925 until his own resignation June 25, 1936. On May 21, 1936 he was confirmed as a member of the United States Board of Tax Appeals [now called the Tax Court of the United States] and he continued to serve on that bench until he retired as a judge on November 30, 1953. He died in Bethesda, Maryland on March 16, 1958 and is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington D. C.

Ralph Ashley Horr –R [1931-1933] 1st District – Was Raised in Verity Lodge #59 {Kent} May 20, 1908

Background: Born in Saybrook, Illinois on August 12, 1884, he attended public schools and then the University of Illinois at Urbana. He moved to Seattle in 1908, studied law at the University of Washington, graduated and was admitted to the bar in 1911. He served for two years [1911-1912] as the King County chief deputy treasurer. He was the chairman of the King County Republican Committee and an unsuccessful candidate for Seattle mayor in 1918. He was a lieutenant and battalion adjutant of the Twenty-sixth Infantry Regiment serving in Europe until discharged March 8, 1920. He was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-second Congress [1931-1933] but was unsuccessful for renomination in 1932. He was also unsuccessful in bids for the United States Senate in 1934, for Governor of the State in 1936 and for Mayor of Seattle in 1948. He practiced law in Seattle until 1957. He died in Seattle January 26, 1960 and his ashes were interred in Hillcrest Burial Park in Kent.

Marion Anthony Zioncheck – D [1933-1936] 1st District – Was Raised in Seattle Lodge #164 {Seattle} April 27, 1925

Background: Born in Kety, Poland December 5, 1901 his parents immigrated to the United States and settled in Seattle in 1905. He attended Seattle public schools and the University of Washington from 1919 to 1929 when he graduated from the school of law. He was admitted to the bar that same year and set up practice in Seattle. He was a delegate to the Democratic conventions in 1932 and 1934 and was elected to the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Congresses [1933 to 1936]. On August 7, 1936 while running for re-election he jumped to his death from a window of his campaign office in the Arctic Building Second Avenue and Columbia. He was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery. >Mon C. Wallgren – D [1933-1940] 2nd District - See governors

Knute Hill – D [1933-1943] 4th District – Was Raised in Euclid Lodge #125 {Prosser} March 16, 1916

Background: He was born on a farm near Creston Illinois on July 31, 1876, the family moved to DeForest, Wisconsin the following year and when he was thirteen to Red Wing Minnesota. He attended the local public schools, the Red Wing Seminary, the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and then went to study law at the University of Wisconsin in Madison where he graduated and as admitted to the bar in 1906. He set up practice in Milwaukee and Eau Claire Wisconsin until 1910 when he moved to Prosser Washington. He taught high school in Benton County from 1911 until 1922. He also invested in various agricultural businesses and was active in the Grange serving as State Grange lecturer from 1922 to 1932. He was elected to the state house of representatives serving from 1927 to 1933 when he was elected to the US House for five terms until 1943. He was defeated for reelection in 1942. He had been an unsuccessful Farmer-Labor Party candidate for the 4th District in 1920 and 1924 and also ran again unsuccessfully in 1946 in the 5th District as an Independent Progressive. For a six month period in 1943-1944 he was superintendent of the Uintah-Ouray Indian agency in Fort Duchesne, Utah, a job he resigned March 31, 1944 and returned to Spokane to become a radio commentator. He did work for the Bureau of Reclamation Columbia Basin Project in Ephrata from 1949 until he retired in 1951. He died in Desert Hot Spring California on December 3, 1963 and is interred in the Yakima Calvary Cemetery.

Wesley Lloyd – D [1933-1936] 6th District - Raised in Lebanon Lodge #104 {Tacoma} September 25, 1929

Background: A native of Kansas, born July 24, 1883 in Arvonia, attended the public schools, Barker University in Baldwin and Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas. He entered the newspaper trade in Kansas City and Topeka. He attended and was gradated from the Kansas City Law School in 1906, was admitted to the bar and moved to Tacoma the same year. He returned to the newspaper trade until 1908 when he set up his law practice in Tacoma. He was a corporal in the Washington National Guard from 1918 to 1920. He was twice elected as a Democrat to Congress and served from March 4, 1933 until he died in office in Washington D.C. on January 10, 1936. He is buried in the Tacoma Cemetery.

Charles Henry Leavy – D [1937-1943] 5th District – Petitioned but was rejected

John Main Coffee – D [1937-1947] 6th District – Raised in Tacoma Lodge #22 {Tacoma} on December 11, 1936

Background: Born in Tacoma on January 23, 1897, he attended the public schools and later the University of Washington from which he graduated in 1920. He then went east to study law at Yale University graduating from there in 1921 and the following year was admitted to the Washington Bar setting up practice in Tacoma. He was secretary to US Senator Clarence Dill in 1923 and 1924, was secretary of the advisory board of the National Recovery Administration 1933-1935, an appraiser and examiner of Pierce County for the Washington State Inheritance Tax and Escheat Division 1933-1936, a member of the Tacoma civil service commission in 1936. November of that year he successfully ran for the Seventy-fifth Congress and was reelected to the next four Congresses as well, holding office from 1937 to 1947. He was defeated for reelection in 1946 and was unsuccessful for Congressional bids in 1950 and 1958. He continued to reside in Tacoma he practice law in both Tacoma and Seattle until shortly before his passing June 3, 1983. His remains were cremated and scattered. He was also a member of the Elks and the Eagles.

Henry M. [Scoop] Jackson – D [1941-1953] 2nd District - Everett No. 137 - See senators

Fred Barthold Norman – R [1943-1945, 1947-1947 –died in office] 3rd District – It appears he was Raised in University Lodge #141 {Seattle} on March 4, 1912 and demitted February 1915. Raymond No. 170

Background: Was born March 21, 1882 on a farm near Martinsville, Illinois. He moved to Lebam in Pacific County in 1901 working on farms, in logging camps, sawmills, shingle mills and shipyards until 1922 when he entered the wholesale and retail tobacco and candy business. Was a member of the Raymond city council 1916-1918, the State House of Representatives in 1919 and 1920 and the State Senate 1925-1935. He was elected to the Seventy-eighth Congress in 1942 but defeated for re-election in 1944. In 1946 he was returned to the Eightieth Congress and served just over four months, January 3, 1947 until his death in Washington D.C. on April 18, 1947. He is buried in Fern Hill Cemetery at Menlo, Washington

Walter Franklin Horan – R [1942-1965] 5th District – Was Raised in Riverside Lodge #112 {Spokane} on March 27, 1925

Background: Was born in Wenatchee on October 15, 1898 and was a public school student and graduated from Wenatchee High School. He went on to Washington State College graduating in 1925. During WWI from April 1917 to November 1919, he served as gunner’s mate 3rd class in the US Navy. As might be expected of a Wenatchee resident he was involved in the fruit growing, packing, storage and shipping business. He was first elected to the Seventy-fifth Congress in 1942 and served in the next ten Congresses as a Republican [1943 to 1965]. He was defeated for reelection in 1964. A little over two years later he died while in Manila, Philippines, December 19, 1966 and is interred in the Wenatchee Cemetery.

Homer Raymond Jones – R [1947-1949] 1st District – Was Raised in Bremerton Lodge #117 {Bremerton} December 12, 1930

Background: A Missouri native, born in Martinsburg on September 3, 1893, his family moved to Bremerton in 1901 and there he attended public school and later business administration at the Seattle Business College. During WWI he spent two years [1917-1919] as a US Navy enlisted man. After the war he returned to Bremerton and worked as a sheet-metal worker at the Naval Shipyard from 1919 to 1921. His first elected office was in Charleston, from 1922 to 1924 as a city councilman and as mayor from 1924 to 1927. He was treasurer of Kitsap County, 1926-1929 and then appointed assistant State treasurer in 1929 serving until 1933. He was the City of Bremerton’s treasurer from 1933 to 1937 and mayor from 1939 to 1941. He was in the United States Naval Reserves as an officer from 1941 until discharged at the rank of captain in 1946. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. He was elected to serve one term in the Eightieth Congress [1947 to 1949] and was unsuccessful in his try for reelection in 1948. From 1949 to 1953 he was the superintendent of the Washington Sates Veterans’ Home and was appointed a second time to be assistant State treasurer from 1953 to 1957. After leaving active politics he became a real estate salesman and died November 20, 1970 in Bremerton. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Thor Carl Tollefson – R [1947-1965] 6th District – Was Raised in Destiny Lodge #197 {Tacoma} November 11, 1941

Background: One of the first US Representatives born in the 20th Century, he first greeted the world in Perley Minnesota on May 2, 1901. The family moved to Tacoma when he was eleven years old and he continued in the public schools. It is very apparent that his student years were anything but easy; he worked while attending school and finally graduated from Lincoln High School in 1924. He went on to the University of Washington and graduated from the Law School in 1930, was admitted to the bar that same year and began practice in his hometown. For nearly ten years he was a regular and important delegate at every State Republican convention, 1936, 1938, 1940, 1942, and 1944. His first run for Congress in 1944 was unsuccessful but two years later in 1946 he was elected to the Eightieth Congress. He served nine terms from 1947 to 1965 when in the November 1964 election; he lost his bid for reelection to another term in the Eighty-eighth Congress. Having served in Congress on the important fisheries and related committees, Governor Dan Evans appointed him director of fisheries for the State and also special assistant to the Governor in charge of international fisheries negotiations. He continued his interest and activities in this field until his death in Tacoma on December 30, 1982. He is interred in the Mountain View Memorial Park Cemetery.

Alfred John [Jack] Westland – R [1953-1965] 2nd District – Was Raised in Alpha Lodge #212 {Everett} June 20, 1948

Background: He was born in Everett on December 14, 1904 and attended the local public schools and then the University of Washington Law School graduating in 1926. He then moved east and was in the cottons goods business in Chicago and New York from 1926 until 1930 when he entered the investment brokerage business in Chicago, Illinois [1930-1936] when he returned to Seattle in 1936 and continued as a broker until 1941. He enlisted in the US Navy in the summer of 1940, was commissioned a lieutenant [jg.] November of that year, he was called to active duty on May 1, 1941. He served in the Pacific theatre until his discharge as a commander in February 1946. He then returned to Everett and operated an insurance agency. He was elected to Congress in 1952 and served six terms being unsuccessful in his reelection bid in 1964. He then moved to Monterey California and started an auto dealership and was a resident of Pebble Beach, California where he died November 3, 1982. He is buried in Arlington national Cemetery.

Mike McCormack – D [1971-1981] 4th District – Member of Richland Lodge No. 283. He received all three degrees in three weeks becoming a Master Mason on March 27, 1943 in Barton Smith Lodge No. 613 in Toledo, Ohio. He demitted from that lodge November 23, 1948 and affiliated with Richland Lodge May 5, 1952 For a period of time he was also the Chapter Advisor to Richland DeMolay.

Background: He was born in Basil, Fairfield County Ohio on December 14, 1921 and named Claud Gilbert which he legally changed to Michael but preferred to be known as Mike. He attended public schools in Toledo, Ohio, the University of Toledo and later Washington State College for a Masters in Science. He studied law at Gonzaga University Law School in Spokane. He was commissioned as the second lieutenant in the parachute infantry in 1943 and served occupation duty in Germany until 1946 when he was discharged as a first lieutenant. He taught at the Tacoma’s College of Puget Sound 1949-1950; from 1950 until 1970 was a research scientist at the Hanford Project. In 1950 he was elected to the State House of Representatives and in 1960 moved to the State Senate and served until 1970 when he was elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-second Congress and to the next four Congresses defeated in 1980 by a fellow Mason.

In 1990 he became director of the institute for Science and Society in Ellensburg, Washington residing in both Chelan and Washington D.C. He claims membership in the Grange, American Legion ad the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Still living as of 2005

Julia Butler Hansen – D [1960-1974] 3rd District – Eastern Star in Cathlamet or Ridgefield

Background: A northwest product, born June 7, 1907 in Portland, Oregon she attended public schools, Washington and Oregon State College, the University of Washington. She was member of the Cathlamet City Council from 1938 to 1941 and as a Democrat State representative from 1939 to 1960. She served as House Speaker pro tempore from 1955 to 1960. In 1960 in a special election she was chosen to fill the vacancy created by the death on the floor of the House of Representatives of Russell V. Mack, who by coincident had also been elected to fill the un-expired term of Fred Norman who died in office. Butler was reelected to six succeeding Congresses [November 6, 1960 to December 31, 1974] but chose not seek reelection in November 1974. In 1975 Governor Evans appointed her to a six-year term on the Washington State Toll Bridge Authority and State Highway Commission. She was chairman of the State Transportation Commission from 1979 to 1981. She died in Cathlamet May 3, 1988

Sidney Wallace Morrison – R [1981-1993] 4th District – Member of Toppenish-Meridian Lodge #178 {Toppenish}, Raised in Meridian Lodge #196 {Buena}

Background: Was born in Yakima May 13, 1933, attended Toppenish public schools, Yakima Valley College and then received a Bachelor of Science degree from Washington Sate University in 1954. He enlisted and served in the US Army 1954 to 1956 and returned to Yakima as a partner in the Morrison Fruit Co. Inc. He served in the State house of representatives 1966-1974 and in the State senate 1974 to 1980 when he was elected as a Republican to the Ninety-seventh Congress. He was reelected five times retiring January 3, 1993 having decided not to run for the One Hundred and Third Congress but instead to make an unsuccessful bid for governor in November 1992. The successful candidate Mike Lowry appointed him to head the State Transportation Commission, etc. He is a resident of Zillah. Still living as of 2005.

Myron Bradford [Mike] Kreidler – D [1993-1995] 9th District – Raised in Harmony Lodge #18 {Olympia} on March 21, 1978

Background: Born September 28, 1943 in Tacoma. He obtained degrees from Pacific University and UCLA. He practiced as a doctor of optometry for Group Health Cooperative in Olympia. He served on the North Thurston School District board of directors 1973 - 1977, in State House Representative 1977-1984; State Senate 1985-1992 elected to the One Hundred Third Congress, served one term and was defeated. He was elected Washington State Insurance Commissioner in 2000 and re-elected in 2004. Still living as of 2005.

George R. Nethercutt Jr. – R [1995-2005] 5th District – Raised in Spokane Lodge #34 {Spokane} on June 24, 1980 Background: Born October 7, 1944 in Spokane. He attended North Central High School, Washington State University, Gonzaga Law School. Clerked for United States Judge Raymond E. Plummer of the District of Alaska, was staff counsel and chief of staff for Alaska US Senator Ted Stevens 1972 to 1977. An adoption lawyer in private practice he was elected to the One Hundred Fourth Congress defeating Speaker of the House Thomas Foley, the first House Speaker defeated for re-election in 134 years. He was reelected to the four succeeding Congresses. In 2004 he was the un-successful Republican Candidate for US Senate. Still living as of 2005

Sources:

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Washington.historylink.org
Politicalgraveyard.com
GL of Washington files
Washington Secretary of State Archives
Seattle Public Library files
Governors of Washington by Edmond S. Meany
Meet the Governors by Louis A. Magrini

“NOT MADE WITH HANDS” The Centennial History of Grand
Lodge Masonry in Washington and Alaska
by Paul W. Harvey (M \W \ Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted
Masons of Washington – 1958)