Mystic Tie Lodge was born into a country still finding its footing. It was November 1868 — the smoke of the Civil War had barely cleared, the nation was in the throes of Reconstruction, and railroads were pushing the frontier west. Out of that unsettled moment, a group of Indianapolis Masons set out to build something meant to last.

Late in the evening of Saturday, September 6, 1868, seventeen Master Masons in good standing with other city lodges gathered in the lodge room of Centre Lodge No. 23 to discuss forming a new lodge of their own. Their names were: John Caven, E. J. Hardesty, John Reynolds, Charles W. Hewes Jr., E. S. Folsom, H. S. Bigham, Charles E. Brigham, George B. Engle Jr., G. W. Davis, Henry C. Adams, George W. Sloan, William S. Cone, A. B. Howard, Austin B. Prather, Melville Strong, Joseph W. Smith, and Eben Smith.

With John Caven acting as chairman, the group agreed unanimously to petition the Grand Lodge for permission to organize as Mystic Tie Lodge, and to recommend Caven as Worshipful Master, George B. Engle Jr. as Senior Warden, and Joseph W. Smith as Junior Warden. The remaining offices were filled the same evening: John Reynolds as Treasurer, William S. Cone as Secretary, E. J. Hardesty as Senior Deacon, A. B. Howard as Junior Deacon, Charles Brigham and Austin B. Prather as Stewards, and Hayden S. Bigham as Tyler.

Grand Master Martin H. Rice granted the dispensation on November 17, 1868, and Worshipful Master John Caven called the first meeting of Mystic Tie Lodge to order on November 24, 1868, in the lodge room of the Aetna Building on North Pennsylvania Street. The Lodge received its full charter the following year, on May 25, 1869.

Adapted from Century of Dedication: A Short History of Mystic Tie Lodge No. 398, F. & A.M., 1868–1968, by James B. Gale (1969).