Texas Freemasonry

Texas Masonry is inseparable from the Texas Revolution. Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, William Barret Travis, and many of the other leading figures of the Texas independence movement were Freemasons. Masonic gatherings in Texas predate the Republic itself: the first Masonic meeting in Texas took place on March 25, 1835, under an oak tree near Brazoria, when a group of Masons met informally to discuss organizing a lodge. Before a Texas grand lodge could be established, the Texas Revolution intervened — and several of the men at that Brazoria meeting would die within a year at the Alamo or at Goliad. After Texas won independence, the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas was organized at Houston on December 20, 1837, when representatives of Holland Lodge No. 36 (chartered from Louisiana), Milam Lodge No. 40 (also from Louisiana), and McFarland Lodge No. 41 convened. Anson Jones (the last President of the Republic of Texas) was elected the first Grand Master. Formal grand lodge operations began the following year, with 1838 commonly cited as the founding date. When Texas joined the United States in 1845, the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas simply became the Grand Lodge of Texas.

Two recognized grand lodges operate in Texas today. The Grand Lodge of Texas, A.F. & A.M., is recognized by UGLE. The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas, founded in 1875, is also recognized by UGLE, and in 2007 the two bodies formalized mutual recognition — placing Texas among the majority of US states where mainstream and Prince Hall grand lodges operate in fraternal amity.

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PHA Grand Lodge

The Grand Lodge of Texas is recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England and is in fraternal amity with the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas.

The Grand Lodge of Texas was constituted on December 20, 1837, as the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas, with Anson Jones (physician, diplomat, and last President of the Republic) as the first Grand Master. Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas, was a Mason. Sam Houston (President of the Republic and later Texas Senator and Governor) was a member of Holland Lodge No. 36, which became Holland Lodge No. 1 under the Texas grand lodge and is still active today. William Barret Travis, who died at the Alamo, was a Mason. James Bowie and David Crockett, also at the Alamo, are generally believed to have been Masons, though documentation is incomplete.

The Masonic connections to the founding of Texas gave the grand lodge a distinctive civic character that persisted through the nineteenth century. Texas Freemasonry was tightly woven into the political and community life of a young state still building its institutions. Lodges formed rapidly across the Republic and then across the state, serving the same function they had in other American frontiers: providing structured fellowship and mutual obligation in communities that had little other institutional infrastructure.

The Civil War disrupted Texas Masonry as it disrupted the rest of Southern institutional life, but the grand lodge reconstituted itself through Reconstruction and expanded substantially in the Gilded Age as the Texas economy diversified from ranching into farming, railroads, and eventually oil. The discovery of oil at Spindletop in 1901 and the subsequent development of the Texas petroleum industry brought new prosperity and population growth that strengthened Masonic membership across the state.

The Grand Lodge of Texas is headquartered in Waco at the Grand Lodge of Texas building, which houses extensive archives, a major Masonic library, and the Grand Lodge Library and Museum — one of the more substantial Masonic archival collections in the American South. The Grand Lodge of Texas formally recognized the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas in 2007, establishing mutual recognition and reciprocal visitation rights. Today the grand lodge serves lodges across the state, with active lodge communities in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth, and cities and towns throughout Texas.

The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas is recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England and is in fraternal amity with the Grand Lodge of Texas, A.F. & A.M.

The Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas was founded in 1875 — ten years after the Civil War’s end and during the Reconstruction period that saw the rapid organization of Black civic institutions across the former Confederacy. Texas had one of the largest Black populations in the South, and Prince Hall lodges spread across the state as Black Texans built the institutional infrastructure that emancipation made possible. The grand lodge has been a central institution of Black civic life in the state ever since, with major institutional presences in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Fort Worth.

Prince Hall Freemasonry traces its lineage to African Lodge No. 459, warranted by the Grand Lodge of England in 1784 after Prince Hall (a free Black Bostonian) and fourteen other free Black men were initiated into Masonry through an Irish military lodge in Boston in 1775. The lodge was erected into the African Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1791, and in 1827 declared independence from England, establishing the autonomous tradition that all Prince Hall grand lodges across the United States trace their authority to today.

The Grand Lodge of Texas formally recognized the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas in 2007, establishing mutual recognition between the two bodies and extending to members of each the full rights of a Master Mason in the other’s lodges. This recognition was part of the broader wave of mainstream-PHA recognitions that reshaped American Masonic relations from the late 1980s onward. The Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas is today one of the largest PHA jurisdictions in the United States, reflecting the size of Texas’s Black population and the depth of the fraternal tradition there. Both grand lodges are confirmed as regular Masonic jurisdictions by UGLE.

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Holland Lodge No. 1 in Houston — formerly Holland Lodge No. 36 under the Louisiana grand lodge, and the lodge where Sam Houston held membership — is among the most historically significant Masonic lodges in the American South. The lodge's records connect directly to the Texas Revolution, and it has operated continuously since its charter in the Republic period. Houston's location as the city where the founding grand lodge convention was held in December 1837 gives it particular historical resonance for Masons interested in Texas Masonic origins.

The Grand Lodge of Texas building in Waco houses the Grand Lodge of Texas Library and Museum, one of the most substantial Masonic research collections in the American South. The archives hold materials from the Republic of Texas period, including records of the founding lodges, and are a primary resource for researchers studying Texas Masonic history. The building itself is a significant Masonic landmark on the Waco streetscape.

San Felipe de Austin — the original capital of Stephen F. Austin's Texas colony and a site closely associated with the beginning of the Texas independence movement — preserves historic connections to the earliest Texas Masonic history, as Austin and many of his colonists who gathered there were Masons. The Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, while an appendant body institution rather than a grand lodge facility, is one of the most significant Masonic charitable institutions in the country and is open to visitors by appointment.

Visiting Masons should contact lodges through the Grand Lodge of Texas website at grandlodgeoftexas.org. Texas lodges observe a strong tradition of welcoming visiting Brothers from recognized jurisdictions.

The Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction is active across Texas with major Valleys in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Galveston, Waco, and other cities — one of the most extensive Scottish Rite presences in the jurisdiction. The Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, supported by the Scottish Rite Valleys of Texas, has provided free specialized pediatric orthopedic care since 1921 and is among the most significant expressions of Masonic charitable commitment in the country.

Shriners International maintains a substantial presence across Texas through Arabia Shrine in Houston, Hella Shrine in Dallas, Khiva Shrine in Amarillo, and other Shrine centers, supporting the Shriners Children's hospital network statewide.

York Rite bodies — Chapters of Royal Arch Masons, Councils of Cryptic Masons, and Commanderies of Knights Templar — operate extensively across the state, with bodies in dozens of Texas cities. The York Rite tradition in Texas carries roots reaching to the republic era, when the fraternity was helping build the institutions of an independent nation before statehood.

The Order of the Eastern Star, DeMolay International, and Job's Daughters International have active chapters across Texas, with particularly strong Eastern Star and DeMolay traditions rooted in the state's nineteenth-century Masonic culture.

United Grand Lodge of England — Foreign Grand Lodges (ugle.org.uk) — Recognition status of the Grand Lodge of Texas and the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas.

Grand Lodge of Texas, A.F. & A.M. (grandlodgeoftexas.org) — Official site; founding history, Holland Lodge No. 36, Anson Jones as first Grand Master, Sam Houston’s membership.

Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas — History (mwphglotx.org) — Official site; founding convention August 19-20, 1875 in Brenham; Norris Wright Cuney as first Grand Master.

Freemason Information — Texas Mutual Recognition (freemasoninformation.com) — April 23, 2007 mutual recognition compact; December 6, 2014 intervisitation approval.

Dallas Freemasonry — Texas Freemason History (dallasfreemasonry.org) — Founding convention narrative; lodge memberships of Travis, Bowie, Crockett, and Houston; April 16, 1838 as formal constitution date per historian James D. Carter.

Scottish Rite for Children (scottishriteforchildren.org) — Current name and 1921 founding confirmed.

Grand Lodge of Texas Library and Museum (https://grandlodgeoftexas.org/) — archives and research collections for Texas Masonic history including the Republic period.