Murchison Lodge No. 80, A.F. & A.M.
Hallettsville, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Considered oldest organized group in Lavaca County. Under dispensation granted March 29, 1850, Lodge was chartered January 31, 1851, and named for early Texas colonist and Masonic leader John Murchison, Fayette County. First officers: Isaac J. Foster, worshipful master; Silas Bennett, senior warden; Peter McDermott, junior warden. About 1855, Lodge built a 3-story hall, which was also used as a church and a school (called "Masonic College"). Lodge member Friench Simpson served as grand treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Texas in 1900.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Considered the oldest organized group in Lavaca County, this Masonic lodge was chartered in 1851 and named for early Texas colonist and Masonic leader John Murchison. Around 1855 it built a three-story hall that did triple duty as a church and a school known as the "Masonic College." A lodge member, Friench Simpson, later served as grand treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Texas in 1900.
Why it matters
The lodge shows how fraternal orders in frontier Texas provided the earliest infrastructure for worship and education, their halls standing in for the churches and schools a young county had not yet built.
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Related people
- · John Murchison
- · Friench Simpson
- · Isaac J. Foster
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hallettsville Public Schools
Hallettsville, TX
Schooling in Hallettsville reaches back to the Alma Male and Female Institute of 1852, built on land donated by town founder Margaret Hallett, with the Masonic lodge later lending space for church and school alike. A public graded school took shape in 1877, and by 1907 voters made the district independent of the county system. Through fire, rebuilding, and expansion the schools endured, and in 1966 they were integrated, with the former Stevens-Mayo School for Black students becoming a junior high.
Site of the Alma Male and Female Institute
Hallettsville, TX
When Hallettsville became the Lavaca County seat in 1852, town founder Margaret Hallett set aside land for a courthouse, a church, and a school. On that school lot a joint-stock company opened the Alma Female Institute in 1853, a two-story wooden academy teaching classical languages, literature, mathematics, science, and music; it soon admitted boys and became the Alma Male and Female Institute. Funding troubles and mismanagement closed it during the Civil War, and the building later served as a hotel and family home before vanishing entirely.
Hallettsville Public Library
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Lavaca County's hunger for books ran back to 1893, but the modern library began in 1932 when two local women opened a rental "Library Nook" offering the best books at the lowest cost. A Reading Club, the Rotary and Chamber of Commerce, and New Deal WPA labor combined to open the county's public library in a city hall room in 1938, serving even rural schools on meager means. In 1966 the community dedicated the Friench Simpson Memorial Library, named for a local lawyer, banker, and state senator.
First Methodist Church of Hallettsville
Hallettsville, TX
Methodist circuit riders reached this area as early as 1842, and by 1851 eleven charter members had formed a congregation that worshipped in brush arbors, homes, a schoolhouse, courthouse, and the local Masonic Lodge Hall. The church met in the Lodge Hall until completing its first sanctuary in 1891, later adding a parsonage and educational building. Closely tied to sister churches in Shiner and Mossy Grove, it has counted many of Hallettsville's leading citizens among its members.