10/13/2026
FREE MASONRY. WASHINGTON LODGE, 164 (FIRST PICTURE). This lodge was chartered upon the petition of the members of No. 54, which had been in abeyance since the war. It was constituted March 1, 1819, by Hon. John H. Walker, D. D. G. M., and met in the hall of No. 54 until 1825, when it erected a hall on Maiden St. (second house west of the Round Corner). This lodge continued in successful operation until 1832, when it suspended labor until the officers should again summon the craftsmen to work. They suspended their labor on account of the wicked and persecuting spirit of anti-Masonry, which blighted church and State, and even separated families. 80 full of evil was this destroying spirit that good men shuddered at its wicked and iniquitous demands. But the fury of the storm soon passed over; ten years of anti-Masonic darkness, from the year 1826 to 1830, was sufficient to convince the people of its malignant designs, and the persecutors of the order were universally consigned to the tomb of oblivion.
On the 14th of April, 1845, the W. M. Brother George Baird summoned the craft to labor, and during the thirteen years of its suspension, death had not robbed the Masonic Temple of either officers or members, but all were present and participated in erecting an altar to God, and placing thereon its first great light. Since 1845, the progress of this lodge has been onward, her membership discharging their entire duty, beloved and respected both as citizens and as Masons.
From its organization to the present time the following persons have filled the office of Worshipful Masters, viz: George Jackson, Thomas H. Baird, George Baird, Alfred Creigh, William Wolf, William Smith, H. H. Frisbie, William Boardman, W. Hart, Alexander Wishart, James C. Acheson, James M. Byers, James M. House, David Aiken, and Frederick Whittlesey, its present Worshipful Master.
(NOTE: George Jackson (1764-1822) (SECOND PICTURE). He was born in Ireland in 1764. During the War of 1812, George Jackson was documented as a resident of Washington County, contributing $1.50 to the citizen subscription fund to equip local military volunteers. George Jackson, the first Worshipful Master of Washington Lodge #164 was raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason on August 5th, 1805 in old Lodge 54, the precursor to Washington Lodge #164. Past Master George Jackson died December 31, 1823 and was buried Jan. 1, 1824, in Beallsville, Washington county, with masonic honors.)
(NOTE: Thomas Harlan Baird (1787-1866) (THIRD PICTURE) was born November 15,1787, in Washington, Penn. He was the third son of Dr. Absalom and Susanna (Brown) Baird, the latter a daughter of John Brown, architect. When quite young he was sent to a Latin school, taught by one of the pioneer classical teachers of that day in Brooke county, W. Va. He was called home by the sudden death of his father, and his education from that time had to be completed by his own earnest efforts and scholarly tastes. He studied law with Joseph Pentecost, one of the most prominent lawyers of that period, and was admitted to the Washington county bar in July, 1808, before he had reached the age of twenty-one. In 1818 he was selected as president judge of Washington, Fayette, Greene and Somerset counties, and continued to hold the position until 1838. This commission bestowed upon so young a man, when the Washington county bar was quite noted for its able lawyers, was an acknowledgment of his legal ability. During the ten years in which he practiced law he was intensely occupied in promoting by every means in power, the growth and progress of his native town. He was, in 1814, one of the directors and stockholder in the Washington Steam-mill & Manufacturing Company, in which he lost money and gained nothing. He was also one of the contractors on the National Road, with Parker Campbell and Thomas McGiffin; his energy was unbounded in this work as in everything he undertook. The first survey made for the Chartiers Valley Railroad one of the first railroads prospected, was made wholly at his expense; which fact was not learned until after his death, the information being given by the engineer who surveyed it for him. He was one the commissioners appointed to raise Stock for the Washington & Williamsport Turnpike Road, and for the Washington & Pittsburgh Turnpike Road. In 1843 Judge Baird, and Judge William Wilkins, of Pittsburgh, purchased the stock raised by the State for the Washington & Pittsburgh Turnpike. No dividends were ever paid the purchasers of the stock though it was kept as a toll-road for many years. The Monongahela Navigation Company, having failed in its many attempts to improve the navigation of the Monongahela river, at last succeeded in forming a practical slackwater navigation company, and among the many commissioners appointed to receive subscriptions to the stock, Judge Baird has numbered. He was also elected, in 1818, presidency of the board of directors of the Bank of Washington, an " Original Bank," as it was called. In November, 1818, Judge Baird conveyed the property of the bank to David Acheson, Alexander Murdoch and John Marshall, trustees. After his retirement from the bench, upon which he was much against his will or inclination, persuaded by influential friends to remain several years longer than he otherwise would, he practiced law in the Pittsburgh bar, where he was engaged only in important cases. In 1848 he retired to his much loved home, at Harlem, his country seat on the Monongahela river, where he had for many years spent his summers with his family and friends. Thomas Harlan Baird was buried in n Washington Cemetery, Washington, Pennsylvania.)
(NOTE: GEORGE BAIRD (1785-1860) (FOURTH PICTURE) was born in Kennett Square, Chester Co., Penn., October 28, 1785. He was taken by his parents to their new home in Washington at the age of eleven months, and here he grew up into the bodily and mental strength which ever characterized him amidst the peculiar advantages of a community whose first settlers possessed unusual culture and transmitted it to their posterity. Reared carefully amidst the best influences of a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian home and community, the texture of his youthful character was wrought after that superior fashion. The death of his father left Mr. Baird an orphan of just twenty years. He had simultaneously or alternately, been for some time pursuing classical and mathematical study at Washington Academy, and preparing for the practice of medicine in his father's office. During the summer of 1805, he had enjoyed the instruction of the Rev. Matthew Brown, who in the spring of that year had become both pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Washington, and principal of the academy. Dr. Brown had in the academy, as assistant, Mr. David Elliott (afterward Rev. Dr. Elliott), the successor of Dr. Brown both in the pastorate of the church and the presidency of the college. The retirement of Mr. Elliott after a year of service to resume his studies as a candidate for graduation in Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Penn., was simultaneous with the transition of Washington Academy into the college under the charter of 1806. Mr. Baird took his place as tutor, and efficiently discharged the duties of the position for a year. The serious bereavement which imposed upon him a large share of the support of the family, also compelled the abandonment of a future prosecution of collegiate studies, and, what was still worse, of his medical studies also. His first important venture, along with his brother-in-law, Nicholas Wilson, in the form of a boat-load of flour for the market at New Orleans, was a disastrous failure, on account of the intervening depression of prices. Subsequently he was engaged in business for a brief season at St. Genevieve, Mo., and also at Nashville, Tenn. But returning to his home in Washington, popular favor expressed itself in his election, in 1811, to the office of sheriff of Washington county, for the term of three years, re-election being forbidden by law in the case of that office, unless after a lapse of time. During the same years, as for the two previous years, the office of deputy attorney-general was filled by his brother Thomas H. Baird, who likewise was president judge of the district composed of Washington, Fayette and Greene counties for a continuous period of twenty years, beginning with 1818. Very shortly after his marriage and the assumption of the duties of his office as sheriff, Mr. Baird took the vows of a Christian upon himself and sat down beside his beloved bride at the communion table of the Lord. The expiration of Mr. Baird's term of office was followed, after a short interval, by his election in January, 1816, as a member of the House of Representatives at Harrisburg, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Gen. James Stephenson. He at once took his seat and vigilantly discharged his duties as a legislator. Retiring then to private life, he engaged in mercantile business, which through several changes, and with varying fortune, he pursued until 1829 when his financial embarrassments culminated in bankruptcy. The trial was in every way severe, and its experience bitter, but conscious integrity and an unblemished reputation sustained his wounded spirit. It was under the necessity which followed this reverse of fortune, that Mr. Baird in 1830 removed to the neighborhood of Ripley, Ohio, and took charge of a farm and a mill belonging to his brother-in-law, Rev. Andrew Todd, of Kentucky. Here, too, his life for six years was one of both struggle and heroic endurance, as well as of success least equal to his expectation. In 1836 another change was made responsive to an invitation of his wife's brother, Marcus Wilson, to join him in the dry-goods business at Wheeling, Va. But their arrangements had scarcely gone into effect when Mr. Wilson's death precipitated another. Alone he then entered into the grocery business, though he was, of course, put under unexpected stress. Yet he pushed his way with assiduous earnestness and established a trade which produced a comfortable living~ So he continued until 1844, when the increasing infirmities of Mrs. Baird's aged parents at Washington, made a call of filial duty to return to that place and take charge of them. Concurrent with this was the inducement of a better opportunity to educate his younger children. At Wheeling he had not only been reasonably prospered in business, but his family had formed strong ties of friendship, which still bind them. Their relations with the First Presbyterian Church of that city, during the seven years of their continuance, were most cordial and satisfactory. Especially was their union close with the venerable pastor, Rev. Henry R. W**d, D.D., and his family. The removal to Washington was the last change. Engaging in the same business as at Wheeling, Mr. Baird prosecuted it with vigor, having the efficient help of his youngest son, Andrew Todd Baird, during the last twelve years of his life. That son succeeded him at his death, and soon, by his combined skill and energy, rose to the front rank of business men, a place which by common consent lie held up to his death. The return of Mr. Baird to Washington was speedily followed with renewed tokens of confidence from a community which well knew his worth. He was at once elected a trustee of Washington College, and so continued through the remaining seventeen years of his life. (Their home is FIFTH PICTURE) This was but a return to a position which he had before held for twenty consecutive years, commencing with 1812, under the presidency of Dr. Matthew Brown. During all of this latter period lie acted as collector and a portion of it as treasurer of this institution. In this, too, his youngest son was his assistant, and succeeding to the financial trust was in full charge of the resources of the board until his death in 1887. In 1848 he was chosen to the office of justice of the peace, and discharged its duties for five years. But the office which he most of all valued was that of ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church of Washington, to which, after election by the people, he was ordained and installed October 3, 1847.
On November 2, 1860, he breathed out his life in the sweet peace of Christ, and two days later his body was gently laid to rest in the ''city of the dead." They are buried in Washington Cemetery, Washington, Pennsylvania.- SIXTH PICTURE)
(NOTE: Dr. Alfred Creigh (1810-1889) (SEVENTH PICTURE) was born December 16, 1810, at Landisburg, Perry County, Pennsylvania, and died May 2, 1889 at Washington, Pennsylvania. He received an academic and classical education at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1830, receiving the degree of A.B., and in 1833, that of A.M. He began the study of medicine with his father, and assisted him for several years in his profession. He published several historical works of value, “Masonry and Anti-Masonry,” “History of Knights Templar in Pennsylvania,” two volumes of “History of Washington County, Pa., and also a “History of Greene County, Pa.” In 1850 the University of Kentucky, at La Grange, conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. He had a home in Washington, Pennsylvania –EIGHTH PICTURE from Caldwell’s Atlas of Washington Co., Pa. – 1876. For almost fifty years he had been prominently identified with the masonic fraternity. Alfred Creigh was buried in Washington Cemetery, Washington, Pennsylvania. –NINTH PICTURE.)
FROM HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA BY ALFRED CREIGH
