Masonic lodges were formed generally about the same time as the communities in which they resided.  In the case of the Rock Church neighborhood, more than a decade passed between the arrival of the first Anglo settlers and the establishment of a lodge.  Of course, the intervening years kept many of the prospective members otherwise engaged in fending off Indian raids or in fighting and eventually losing a Civil War. 

By the early 1870s, the men of the Paluxy River Valley were sufficiently organized to request a charter from The Grand Lodge of Texas.  Most already had received their Masonic degrees from organizations near and far, but a few evidently were just beginning their journeys into Freemasonry.  The following men signed the Petition for Dispensation (application) to form Paluxy Lodge in 1873:

Paluxy Lodge met UD (under dispensation) from 21 Jun 1873 until 06 Jun 1874, when it was officially chartered by The Grand Lodge of Texas.  Based upon the first returns, the inaugural members of Paluxy Lodge included James A. BROOKS, Zachariah BROOKS, G.W. BULLION, Jesse CARAWAY, B.P. EARP, W.N. FREEMAN, A.J. GOODWIN (sic), F.N. HOLMES (sic), J.R. JONES, Isaac MOORE, W.H. PATE, P.K. PHENIX, A.B. ROBERTS, Lindsey ROBERTSON, T.M. SELF, Daniel SHIPMAN, J.A. STEWART, G.H. TURNER, G.W. WHITE, and M.N. WOODS (sic).  There may have been others.

The first officers of Paluxy Lodge were installed by I.N. ROBERTS, the Worshipful Master of Stephenville Lodge in neighboring Erath County.  They were:

The Paluxy Masons convened in what is familiarly known as the Rock Church (photo above & below).  Although the date of this historic landmark's origin has been placed as early as 1871, the deed in which Jesse CARAWAY donated five acres of his homestead "for the purposes of having a church, a school house and a Masonic Lodge in my neighborhood" was not signed until 22 May 1875.  The evidence appears to prove that the stone edifice was erected between those two dates.

At a meeting held 02 Aug 1873, a building committee comprising J. CARAWAY, D.M. WOOD, and J.R. JONES was appointed to build a Masonic hall.  Records show that a bill was allowed and ordered paid on 04 Oct 1873 to Gilpin & Graham (presumably the contractors who built the lodge).  This matches well with the tradition that the Paluxy Masons moved into their new quarters 01 Nov 1873.  This date also generally coincides with the earliest burial at the adjacent Rock Church Cemetery.

Paluxy Lodge conducted its meetings on the second floor of the Rock Church.  Access was gained by ascending a staircase on the outside of the building (photo right).

A return for Poluxey (sic) Lodge No. 393 in December 1887 reveals that the organization met once a month at 1 p.m. on the Saturday before the full moon.  Those in attendance typically included the officers, Master Masons (members who had earned their third Masonic degree), Fellow Crafts (second-degree members), Entered Apprentices (first-degree members), initiates, and visiting brethren.  The list of members in December 1887 included:

The Paluxy Masonic Lodge flourished for more than 70 years before its eventual decline.  On 09 Oct 1943, it abandoned the old CARAWAY neighborhood and merged with Bluff Dale Lodge No. 724. Valuable information on the early history of Paluxy Lodge was lost in 1948, when a fire in the Bluff Dale Lodge destroyed the records of both organizations.

SOURCES:

Dr. James D. Carter, letter to Judge Henry Davis, 19 Jun 1959.  Judge Henry Davis Records Collection, Hood County Library, Granbury, Texas.  [Dr. Carter was editor of the Texas Grand Lodge Magazine in Waco, Texas.]

"Proceedings in the Fifty-Second Annual Communication of the M.W. Grand Lodge of Texas, held at the City of Houston commencing on the second Tuesday in December, A.D. 1887," Hood County Genealogical Society newsletter (Granbury, Texas), August 1985, pp. 7-8.

John S. Yates, Researching Masonic Records, (by the author, Wichita Falls, Texas, 1994).

Billy J. Frizzell [Secretary, Bluff Dale Lodge No. 724, P.O. Box 165, Bluff Dale, Texas 76433], letter to Bobby J. Wadsworth, 26 Jan 1996.




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22 Nov 2004  |  02 Dec 2009


























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