HistoricSiteMarkers
Early RepublicCivil War

Brahan Lodge #226, A.F. & A.M.

La Vernia, Wilson County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Set to work U.D. June 23, 1858. Chartered June 16, 1859. Named for Dr. Robt. W. Brahan. John Rhodes King, first worshipful master. Members included veterans of Texas War for Independence, Mier Expedition, Mexican War, Indian campaigns. They quarried stone, hauled it to site by ox-cart, completed hall 1871. In it churches met; children were educated. Members served in every American war; in Civil War were in Hood's Texas Brigade, Terry's Texas Rangers, Parsons' Texas Cavalry, Cibolo Guards, Mustang Grays -- from Chickamauga to Atlanta to Mansfield to Appomatox. To Brahan Lodge veterans of that war this marker is dedicated: Robert Adams, Irvin H. Armstrong; Thos. H. Barry, James Edwin Beck, Haywood Brahan, Gen. Robt. W. Brahan, Emery C. Barker, M.A. Broach, Sanford Brown; Stephen T. Cook, R.B. Curry, H. Fournah, T.B. Fowler, Ed Frances; W.F. Gardner; Bennett Henderson, Connally F. Henderson, S.L. Herron, David H. Houston, Ross Houston, Russell Houston, J. Humphries; T.D. James, J.T. Johnson, John Rhodes King, W.A. King, Felix A. Knox, V.R. Knox; R.N. Leigh, Robt. Lenox; Levi Maddox, J.G. Maddox, Emil Morosa, Sam H. Milam, Wm. Morris, J.M. Morrison, R.G. Murray, Chas. A. McAlister, Sam W. McClain, Richard D. McGee, G.M. McKay; J.K. New, D.C. Newton, Jas. Newton, N.M. Newton, Wm. Northcraft; C.R. Patton; T.J.C. Reese; Jas. D. Sanders, Wm. D. Scull, J.A. Sharpless, Robt. Sharpless; J.W. Thompson, Eli Toole, Jas. M. Trainer; L.J. Vivian; J.E. Watkins, R.B. Watkins, John A. Wells, L.S. White, Hugh W. Wiseman, Wm. R. Wiseman; Henry Yelvington. (1965)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Brahan Lodge began meeting under dispensation in 1858 and was chartered in 1859, named for Dr. Robert W. Brahan and led by first master John Rhodes King. Its members had fought in the Texas War for Independence, the Mier Expedition, the Mexican War, and Indian campaigns, and they quarried and ox-carted the stone for a hall completed in 1871 that also served as church and school. The marker is dedicated above all to the lodge's Civil War veterans, who served in famed Confederate units from Hood's Texas Brigade to Terry's Texas Rangers, fighting from Chickamauga to Appomattox.

Why it matters

This lodge roll is a roster of frontier Texas itself, tracing the same men through independence, the Mexican War, and the Civil War, and showing how fraternal halls doubled as the churches and schools of a raw new country.

Plan your visit

Nearby

Make a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.

Attractions

Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · Robert W. Brahan
  • · John Rhodes King

Themes & tags

Civil WarFrontier HistoryMemorial

Nearby & related markers

La Vernia

La Vernia, TX

Founded about 1846–47 by Claiborne Rector, who built a stage stop and blacksmith shop to serve travelers on the Chihuahua Road, this Wilson County settlement grew up along one of early Texas's major trails—still traced by Main Street today. First called 'Post Oak,' it was renamed for the green oaks of the area when mail service began in 1856. Settled largely by Southerners seeking fertile land, it became a Civil War recruiting and officer-training center.

Barker-Huebinger Homestead

Sutherland Springs, TX

Alabama natives Emory Barker and Leah Humphreys came to the Cibolo Valley as children in the 1850s; Emory rode with Terry's Texas Rangers in the Civil War before the couple married in 1866. Their 1871 home, built of sawn red sandstone, was one of the valley's few rock houses and a popular stagecoach and wagon stop thanks to its spring-fed well. After several owners, the Huebinger family bought it in 1916 and held it into the 21st century.

Shiloh Cemetery

Sutherland Springs, TX

The Shiloh community grew up along the Lodi–Sutherland Springs Road in Wilson County, and by 1886 landowners had formalized this burial ground already in use, later adding land for a Methodist church and a school. Its graves include Florence Price, buried in 1884, and James Madison Smith, a Confederate veteran of the 2nd Florida Cavalry, with the last known burial in 1939. Today the cemetery's mix of headstones and unmarked graves is one of the few surviving traces of the settlement.

Town Named for Governor F.S. Stockdale

Stockdale, TX

Fletcher S. Stockdale, a Kentucky-trained lawyer who came to Texas in the 1840s, rose through railroads and the state senate to sit on the committee that drafted Texas's Ordinance of Secession. He served the Confederacy as a military aide and staff officer and, as lieutenant governor, became the last governor of Confederate Texas in 1865 when Pendleton Murrah fled to Mexico. After the war he pioneered refrigerated shipping of Texas beef and helped lead the 1875 constitutional convention.