DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Milam Lodge Number Two in Nacogdoches — so settle in, because this one goes back a long way. Now, if you're driving through Nacogdoches and you pass the Masonic Lodge, you might not think twice. But that building is sitting on ground that holds the oldest continuously operating Masonic Lodge in all of Texas.
Not moved, not relocated, not rebuilt somewhere else — same spot, same city, all the way back to the beginning. And the beginning goes like this. Before there was even a Grand Lodge of Texas — before Texas had the machinery to organize itself — Louisiana Masons stepped in and granted dispensation for individual lodges to form on their own.
Three of them came up that way, between 1835 and 1837. Holland Lodge, Number 36, out of Brazoria. McFarland Lodge, Number 41, over in San Augustine.
And the one we're talkin' about — Milam Lodge, Number 40, in Nacogdoches — organized on August the sixteenth, 1837. The name wasn't chosen lightly. They called it Milam, honoring Ben Milam, a hero of the Texas Revolution who was killed during the siege of Bexar.
That's the kind of name you put on something you mean to last. The original members who signed on to that lodge read like a roll call of early Texas itself — Isaac W. Burton, Kelsey Douglass, Haden Edwards, John H.
Hyde, John W. Lowe, George A. Nixon, John S.
Roberts, Adolphus Sterne, and Frost Thorne. Nine men, a new republic, and a whole lot of history ahead of them. Now here's a detail that'll stick with you.
After the chartering ceremony, the newly constituted lodge needed a place to meet. So where do you hold three consecutive nights of lodge business when your lodge doesn't yet have a building? You meet in the Old Stone Fort.
Three nights running. That's where Milam Lodge first convened. And that same week — that very same week — two more men were initiated into the lodge.
Charles S. Taylor, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and Thomas J. Rusk, soldier and statesman.
The Republic of Texas was barely breathing on its own, and the men shaping it were gathering in Nacogdoches by firelight. Many other significant men of the Republic held membership in Milam Lodge over the years. And the lodge itself didn't stay local for long — because later that same year, in December of 1837, Holland, Milam, and McFarland Lodges reorganized the whole thing.
They renumbered themselves One, Two, and Three, and together they founded the Grand Lodge of Texas. The very institution they'd been operating without. From there, Milam Lodge turned its energy outward.
Freemasons in Texas made education a chief community concern, and Milam Lodge helped establish and operate Nacogdoches University in 1845. They supported local churches. They helped new lodges get their footing in cities across Texas.
They also made sacrifices you wouldn't necessarily expect from a fraternal organization. Milam Lodge had been building up a fund for years — saving toward a building of their own — and when World War One came, they spent the entire building fund on war bonds. Every last dollar of it.
That pushed the construction of their own home all the way to 1931. They waited. They built.
And they did it right. Over a hundred and seventy years from that first meeting in the Old Stone Fort, the tradition of community service and charity that Milam Lodge was founded on continues to this day. Same location.
Same mission. Texas doesn't always hold onto things this long — but when it does, it's worth stopping to notice.
What the marker says
The Masonic Lodge in Nacogdoches is the oldest in the state still operating in its original location. Before the organization of a Grand Lodge in Texas, Louisiana Masons granted dispensation for individual lodges here. Three lodges, Holland (No. 36) of Brazoria, Milam (No. 40) of Nacogdoches, and McFarland (No. 41) of San Augustine, were organized in this way from 1835-37. Nacogdoches' lodge organized on August 16, 1837, honoring with its name Texas revolutionary hero Ben Milam, who was killed during the siege of Bexar. Original members included Isaac W. Burton, Kelsey Douglass, Haden Edwards, John H. Hyde, John W. Lowe, Goerge A. Nixon, John S. Roberts, Adolphus Sterne and Frost Thorne. The newly constituted lodge first met in the Old Stone Fort for three consecutive nights following the chartering ceremony. Charles S. Taylor, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and Thomas J. Rusk, soldier and statesman, were initiated into the lodge that week. Many other significant men in the Republic of Texas were members of Milam Lodge. The Holland, Milam and McFarland Lodges (renumbered No. 1, 2 and 3) organized the Grand Lodge of Texas in Decmeber 1837. Promoting education was one of the chief community activities of Freemasons in Texas; the Milam Lodge helped establish and operate Nacogdoches University in 1845. The lodge also supported several local churches and new lodges in cities across Texas. Milam Lodge met in a number of facilities over the years, using its entire building fund to buy war bonds during World War I before finally building its own home in 1931. The Milam Lodge's tradition of community service and charity continues to this day. (2008)