Masonic Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say, so take it straight from the source. Way out on the Staked Plains, in the town of Big Spring, a lodge took root. Staked Plains Lodge No. 598, A.F. and A.M., was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Texas on December 12, 1884.

Now, any lodge worth its apron knows that a brotherhood needs more than a meeting hall. It needs a place to lay its own to rest. And these men recognized that need pretty quick.

By May of 1885, a member named George Bauer stepped up. Born in 1836, Bauer donated land right here at this site, giving the lodge the ground it needed for a Masonic cemetery. That's the kind of gesture that outlasts a man, and sure enough, when George Bauer himself passed in 1898, it was here that he was buried, in the very soil he had given away.

Adjacent land came later, gifted for other community graveyards, and those grounds have become known collectively as Mount Olive Cemetery. The earliest documented grave in the Masonic Cemetery belongs to William Howerton, born 1846, buried 1886. Now, at least one gravestone bears an earlier date than that, but the marker is careful to tell us: that grave was reinterred here from another location.

So Howerton holds the distinction among those who were first laid in this ground. The years kept turning, and the land kept growing. Additional acquisitions, one after another, enlarged the cemetery to sixteen acres.

Walk through it today and you'll find a wide variety of grave marker sizes and styles, a whole visual record of changing times and tastes. And who rests here? Masons and their families, naturally.

Community leaders. Employees of the Texas and Pacific Railway Company. Veterans of World War I, World War II, and Vietnam.

George Bauer himself. A whole cross-section of Big Spring, bound together in this ground. One man's donation in the spring of 1885 became sixteen acres of memory.

That's what a gift to your community looks like a hundred years on down the road.

What the marker says

Staked Plains Lodge No. 598, A.F. & A.M., was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Texas on December 12, 1884. The members soon recognized a need for a Masonic cemetery in Big Spring. In May 1885 George Bauer (1836-1898), a member of the Lodge, donated land at this site for that purpose. Adjacent land was given later for other community graveyards, which have become known collectively as Mount Olive Cemetery. The earliest documented grave in the Masonic Cemetery is that of William Howerton (1846-1886). At least one gravestone bears an earlier date, but it is for a grave which was reinterred here from another location. Among those buried here are many Masons and their families, including a number of community leaders; Texas and Pacific Railway Company employees; George Bauer, original donor of the property; and veterans of World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. Over the years, additional land acquisitions have enlarged the size of the cemetery to sixteen acres. A variety of sizes and styles of grave markers can be seen in the historic graveyard. (1990)