Page 282 - PGM Compendium

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Nathan S. Porter

1888-1889

Only a few have held elective Grand Lodge offices longer than
Nathan Smith Porter, an Olympia lawyer who was elected
Grand Master in 1888. He served 23 years in all. He was elected
Junior Grand Warden in 1885, Deputy Grand Master in 1887,
Grand Master the next year, and then Grand Treasurer for 20
terms from 1900 until he retired and the office was abolished in
1919.

He was born May 24, 1834 in New York State and was educated
there and in Ohio. He was another young man who came west
to California, and he arrived there in 1853. He came north to
Seattle in 1858 and then settled in Olympia in 1860. He was
chief clerk of the Territorial Legislature in 1866 and later was prosecuting attorney of Thurston
County. He received his Entered Apprentice Degree in Grand Mound Lodge, No. 3 in 1867 and
was not raised until 1880 in Harmony Lodge, No. 18, in Olympia. He served as its Treasurer. He
died in Olympia December 25, 1920 at age 86.