Kaufman Lodge No. 726, A.F. & A.M.

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight. Now, Kaufman County has had its share of lodges and its share of mud, and those two facts (believe it or not) have something to do with each other. The first Mason lodge in the whole county was Bloomfield Lodge No. 112, sitting right there in Kaufman.

Fine institution. But then came the 1880s, and with the 1880s came the kind of Texas rain that doesn't ask permission. Roads went impassable.

Didn't matter where you needed to be; you weren't getting there. So picture sixteen men, all Masons, all looking at the sky and looking at the roads and lookin' at each other, and they decided they needed a lodge closer to home. The town of Scurry was only eight years old at the time, still finding its boots, and in 1890 those sixteen members petitioned for a lodge charter right there in that young town.

The wheels of Masonic order turned, as they do, deliberately. And on December 11, 1891, a charter was issued for Kaufman Lodge No. 726, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. The first officers were S.J.

Modisett, Thomas Martin, and J.W. McFarland. Now, the lodge didn't have an easy road; and I mean that beyond the mud.

Fires forced it to relocate more than once. Good financial times came and went, and so did the bad ones. But here's the thing about Kaufman Lodge No. 726: it grew steadily through all of it.

Steady is its own kind of remarkable. As Masonic tradition holds, the lodge raised money and spent it on behalf of those in need: medical aid, public education, the kind of work that holds a community together at the seams. It gave leaders to Scurry and the surrounding area, and it kept on giving them.

Sixteen men looked at some impassable roads and decided to build something that would last. Turns out they were right.

What the marker says

The first Mason Lodge in Kaufman County, Bloomfield Lodge No. 112, was located in Kaufman. In times of heavy rain during the 1880s, the roads were impassable. For this reason 16 members petitioned for a lodge charter in the 8-year-old town of Scurry in 1890. A charter for Kaufman Lodge No. 726, A.F. & A.M., was issued December 11, 1891. The first officers were S.J. Modisett, Thomas Martin and J. W. McFarland; the lodge weathered good financial times and bad as a center of community activity and public service. Though forced to relocate due to fires, the lodge grew steadily. As is Masonic tradition, lodge members raise and spend monies on behalf of those in need. Kaufman Lodge No. 726 has provided leaders for the town of Scurry and its vicinity, and is very active in medical aid and public education. (2000)