Port Lavaca Chapter No. 373, Order of the Eastern Star

The order behind the chapter began with a Mississippi schoolmaster. Rob Morris, a lawyer and Freemason teaching at Eureka Masonic College in Richland, set down its principles in 1850 and built its lessons on five women of scripture: Adah, Ruth, Esther, Martha and Electa. Robert Macoy shaped the work into a system of chapters after 1866, and a General Grand Chapter was formed at Indianapolis in November 1876. Men who join must be Master Masons, women are sponsored, and the worthy matron presides, the office Bertie Best first held here, with a Mason as worthy patron.

What the plaque says

Port Lavaca Chapter No. 373, Order of the Eastern Star The first Port Lavaca Chapter of the Eastern Star, No. 171, began in 1894, but ended 5 years later. On May 10, 1907, a second dispensation was constituted for Port Lavaca Chapter No.373. Members of the earlier chapter were among the 13 charter members of the new group. Bertie Best served as the first worthy matron. A later member, Annie Leggett, served as Deputy Grand Matron of the Grand Chapter of Texas. Over the years, this organization has led in the support of numerous charities and benevolences. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Half Moon Reef Lighthouse and Linnville — 2.3 mi
  The last screw-pile lighthouse of the Texas coast, brought ashore at Port Lavaca, a town founded by refugees from Linnville, the port Buffalo Hump's Comanches burned in August 1840.
• Indianola — 13 mi
  The site of Texas's second port, where Morgan's steamships, Army freight and the first refrigerated beef passed until the hurricanes of 1875 and 1886, now mostly under Matagorda Bay.
• Museum of the Coastal Bend — 23 mi
  Victoria College's museum of thirteen thousand years on the middle Texas coast, from Clovis hunters and Karankawa potters to La Salle's lost Fort St. Louis and the first ranches.
• De León Plaza — 24 mi
  The central plaza of Guadalupe Victoria, the only predominantly Mexican colony in Texas, founded by Martín De León in 1824 and taken from his family after 1836.

More markers nearby

• Lavaca Lodge No. 36, A.F. & A.M. — steps away
• Site of the Town of Linnville — steps away
• First Presbyterian Church of Port Lavaca — 2.0 mi
• First Baptist Church of Port Lavaca — 2.2 mi