Stephenville Masonic Lodge #267

Stephenville's founder arrived with enslaved people. The Handbook of Texas says that in 1855 surveyors George Erath and Neil McLennan brought thirty pioneers into the area, among them John M. Stephen, his brother William F., and eighteen slaves. The Stephens took up the John Blair survey, and the Handbook says the slaves may have been left alone on the Bosque to establish relations with Caddo and Anadarko visitors. In 1856 Stephen offered land for a courthouse and townsite if the town were named Stephenville and made the seat. The lodge organized four years later with Stephen a member.

What the plaque says

Stephenville Masonic Lodge #267 The Masonic Lodge in Stephenville organized on July 23, 1860, with 24 masons assembling, including town founder John M. Stephen and four visitors from Gatesville Lodge No. 197. Members first met in a two-story log building facing Belknap Street, with the upper story used for the lodge and the lower story used for school and church purposes. William Motheral was appointed the first worshipful master. The lodge received its charter from the Grand Lodge of Texas on June 12, 1861. In 1891, the lodge leveled the Erath County Courthouse cornerstone. The masons have been active in local and statewide charities, including Scottish Rite Hospital, Masonic Children and Family Services, and scholarships for students at Stephenville High School. (2012)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dublin Bottling Works — 12 mi
  The Erath County plant that bottled Dr Pepper with cane sugar from 1891 until a 2012 settlement ended its Dr Pepper license, and that still makes its own sodas the same way.
• Dinosaur Valley State Park — 23 mi
  Theropod and sauropod trackways of about 113 million years ago in the bed of the Paluxy River, a National Natural Landmark where R. T. Bird found the first distinct sauropod tracks in 1937.
• Granbury Courthouse Square — 29 mi
  A National Register square of limestone storefronts around W. C. Dodson's Second Empire courthouse, whose clock tower citizens saved after a 1968 tornado.

More markers nearby

• Historic Brick Streets of Stephenville — 0.5 mi
• John Tarleton — 0.9 mi
• Cornelia Graves — 0.9 mi
• Kiker's Gin — 7.6 mi