On April 21, 1936, tens of thousands of Texans gathered at the Battleground to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto. As part of the festivities, they witnessed the unveiling of the Masonic Memorial to honor the role Freemasons played in the Texas Revolution.
The first Masonic lodge in Texas—Holland Lodge No. 36—was founded on December 27, 1835, in Brazoria and later moved to Houston. Anson Jones, the surgeon for the First Regiment of Texas Volunteers and later the fourth president of Texas, carried the charter for the new lodge in his saddlebags during the Battle of San Jacinto, and at least eighty-seven veterans of the battle were Freemasons.
A common misconception is that the bronze statue at the top of the column is Sam Houston, but the frontiersman is not meant to represent a specific person.
Inscribed on the bronze plaque on the west side of the base are the names of famous Masons involved in the Texas Revolution and the Republic of Texas. How many of them are you familiar with?