Cooper Chapter No. 101, Royal Arch Masons

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. March 27, 1871. That's the date this story begins, out in Atascosa County, when Cooper Chapter No. 101 of the Royal Arch Masons received its charter.

It didn't spring up from nowhere, either. The men who petitioned for that charter were Master Masons, members of Pleasanton Lodge No. 283, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, along with brethren from the surrounding area. They wanted something more, and they went and got it.

Now, once you've got a chartered chapter, you need a place to meet. And for the first stretch of its life, Cooper Chapter No. 101 gathered on the upper floor of the Isaac Cooper home. Think about that.

Not a grand hall, not a purpose-built temple. Somebody's house. The upper floor of a man's home, where these men came together, conducted their rites, kept their traditions alive.

They met there until 1891. Then the chapter moved its meetings to above the Cooper Brothers store. A different address, but still making do, still finding the space where they could.

And that arrangement held for a good long while, decade after decade, until finally, in 1961, a Masonic Hall was built. Ninety years after that original charter was granted, these men had a hall of their own to call home. The marker was placed in 1971, a hundred years on from that founding date, offered in appreciation for the Royal Arch Masons, past and present.

A hundred years of showing up. That's the whole story right there.

What the marker says

Chartered March 27, 1871, on petition of Master Masons of Pleasanton Lodge No. 283, A.F. and A.M., and the surrounding area. Met in upper floor of the Isaac Cooper home until 1891; over Cooper Brothers store until Masonic Hall was built in 1961. Marker in Appreciation for Royal Arch Masons past and present, 1971.