Terrell Lodge No. 83
Alto, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized in 1851, this Masonic body was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Texas in 1852. Meetings were originally held in the Linwood Community (7 mi. E). The lodge was named for George Whitfield Terrell (1893-1846), who served as attorney general of the Republic of Texas. He also represented the Republic as an Indian commissioner and foreign diplomat. Terrell Lodge moved to Alto in 1852. Two previous buildings served as lodge before the present facility was constructed in 1966.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1851 and chartered by the Grand Lodge of Texas the next year, this Masonic lodge first met in the small Linwood community before relocating to Alto in 1852. It was named for a prominent public figure of the Republic of Texas who served as its attorney general and represented the young nation as both an Indian commissioner and a diplomat abroad. The lodge worshiped in two earlier buildings before its present hall was built in 1966.
Why it matters
Fraternal lodges like this were early civic anchors on the Texas frontier, binding scattered settlers together and honoring the leaders of the Republic era.
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Related people
- · George Whitfield Terrell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
A. Frank Smith United Methodist Church
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Circuit-riding preachers reached this community by 1845, and the Rev. Andrew Cummings formally organized the congregation in 1852 as part of the new Rusk circuit. Meeting first in a schoolhouse and worshiping in a succession of buildings donated and designed by local families, the church grew into a full-time station and in 1960 took the name of Bishop A. Frank Smith, who began his ministry here.
Robert F. Mitchell
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An Ohio native, Robert F. Mitchell arrived in the Republic of Texas in 1837 and, after a stint in the mercantile trade at Nacogdoches, settled in Cherokee County in 1849. His land on the high ground between the Neches and Angelina rivers became the townsite of Alto — Latin for "high." A storekeeper, ginner, and hotelkeeper, Mitchell was a driving force in the young town's growth over the following decades.
Site of Lacy's Fort
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Before 1835, Martin Lacy—an Indian agent for the Mexican government—built this home and trading post on the East Texas frontier. When the Killough family was attacked on October 5, 1838, in what became known as one of the largest such incidents in the region, settlers fled to Lacy's Fort for refuge amid the turmoil between Anglo colonists and Native peoples during the young Republic of Texas.
Chief Bowles' Last Homesite
Alto vicinity, TX
In 1836 Sam Houston negotiated a treaty recognizing the Cherokees' right to the East Texas lands they occupied, where their leading figure was Duwali — known also as Bowl or Chief Bowles. But after the Texas Revolution the Senate of the new Republic voided the treaty, and in 1839 President Mirabeau B. Lamar ordered the Cherokee expelled. Learning of the order near this site, Bowles rallied his people to resist and was killed at the Battle of the Neches on July 16, 1839.