Van Alstyne, Grayson County
The organizational meeting for this Masonic lodge was held on Feb. 7, 1857, on the second story of H.N. Walcott's store building in the village of Mantua (2 mi. SW). With district deputy grand master J.J. Harrison officiating, the first meeting was attended by J.M. Enloe, W.A. Portman, J.L. Leslie, W.M. Akens, A.J. McDonough, A.C. White, H.N. Walcott, J.L. Lovejoy, G.W. Strother, and J.S. Stewart. Other charter members of the lodge included Younger Scott McKinney, who had laid out the townsite several years earlier, and James W. Throckmorton, who later served as governor of Texas. A two-story lodge building was completed in 1859. The Masons met on the upper floor, while the first story housed a private school, the Mantua Seminary. After Van Alstyne was established on the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1872, most of the businesses and other establishments in Mantua, including the Masonic lodge, moved to the new town. The lodge members held meetings in various locations until 1898, when they purchased the Carter Building on the town square. In 1976 the lodge moved to its current location. Mantua Masonic Lodge No. 209 has provided valuable service to schools, churches, and needy persons, and remains an important part of the history of this area. (1983)