Freestone County, Texas
Social



Pine Bluff Masonic Lodge #85, A.F. & A.M.
Rock Springs, Texas

A petition for dispensation was signed by nine Master Masons September 15, 
1850. Palestine Lodge No. 31 recommended the petition, and dispensation was 
granted January 25, 1851 with Joseph B. Hardin the first worshipful master.
The lodge's charter was granted January 21, 1852 and demised in 1881.

Pine Bluff was the port community for the town of Troy.  Pine Bluff eventually
vacated when the steamboat traffic died down.  The lodge moved to Rock Springs
near the Trinity River in 1866.  1872 and after annual returns of the lodge 
report their location as Rock Springs and their post office as Fairfield.

The members likely merged into the masonic lodge in Fairfield.

Deaths Reported at the Grand Lodge Meeting or Annual Lodge Returns:

Waldrom, John  1859
[no annual returns for lodge in the 1860s found]
Hammett, B. T. 1870 (Rock Springs location)
Towles, John H. 1872 (Rock Springs location, Fairfield post office)
Eskridge, Richard [an E.A.] 1873 (Rock Springs location, Fairfield post office)
Hill, Henry S. 1873 (Rock Springs location, Fairfield post office)
Webb, J.M. 1878 (Rock Springs location, Fairfield post office)


[Editor's Note - I have not found listings of their graves, so it is likely
 that there is a Rocky Springs cemetery that is lost.  John Waldrom's wife
 is buried at Mayes Cemetery near Bulter.]