THE AUSTINS MASONS

 

This is the richest Masonic family who ever owned Texas. And here's the spoiler. Their name is on the capital city. The founder of the family was the Freemason who handed out Texas land to its first American settlers. When he died, his fortune went to his sister, and she became the richest woman in Texas. Decades later, oil was discovered on the family's old plantation. Stay until number one because this family's story is the story of Texas itself. But before we get there, we're counting down eight Texas families whose founders swore Masonic oaths and then built fortunes, cities, and dynasties. One of them was founded by the man who built the very first house in a city that exists today. Another carried a secret document into the battle that created Texas, and one family still runs a ranch that once covered more land than the state of Delaware. One important promise before we start. You'll find a lot of wild claims online about secret societies running everything. We're not doing that. Every family on this list has a Freemason with a recorded lodge, a historical marker, or an official record behind him. The real history is more than enough. Let's count them down. Number eight, the Seguín family. Long before most Americans had even heard of Texas, the Seguín family was already Texas royalty. Their roots in San Antonio go back to 1722, just a few years after the Spanish presidio was founded. The patriarch, Don Erasmo Seguín, became postmaster of San Antonio in 1807 and later its mayor. He helped create the first public school in the town, and the family had land, serious land. The Seguíns owned a ranch of about 22,000 acres, and Erasmo later added a 9,000 acre tract near present-day Floresville. His ranch house, called Casa Blanca, was a stone mansion on a hill over the San Antonio River. German immigrants passing through on their way to New Braunfels and Fredericksburg compared it to a castle on the Rhine. Here's the twist most people never hear. In 1821, the Spanish governor chose Erasmo Seguin to deliver the news to an American named Moses Austin. His request to start a colony in Texas had been approved. The Seguin family was there at the very beginning of the Austin story. And yes, the Austins will come back at the end of this list. Now for the Masonic connection. Erasmo's son, Juan Seguin, became one of the great heroes of the Texas Revolution. He fought for independence, carried messages out of the Alamo, and later served as mayor of San Antonio. According to the Austin Masonic Library and Museum, Juan Seguin was a member of Holland Lodge number one in Houston, the most historic lodge in Texas. And the family name is still on the map. The city of Seguin, east of San Antonio, took its name in 1839. It began as a community called Walnut Springs, and its citizens voted to rename it to honor the Seguin family's hero. That's a family that controlled land, the mail, and local politics, and then put its name on a city. And the next family on our list was connected to the Alamo in a way that will surprise you. Number seven, the Navarro family. Jose Antonio Navarro was born in San Antonio in 1795, and his life covered four different versions of Texas: Spanish, Mexican, the Republic, and finally the United States. He was a merchant, a self-taught lawyer, and a land investor with incredible timing. Here's what made him rich. During the 1830s, Navarro bought more than 50,000 acres of ranch land at a price of pennies per acre. Then, thousands of immigrants started pouring into Texas, and the demand for land exploded. According to the Texas Historical Commission, he sold parts of his holdings for up to $3 an acre. Buy it pennies, sell it dollars. That's one of the oldest wealth formulas in Texas, and Navarro mastered it early. Now for the Masonic link. The Austin Masonic Library and Museum lists Jose Antonio Navarro as a member of American Virtue Lodge number 10 in Saltillo, Mexico. He wasn't just a Mason. He was one of only two native-born Texans who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836. And here's the family connection to the Alamo. Navarro's nephew by marriage was none other than James Bowie, who died defending the Alamo. Bowie himself was a Freemason, a member of a lodge in Opelousas, Louisiana. After the battle, Navarro helped rescue the surviving women and child of his family. The Navarro name never left Texas. In 1846, the legislature created Navarro County in his honor, and he chose the name of its county seat, Corsicana, after his father's birthplace on the island of Corsica. His home in San Antonio, Casa Navarro, is now a National Historic Landmark and a State Historic Site. And his descendants still live in and around San Antonio today. From a Tejano land investor, we move to two brothers who helped light the fuse of the Texas Revolution. And they married into money. Number six, the Wharton family. In March of 1835, before the Texas Revolution had even started, five master masons met in secret in a grove of trees near Brazoria. Mexico had banned Freemasonry years earlier, so this meeting was risky. The five men decided to ask the Grand Lodge of Louisiana for permission to open the first Masonic Lodge on Texas soil. One of them was a young lawyer named John Austin Wharton. John and his older brother, William Harris Wharton, came to Texas from Tennessee. They were raised in Nashville, well-educated, and ambitious. They didn't come to Texas to farm. They came to lead. William became one of the loudest voices for Texas independence. After the revolution, he was sent to Washington as the Republic's minister to the United States, one of the most important diplomatic jobs in the young nation. John served as adjutant general at the Battle of San Jacinto, and later sat in the Congress of the Republic. Now, here's where the money comes in. William Wharton married Sarah Ann Groce, the daughter of Jared Groce, who was widely known as one of the wealthiest planters in early Texas. It was the Texas version of a royal marriage, political power joining one of the biggest fortunes in the colony. The brothers' lives were short. Both died in 1839, but Texas didn't forget them. In 1846, the state created Wharton County, named for both brothers, with the city of Wharton as its county seat. Today, that county covers more than a thousand square miles of prairie and timberland along the Colorado River. Think about that. Two brothers, one of them a founder of the first Masonic Lodge in Texas, and their family name is now stamped on an entire county. And the next family didn't just get a county. The patriarch built the first house of a city that exists today. Number five, the Ross family. This is one of the clearest Masonic families in Texas history, because the father and the son sat in the very same lodge. It starts with Shapley Prince Ross, a frontiersman and Texas Ranger born in Kentucky in 1811. He brought his family to the Republic of Texas in 1839 and started buying land right away. 640 acres, then 640 more, then another 600 in Burleson County. Then came the deal that made the family legendary. In 1849, the founders of a new town on the Brazos River wanted a famous frontiersman to settle there. To convince Shapley Ross, they gave him four city lots, the exclusive right to run a ferry across the Brazos, and the right to buy farmland at $1 an acre. In March of 1849, the Ross family built the first house in the town, a double log cabin on a bluff overlooking the springs. His daughter Kate became the first settler child born there. That town was Waco, and that's why Shapley Ross is considered the founder of Waco. He didn't stop there. He became the town's first postmaster, ran its first hotel, and operated the ferry. And according to Waco Masonic Lodge number 92 itself, Shapley Ross was a charter member of the lodge and its first junior deacon. Now meet the son. Lawrence Sullivan Ross, known as Sul Ross, became a master mason in that same lodge his father helped create. And his resume is almost unbelievable. Texas Ranger, the man who led the company that recovered Cynthia Ann Parker from the Comanche in 1860, Confederate General, Sheriff, State Senator, Governor of Texas from 1887 to 1891, and then president of the school we now call Texas A&M University. One family, a founding father of a city and a governor who shaped the largest university system in Texas, both sitting in the same Masonic Lodge. And now, before we reveal the family that carried a secret document into the battle for Texas, I need a quick favor. This channel is still small, and we're working to reach our very first 1,000 subscribers. If you're enjoying this countdown, please tap subscribe right now. It's free, it takes 1 second, and it truly helps a small channel grow. And let's try to reach 2,000 likes on this video. If you've learned something new so far, hit that like button. Now, back to the countdown. Number four, the Jones family. Remember those five Masons who met in secret near Brazoria in 1835? The leader of that group was a doctor named Anson Jones. He was a member and past master of Harmony Lodge number 52 in Philadelphia, and in Texas, he became the first master of the new lodge they called Holland Lodge. Then the revolution exploded, and this is the part that sounds like a movie. The Mexican army marched through Brazoria, and the lodge's property and records were destroyed. But the official charter from Louisiana arrived while the Texas army was on the march. It was handed to Anson Jones somewhere between Groce's store and San Jacinto. And he kept it in his saddlebags. On April 21st, 1836, the Texas army attacked Santa Anna at San Jacinto and won the battle that created the Republic of Texas. And Anson Jones had that Masonic charter with him the entire time. Historians believe it may be the only Masonic lodge charter in history that was carried into battle before it was ever presented to its lodge. After the war, Jones rose fast. When the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas was formed, he became its very first Grand Master. He served as a congressman, as secretary of state, and finally, as the fourth and last president of the Republic of Texas. He was the man in charge when Texas officially joined the United States in 1846. Holland Lodge still exists today in Houston as Holland Lodge number one. And a whole community carries a reminder of those days. The lodge that began in a grove near Brazoria became the seed of the Grand Lodge of Texas, one of the largest Masonic Grand Lodges in the world. The Jones family gave Texas its last president and its first Grand Master. But the next family did something even more Texan. They turned a canyon into a cattle empire. Number three. The Goodnight and Adair dynasty. Charles Goodnight is one of the most famous cattlemen in American history. Texas Ranger in 1857, army scout, trailblazer, and according to the Austin Masonic Library and Museum, a member of Phoenix Lodge number 275 in Weatherford, Texas. But his story starts with a crash. After making a small fortune driving cattle, Goodnight put most of his money into a bank he helped organize in Pueblo, Colorado. Then the panic of 1873 hit and he lost nearly everything. He didn't quit. In 1876, he drove about 1,600 longhorns into Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle, a place he remembered from his days as a scout. The next year, he met the man who would change his life, John Adair, a wealthy landowner from Ireland who wanted to invest in the American West. On June 18th, 1877, they signed a partnership. Adair would put up the money and pay Goodnight a salary. Goodnight would build and run the ranch. After 5 years, Adair would take 2/3 and Goodnight 1/3. They branded the cattle with Adair's initials and the JA Ranch was born. It was the first cattle ranch in the Texas Panhandle and it grew into a monster. At its peak in 1885, the JA Ranch grazed about 100,000 head of cattle on roughly 1.3 million acres. That's more land than the entire state of Delaware. Goodnight also negotiated a famous deal with the Comanche leader Quanah Parker, offering two beeves every other day if his people would leave the herd alone. And here's a connection most people miss. Quanah Parker was the son of Cynthia Ann Parker, the woman whose recovery was led by Soll Ross from our number five family. Texas history is a small world. Now, here's the part that makes this a true dynasty. The JA Ranch still exists today and it's still operated by Adair's descendants. Its headquarters became a national historic landmark in 1960. Nearly 150 years of continuous family ownership built on a partnership run by a Freemason. But as big as that ranch was, the next family put its name on the biggest city in Texas. Number two, the Houston family. Sam Houston is the most famous name in Texas history, the general who won San Jacinto, the first president of the Republic of Texas, and later a governor and a United States senator. And he was a deeply committed Freemason, a member of Cumberland Lodge number eight in Nashville, Tennessee, and later of Holland Lodge in Texas. Here's what most people don't know. In 1837, during his first term as president of the Republic, Sam Houston joined Holland Lodge. And on December 20th of that year, he presided over the convention of Freemasons that formed the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas. The following spring, he personally installed its first grand master and officers. Let that sink in. The president of the country presided over the founding of the Masonic Grand Lodge. There's probably no clearer picture of how close Freemasonry and power were in early Texas, and the Houston name became the most valuable brand in the state. The city of Houston, today one of the largest cities in the United States, was named after him. So was Sam Houston State in Huntsville. The family didn't stop with Sam. He and his wife, Margaret Lea, had eight children, and several of them carried the name into public life. His son, Andrew Jackson Houston, was appointed a United States Senator in 1941, a century after his father first led Texas. Another son, Temple Lea Houston, became a well-known lawyer and state senator. One man founded a republic, helped found the Grand Lodge, and gave his name to a city of millions. That's a family legacy few in American history can match. And yet, even the Houstons don't sit at number one. Before we reveal the family whose name is on the capital of Texas, let me ask you one more time. If this video has surprised you even a little, please subscribe and help us reach our first 1,000 subscribers. We're getting closer every day, and your subscription really makes the difference. And drop a comment telling me what city or state you're watching from. I read every single one. Now, let's reveal number one. Number one, the Austin family. They call Stephen F. Austin the father of Texas, and for once, the nickname is not an exaggeration. The family story begins with his father, Moses Austin, who received permission from Spanish authorities in 1821 to bring American settlers into Texas. And remember number eight? The man chosen to deliver that news was Erasmo Seguín. Moses Austin died before he could carry out the plan, and his son, Stephen, took over. As an empresario, a land agent for the Mexican government, Stephen F. Austin brought in the first American colonists, famously known as the Old Three Hundred. In practical terms, Austin sat at the center of who received land in the richest part of early Texas. Very few people in American history have ever held that kind of power over territory. And Stephen F. Austin was a Freemason, a member of Louisiana Lodge at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, before he ever came to Texas. Now, here's where it gets dramatic. On February 11th, 1828, Austin called a meeting of Freemasons at San Felipe, his colony's capital. They elected him Worshipful Master and sent a petition to Mexico asking for permission to open the first lodge on Texas soil. The petition reached Matamoros, and then silence. Why? The Mexican government was afraid that liberal-minded settlers in Texas might push for independence, and it knew exactly what political ideas were circulating among American Freemasons. On October 25th, 1828, Mexico outlawed Freemasonry. The following year, Austin and his brothers decided it was too dangerous to try again. In hindsight, Mexico's fear wasn't entirely wrong. Within a few years, those same kinds of men were fighting for Texas independence. But, this is a list of about family wealth, so here's the part almost nobody talks about. Stephen F. Austin died in 1836, shortly after independence, and he never married. His entire estate went to his sister, Emily Austin Perry. She inherited livestock and extensive landholdings, and she became one of the largest landholders in Texas. Historians describe her as the wealthiest woman in Texas in her time, and Emily was no passive heir. She helped found the San Luis Company, invested in the Brazos and Galveston Railroad, and donated land to help found Austin College. The family's home base was Peach Point Plantation in Brazoria County, land originally granted to Stephen F. Austin as an empresario. Then came the final twist. After the Civil War, Peach Point declined, but in the early 20th century, oil was discovered on the property, and it brought a new wave of prosperity to the family. Land handed out by a Freemason in the 1820s was producing oil wealth almost a century later. And the name? The capital of the state of Texas is called Austin. The state capital, the legislature, the governor, and the University of Texas all sit in a city named after this family. No other family on this list or anywhere in Texas can say that. That's why the Austins sit at number one. A Freemason father of Texas who controlled its land. A sister who became the richest woman in the state. Oil under the family plantation and their name on the capital city forever. In every way that matters, this is the Masonic family that owned Texas. So, those were the eight Masonic families who shaped Texas. From the Seguíns of San Antonio to the Austins of the capital. Which story surprised you the most? Was it the charter in the saddlebags, the ranch bigger than Delaware, or the Freemason who built the first house in Waco? Tell me in the comments and don't forget to let me know where you're watching from. If you made it this far, you're exactly the kind of viewer this channel is built for. Subscribe, help us reach those first 1,000 subscribers, and I'll see you in the next one.