Page 187 - PGM Compendium

Alaskan Lodge to become Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Washington.

Additionally, our Most Worshipful Brother was also probably the first Grand Master ever to lay a
cornerstone for a Masonic Temple after the temple had been dedicated and in use. Robert Morris
Lodge No. 97 had moved from Mayfield to Silver Creek, in the timber country of eastern Lewis
County. The present temple was built largely by the labor of the members during the hard times
of the middle and late 'thirties, at a time when there were many to say it could not be done. After
the temple had been dedicated in 1939, it occurred to the brethren that there had been no
cornerstone laying ceremony.

Although they were told that it was too late to lay a cornerstone, they carried the matter to Most
Worshipful Brother Kirtland. He not only authorized the cornerstone laying, but came to Silver
Creek with all of his Grand Lodge officers and laid it on April 20, 1942; and no one present that
day will ever forget the ceremony or the heart-warming words of the Grand Master as he paid
tribute to the spirit of those brethren who, undaunted by depression and unemployment, had
accomplished the seemingly impossible.

Following his year as Grand Master, Most Worshipful Brother Kirtland served as chairman of the
Committee on Grievance and Appeals until December, 1944, when he was appointed to the
Finance Committee. He rendered outstanding service on that very important committee until he
was called to higher duty.
Outside of the Blue Lodge, our Most Worshipful Brother was a member of the Eastern Star and a
Past Patron of Wrangell Chapter No. 12. Because no lodge existed in the area, he organized a
Masonic Club at Wrangell. He was a member of Anchorage Chapter No. 2 Royal Arch Masons of
Anchorage, and of Alaska Consistory No. 1 A. &. A. S. R., at Juneau, Alaska.

In his later years, our Past Grand Master had four great concerns:

Home: His children Elaine and Ronnie were going through high school and into the University,
and he had great pride in them and their accomplishments and in their charming and gracious
mother.

Work: As manager of the Ballard Branch of the National Bank of Commerce, he was proud not
only of the development of modern banking facilities, but of the part the bank was playing in the
growth of the community.

Masonry: His concern was that, through its friendships and fellowships, its ideals and high
purposes, there might come true brotherhood.

Country: His was a genuine concern lest by apathy and indifference we permit precious liberties
to slip away from us; his was a flaming faith in a government of laws and not of men.

Most Worshipful Charles Phelps Kirtland finished his labors here on January 23, 1952, and entered
into a greater field of labor and of love in that Lodge which will remain open through the boundless
ages of eternity.