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From the research files of June E. Tuck
Tarrant Lodge No. 91 was organized in 1851 and was the first Masonic Lodge in Hopkins County. The dispensation for a new Masonic Lodge must always be recommended by some other lodge and the dispensation for this lodge was recommended by the Paris Lodge. The date of the dispensation for Tarrant Lodge was May 29, 1851, signed by William B. Ochiltree, Grand Master at Marshall Texas. Vergil M. DuBose was District Deputy Grand Master at that time.
The first meeting was held at Tarrant June 7, 1851, starting at nine o'clock in the morning. The charter members wee John B. Craig, David Foster, William Byford, L. G. Harmon, Chas. H. Sims, Geo. W. Pruitt, William H. Johnson, S. L. Simkin (?), and H. W. Jones.
The first officers were Chas. H. Sims. Worshipful Master; William Byford, Senior Warden; John B. Craig, Junior Warden; L. G. Harmon, Treasurer; David Foster, Secretary; Geo. W. Pruitt, Senior Deacon; H. W. Jones, Junior Deacon; and S. L. Simkin (?), Tiler.
At the first meeting there were twelve petitions for initiation and one petition for affiliation. The meeting held all day and large part of the night. At the next regular meeting, July 4, 1851, several brethren visited from Mt. Vernon which shows that Mt. Vernon was as old or older lodge than Tarrant.
On May 1, 1852, the committee that had been appointed to look after the building of a lodge building, reported that it was finished. It cost $556.15, and had a upper and a lower story. They seemed to have rented the lower story or business purposes, and for a long time the grand juries met in their lodge room.
On March 6, 1853, the lodge took under consideration the advisability of building a Masonic Academy at Tarrant. This, in all probability, was never done, but some one did open an academy for boys, and on July 3, 1857, the lodge passed a resolution to take under consideration the building of a female academy. The later minutes recite that at a later meeting the conductor of the male academy made them a proposition to go in together, and they wound up by building another building along side of the one that was already there, but specified that the boys and girls were to have separate teachers and be taught separately. The Masons seem to have had charge of the entire school and appointed a board of trustees to run it.
This lodge was the parent lodge for all the lodges to the west and south that were organized for many years after its organization. It recommended the petition for a lodge at Greenville in 1852; a lodge at Quitman in 1852; on June 4, 1853, it refused to recommend a lodge at Sulphur Springs because it was only five miles from Tarrant and in a new and sparsely settled section. But the Sulphur Springs Masons were separated from Tarrant by White Oak bottom which was usually impassable and they persisted in their request and on Dec. 5, 1856, it was granted. From the membership rolls it looks like they had more members in Sulphur Springs and the south part of the county at that time than they did at Tarrant and they wee able to vote what they pleased. In 1854 they recommended a lodge at Black Jack Grove and made the same recommendation again in 1855. In August 1855, they recommended a lodge a Veale's store or White Oak in Hopkins County. This was afterwards Lollar's store and was just this side of Weaver. Sulphur Springs failed to get a dispensation on the first recommendation and their order had to be passed again in 1857.
1853 Officers of the Lodge were: L. G. Harmon, W. M. ; Wm. Poff, S. W.; B. G. Bailey, J. W.; Josiah Smith, S. D.; G. H. Crowder, J. D. ; B.W. Milholland, Treas.; E. Hopkins, Sec.; William M. Ewing, Tiler.
1854 Officers were: Louis G. Harmon, W. M.; Hiram C. Russell, S.W.; Benj. G. Bailey, J. W.; John C. Landers, Treas.; Wm. M. Ewing, Sec.; Green H. Crowder, S. D.; Thomas P. Garrett, J. D.; A. M. Birdwell and J. S. Burson, Stewards; Wm. H. Burns, Tiler.
1855 Officers were: L. G. Harmon, W. M.; G. H. Crowder, S. W.; Wm. C. Veal, J. W.; Wm. M. Ewing, Treas.; J. F. Fuller, Sec.; T. K. Bailey, S. D.; M. Russell, J. D.; J. M. Ewing and Wm. H. Burns, Stewards; A. M. Birdwell, Tiler.
1856 Officers were: L. G. Harmon, W. M.; W. M. Ewing, S. W.; E. M. Posey, J. W.; R. E. Matthews, Treas.; E. J. W. Tomlinson, Sec.; F. M. Goodman, S. D.; P. E. Veal, J. D.; Z. J. Scott, Tiler. Louis G. Harmon was also District Deputy Grand Master at this time.
1857 Officers were: Louis G. Harmon, W. M.; E. J. W. Tomlinson, S. W.; F. M. Goodman, J. W.; Wm. M. Ewing, Sec.; J. M. Ewing, Treas.; Z. G. Matthews, S. D.; C. Crisp, J. D.; M. Russell, Tiler.
1858 Officers were: Wm. M. Ewing, W. M., F. M. Goodman, S. W. ; Z. G. Matthews, J. W. ; Wm. W. Poff, Treas.; L. G. Harmon, Sec.; J. P. Hargrave, S. D.; J. M. Ewing, J. D. ; G. H. Crowder, Tiler.
1859 Officers were: Wm. W. Poff, W. M.; John M. Ewing, S. W. ; J. N. White, J. W.; Wm. M. Ewing, Treas.; Z. G. Matthews, Sec.; J. C. Dillingham, S. D.; Carroll Crisp, J. D.; D. Reynolds and R. C. Ringo, Stewards; J. B. Moore, Tiler.
At first their regular meeting night was the first Saturday night in each month, but they changed it to the first Friday night in each month because they had so much work to do that they often stayed in session all night and all day Saturday and part of Saturday night.
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