Sons of Hermann Lodge No. 216

The Handbook of Texas says men of German descent founded the order in New York City in 1840 and formed a national grand lodge in Milwaukee in 1848. Its first Texas lodge, Harmonia No. 1, was organized in San Antonio on July 6, 1861, and the Texas grand lodge followed on March 27, 1890, with eight lodges and 242 members. A women's sister lodge followed at Sherman in 1896. In 1920 the Texas order, stronger than all other lodges combined, broke away from the national body, and it finished its change from German to English by 1937.

What the plaque says

Organized in 1904 as Rowena Chapter of the Sons of Hermann, worldwide benevolent fraternal organization. Named for German national hero and tribal leader Hermann the Defender (18 B.C. - 19 A.D.), who helped break Roman power east of the Rhine River in 9 A.D. First officers of the Rowena Lodge were Michelus Feist, president; Julius J. Henkhaus, vice president; Walter Schuhmann, secretary; Ignatz Olsak, treasurer. There were ten charter members. The order maintains a youth camp and home for the aged, for members, at town of Comfort. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnegie Library of Ballinger — 8.4 mi
  A 1909 limestone library with an Ionic portico in a railroad town the Santa Fe created in 1886, one of the few Texas Carnegie libraries still working in its original building.
• Z. I. Hale Museum and Rock Hotel — 22 mi
  A free museum in a Winters optometrist's office, a 1909 railroad hotel and a 1927 implement dealership, with Rogers Hornsby's hometown memorabilia and a 1912 horse-drawn cotton picker.
• Miss Hattie's Bordello Museum — 26 mi
  The upstairs rooms on Concho Avenue where a brothel ran from 1902 until the Texas Rangers closed it in 1952, shown on short guided tours with most of the furnishings original.
• San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts — 26 mi
  A free art museum on the Concho beside Fort Concho, founded in the fort's 1868 quartermaster building and known nationally for its biennial ceramics competition.

More markers nearby

• Rowena — 0.3 mi
• San Clemente Mission — 6.9 mi
• Charles H. Noyes — 8.4 mi
• Ballinger — 8.4 mi