Elwood Evans is Born

Today in Masonic History Elwood Evans is born in 1828.

Elwood Evans was an American politician and lawyer.

Evans was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 28th, 1828. Anecdotal evidence suggests he became a lawyer after reading law before being admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. President Millard Fillmore appointed him deputy collector of customs for the new Puget Sound Port of Entry. He became a member of the Oregan Territory bar shortly after arriving in Olympia, one of the first lawyers north of the Columbia River.

Along with the collector of customs, Simpson P. Moses, they opened an office in Olympia. One of their first acts was to seize two Hudson’s Bay Company vessels; the Beaver and Mary Dare for allegedly violating United States law. The irony of the case was the Hudson’s Bay Company had developed ports on Puget Sound and had long been the dominant business in the region. The cases were soon dismissed.

Evans became friends with Thorton F. McElroy (first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Washinton), publisher of the Columbia Newspaper, a strong advocate for the creation of a Columbia Territory. In late 1852 he returned east to Washington D.C. to speak on the division of the Oregon Territory. President Fillmore signed the bill creating the Territory of Washington on March 2, 1853.

Evans returned as the aide to Isaac I. Stevens, the first Territorial Governor, to keep notes of the Stevens survey party as they headed west. At the same time he also compiled a personal diary.

Evans was chief clerk of the Territorial House during the first session in 1854 and was later a member filling the unexpired term of a House member. From 1862 to 1867 he was the Territorial Secretary and acted as governor numerous times in the absence of the actual Governor. He filled the office nearly all of 1865 in the absence of William Pickering. He lobbied hard for the appointment to the office of governor, but he was active in the wrong political party and had no success.

He was appointed Territorial Secretary during the Lincoln administration. In this position he assumed the right to choose a public printer. He awarded the post to Thorton McElroy who according to historian Robert Ficken was the "public face in a printing business owned by Evans."

He was a major influence in the compiling of the Law Code of 1869. He was Speaker of the Territorial Legislature in 1875. During that time he took over the Territorial Library and move it to the capitol campus. He also began his history of the region. He is called the Father of Washington State Historians. He served as mayor of Olympia from 1859 through 1861. That year he moved to Tacoma to practice law. In 1889 he was elected to the First Session of the Washington State House of Representatives. He became the first president of the Washington Historical Society in 1891. He was greatly influential in locating the Washington State Historical Museum in Tacoma. He died in that city on January 28, 1898 dropping dead on a street corner during a conversation with a friend.

Evans was made a Mason in Olympia Lodge No. 1 in 1863 and was elected Master the same year. He was elected Grand Secretary in 1863 and again in 1864. He served as Grand Master 1865-1866.

This article provided by Brother Coe Tug Morgan – Honorary Grand Secretary, Past Grand Historian Grand Lodge F. & A. M. of Washington.