San Felipe Royal Arch Club No.1 gathered on February 12, 2005,
to celebrate the first documented
Masonic meeting in Texas, which was
a York Rite meeting. Companion Stephen F. Austin and six others
met in San
Felipe de Austin, on February 11, 1828. These Companions petitioned the Grand
York Lodge of Mexico
for what would have been the first lodge in Colonial
Texas. The charter was not granted due to political turmoil
in Mexico regarding
Freemasonry, and suspicions against the Texians.
The minutes from this meeting and a hand written copy in Spanish
of the application for petiton of Charter
to the Grand York Lodge of Mexico
are on display in the Republic of Texas Room at the Grand Lodge
Library and
Museum in Waco, Texas. This meeting happened almost a full seven years before
the
Masonic oak meeting in Brazoria.
Guests that day were Mrs. Florence Sims and Ms. Jaunita Perry
of the Stephen F. Austin
Historical Association at San Felipe, Texas.
