Pine Lodge # 642, A. F. & A. M.

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. Way out in Hardin County, Texas, in the September of 1886, thirteen men decided they were going to do something worth remembering. They organized a lodge.

Not just any lodge, mind you. Pine Lodge Number 642, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Thirteen members, drawn from all over Hardin County, and by December of that same year, they had their charter.

Organized in September, chartered in December. These men did not waste time. The first master of that lodge was a man named William B.

Pedigo, and whatever it was that drew him to Pine Lodge Number 642, it stuck. He would go on to keep his association with it for many years. Some things you join, and some things join you.

The lodge made its first home in the Washburn Building on Main Street. From that address, Pine Lodge responded to appeals for assistance across the county, and not only that, it helped start new lodges in other towns in the area. A lodge that made more lodges.

By 1923, the members had begun renting the very building where this marker stands. And then in 1945, they stopped renting. They bought it.

Thirteen men in the fall of 1886, and by 1945, the lodge owned the ground beneath its own feet. This marker was placed in 1986, the year of the Texas Sesquicentennial, marking one hundred and fifty years of Texas and one hundred years of Pine Lodge Number 642. Thirteen members at the start, and a whole county better for it.

What the marker says

Organized in September 1886, and chartered in December of that year, the Pine Lodge drew its original thirteen members from all over Hardin County. William B. Pedigo served as the first master of the lodge and would continue his association with it for many years. The Washburn Building on Main Street was the first home of the lodge, which responded to appeals for assistance in the county and helped start new lodges in other area towns. The lodge began renting this building in 1923 and bought the property in 1945. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986