Beaukiss, Texas, Williamson County

Beaukiss Texas

BEAUKISS, WILLIAMSON COUNTY TEXAS

Beaukiss Texas was founded in 1880 by Samuel M. Slaughter, an Indian, who had been appointed its first postmaster. Beaukiss was a prosperous rural community in 1884; it had a church, school, gristmill, cotton gin, and seventy-five inhabitants. By 1890, the population reached 100 and had a many businesses, several doctors, three fraternal organizations, and school. The town declined to a population of just seventy-five by 1920 and only had two businesses by 1931. The oil boom in eastern Williamson County revived Beaukiss briefly in the 1930s. By 1977 Beaukiss only had a cemetery, church and it's Masonic lodge . Its population had shrunk to 20 by the year 2000.

The Beaukiss Texas Masonic lodge is about the only structure left but it does have many members that held a Texas Historical dedication party on 5-12-07.

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POST OAK ISLAND LODGE #181, A.F. & A.M.

SETTLED AS EARLY AS THE 1840s, POST OAK ISLAND WAS ONE OF THIS AREA'S EARLIEST COMMUNITIES. THERE, ON SEPTEMBER 15, 1855, I.J. KIDD, T. GATLIN, P.A. MIDDLETON, M. GARDNER AND A.S. HARPER ESTABLISHED A MASONIC LODGE. ON FEBRUARY 2, 1856, THE LODGE WAS OFFICIALLY CONSTITUTED AS POST OAK ISLAND LODGE #181, AND BY OCTOBER 1860, LODGE MEMBERS HAD PAID THE MORTGAGE ON THEIR LODGE HALL. THEY MOVED THE HALL IN 1878 TO SAM SMITH SPRINGS (LAWHON PRINGS), AND IN 1901, THEY MOVED IT AGAIN, TO BEAUKISS. DESPITE THE RELATIVELY SMALL POPULATION OF BEAUKISS, THE LONG-STANDIN INSTITUTION HAS MAINTAINED A HIGH MEMBERSHIP, PULLED FROM THE AREA'S DISPERSED RURAL COMMUNITIES.
(2006)

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GPS Coordinates
Latitude 30.4432 - Longitude -97.2435685
UTM 14 R - Easting: 668659 - Northing: 3369207

Beaukiss, Texas Post Oak Island Lodge #181, A.F. & A.M.
5-12-2007

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Beaukiss Cemetery

Gardner-Lawhon, Marmaduke-Gardner, Lawhon-Gardner Cemetery

Beaukiss, Texas by The Handbook of Texas Online

also view TexasEscapes on Beaukiss

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