William W. Jermane, Senior Grand Deacon, 1911

Brother Jermane was born November 4, 1862, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was a minister in the Baptist Church and at the time was pastor of the church of that denomination at Frankfort Kentucky, in which city and at various other places in the same State, the subject of this sketch spent the first twelve years of his life. The family then removed to Indiana and later to Illinois, and at Sullivan, in the latter State, Brother Jermane attended school. His higher education was secured at the Southern Illinois Normal University, Carbondale, that State, finishing in June, 1881.

In July of the same year he began work in a country printing office in Pike County, Illinois. From there he went to Pittsfield, the county seat, to accept a position on a weekly paper of considerable influence, and in 1883 permanently gave up the work of typesetting and became a member of the local staff of the old Quincy Herald (daily). From the latter place he went to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he was in turn, reporter, city editor, editorial writer, managing editor and editor of the Daily Herald; was city editor of the Tribune of Minneapolis for several years, beginning in 1889, and in 1891 began work for the Minneapolis Journal, in whose employment he still remains, representing that paper at Washington since 1899, and is also correspondent of the Seattle Times. In local newspaper circles he has been Secretary of the Standing Committee of Correspondents for four years, is a member of the Gridiron Club, and also the National Press Club.

Brother Jermane received the Blue Lodge degrees in Charity Lodge, No. 331, St Joseph, Missouri, in April, 1886, the Chapter degrees in the same city in Mitchell Chapter, No. 89, April 1887, and was knighted in St. Joseph Commandery, No. 4, K. T., in the fall of 1887.

After removing to Washington, he dimitted from the several bodies in Missouri and affiliated with Pentalpha Lodge in 1902, with Mt Horeb Chapter the same year, and later with Columbia Commandery, K. T., all of this city.

Brother Jermane is possessed of unusual ability as an executive; is a fluent, magnetic, and convincing speaker, and stands perhaps without a peer in this jurisdiction as a finished and impressive ritualist. These qualities soon marked him out for rapid advancement and after serving as Senior Deacon and Senior Warden, he became Master of Pentalpha for the year 1905, and was also elected President of the Master's Association during that year.

At the election succeeding his affiliation with Mt Horeb R. A. Chapter he was appointed to the Second Vail and, after filling the intermediate stations, served as High Priest in 1909 and also as President of the High Priests' Association for that year.

He is a member of Almas Temple and of Adoniram Council, No. 2, R. and S. M., and in the latter body is an active worker.

During the year 1909, his physical condition seeming to presage a breaking down, he resigned from a number of offices, among others the Chairmanship of the Grand Lodge Centennial Committee, the position of Assistant Rabban in the shrine, and that of Junior Warden in his commandery. In the Grand Lodge line he is now serving as S. G. Deacon and in the Grand Chapter line as Grand Master of the Second Vail.

AHGP District of Columbia

Source: History of the Grand Lodge and Freemasonry in the District of Columbia, compiled by W. Brother Kenton N. Harper, 1911.