Lebanon Lodge #837 Group

Was looking at the website -- especially the page on history -- https://www.friscomasons.org/history

I took the PDF that was there and created the text below. If you see it as a solid summary, it might make sense to have this as text on the webpage and then a reference to the PDF if people want more details on the history. No ownership on this so modify, change or delete as needed. Just trying to help and had a free moment between meetings..... Lebanon Lodge No. 837, A.F. & A.M. – Frisco’s Masonic Lineage of Service

For more than 125 years, Lebanon Lodge No. 837 has been woven into the story of Frisco. Long before Frisco boomed, when the area was still called Lebanon, Masons were already organizing, leading, building churches, serving as doctors, and quite literally helping found the town. Chartered on December 7, 1899, by local Masons who believed Frisco needed a place for good men to meet and improve themselves, the lodge has stayed active through fires, depressions, population booms, and the modern growth of the city. It has always been a lodge of doers, not spectators. (Source: Lebanon 837 History Pamphlet - see link on this page)

One of the best proofs of that is leadership: again and again, Frisco’s mayors, doctors, and community builders were members of Lebanon Lodge. Men like Dr. Isaac “Ike” Rogers (Frisco’s first mayor), Dr. J.M. Ogle, Benton Staley, and later Mayor Bob Warren all sat in lodge before they sat in city hall. They didn’t separate Masonry from life — they used what they learned in lodge (character, restraint, service, brotherly kindness) and put it to work in the town. That’s the kind of Masonry Lebanon practices: not secret for the sake of being secret, but quiet so the work can speak for itself.

Another thing that makes Lebanon Lodge different is “The Promise.” In 1908, a grieving mother had to leave her infant buried here. A local woman promised to tend that grave so the child would never be forgotten. When that family line could no longer keep the promise, Lebanon Lodge stepped in — and has kept it for more than a century. That’s not a fundraiser or a publicity stunt. That’s what Masons do: we keep our word, even when no one is watching. Men looking for real fraternity — not just a social club — usually stop and pay attention to that.

Today the lodge is still active, still growing alongside Frisco, and still offering the same thing it did in 1899: a place for good men to become better men. Freemasonry doesn’t promise status; it promises work — on yourself, for your family, and in your community. If you’re the kind of man who likes tradition but also likes to build, who wants brothers from different generations, and who believes character is learned by practicing it, Lebanon Lodge No. 837 is worth a visit. Ask a Mason. Come to a dinner. See the lodge. The door’s been open in Frisco for 125 years — we’re just waiting on the next good man to walk through it.