Before the Temple · 1891–1929

Reagan Lodge No. 1037 is chartered

1910

The Grand Lodge of Texas chartered Reagan Lodge No. 1037 on December 12, 1910. James F. Helms carried the charter home from Waco. On the night of December 31, District Deputy Grand Master O. M. Longnecker installed the first officers, with J. M. French as the first Worshipful Master.

The lodge was named for John H. Reagan, the Texas statesman who served as U.S. Senator and first chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, and who had been a Mason of long standing. Its founding cohort had deep roots: French, Helms, and A. C. Bernard had served together as officers of Brenham Lodge No. 135 as early as 1893.

The source

Sepia group photograph of fourteen men in suits, several wearing white Masonic aprons, posed on a wooden platform among trees, labelled Masonic Lodge, Heights.
An undated group photograph labelled “Masonic Lodge, Heights” (Houston History Research Center, MSS 0229, item 139): a digitally restored copy whose faces were sharpened by software, not a scan of the print.

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Also: Grand Lodge of Texas Proceedings; Houston Post, Jan. 1, 1911.