Highway 21 leads east to San Augustine, the sister town to Nacogdoches from the earliest days, where are the sites of the old Mission of Dolores, the home of General James Pinckney Henderson, Governor O. M. Roberts, and many of the prominent men of the Republic of Texas. The home of Stephen W. Blount, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, many of whose descendants live in Nacogdoches and San Augustine, was built on the north side of the King’s Highway, and is in an excellent state of preservation. Seven miles west of San Augustine on this highway was the home of Thomas S. McFarland, who laid out the town of San Augustine in 1834. The house was built about 1830 and was provided with port-holes for shooting Indians in case of attack. Pendleton Ferry was the original ferry on the King’s Highway across the Sabine river; now spanned by a splendid interstate bridge. Not far from the road is McMahan’s Chapel, the first Methodist Church in Texas, and the site of old Sabine-town. _Masonic Lodge_ MASONIC LODGE.—Some time in the Spring of 1837, immediately following the organization of a permanent government in Nacogdoches county, a movement for the organization of a Masonic lodge began which culminated in a dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Louisiana for the Milam Lodge No. 40, which was dated July 29, 1837. One of the leaders in the Masonic circles of Nacogdoches was Adolphus Sterne, who was a past master of a lodge in New Orleans, and also a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason, the first Scottish Rite Mason to come to Texas. Haden Edwards was also a past master of another lodge. The other charter members of Milam Lodge No. 40 were: Isaac W. Burton, John H. Hyde, George A. Nixon, John S. Roberts, Charles H. Sims, Frost Thorn, Simon Weiss, as Master Masons, and Kelsey H. Douglass and John W. Lowe as Estered Apprentice and Fellow Craft respectively. The first meeting of the Lodge under dispensation was held in the Old Stone Fort on August 16, 1837, with the following present: Haden Edwards, Master; John H. Hyde, Senior Warden; J. S. Roberts, Junior Warden; Chas. H. Sims, Treasurer pro tem; Adolphus Sterne, Secretary pro tem; with George A. Nixon, Simon Weiss and J. W. Lowe, members. The Charter from the Grand Lodge of Louisiana was granted September 22, 1837, and was received in the Lodge on its meeting November 20, 1837. Upon suggestions from Holland Lodge No. 36, Houston, Texas, a committee consisting of Adolphus Sterne, I. W. Burton, Thomas J. Rusk, Charles S. Taylor and Kelsey Douglass, was appointed to attend a meeting in Houston to consider the formation of the Grand Lodge of Texas. Their mission was accomplished in the city of Houston on February, 1838, with the organization of the Grand Lodge of Texas, and this lodge became Milam Lodge No. 2.