Page 270 - PGM Compendium

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Joseph M. Taylor

1894-1895

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At the 133 Annual Communication it was noted by Most
Worshipful Past Grand Master Walter F. Meier that “in the
seventy-five years' existence of this Grand Lodge, there have
been three Josephs who have served it as Grand Master:
Joseph A. Kuhn, elected in 1882, Joseph Smith, elected in
1887, and Joseph M. Taylor, elected in 1894.” He stated
further: “Sometime during the period of their service in the
Grand Lodge, these three distinguished brethren constituted
themselves into a triumvirate and entered into a solemn
engagement with each other, promising that upon the death
of one of them the survivors would, if possible, conduct the
obsequies of him who had gone, and that the survivor of these
two would, in turn, fulfill the same duty when the one of them was called away. This pact was
renewed at the successive Annual Communications of the Grand Lodge, and, as promised, it was
faithfully observed.

When Most Worshipful Brother Smith laid down the tools and implements of his earthly service.
Most Worshipful Brother Kuhn was incapacitated through illness, and Most Worshipful Brother
Taylor, under special deputization of the Grand Master, convened the Grand Lodge at Kalama,
and conducted the funeral services for him. Subsequently, when Most Worshipful Brother Kuhn
was called from labor to rest, in like manner, Most Worshipful Brother Taylor performed the last
sad rites for him. The tie between these distinguished brethren was very strong, and it was not
strange that Most Worshipful Brother Taylor, as the last survivor of them, in delivering the
memorial addresses for them in this Grand Lodge, should express his grief at their absence and
say, ‘My hope is that in the mystic future I may be privileged to commune with them.’”

Our Past Grand Master then offered this memorial to the last of the “Three Josephs”, Most
Worshipful Brother Joseph Marion Taylor who was called to the Celestial Lodge above on
September 22, 1932.

Most Worshipful Brother Joseph Marion Taylor was born June 3, 1854, at the little village of
Waterford in Washington County, Ohio. His paternal ancestors came to this part of Ohio from
Frederic, Maryland, and his maternal ancestors were Shermans from Pittsfield, Massachusetts,
These families settled on the Muskingum River, and here young Joseph spent his boyhood days
assisting his father In his farming operations, as well as in boatbuilding.
His early education was obtained in the public schools of Ohio and he soon developed a special
aptitude for mathematics. He attended the high schools in both Stockport and Malta in Ohio, and
then took a scientific course in Adrian College at Adrian, Michigan, At the age of eighteen, he