On the morning of June 23d, 1886, a dispatch brought the sorrowful tiding of the death, in Denver, Colorado, of Past Grand Master Frank Tilford. The day proceeding, shortly before sunset, our Brother’s spirit left his earthly tabernacle and flew to a better and brighter sphere. The Brethren and his many friends in Utah grieved, and the symbol of grief - a flag at half mast - floated over our Masonic Hall.

Bro. Tilford was of Scotch-Irish decent, and was born in Lexington, Kentucky, 1822. His parents were able to give him a thorough education, which he finished in Princeton College, New Jersey. Returning from college he intended to open a law office in Lexington, but the discoveries of gold on the Pacific Coast induced him to go overland to California, which he reached in August 1849. He was one of those pioneers who clearly foresaw the future commercial greatness of the town of San Francisco, and recognized the little place the nucleus of a vast population. In October, 1849, he was elected to the town council, and while in that body he interested himself more than any other member in education, and it is to him that San Francisco owes the first endowment bestowed upon her public schools. He also labored, but without result, to have a part of the city lands set apart for the establishment of a free college. In May, 1851, he was elected Criminal Judge, which office he held for one year. Retiring from that office he spent five months in Oregon. Coming back to San Francisco he opened a law office, obtaining a high reputation as a criminal lawyer. In 1855 he was elected to the California State Senate, in which he was during his last term Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He was appointed Navel officer by President James Buchanan at, San Francisco, in 1857, and served a full term of four years.

During the years 1863-65 Bro. Tilford lived in Virginia City, Nevada, where, soon after his arrival , he was elected Superintendent of Public Schools in Storey County, and City Attorney. Virginia City beginning to fail as a mining center, in 1866 Bro. Tilford removed to Meadow Lake, Excelsior Mining District, Nevada County, California, where he practiced law and edited the Sun, an independent newspaper. He then again returned to San Francisco, and in 1869 started for White Pine, Nevada, where he practiced successfully his profession, and married the estimable lady who survives him.
Bro. Tilford came to Salt Lake City in 1872, and resided here till the fall of 1880. For eight years he lived among us. He suffered with us under tyrannical church rule, and fought with us for that liberty that is the birthright of every American citizen. He was a man above reproach and an honor to the bar. His heart was full of kindness, and many were unseen and unheralded deeds of charity he practiced in our city and Territory. That education for all was his very soul, is proven in our Library, of which he was one of the founders. Under the existing power in Utah he had no chance to interest himself for public school as he did in California and Nevada, but he could for a public Library, in which he beheld a harbinger of light and freedom for the adult population. He was a power for our Library, and its interest and permanency he had ever at heart. May his good work for this institution never be forgotten.

Bro. Tilford was a ripe scholar; possessed of a rich and varied fund of ancient and modern literature; his mind was a well-filled storehouse of all that was elegant in art and science. His soul was full of poetry. As a conversationalist he had but few equals. His conversation was always entertaining and instructive. Sunshine illuminated his daily discourse, and no cloud darkened his intercourse with his fellow men. As an orator he was eloquent, graceful and commanding. He used the choicest language, and there was no subject upon which he could not speak and interest his hearers. In “California Anthology” a book published in San Francisco, by O. T. Shick, are a large number of selections from Bro. Tilford’s orations, and they are worthy to be printed with the orations of the Rev. Thomas Starr King, Gen. E. D. Baker, and many other orators of the early days of California.

Bro. Tilford could not long exist in Utah, can easily be explained. It is impossible for a man of his caliber to live under a “one-man power.” For him the breathing of the free air of this Republic was a necessity. His early training in California and Nevada had made him a political leader. He was athirst for political fame, but there was no room for him in Utah in that direction. He often expressed the feeling that the stagnation of a political life in Utah was something unbearable to him, and that if he would prolong his life he had to make a change in his domicile; and he did make a change - the final one on this earth.

In September, 1880, he took leave of Utah and established himself in Denver. Here he was in his element. Two years after his arrival there he was elected State Senator from Arapahoe County, serving in the Session of 1883-85. He also was elected and served for a full term as City Attorney of Denver.

Bro. Tilford was made a Mason in California Lodge No. 1, San Francisco in 1850. And dimitted from that Lodge in 1854. His wanderings through California and Nevada, and his constant engagements in the political arena, must have kept him from the peaceful retreat of a Masonic home, as his name does not appear in any of the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of either of these two States until 1872, when he affiliated with White Pine Lodge No. 14, at Hamilton, Nevada. On April 3, 1872, he affiliated with our Argenta Lodge No. 3. From which he dimitted December 5, 1882, and soon thereafter affiliated with Union Lodge No. 7, at Denver, Colorado.

The first time the present writer met Bro. Tilford as a Mason, was on the 12th day of November, 1872, in the Grand Lodge of Utah. The Brethren presented to the retiring Grand Master, O. F. Strickland, a gold watch, and Bro. P. H. Lannan had selected Bro. Tilford to make the presentation speech. The remarks he made then were short, but they were so graceful and elegant that every Mason present admitted that Bro. Tilford would be an ornament to the Masonic Institution in Utah.

Bro. Tilford was Junior Warden of Argenta Lodge No. 3, in 1875, and at the session of the Grand Lodge in that year, he was appointed Grand Orator. In 1876 he was Grand Chaplain and a member of the Committee on Grand Master’s Address. In 1877 and ‘78, he was Master of Argenta Lodge, and in the Grand Lodge, a member of the Committee on Jurisprudence. At the Seventh Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge, held November 12th and 13th, 1878, he was elected Deputy Grand Master, and at the following Communication in 1879, he presided over the Grand body, Grand Master Thomas Edward Clohecy, being absent. On the 12th day of November, 1879, he was installed by Past Grand Master John Shaw Scott, Grand Master of Masons in Utah. His acts and deeds as the head of the Craft in Utah are too well known to be recapitulated. Suffice to say that they were truly Masonic, in strict accordance with the ancient landmarks and regulations of Free Masonry, and so much so that every Utah Mason can point with pride to his portrait in our Lodge room, and say: “ He was a whole man and a perfect Master Builder.” In his every-day walk of life his bearing was majestic; could it be otherwise than dignified as Grand Master of Masons?

During his administration the Grand Lodge laid the Cornerstone of St. Paul’s Chapel , and although it was the first time it performed such work, it was well done under the able leadership of Grand Master Frank Tilford. The oration he delivered on that occasion was a masterpiece of oratory, and a tribute to Ancient Craft Masonry such as was never heard before in Utah, It is published in our Proceedings of 1880 and ‘81.

It will be remembered that previous to the laying of the Cornerstone, the members of the Grand Lodge presented to the distinguished Brother a silver trowel and the clergy of the Episcopal parish a gavel. These implements were so dear to him that, doubtless at his own request, they were placed over the apron on the coffin that contained his last remains. The floral decorations on the coffin were many and beautiful and appropriate designs. The funeral was conducted by Union Lodge No. 7, of which he was a member. Around his bier stood the best men of Denver and Colorado. Member of the bench and bar, representatives of Federal, State and City Governments, and the Masonic Fraternity paid the last tribute of respect to one whose cup in life was ever filled with pleasantness and good-will for his fellowmen. He was buried at Riverside Cemetery with the Masonic honors due his rank and station. “His was a life to live for.” May the turf rest light upon him, and long may his memory be cherished in the hearts of his Brethren and friends.