Mount Horeb Lodge

Samuel E. Mather, who gave the land for the 1856 hall, was born in Northumberland, England, in 1812. In 1849 he settled on the North San Gabriel in Williamson County, where he built a gristmill and the town of Gabriel Mills grew up around it. A flood took the mill in 1854; he rebuilt by 1856 and added a church and school. He helped found Mount Horeb Lodge No. 137 and sat in the Ninth Legislature. In 1863 he moved to New Braunfels and started a paper mill on the Comal River.

What the plaque says

Mount Horeb Lodge Chartered Jan. 21, 1854; met in log schoolhouse. Erected own lodge hall 1856 on land given by Grand Master Sam Mather and B. K. Stewart. First floor used as church and school. A fire in 1915 razed hall. Lodge rebuilt here 1916 on land given by G. T. and W. J. Williams. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge: Doeskin Ranch — 16 mi
  A free federal refuge north of Lake Travis kept for two songbirds that need old juniper and oak, with trails at the Doeskin Ranch unit near Bertram.
• Hancock Springs Park — 22 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.
• Inks Lake State Park — 26 mi
  A state park on a constant-level lake of the Colorado, between Buchanan and Inks dams, with pink granite and gneiss at the water and CCC work along Park Road 4.
• Longhorn Cavern State Park — 26 mi
  A cave carved by an underground river in the Hill Country, cleared of mud by hand in the 1930s and reached down 52 stone steps on a guided tour.

More markers nearby

• Mahomet-Sycamore Springs Community — steps away
• Mahomet Cemetery — 0.3 mi
• Prairie View Cemetery — 3.1 mi
• The Community of Briggs — 4.8 mi