Recently Jim Glover wrote Don Pugh the following email message which included a scan of the image above. 

Hi Don;

I've had this photo for a bit now; came from either ST Austin Univ. museum or the one in Huntsville at the college there.  This apron belonged to one of the Parmer clan and was in use as late as 1850, but I think it actually dates to the Republic era.  Recently discovered you were kin to that notorious bunch!

Jim

Don Pugh is not in fact a Palmer/Parmer cousin, but we all wish he was.  Don Pugh does descend from the Thomas Chatham Family.  The Chathams were early Texas settlers in the Lake Creek Settlement in what would later become Washington County and still later Montgomery County, Texas.

I believe this is the Masonic apron that the Palmer/Parmer Family Reunion saw in Huntsville two or three reunions ago.  I will write the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and ask them for more information about it.  I believe we were told at the reunion that the apron belonged to either Thomas or William Parmer (Palmer).  Both of these men were sons of Martin Parmer.  They were slso both overseers for Sam Houston's lands and slaves in Walker County, Texas.  See the various writings of Madge Thornall Roberts regarding the personal correspondence of Sam Houston and his wife where they mention William and Thomas several times.

If any Palmer/Parmer cousins can shed more light on this Masonic apron, let me know at ksearle1@pdq.net .