Frio Lodge No. 399, A.F. & A.M.

Frio County's schooling began in a courthouse. The first school met in the Frio City courthouse in February 1873, and in 1876 the Masons supplied benches for it. After the county seat left, the old courthouse housed Frio Academy, which had 17 pupils and two teachers in 1906. In Pearsall, Frio College under B. C. Hendricks was running by 1890, and in 1891 Pearsall became the county's first independent school district. Most of the county's small common-school districts were folded into the Dilley and Pearsall districts in 1949 and 1950.

What the plaque says

Frio Lodge No. 399, A.F. & A.M. The Frio Lodge was organized with seven members in 1873 in the town of Frio City (16 mi. NW) and was chartered the following year. The first Worshipful Master was John B. McMahon, a pioneer area settler who had served as head of the Grand Lodge of Texas in 1860-61. In 1883 the lodge relocated to the new railroad town of Pearsall. Over the years many prominent community leaders have been members of the Frio Masonic lodge, which is the oldest continuing organization in Frio County. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Frio Pioneer Jail Museum — 0.3 mi
  Pearsall's 1884 county jail, the town's oldest building, used for 83 years and now a free museum with a sheriff's home downstairs and six cells above.

More markers nearby

• Frio County — steps away
• Moore Cemetery — 13 mi
• Moore Catholic Cemetery — 13 mi
• Tehuacana Cemetery — 14 mi