Page 226 - PGM Compendium

Our good brother began his Grand Lodge service at the Grand Communication held in Seattle in
1903. Most Worshipful John Arthur was pleased to appoint him a member of a special committee
for the consideration of the Standard Work of Washington and the Grand Lodge Lecturer System.
In 1905, he acted as Senior Grand Deacon, and from this time forward he participated in an official
capacity at every succeeding Grand Lodge Communication. At the close of the 1905 Grand
Communication he was appointed one of the Custodians of the Work, to which position he was
reappointed the next eight years. Then in 1914, and again at the next two succeeding
communications of the Grand Lodge, he was appointed Deputy Grand Lecturer.

In 1917 he was elected Junior Grand Warden, and was regularly advanced until his election in
1920 as Most Worshipful Grand Master. His year as Grand Master was a particularly busy one,
and the Grand Lodge Communication over which he presided in 1921, in Spokane, was an
important one. He reported that he had visited eight of our Lodges in Alaska. He had attended the
annual meeting of The George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association, in
Alexandria, VA. He had granted dispensations for the formation of thirteen new Lodges. As
showing his desire to perpetuate the names of men who had rendered distinguished services to
Freemasonry, the names of four of these Lodges were Joseph Warren, Daniel Bagley, Lafayette
and Robert Burns, respectively.

Our Grand Master had not been at all well, and he might appropriately have given that as an excuse
for not continuing actively in Masonic work, at the conclusion of his year as Grand Master, but it
was not his will to do so. On the contrary, he accepted the appointment as Grand Lecturer tendered
him by his successor. When he reported at the next communication of the Grand Lodge, he stated
what everyone knew to be a fact: "I have willfully disobeyed the urgent injunction of the Grand
Master to take further rest and not to endanger my life by excessive exertion." At this same
communication he was appointed a member of the Committee on Grievance and Appeals. At the
succeeding communication he served as a member of the Committee on Obituaries. Then he was
appointed, at the close of the 1924 communication, as a member of the Committee on Masonic
Research and Education, and he commenced what was to be his final service to the Craft. At each
succeeding communication he was continued in that capacity, having served during the past five
years as the Executive Secretary of this committee.

What M⸫W⸫ Brother Begg said relative to Masonic Research and Education in his message as
Grand Master in 1921 shows his appreciation of the importance of that subject: “This Grand Lodge
has taken a wise step in providing for a more extensive system of Masonic research and; education
than was deemed necessary in its earlier years. I trust this step will be followed and quickened
from year to year, until we can honestly boast that we have in this Grand Jurisdiction as well
instructed a Craft as can be found in the entire United States. To carry out this worthy purpose, it
will be necessary to increase the facilities thus far provided, for the necessity is growing space.
We are taking into our Masonic body an immense number of worthy young men, and to them we
owe the duty of furnishing all possible means for their education in our mysteries and in the