Groesbeck Lodge No. 354, A.F. & A.M.
Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Grand Masonic Lodge of Texas chartered this Lodge June 14, 1872. It was set to labor on July 10, with J. J. Lewis as the first worshipful master. Lodge membership has included such distinguished Texans as L. L. Foster (1851-1901), a member and house speaker of the Legislature, 1880-86, and president of Texas A.& M. College (now university), 1898-1901; also W. A. Keeling (1873-1945), Texas attorney general, 1922-25, and U.S. district judge, 1942-45. This Lodge celebrated its 100th anniversary on June 14, 1972. (1976)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Chartered by the Grand Masonic Lodge of Texas in June 1872, this Groesbeck lodge began its work weeks later under first worshipful master J. J. Lewis. Over its first century it counted remarkable Texans among its members, including legislator and Texas A&M president L. L. Foster and state attorney general and federal judge W. A. Keeling. The lodge marked its centennial in 1972.
Why it matters
Fraternal lodges like this one were engines of civic leadership in the Gilded Age, cultivating the legislators, educators, and jurists who shaped a growing Texas.
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Related people
- · J. J. Lewis
- · L. L. Foster
- · W. A. Keeling
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church of Groesbeck
Groesbeck, TX
When the Houston & Texas Central Railroad routed past Old Springfield in 1871, the new town of Groesbeck drew away settlers — including Baptists whose congregation traced back to an 1846 church. Organized in 1876 and shaped by traveling revivalists such as W. E. Penn, the church grew alongside the young railroad town. One early member, L. L. Foster, went on to serve as a Texas Railroad Commissioner and president of Texas A&M.
Groesbeck Independent School District
Groesbeck, TX
Groesbeck was founded in 1871 and opened Groesbeck College months later; by 1881 trustees had bought land for the education of African American children, and in 1886 the county turned the former college property into the town's first free public school. Voters incorporated for school purposes in 1890, creating the Groesbeck Independent School District, which by 1892 ran separate buildings for white and Black students. Over the following decades rural schools consolidated into the district, integration was completed by 1969, and traditions from the Goat mascot to the ex-students association took root.
Thornton Schools
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Founded by the Texas Central Railroad in 1871, Thornton quickly gained churches, businesses, and schools—most notably the Thornton Male and Female Institute, or Thornton College, opened in 1877 by physician-teacher Edward Coke Chambers. The school changed hands and merged before passing to the new Thornton Independent School District in 1891, and its buildings were repeatedly rebuilt after a storm and a fire, culminating in a brick schoolhouse in 1921. As rural districts consolidated and enrollment fell, Thornton merged with Groesbeck in 1965, deeding its campus to the city as a community center.
Site of Dunbar High School
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Public schooling for African American children in Mexia began in 1883, and after fire destroyed the first building, this site received a two-story brick schoolhouse in 1915. It was named for Paul Laurence Dunbar, the celebrated Black poet and author from Ohio, and held ten classrooms and an auditorium under principal T. K. Price. A larger school replaced it in 1948 and served until integration in 1968, after which the buildings were eventually demolished—leaving the site as a landmark of the community's educational history.