Trinity Lodge No. 14, A.F. & A.M.
Livingston, Polk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1840 this Masonic Lodge was organized in the pioneer town of Swartout (Swartwout) (6 mi. SW) in what was then Liberty County. After erecting a two-story building, the Masons assisted in organizing the first school in the area and furnished the lower floor of the Lodge for school use. Members gave money for salaries, tuition, and supplies. The Masons furnished the building for the first school in Livingston after moving the Lodge here in 1846. The school used their building until 1908. Trinity Lodge has met at this site since 1970 and has taken an active part in promoting education in Polk County. (1983)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1840 in the vanished river town of Swartwout when this was still Liberty County, Trinity Lodge did far more than hold Masonic rites—its members founded and bankrolled the area's first schools, furnishing the lower floor of the lodge for classes and paying teachers' salaries and tuition. When the lodge moved to Livingston in 1846, it again housed the town's first school, a role it filled until 1908.
Why it matters
It shows how fraternal lodges served as the earliest engines of public education in frontier Texas, decades before organized school systems existed.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Education in Livingston
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