Page 281 - PGM Compendium

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Levi Ankeny: 1883-1884

Levi Ankeny of Walla Walla was elected Grand Master. He was banker
and political leader and was elected US Senator from Washington for
the six-year term beginning in 1903. He was born August 1, 1844 in
Missouri and was taken to Oregon in 1850. He was educated in Portland
and as a young man became a packtrain merchant in Orofino and
Florence, and other mining districts in Idaho. He served as the first
mayor of Lewiston, Idaho, shortly after attaining his majority. He
returned to Portland in 1873 and in 1878 removed to Walla Walla,
where he established the first national bank to open its doors in
Washington. He is said to have attained his great popularity because he
encouraged his debtors to hang onto their land and business enterprises
during the panic of 1893. He refused to foreclose on loans unless forced
to do so.

After his death in Walla Walla on March 29, 1921, the Walla Walla
Union said of him: “During the hard times of 1893 and during several other financial panics, he could by
law have gained possession of much of the richest farming land of Walla Walla County by sharp practices,
which, however, were foreign to his nature. Innumerable times in the past few years he has aided many a
farmer and businessman in financial distress and thus kept this community free from the evils of
bankruptcy and hardship.”

Brother Ankeny became a Mason in Willamette Lodge, No. 2, in Portland in 1866. He affiliated with
Walla Walla Lodge, No. 7, when he settled there, and became its Master in 1882. He long had a strong
hand in guiding our Grand Lodge as a member of its important committees.

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