When the Lincoln Lodge of Masons formed in 1792, Maine was still part of Massachusetts, horses got people where they were going and the Wii was 214 years from hitting the market.

The Wiscasset nonprofit has withstood the centuries. Its members help support dyslexia programs in Portland and Bangor; raise money for area charities; visit with veterans at the Maine Veterans Affairs Medical Center; and serve as a social group for area men.

Past master Tom Levenson and fellow Wiscasset resident Chuck Billings, deputy master of District 10 to which the lodge belongs, believe Lincoln Lodge is the oldest Mason lodge in the state.

On Dec. 13, the two were standing outside Ames True Value on Route 1, collecting money for charity as the Masons do each year around the holiday season. The group calls it their cement-mixer fund drive, named for the choice of container for the cash donations.

A different charity is chosen annually. This year, local food pantries will benefit.

“It’s been going very well,” Levenson said Saturday. “A lot of people won’t be going hungry.”

He praised Ames True Value for letting the lodge’s members come back every year to do the collection.

“They’ve been very good to us over the years, and have done a lot for the whole community,” said Levenson, a retired civil engineer and past engineer for the town of Wiscasset.

More than $800 was raised for the food pantries, Levenson said later. The lodge planned to seek a matching grant from the Grand Lodge of Maine to add to the contribution the pantries will receive.

The interest in giving to causes is part of what keeps the group going, the men said. So is the camaraderie, at potluck suppers and meetings held at the lodge at 17 Fort Hill St. in Wiscasset.

“It’s all about fellowship .... You’re meeting interesting people. And you can be a doctor, a lawyer or anyone, but when you walk through the doors of the lodge, you’re all the same,” said Billings, who is retired from 33 years at Bath Iron Works. “You’re brothers,” he said of the Masons. “You’re one family.”

The Masons don’t actively recruit new members, the men said. It happens mostly through word-of-mouth; membership has declined in recent decades, as some other fraternal organizations have also experienced.

But Levenson and Billings expressed confidence that the local group and other Mason groups around Maine and the world will continue to give and to gather.

“It’s been going on for hundreds of years, so I’d like to think it’s going to continue forever,” Levenson said.

District 10 also has lodges in Dresden, Damariscotta, East Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor and Bristol. For more information, visit www.mainemason.org. Levenson said anyone with questions about the Lincoln Lodge in Wiscasset is welcome to call him at 518-946-7644.