Page 283 - PGM Compendium

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Joseph Smith

1887-1888

Joseph Smith of Kalama was elected this year. The new Grand
Master was an insurance agent. He was born October 21, 1828
in Pennsylvania, and came west to California in 1852. He mined
there and served as deputy sheriff. He saw service in the Civil
War and was commissioned a major. After the war he was in
business in Texas and Utah, and came to Kalam in 1872 to
engage in the insurance business. He served in various public
offices in Kalama and Cowlitz County.

He had the distinction of being Master of Lodges in three states.
He was raised in St. John’s Lodge, No. 37, at Yreka, California
in 1856, and was its Master in 1858, 1859 and 1861. He was
Master of El Paso Lodge, No. 130, of Texas in 1868, and he served as Master of Kalama Lodge,
No. 17, for 15 years and as Secretary for 10 years between 1873 and 1908. Few have toiled for
Washington Masonry so long and so faithfully as Joseph Smith. He died in Kalama on August 11,
1910.