MASONIC OAK PICNIC

The 2009 Masonic Oak Picnic will be Sunday, May 17 at the Masonic Oak Park in Brazoria. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m., with the program and devotional service at 10:00 a.m. A catered barbeque lunch will be served afterwards. Tickets will be available at registration. In the past they have been $7.50. Remember, this is an outdoor picnic, so dress accordingly. For more information on the picnic, visit this page on the Grand Lodge website for additional information.

Reprinted from this letter:
In the spring of 1835, five men, who had made themselves known to each other as Master Masons, met under an oak tree at the outskirts of Brazoria, Texas. A petition was drawn up and forwarded to the Grand Lodge of Louisiana to apply for a charter for a Masonic Lodge in Texas, naming Anson Jones as Worshipful Master. A dispensation was granted and the first Masonic Lodge was opened at Brazoria, Texas on the 27th day of December, 1835, only to exist until February, 1836, when Bro. Anson Jones presided over the last meeting. Due to open hostilities with Mexico, Brazoria was abandoned. Bro. Anson Jones carried the official charter for Holland Lodge No. 36 in Brazoria, Texas, in his saddlebags during the Battle of San Jacinto and safely returned with it to Brazoria, Texas, only to find the properties of the Lodge destroyed and its members dispersed. No attempt was made to revive the Lodge in Brazoria, however in November 1837, it was reopened by Bro. Anson Jones and others in Houston, Texas, a city then two years old. In December 1837, the Grand Lodge of Texas was organized, electing Bro. Anson Jones the first Most Worshipful Grand Master.
To commemorate those historic events, at the site where they occurred, Anson Jones Lodge 1313 and Brazoria Lodge 327 invites all Masons, their families and friends, to join them under the giant oak trees at Brazoria, Texas, to take part in an open air church service, basket picnic and public speaking, a general get acquainted meeting for young and old.