Odd Fellows Hall
Sherman, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Erected in 1875. Third meeting place for Sherman Lodge #45 since organization Sept. 27, 1854. Center of community activity: opened a school (74 students) 11 years before first city public school. At June 21, 1862 meeting all members except one elderly brother left for Confederate service. This meeting was not officially closed until war's end. Three Grand Masters of Texas and 1 Sovereign Grand Master of the World came from membership. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1875, this Odd Fellows Hall was the third home of a Sherman lodge organized in 1854, and it doubled as the town's civic heart — opening a 74-student school a decade before Sherman had a public one. Its Civil War story is striking: at a June 1862 meeting, every member but one aging brother left to join the Confederate army, and the lodge kept that meeting formally 'open' until the war ended. From its ranks came three Grand Masters of Texas and a Sovereign Grand Master of the World.
Why it matters
Fraternal halls like this were the scaffolding of frontier civic life, providing schooling, fellowship, and mutual aid before public institutions existed — and this one's suspended wartime meeting captures how completely the Confederacy drew away a community's men.
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Nearby & related markers
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Founded in 1871 as the Sherman Private School but known to all as "The Cap'n's," this school for boys was run by former Confederate captain John H. LeTellier. A demanding teacher who drilled his pupils in English, spelling, and math, he also joined their games, told war stories, and played guitar at upstairs dances. The school held high standards and turned out many future community leaders until it closed at his death in 1913.
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