In early 1873, nine Master Masons living in or near Brooklyn Village, Kaufman County, Texas met and discussed the merits of forming a Masonic lodge. The village of Brooklyn was in the territorial rights of Scyene Lodge #295, located 15 miles west in Dallas County, Texas. On May 17, 1873, nine local Masons traveled by horseback and buggy to Scyene, carrying with them a petition requesting the Scyene Lodge members to give their approval to form a Masonic Lodge in Brooklyn. Permission was granted and on June 7, 1873, Grand Master James F. Miller of the Texas Grand Lodge issued a special dispensation authorizing the Brooklyn Masons to form and legally operate a Masonic lodge until the next Grand Lodge meeting was held in June, 1874. Hilliard J. Shands was appointed to serve as Master of the lodge while operating under dispensation. Brooklyn Lodge’s first official meeting was held July 19, 1873.

On July 4, 1874, the Charter of Brooklyn Lodge #386 was delivered to the Masons in their newly-named town of Forney. Shands was also elected the first Worshipful Master of Brooklyn Lodge in 1874, holding that post until 1876. Dr. Shands, a medical doctor, died in Forney in 1884. Another prominent early Brooklyn Lodge member was John R. “Uncle Nesle” Daugherty, who was the last charter member of the lodge when he died in 1907.

The first meeting hall of Brooklyn Lodge was located on the present site of Forney Middle School. The lodge building was constructed in 1868, later housing the lodge, Brooklyn Village school and a union church meeting place. The building was destroyed by fire in 1882, along with the records of Forney lodge. By 1880, membership in the lodge had increased to 35. After the 1882 fire, the lodge met in temporary quarters until moving into a building they acquired north of the T & P Railroad tracks, believed to be at the present location of Pacific and Center Streets.

By 1900, membership in Brooklyn Lodge numbered 34 and it had conferred Master Mason degrees on 56; 49 Masons had become members of the lodge by affiliation. In March, 1901, fire once again destroyed the Brooklyn Lodge building; however, the Charter was saved. In November, 1907, the lodge purchased the second floor of a two-story building in the 200 block of North Bois d’Arc Street. The lodge building at this location would be its home for the next 59 years.

In 1913, Brooklyn Lodge sought members for an Eastern Star chapter, with Forney Chapter #557, O.E.S. being organized that year. By 1920, Brooklyn Lodge had grown to 118. L.Z. Reagin, at his death in 1921, had been designated as the oldest living Mason in Texas, having been a Mason for nearly 70 years. In 1924, Brooklyn Lodge was thriving with 120 members; however, the later part of the 1920’s proved to be a difficult time for the lodge. In 1925, the Charter of the Brooklyn Lodge was arrested, but restored on January 30, 1926. Membership had dropped to only 55.

By 1928, the lodge membership had grown to 129, the highest in its first 54 years. The Depression weighed heavily on the lodge and by 1936, membership had dropped to only 64. Membership once again began to rise in the 1940’s and 1950’s and by 1966 on Interstate 20 in Forney, after 59 years in the Bois d’Arc Street Building.

In 1974, Brooklyn Lodge celebrated its first 100 years, the same year that the city of Forney celebrated its own centennial. During its first 100 years, the lodge numbered 482 members on its rolls, with 329 Masons receiver their Master Mason degrees at the lodge. By 1987, Brooklyn Lodge at 113 years of age, listed 114 members. Brooklyn Lodge was the 312th lodge chartered by the Grand Lodge of Texas; however, after 114 years it is listed as one of the older Masonic lodges in the state.

Copied from Forney Heritage Society
By Patrick J. Costello