Alameda
County
Biographies
JOSEPH
WALTER WARD, JR.
In the character, life and career of Brother Ward,
we see a fine type of a progressive American citizen. Educated in the Boston
English High School, under the instruction of Prof. Thomas Sherwin, he has been
farmer, merchant, County Clerk of Napa county, and is
now a lawyer. As Grand Commander for three years and Grand Secretary two years
of the five years of existence of the United Endowment Associates, which order
he formed and laid the foundation for, drafting the literature and laws
thereof, and supervising and carefully watching its onward progress, which was
marvelous in its inception and successful in its growth and in performing all
that was anticipated of it, he is perhaps better known at present. He was their
first executive officer, prepared the ritual, and in fact carried the order on
his shoulders for the first two years. He was the discoverer and founder of the
United Endowment Associates, and by his tact, ability, and arduous labor in
behalf of this growing organization it bids fair to grow in numbers far beyond
many of the older orders. The growth and development of the United Endowment
Associates have been his especial pride, and to which, although in actual
practice as an attorney at law, he has devoted a great deal of time and labor.
Formerly a member of Napa Lodge, No. 1, he has since his residence in Oakland
affiliated with Lodge No. 7.
The subject of this sketch is also a
Past Grand in University Lodge, No. 144, I. O. O. F., a Past Master Workman of
Pacific Lodge, No. 7, A. O. U. W., and Past Commander of Oakland Legion, No. 3,
S. K. A. O. U. W., all of Oakland, and Past Grand Dictator of the K. of H., his
membership being in Napa Lodge 1897. When Grand Dictator of the K. of H. of
California his earnest efforts and zeal were made apparent in that Order, since
the membership at the close of his term (it being a critical time, just after
the passage of the suicide law) showed the highest numerically at any time
since, in the history of that Order in this State.
Brother Ward is one of the
Committees on Laws and Supervision in three fraternal grand bodies in this
State, namely, the K. of H., Select Knights A. O. U. W., and A. O. U. W., and
in the latter Order he was one of the committee appointed in San Francisco in
1878, to draft the first laws of said Grand Lodge, and his able work with
others of that committee was in a great measure adopted, and which code stands
to-day very little changed in the fundamental laws of that powerful
organization.
He is a man of candor, possessing
the confidence of those who know him best, esteem him the highest, and is well
calculated to hold out well in all his undertakings.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Illustrated Fraternal Directory Including
Educational Institutions on the Pacific Coast”, Page 294, Publ. Bancroft
Co., San Francisco. Cal. 1889.
© 2013 Cecelia
M. Setty.
ALAMEDA
COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES
California Statewide