Page 180 - PGM Compendium

Additionally, our Most Worshipful Brother was also probably the first Grand Master ever to lay a
cornerstone for a Masonic Temple after the temple had been dedicated and in use. Robert Morris Lodge
No. 97 had moved from Mayfield to Silver Creek, in the timber country of eastern Lewis County. The
present temple was built largely by the labor of the members during the hard times of the middle and late
'thirties, at a time when there were many to say it could not be done. After the temple had been dedicated
in 1939, it occurred to the brethren that there had been no cornerstone laying ceremony.

Although they were told that it was too late to lay a cornerstone, they carried the matter to Most Worshipful
Brother Kirtland. He not only authorized the cornerstone laying, but came to Silver Creek with all of his
Grand Lodge officers and laid it on April 20, 1942; and no one present that day will ever forget the
ceremony or the heart-warming words of the Grand Master as he paid tribute to the spirit of those brethren
who, undaunted by depression and unemployment, had accomplished the seemingly impossible.

Following his year as Grand Master, Most Worshipful Brother Kirtland served as chairman of the
Committee on Grievance and Appeals until December, 1944, when he was appointed to the Finance
Committee. He rendered outstanding service on that very important committee until he was called to
higher duty.

Outside of the Blue Lodge, our Most Worshipful Brother was a member of the Eastern Star and a Past
Patron of Wrangell Chapter No. 12. Because no lodge existed in the area, he organized a Masonic Club at
Wrangell. He was a member of Anchorage Chapter No. 2 Royal Arch Masons of Anchorage, and of Alaska
Consistory No. 1 A. &. A. S. R., at Juneau, Alaska.

In his later years, our Past Grand Master had four great concerns:

Home: His children Elaine and Ronnie were going through high school and into the University, and he
had great pride in them and their accomplishments and in their charming and gracious mother.

Work: As manager of the Ballard Branch of the National Bank of Commerce, he was proud not only of
the development of modern banking facilities, but of the part the bank was playing in the growth of the
community.
Masonry: His concern was that, through its friendships and fellowships, its ideals and high purposes, there
might come true brotherhood.

Country: His was a genuine concern lest by apathy and indifference we permit precious liberties to slip
away from us; his was a flaming faith in a government of laws and not of men.

Most Worshipful Charles Phelps Kirtland finished his labors here on January 23, 1952, and entered into a
greater field of labor and of love in that Lodge which will remain open through the boundless ages of
eternity.

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