DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. On February 7th, 1857, up on the second floor of H.N. Walcott's store building in the little village of Mantua, something was getting started.
District deputy grand master J.J. Harrison called the room to order, and ten men answered that call — J.M. Enloe, W.A.
Portman, J.L. Leslie, W.M. Akens, A.J.
McDonough, A.C. White, H.N. Walcott himself, J.L.
Lovejoy, G.W. Strother, and J.S. Stewart.
That's the kind of meeting where you can feel the weight of what's being built, even if the floorboards creak a little under you. Those ten weren't the only charter members, mind you. Among the others was a man named Younger Scott McKinney, who had laid out the townsite of Mantua itself several years before that February meeting.
And then there was James W. Throckmorton — a charter member of this lodge who would go on to serve as governor of Texas. Not a bad roster for a room above a general store.
By 1859, the lodge had a proper two-story building of its own. The Masons claimed the upper floor, as Masons tend to do, and down below they housed the Mantua Seminary, a private school. So you had learning on the first floor and brotherhood on the second.
That arrangement held until the world, as it has a habit of doing, shifted. In 1872, Van Alstyne was established on the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, and when a railroad town appears, the old town tends to pack its bags. Most of the businesses in Mantua made the move — including Lodge No. 209.
For a stretch, the members held meetings wherever they could find a roof to meet under. That went on until 1898, when they purchased the Carter Building on the town square and finally had a permanent home again. Then in 1976, the lodge moved one more time, to its current location.
More than a century and a half after that first cold February meeting above Walcott's store, Mantua Masonic Lodge No. 209 is still standing — still serving schools, churches, and people in need, still carrying the history of this corner of Grayson County on its shoulders. Some things, it turns out, are built to last.
What the marker says
The organizational meeting for this Masonic lodge was held on Feb. 7, 1857, on the second story of H.N. Walcott's store building in the village of Mantua (2 mi. SW). With district deputy grand master J.J. Harrison officiating, the first meeting was attended by J.M. Enloe, W.A. Portman, J.L. Leslie, W.M. Akens, A.J. McDonough, A.C. White, H.N. Walcott, J.L. Lovejoy, G.W. Strother, and J.S. Stewart. Other charter members of the lodge included Younger Scott McKinney, who had laid out the townsite several years earlier, and James W. Throckmorton, who later served as governor of Texas. A two-story lodge building was completed in 1859. The Masons met on the upper floor, while the first story housed a private school, the Mantua Seminary. After Van Alstyne was established on the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1872, most of the businesses and other establishments in Mantua, including the Masonic lodge, moved to the new town. The lodge members held meetings in various locations until 1898, when they purchased the Carter Building on the town square. In 1976 the lodge moved to its current location. Mantua Masonic Lodge No. 209 has provided valuable service to schools, churches, and needy persons, and remains an important part of the history of this area. (1983)