Page 316 - PGM Compendium

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Thornton F. McElroy: 1858-1869

The last of 12 children in his family, Thornton Fielding
McElroy was born in West Middleton, Pennsylvania, on
July 24, 1825. His father was a Methodist clergyman who
came to the United States from Ireland in 1790. He died the
year after Thornton was born. Thornton's mother then took
the family to Ohio to be with her parents. McElroy left
home at 18 and found a job as an apprentice printer at the
Free Press in Pittsfield, Illinois, where he met Sarah Bates.
The two were married in 1847.

Despite urgings to the contrary from his family, he decided
to come West, and arrived in Oregon City, Oregon, in 1849.
He left his wife, Sarah, behind, planning to call for her
when he was settled. Neither anticipated that five long
years would pass before they would be reunited. He found
employment with the Oregon Spectator, a pioneer newspaper in Oregon City, but he was lured to
California by the gold discovery. He soon returned to Oregon City, however, and became a member of
Multnomah Lodge.

When he was made a Mason is unknown, as the records of Multnomah Lodge were destroyed by fire. He
was, however, listed as a member of Multnomah Lodge in the records of the Grand Lodge of Oregon in
1852.

Brother McElroy was ambitious and possessed of a strong will. He decided to cast his lot with the Puget
Sound country and in 1852 he came to Olympia to establish a weekly newspaper. About that time he
would become the first Worshipful Master of Olympia Lodge No. 5 under the jurisdiction of the Grand
Lodge of Oregon, serving seven consecutive terms. During his tenure as Worshipful Master, he was
elected Junior Grand Warden of Oregon in 1854, served as one of its inspectors in 1856 and was appointed
to important Oregon Grand Lodge committees in 1854, 1855 and 1857. He would be elected as the first
Grand Master of the newly formed Grand Lodge of Washington in 1858.

On September 11 of 1852 he and J. W. Wiley started publication of the Columbian, the first newspaper
north of the Columbia River. This newspaper advocated formation of a new territory north of the
Columbia, and to be named the Territory of Columbia. It was from this that the newspaper took its name.
Editor McElroy also promoted a road across the Cascades to bring farmers and industrialists into the Puget
Sound region.

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