The Milam Masonic Institute

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Milam Masonic Institute, out in Sabine County. Now, before you go thinking education just sprouted up out of the East Texas pines on its own, let me tell you about the men who made it happen, and the order that bound them together. The Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons had a hand in this, and they were not shy about it.

By 1845, Masons were already settling into this part of the world, and among them were names that carried real weight in the Republic of Texas. William Clark, James Gaines, D. S.

Kaufman, Willis H. Landrum, F. M.

Weatherred. These were not quiet men living quiet lives. These were Republic of Texas leaders, and they brought their lodge and their ambitions with them.

Then there was the Reverend Littleton Fowler, born in 1803, gone by 1846, a Mason himself, who opened the Midway Institute right here in this county in 1845. That school didn't last long under that name. It was soon absorbed by something called Red Mount Seminary, and the story kept moving.

In 1847, Jackson Lodge No. 35, A. F. and A. M., was set to work at Red Mount, the place also known as Milam.

The officers of that lodge, John Boyd, G. A. Norford, A.

D. Oliphint, O. J.

Polley, and J. T. Scruggs, rolled up their sleeves and got to it.

That lodge soon operated the Milam Masonic Institute, the successor to all those earlier schools that had come and gone before it. By the time a charter application was filed in 1853, the M. M.

I. was already being described, right there in the paperwork, as a flourishing school. Somebody thought enough of it to put that in writing, and that is not nothing. Later on, Sexton Lodge No. 251, A.

F. and A. M., took up the work and kept the institute going. The marker calls it a great contributor to East Texas culture, and it earned that.

The M. M. I. served this region until tax-funded education became universal in the 1870s, and then the need it had filled was finally filled another way.

The families who supported the institute, Anderson, Causey, Davis, DeWeese, Dorsey, Elliott, Gellately, Halbert, Harper, Harris, Jacks, Low, McCloskey, McGown, McMahan, Mason, Nethery, Noble, Pratt, Reeves, Renfro, Sanders, Slaughter, Smith, Speights, Sweet, Tucker, Vickers, Watson, White, Whittlesey, Williams, and Yeiser. That is quite a roll call. Generation after generation of East Texas families, bound together by a belief that education mattered, that it was worth organizing for, worth paying for, worth protecting.

When nobody else was stepping in to build schools out here in the pines, the Masons did. And in Sabine County, they called it the Milam Masonic Institute.

What the marker says

Many pioneers belonged to the Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, an order active in education. Among Masons settling in this area by 1845 were Republic of Texas leaders William Clark, James Gaines, D. S. Kaufman, Willis H. Landrum, and F. M. Weatherred. The Rev. Littleton Fowler (1803-46), a Mason, opened in 1845 in this county the Midway Institute, which was soon absorbed by Red Mount Seminary. Set to work at Red Mount (Milam), 1847, was Jackson Lodge No. 35, A. F. & A. M., with John Boyd, G. A. Norford, A. D. Oliphint, O. J. Polley, and J. T. Scruggs as officers. The lodge soon operated the Milam Masonic Institute, successor to the earlier schools. On the charter application (1853) M. M. I. was listed as already "a flourishing school." Later, Sexton Lodge No. 251, A. F. & A. M., operated M. M. I., a great contributor to East Texas culture until tax-funded education became universal in the 1870s. Among supporters of M. M. I. were masons with the family names Anderson, Causey, Davis, DeWeese, Dorsey, Elliott, Gellately, Halbert, Harper, Harris, Jacks, Low, McCloskey, McGown, McMahan, Mason, Nethery, Noble, Pratt, Reeves, Renfro, Sanders, Slaughter, Smith, Speights, Sweet, Tucker, Vickers, Watson, White, Whittlesey, Williams, and Yeiser. (1974)