Ashley Lodge No. 681, A. F. & A. M.. Chartered on December 12, 1889, this was the seventh Masonic lodge organized in Fannin County. The first official meeting occurred in January 1890, in a two-story frame building which the lodge shared with the Baptist church. In 1912 the lodge purchased a separate building in downtown Bailey. The second floor was reserved for lodge meetings, while the first floor was leased to a variety of retail businesses. That structure burned in 1950, and Ashley Lodge members met in the Grove Hill Lodge in Leonard until a new building was completed in 1952. #8836