Mineola Masonic Lodge No. 502, A.F. & A.M.
Mineola, Wood County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On February 8, 1878, the 17 members of this lodge were set to work under dispensation of the Grand Master of Texas. Mineola Lodge was chartered at the annual communication in Houston on December 15, 1879, with a membership of 48. J. R. Rutherford served as the first worshipful master. The early Masons included prominent business and professional men and civic leaders. One member was the well-known lawman William Jesse McDonald (1852-1918), a merchant who became deputy city marshall, Wood County sheriff, and finally a Texas Ranger. Another was J. H. Newsom, a city alderman and county commissioner. Newsom owned the lodge's first meeting place at Broad and Line streets. That building burned on August 10, 1880, destroying the original lodge records. Other groups associated with the lodge include the Mineola Council of Royal Arch Masons, chartered in March 1910. An Eastern Star chapter was active even before its official charter date of 1923. Mineola Masonic Lodge occupied several meeting places before moving to the present location. Two other Masonic lodges have consolidated with Mineola: Golden in 1938 and Albia in 1944. (1979)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Mineola's Masonic lodge went to work in 1878 with 17 members and was chartered a year later with 48, drawing in the young railroad town's business and civic leaders. Its early rolls included J. H. Newsom, a city alderman who owned the lodge's first meeting hall, and — most colorfully — William Jesse McDonald, a merchant who rose to become a Wood County sheriff and one of the most famous of all Texas Rangers. A fire in 1880 destroyed the lodge's original records.
Why it matters
Fraternal lodges were the connective civic tissue of frontier towns, and Mineola's roll of members — including a legendary Texas Ranger — shows how tightly local leadership and lodge membership overlapped.
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Related people
- · J. R. Rutherford
- · William Jesse McDonald
- · J. H. Newsom
Themes & tags
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