Athens Lodge No. 165 A.F. & A.M.
Athens, Henderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Athens Lodge No. 165 A.F. & A.M., founded in 1854, was the first Masonic lodge to be organized in Henderson County. Henderson County had been created in 1846, and the third county seat, Athens, had been founded in 1850. The group emphasized morality, tradition, fellowship and self-improvement, and hoped to instill the values in the burgeoning community. The first official meeting of the Athens lodge occurred on April 4, 1854, above a store on the Athens public square owned by John P. Walton, who became the lodge's first master. For the first two years, the lodge operated under a dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Texas. The lodge began with eleven master masons, but by 1856 membership had increased to fifty-two, and a charter was obtained from the grand lodge on January 24, 1856. Lodge members contributed to the development of Henderson County in the areas of business, finance, education, healthcare, agriculture, law and public service. Through the years, members of the Athens Masonic lodge helped to establish lodges in the neighboring communities of Science Hill, New York, Malakoff, Chandler, Brownsboro and Eustace. Lodge membership remained steady through Reconstruction, and then doubled during the 1880s, and during the prosperous 1920s a membership of 200 masons was attained. By 1955, over 350 masons called the lodge home, and membership remained relatively level through the 1970s. Although Masonic membership has decreased throughout the state since the late 20th century, the Athens Lodge No. 165 A.F. & A.M. continues to serve the community as a leading Henderson County institution. (2010)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Chartered in 1854, Athens Lodge No. 165 was the first Masonic lodge in Henderson County, founded just a few years after the town of Athens itself. Its members first met above a store on the public square and grew from eleven master masons to more than fifty within two years, obtaining a formal charter in 1856. Over generations the lodge helped seed new lodges in surrounding communities and drew its members from the county's leaders in business, law, education, and public service.
Why it matters
The lodge reflects the fraternal organizations that helped bind together and lead frontier Texas communities from the antebellum era onward.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John P. Walton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Henderson County Courthouse
Athens, TX
When the Texas Legislature carved out Henderson County in 1846, its government met in private homes and scattered settlements before Athens became the county seat in 1850. A log courthouse gave way to a frame building that burned in 1885, and after another structure was outgrown, the county raised this Classical Revival courthouse, accepted in 1914. With its central dome, Tuscan-columned entries, and marble stairways, it has anchored the town square as the setting for civic life and the famous "Old Fiddlers" contest ever since.
Walnut Creek Community
Athens, TX
Farm families settled along Walnut Creek as early as 1850, raising grains, cotton, cane, and livestock in a community that gradually built the institutions of rural life. Worship began under a brush arbor in 1859; a Methodist sanctuary followed in 1884, an adjoining cemetery soon after, and a schoolhouse in 1899 that scheduled classes around the growing season. As nearby Athens grew and rail bypassed the settlement, Walnut Creek faded, but its cemetery—designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2001—still marks where the community stood.
Goodgame Cemetery
Athens, TX
Named for a pioneering family that migrated from Alabama in the 1850s, Goodgame Cemetery has served Henderson County since the Civil War era, its first recorded burial a young girl who died in 1863 while her father was away at war. Floyd Crockett Goodgame's sons became Confederate officers, and one, a schoolteacher, returned to teach and help found the community of Turkey Creek. The ground was formally deeded in 1901 and holds veterans of every American war from the Civil War through Korea, marked by Woodmen of the World stones and family curbing.
Thomas Cemetery
Athens, TX
This small family cemetery began with the 1877 burial of Mary Thomas Hall, who died young, likely in childbirth, on the family farm. Its patriarch, Jacob Thomas, was a planter born in North Carolina in 1800 who moved through Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas before reaching Henderson County, Texas, by 1860. His son Sylvester volunteered for the Confederacy but died of influenza in training, leaving Jacob to raise his grandchildren. Generations of the family lie buried here on the hilltop above the creek.