History
The town was founded by Freemasons, hence its name. Middle Town, the largest of the three towns, had a post office, boarding house, and a general store. It also housed the offices of the town's newspaper: The Masonic Pioneer.
The Lorena post office opened in 1905, changed its name to Masonic in 1906, closed in 1912, re-opened in 1913 and closed for good in 1927.
Masonic's population in 1906 was about 500. The principal mine, called the Pittsburg-Liberty Mine, produced $700,000 in gold before closing in 1910. By 1911, Masonic was in decline, although some mines kept in production until the 1920s.
Read more about this topic: Masonic, California
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“The history of medicine is the history of the unusual.”
—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Prof. Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll)
“The history of literature—take the net result of Tiraboshi, Warton, or Schlegel,—is a sum of a very few ideas, and of very few original tales,—all the rest being variation of these.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)