DUANE
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Duane's take
The official marker's the source I'm drawing from here, so let me tell you what it says about Howe Lodge Number 430. Now, every good story has a beginning that didn't quite go according to plan, and this one is no exception. On June 5, 1875, a Masonic lodge was constituted in the Grayson County community of Farmington, sitting about five miles southwest of where we're talking about today.
Back then, Farmington was the place to be. The lodge took root, the members gathered, and things rolled along the way they do in a young Texas community. Then came the railroad.
The railroad, as it so often did across this state, decided to go somewhere else. Farmington got bypassed, and the members of that lodge looked around at each other and made a decision that speaks to a certain kind of Texas pragmatism. In 1887, they voted to move the whole operation to Howe.
You go where the future's heading, and in 1887, the future was heading to Howe. Now here's a detail worth savoring. When the lodge set up in Howe, they didn't have their own building right away.
That first lodge hall was constructed above the Early Methodist Church Chapel. Think about that for a second. The Masons meeting upstairs, the Methodists tending to business below.
Two institutions sharing a roof in a young Texas town. There's a whole novel in that arrangement. As Howe grew, so did the lodge.
Later facilities were built to keep pace. And then in 1966, the lodge absorbed the Dorchester Lodge through a merger, and that brought another wave of growth and new members into the fold. Over all those years, from that constituting day in 1875 on through to the marker's placement in 1986, the rolls of Howe Lodge Number 430 included numerous war veterans and civic leaders.
The kind of people who show up, do the work, and hold a community together whether or not anybody's watching. Constituted in a town the railroad passed by, relocated to the town the railroad chose, built above a church, and still going strong well over a century later. That, friends, is a lodge that knows how to adapt.
What the marker says
Constituted on June 5, 1875, this lodge was organized in the early Grayson County community of Farmington (5 mi. SW). Members voted to move the lodge to Howe in 1887, after the earlier settlement was bypassed by the railroad. In Howe, the first lodge hall was constructed above the Early Methodist Church Chapel. Later facilities were built as the lodge grew. Part of its growth came as a result of a merger with the Dorchester Lodge in 1966. Numerous war veterans and civic leaders have been members here. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986