San Gabriel Lodge No. 89, A. F. & A. M.

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, in my own words. Now settle in, because this one goes back a good ways. We're talkin' about a lodge that took root in raw Texas soil, before Williamson County had even had time to find its footing.

San Gabriel Lodge No. 89 was organized in 1851, just three years after Williamson County itself came into being. Three years. The ink on the county's papers was barely dry.

And yet, here come these men, ready to build something that would last. In January of 1852, the lodge received its charter, and standing at the head of it all as worshipful master was John T. Cox, a Methodist minister who had made his way to Texas all the way from South Carolina.

A preacher running a Masonic lodge. That right there tells you something about the kind of people who built this county. The lodge grew right along with the new county seat, the two of them rising together like they'd made some kind of quiet agreement.

An Eastern Star chapter formed and found its home meeting in the Masonic Lodge. Community begetting community. Now, if you want a moment that crystallizes just how far San Gabriel Lodge No. 89 had come, consider the year 1885.

That's when the lodge assisted in laying the cornerstone for the State Capitol building in Austin. The State Capitol. These men from Williamson County, putting their hands on the stone that would anchor the grandest building in Texas.

That's not a small thing. And when the work of ceremony was done, they came home and kept at the quieter work, the kind that doesn't make the papers but shapes a place just the same. Public education in Williamson County bore their fingerprints for generations.

Lodge members served on the board of education, stood in front of classrooms as teachers, ran the schools as superintendents, and showed up as patrons supporting it all from the outside in. One hundred and forty-eight years after its inception, the marker tells us, San Gabriel Lodge No. 89 was still at it, still carrying the traditions of its founders forward. A lodge organized when Williamson County was three years old, still standing.

That's not luck. That's intention.

What the marker says

Organized in 1851, three years after the creation of Williamson County, San Gabriel Lodge No. 89 was chartered in January 1852 with John T. Cox, a Methodist minister from South Carolina, as worshipful master. The lodge grew rapidly with the new county seat. An Eastern Star chapter was formed and met in the Masonic Lodge. San Gabriel Lodge No. 89 assisted in laying the cornerstone for the State Capitol building in Austin in 1885. The lodge has long been involved in such Williamson County matters as public education, its members serving on the board of education as well as in the roles of superintendents, teachers and patrons. One hundred and forty-eight years after its inception, San Gabriel Lodge No. 89 continues in the traditions of its founders. (1999)