Frio Lodge No. 399, A.F. & A.M.

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Frio Lodge Number 399, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, out in Frio County, Texas. Now, seven is a number that gets a lot of attention in certain circles. Lucky seven, they say.

And in 1873, out in the town of Frio City, seven men sat down together and organized what would become something quietly remarkable. They called it the Frio Lodge. Just seven members to start.

But they were serious about it, because the very next year they came back with a charter to make it official. The first Worshipful Master of that lodge was a man named John B. McMahon, a pioneer settler of the area.

Now, that title alone carries weight, but McMahon had already carried heavier. He had served as head of the Grand Lodge of Texas back in 1860 and 1861. So this was not a man learning the ropes.

This was a man who had already held the highest Masonic office in the entire state of Texas, coming home to help build something from the ground up in a young county. Frio City was the address in those early years, sitting about sixteen miles to the northwest of where you're standing now. But the story shifted in 1883.

That was the year the railroad came through, and a new town called Pearsall rose up to meet it. The lodge followed. It relocated to Pearsall, planting itself in the new railroad town and continuing right on.

And it has kept on continuing ever since. Frio Lodge Number 399 holds the distinction of being the oldest continuing organization in all of Frio County. Community leaders, prominent names, generation after generation, all passing through the same lodge that started with seven men and a vision in 1873.

Seven members. One charter. One steady institution that outlasted the very town it was born in.

That's not luck. That's staying power.

What the marker says

The Frio Lodge was organized with seven members in 1873 in the town of Frio City (16 mi. NW) and was chartered the following year. The first Worshipful Master was John B. McMahon, a pioneer area settler who had served as head of the Grand Lodge of Texas in 1860-61. In 1883 the lodge relocated to the new railroad town of Pearsall. Over the years many prominent community leaders have been members of the Frio Masonic lodge, which is the oldest continuing organization in Frio County. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986