Mount Horeb Lodge

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Mount Horeb Lodge, out in Burnet County, got its charter on January the twenty-first, 1854. Right from the start, these were practical men.

They didn't wait around for a proper building. They met in a log schoolhouse, making do the way Texans do. But making do was never the plan.

By 1856, they had raised their own lodge hall, standing on land given to them by Grand Master Sam Mather and B. K. Stewart.

That first floor did double duty, serving as church and school both, which tells you something about how much one building had to carry in those days. Now, here is where the story takes a hard turn. In 1915, a fire came through and razed that hall.

The whole thing, gone. You might think that was the end of it. It was not.

The very next year, 1916, the lodge rebuilt right here, on land given this time by G. T. and W. J.

Williams. Different land, different donors, same determination. Some things, it turns out, a fire just cannot finish.

What the marker says

Chartered Jan. 21, 1854; met in log schoolhouse. Erected own lodge hall 1856 on land given by Grand Master Sam Mather and B. K. Stewart. First floor used as church and school. A fire in 1915 razed hall. Lodge rebuilt here 1916 on land given by G. T. and W. J. Williams. (1967)