----- 1866 -----
The question of the relationship of Masonry to those who are members of the Church of Latter Day Saints came before this Grand Lodge at its Second Annual Communication, when the matter of granting a charter to Mt. Moriah Lodge, of Salt Lake City, was presented. Grand Master DeBell had granted certain brothers a dispensation to hold a lodge. Thereafter the question arose as to how, Mormons, claiming to be Masons, were to be treated. The Grand Master ordered that they should be excluded from the right of visiting, and that no petitions for the degrees should be received from any person known to be a Mormon. The matter is of interest to the present, because the same discussion engaged the attention of a recent Grand Lodge Communication. At this Second Communication, the action of the Grand Master was approved but the dispensation was continued for a year. A year later, a resolution was adopted which read: RESOLVED, That this Grand Lodge, in view of the unsatisfactory state of society in Great Salt Lake City, and the improper spirit manifested in the communication from the officers of Mt. Moriah Lodge, U. D., does not deem it expedient or for the good of Masonry, to grant a charter to the brethren of Mt. Moriah Lodge, U. D., as prayed for." The brothers were issued certificates of good standing, and the furniture and jewels of the late lodge were donated to the brothers. These brothers then petitioned the Grand Lodge of Montana for a charter, alleging that neither the Grand Master nor the Grand Lodge had any authority to dictate who were proper persons for the lodge to receive, or from whom they might accept petitions. The Grand Lodge of Montana refused to grant the petition. In October, 1868, however, the ambitions of the Salt Lake brothers were realized when the Grand Lodge of Kansas acted favorably upon their petition.
At this Communication we become acquainted with Bro. Robert H. Taylor, who delivered the oration, and who was elected Grand Secretary, which office he held again in 1872-3. The Masonic Fraternity of Nevada, and of the United States is most indebted to this brother for the Correspondence Reports which he wrote from the first year up to and including the report of 1881. Earnest, diligent, wise, loving, Bro. Taylor contributed the best of his broad information and his deep insight to the Craft of Nevada. To him is due the credit for the very complete digest of decisions upon Masonic Jurisprudence from all jurisdictions from the date of our organization. He it was who set the standards for pains-taking research which have been followed by the succeeding Grand Secretaries of this jurisdiction. He was a prophet with the poet's soul. He was a legalist, with the heart of a brother. A history of the Grand Lodge of Nevada would be incomplete without copious quotations from the pen of Bro. Taylor, but for that we have not the space. Let him, however, speak again his valedictory to the brethren of Nevada: "To my Brethren in Nevada, with whom so long I have shared the pleasures and sorrows, the triumphs and defeats, the joys and vicissitudes of life, I say, persevere in all good work; preserve in your hearts the tenets of our Institution, and let your daily walk show forth the practice of the FAITH you profess; may HOPE guide you like a beacon light, and CHARITY brighten all your works, that when the end comes, you may, with SAINT PAUL, be able to say: 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Many of you, with whom aforetime, I have had most agreeable association I shall, in all human probability, never see again on this side of Time; but while I live, you shall live in my heart. FAREWELL. Last, but not least: May God bless and prosper the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Nevada."
A gala day for Masonry in the State of Nevada was September 24, 1866, when M.'.W.'. John L. Currie called a Communication of the Grand Lodge at Carson City, for the purpose of laying the corner-stone of the United States Branch Mint. It was the first occasion of the sort, and the members of the Fraternity assembled in large numbers. It is worthy of note that this was the first time that the members of the Templar degrees met together, and a direct outcome was the organization of DeWitt Clinton Commandery, of the State of Nevada. In his oration, Bro. Taylor had this to say of the "Sagebrush State'': ''But a few years ago this valley -- the hills that skirt it -- in fact the whole territory now composing this State, presented to the view an uninviting, a forbidding wilderness; but the energy of a people so noted for the unresting character of their enterprise, having discovered that beneath these barren hills there dwelt the resources of hidden wealth a rapidly accumulating population, turning from its western march, and facing again toward the East, paused here, and established the foundation of a new empire, destined, as we hope, to form an important link in an unbroken chain of States, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific seaboard. Our quick growth, with its concomitant varied interests, soon necessitated a more effective local government than was attainable under a Territorial establishment. And therefore this people, with great unanimity, and with the concurrance of the General Government, determined to discard the condition of pupilage, and assume the dignity of self-government. Born amid the strife and throes of civil war, the silver star of Nevada was ushered into the family of American States, at a time when some of its members were endeavoring to sever the ties which bound them to the same great family."