The charter members of the Henry Thomas Lodge applied for Charter from the Grand Lodge of Texas in April 1865, paying the $50. filing fee in Confederate Dollars. They first met about 12 miles distance from the present location at Smithwick. Meeting on the first Saturday night of the month, in a cotton gin house owned by J.F. Burton, members traveled from a twenty mile radius over craggy hills by horse back through country where hostile Indians regulary raided and plundered.
Charter Members:
Officers: A.M. Cox, Worthy Master, Christain Dorbandt, J.F. Burton, E. Jackson, Treasurer, W. H. Holland, Secretary, J.A. Harris, H. L. Hensel, Calvin Hall, Tiler
Master Masons: W.B. Kirkwood, John Vickers, O.B. Wright
Entered Apprentice, J.W. Stinnett
The above building, which is still standing after 131 years, was built by A.M. Cox near the Colorado River at Smithwick. Noah Smithwick, later author of Evolution of a State, built a grist mill near here in 1855. A small settlement grew up around the mill and remained when Smithwick moved to California. Mr. Cox donated use of the upper story to the Masonic Lodge, willing this portion to the Lodge upon his death. The ground floor was owned and operated as a General Store for many years by Frank and Florence (Stinnett) Lewis. They, likewise willed their interest to the Lodge.
This native stone building has seen many changes in the past 131 years, from the Post Civil War days when Veterans of that conflict climbed the outdoor stairs for the Saturday night meetings. At some point, the men begain taking turns providing the "Lodge Supper", a task that fell to the wives who would cook the food at home, then transport it, serve the meal and clean up the dishes, carrying water up the stairs to be heated for this purposes. The ladies then gathered elsewhere for a welcome rest and visit until the meeting was over.
Biographies of some of these members will be added later.
