DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of the official marker for Empire Masonic Lodge, up in Collin County. Pull over if you need to — this one's got a few lives in it. In the mid- to late 1800s, settlers put down roots and built themselves a real honest-to-goodness community called Empire.
At its height, Empire had a school, a post office, churches, stores, and a cotton gin — the whole apparatus of a town with ambitions. But the story I want to tell you starts on December 14, 1884, when twenty-five master masons sat down and petitioned the Grand Lodge of Texas to form a lodge right there in Empire. Twenty-five men putting their names to a piece of paper, saying: this place is worth organizin' around.
Empire Lodge No. 586 was the result, and it came with a full slate of officers from the jump — M.W. McBride as worshipful master, E.B. Simmons as senior warden, W.M.
Blakeman as junior warden, J.E. Jones as secretary, and J.L. Stallings holding the treasury.
Now, here's a detail I love: they held their meetings at Empire College, on the Saturdays before full moons. Not random Saturdays. The Saturday before a full moon, so there'd be enough light on the road home.
That right there tells you something about where they lived and how far some of them had to ride. Then 1888 arrived, and Empire began to decline. Towns do that sometimes — they rise, they reach, and then something shifts.
The lodge didn't fold, though. It moved to Nevada, Texas, and the members built themselves a two-story wooden building facing west on Warren Street. New town, same lodge, same number: 586.
They kept at it. Then in 1904, the lodge bought the J.E. Davis building on the northwest corner of the Nevada square and sold the old Warren Street structure.
They had a permanent home now, brick and corner-anchored and respectable. And then 1927 came calling. The Davis building was destroyed by a deadly tornado — the same tornado that led to Nevada's own decline.
Two towns now, Empire and Nevada, both diminished by forces they couldn't outrun. But here's what matters: the lodge endured. While a new building was being constructed using funds donated by fellow lodges, the Grand Lodge, and a loan, the members gathered in the Odd Fellows Hall and kept meeting.
They did not scatter. They did not quit. When the new structure was completed, they moved in.
And then in 1972, they moved again, into yet another new building. Lodge No. 586 has also done something quietly remarkable over the decades — it adopted Bear Creek Cemetery, described on this marker as the last remaining vestige of the old Empire settlement. That's a real commitment: tending the ground where the community that gave the lodge its name has come to rest.
Over the years the lodge has helped children of deceased members get into the Masonic orphanage, recommended area children with disabilities for the Scottish Rite Hospital, and taken part in community, school, and social events across the region. What started with twenty-five men and a petition, meeting by moonlight at Empire College, is today the oldest institution in Nevada, Texas — still historically intertwined with a town that no longer stands, and still very much alive in one that does.
What the marker says
In the mid- to late 1800s, settlers established the Empire community, which at one time had a school, post office, churches, stores and a cotton gin. On December 14, 1884, 25 master masons petitioned the Grand Lodge of Texas to form a masonic lodge in Empire. The first officers for Empire Lodge no. 586 were M.W. Mcbride, worshipful master; E.B. Simmons, senior warden; W.M. Blakeman, junior warden; J.E. Jones, secretary; and J.L. Stallings, treasurer. Meetings were held at Empire College on the Saturdays before full moons. In 1888, as Empire began to decline, the masonic lodge moved to Nevada. Members built a two-story wooden building facing west on Warren Street. In 1904, Empire Lodge bought the J.E. Davis building on the northwest corner of the Nevada square and sold the former building. The Davis building was destroyed by the deadly 1927 tornado which led to Nevada's decline. The lodge endured, and construction began on a new building using funds donated by fellow lodges, the Grand Lodge and a loan; members met in the odd fellows hall until the new structure was completed. In 1972, the lodge moved from that building into a new structure. Masonic Lodge no. 586 has reached out to its surrounding communities since its inception. It adopted Bear Creek Cemetery, the last remaining vestige of the old empire settlement. Over the years, the lodge has also aided children of deceased members in getting into the masonic orphanage, has recommended area children with disabilities for the scottish rite hospital, and has participated in other community, school and social events. Today, it remains historically intertwined with Empire, while functioning as the oldest institution in Nevada.