Page 272 - PGM Compendium

Townsend in 1888.

An examination of the Grand Lodge proceedings discloses that he first attended the Annual
Communication held in Port Townsend in June 1888, and served on the Committee on Returns and
Work of Lodges. The next year when the Grand Lodge convened in Olympia, he was there
representing his Lodge as its Worshipful Master. This time he served on the Committee on Finance.

He attended the next communication of the Grand Lodge, which was held in Ellensburg in June
1890. In addition to performing his Committee duties, he was appointed by the newly elected
Grand Master, and installed as Grand Orator. During his term as Grand Orator, he acted as the
Grand Master's deputy in constituting Falls City Lodge, No. 66, on July 12, 1890.
At the 1891 Annual Communication, he would be elected and installed as Junior Grand Warden, a
position he held while serving as Worshipful Master of St. Johns Lodge, No. 9, for the third
consecutive year. He made a regular advance during the succeeding years, first to the office of
Senior Grand Warden, in Spokane, Deputy Grand Master, In Tacoma, and Most Worshipful Grand
Master, in Everett.

During his time in the Oriental Chair, Most Worshipful Brother Taylor was busy. When the Grand
Lodge convened in Olympia on June 11, 1895, aside from routine matters, he reported that on July
4, 1894, he had laid the cornerstone of a new building of the University of Washington, that he
had rendered forty decisions, acted on fifteen amendments to By-Laws of Lodges, granted sixteen
special dispensations, constituted two Lodges and granted dispensations for three new Lodges.

The completion of his year as Grand Master did not mean a cessation of Interest and activity in the
Grand Lodge, for during succeeding years he was called upon and served as follows: Once as a
member of the Jurisprudence Committee.; three times as a member of the Committee on
Obituaries; twice on the Committee on Charters and New Lodges; once on the Committee on
Finance; once on the Committee on By-Laws; for five years as Grand Lecturer, and during the last
of such years he reported having instructed 49 Lodges and attended fifteen of the thirty visitations
made by the Grand Master, In his capacity as Grand Lecturer he delivered a lecture on "Masonry
and Science," at the semi-centennial of Olympia Lodge, No, 1. He also served on a special
committee appointed to consider and report on the District Deputy Grand Master system. He was
present at every Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge following the completion of his
Grand Mastership in 1895, down to 1932, with the exception of two, when he was unavoidably
detained. In 1915, when he was absent the second time, the following telegram was sent to him by
direction of the Grand Lodge:
"The Grand Lodge of Masons misses your inspiring presence, wise counsel and illuminating wit,
and regrets that public duties compel your absence."

He was the Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of Ohio near our Grand Lodge from 1900 to
the time of his death. He acted as Grand Treasurer when the Grand Lodge convened to conduct the
funeral services for Past Grand Master Daniel Bagley, and as Junior Grand Warden during the
Grand Lodge session in 1928, the regular incumbent of that office, Right Worshipful Bro. Roy S.
Hayward, having died during the year. He was a member of a committee of three appointed to