Masonic Oak
Brazoria, Brazoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Site of organization, March 1835, the first Masonic Lodge in Texas, Holland Lodge, Brazoria. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Beneath this oak in March 1835, Texans organized Holland Lodge, the first Masonic lodge in what would become the state of Texas. The gathering came on the eve of revolution, as Anglo settlers in Stephen F. Austin's colony built the civic and fraternal institutions of a new society. The tree has been honored ever since as the birthplace of Texas Freemasonry.
Why it matters
The site marks the founding of an institution that bound together many leaders of the Texas Revolution and Republic, at the very moment the colony was moving toward independence.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of the Home of John Austin
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John Austin lived at the turbulent birth of Anglo Texas. He rode with the ill-fated Long Expedition of 1819, settled among Stephen F. Austin's colonists, and served as alcalde of Brazoria before commanding at the 1832 Battle of Velasco, one of the first armed clashes between Texas colonists and Mexican troops. He signed the Turtle Bayou Resolutions that same year, declaring the colonists' grievances, and died in 1833 — just before the revolution he had helped set in motion.
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In 1827 the Mexican government granted Brazoria this ground as a Catholic cemetery—which in practice meant it was open to everyone, since all of Austin's colonists were, by law, counted as Catholics. Generations of the colony's pioneer families were laid to rest here until the burial ground filled by 1930 and a new cemetery opened. It remains a roll call of the Anglo-American settlers of Stephen F. Austin's colony.
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