DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Medina County, there's a lodge with a story that stretches back more than a hundred years, and the marker outside is happy to lay it all out for you. This is Devine Lodge, Number Five Ninety, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
The Grand Lodge of Texas chartered this body on December the twelfth, 1884. That's where it all begins. And where did they hold their very first meeting?
Up on the second floor of Josh Herring's store, right there at the corner of Commercial Drive and Herring Avenue. Now there's something fitting about a brotherhood of men climbing those stairs together for the first time, though the marker doesn't say whether those stairs creaked or not. I'll leave that to your imagination.
The man who was instrumental in getting the whole thing off the ground was John Redus, and when the lodge needed its first Worshipful Master, Redus was the one who stepped into that role. The kind of man a new lodge needs, in other words. Things kept moving.
Come 1900, an Eastern Star Chapter was organized, adding another thread to the fabric of the community. Over the years the lodge met at various sites around town, never quite settling, the way a river tries a few bends before it finds its course. Then, in 1962, they came to this location and stayed.
Through all of it, the membership of Devine Lodge has included leading clergymen, doctors, businessmen, and public officials of the area. The whole sweep of a community, meeting upstairs and then moving on and finally putting down roots. That's what a hundred years of handshakes and shared purpose looks like.
What the marker says
Chartered by the Grand Lodge of Texas on Dec. 12, 1884, this Masonic body first met on the second floor of Josh Herring's store at Commercial Dr. and Herring Ave. John Redus, who was instrumental in the formation of the lodge, served as the first Worshipful Master. In 1900 an Eastern Star Chapter was organized. After meeting at various sites around town, the lodge moved to this location in 1962. Membership of Devine lodge has included many leading clergymen, doctors, businessmen, and public officials of the area. 1984