Clinton Lodge No. 23, A. F. & A. M.

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight. Clinton Lodge Number Twenty-Three, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, out of Rusk County. Chartered on January sixteenth, 1845.

Now that is a lodge with some history behind it, and it does not waste any time letting you know. Right from the start, these men were sharing a two-story building with the First Methodist Church. Masons and Methodists, under the same roof, for a number of years.

I imagine there were some interesting conversations on the staircase. But the lodge kept growing, kept moving. In 1868 they put up a building of their own at Depot and North Main, and here is where it gets good.

That building did double duty. The Masons met there, yes, but it was also used for public school classes. A lodge hall and a schoolhouse, one and the same.

Then 1893 rolls around, and the Masons purchased the Rankin Building, right on the northwest corner of the Square. That was home for a good long stretch, all the way through 1934, when they built a new structure over at West Main and South Harriett. Four moves, nearly a century of relocating, and through all of it, Clinton Lodge Number Twenty-Three kept the charter.

Now, the marker saves the best for last. Three members of this lodge, including Clinton Lodge's very First Worshipful Master, have served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas. Not one.

Three. The first man ever to hold the gavel here went on to lead the whole state. Some lodges spend their whole existence hoping for that kind of legacy.

Clinton Lodge built it right into the foundation.

What the marker says

Chartered on Jan. 16, 1845, this Masonic Lodge shared a two-story building with the First Methodist Church for a number of years. A lodge building constructed at Depot and North Main in 1868 was also used for public school classes. The Masons purchased the Rankin Building on the northwest corner of the Square in 1893 and met there until 1934, when a new structure was built at West Main and South Harriett. Three members, including Clinton Lodge's First Worshipful Master, have served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas.