Mount Hope Lodge No. 121, A. F. & A. M.

Mount Hope, where the lodge began, was a crossroads community two miles north of Chester. The Handbook of Texas lists a Baptist church nearby finished in 1845, Hamilton W. Carter's post office in 1851, and a school district by 1854. It also records a slave patrol appointed in 1853, and a deed for a church, schoolhouse and lodge. The post office closed in 1867, and when the railroad went through Chester instead, Mount Hope declined; only churches and cemeteries remain. Handbook entries date the lodge's move to Chester to 1883 and to 1892.

What the plaque says

Mount Hope Lodge No. 121, A. F. & A. M. Oldest Masonic Lodge in Tyler County in continuous existence under original charter; founded at a site (2 mi. N) on oldest land grant in county, issued on March 17, 1834, to Gavino Araujo by state of Coahuila and Texas. On Oct. 13, 1852, James and Samuel Barnes, John I. Davis, William Sterling, and G. B. Wallace, trustees of Mount Hope Chapel, acquired building site there for a free Protestant church, schoolhouse, and lodge hall. Lodge was organized by H. W. Carter, Benjamin Enloe, William Harrison, Jefferson Laird, William L. Mann, William Priest, William P. Sansom, Israel Sneed, Henry West, and H. A. Willson. Samuel H. Barnes, G. W. Payne, and J. W. Rotan were initiated under dispensation. The charter was granted on Jan. 23, 1853. After town of Chester was founded on the same old land grant, the lodge moved here, dedicating its new hall on March 4, 1892. Samuel Bronson Cooper (soon to be a U. S. Congressman) and lumber magnate John Henry Kirby -- both from this county -- were program speakers. The centennial anniversary of Mount Hope Lodge was celebrated May 23, 1953, with Texas Governor Allan Shivers -- also a Tyler countian -- making an address. Judge J. E. Wheat of Woodville gave the lodge history. Later generations continue works of the founders. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Martin Dies, Jr. State Park — 23 mi
  A 705-acre state park on Steinhagen Reservoir at the meeting of the Neches and Angelina rivers, with about 14 miles of paddling trails through sloughs and more than 200 campsites.

More markers nearby

• Site of Old Peach Tree Village — 1.8 mi
• Moscow, Camden & San Augustine Railroad — 8.4 mi
• Texas Statesman William Pettus Hobby — 14 mi
• Moscow — 14 mi