Elgin, Williamson County
Settled as early as the 1840s, Post Oak Island was one of this area's earliest communities. There, on September 15, 1855, I.J. Kidd, T. Gatlin, P.A. Middleton, M. Gardner and A.S. Harper established a Masonic lodge. On February 2, 1856, the lodge was officially constituted as Post Oak Island Lodge #181, and by October 1860, lodge members had paid the mortgage on their lodge hall. They moved the hall in 1878 to Sam Smith Springs (Lawhon Springs), and in 1901, they moved it again, to Beaukiss. Despite the relatively small population of Beaukiss, the long-standing institution has maintained a high membership, pulled from the area's dispersed rural communities. (2006)