Introduction

What's Freemasonry?

Freemasonry is one of the world's oldest fraternal societies.

Masonry (or Freemasonry) is the oldest fraternity in the world. No one knows just how old it is because the actual origins have been lost in time. According to Masonic historians, it’s earliest beginnings in recorded history date back to 1376 (Mackey’s Masonic Encyclopedia) the reference is to the Masons as stone masons or skilled workers. They worked with rough stones for erecting structures and special edifices. Those that worked on free stone or structures that stood alone, would later be referred to as freemasons. Their craft was so specialized that they developed trade guilds with secret passwords and handshakes to prove membership and skill. This membership allowed them to receive higher wages as they traveled around the world plying their trade.

It would seem most probable that Freemasonry arose from these guilds of stonemasons who built the castles and cathedrals of the Middle Ages. These trade guilds were sought after in every country. There are many documented reports of the freemasons and their contracts for building churches throughout Europe and great and important structures. Some are still standing today, and Masonic symbols are found etched in their construction. Possibly, they were influenced by the Knights Templar, a group of Christian warrior monks formed in 1118 to help protect pilgrims making trips to the Holy Land.

Operative masonry was the use of knowledge and tool to create a structure or edifice. Speculative masonry is when we took those same tools used for the construction and used them as symbols to remind us of the moral lessons and obligations we have to ourselves, one another, and to our creator.

Somewhere along the line, a transition was made from operative to speculative masonry. Still a guild, but it allowed those not skilled in the craft into their membership. It became necessary to carry on the old traditions and knowledge of the guilds. It was not until 1717 that the organization as we know it was formed. There are no lodge records between 1700 and 1717 but we do know that four lodges in 1717 formed the Grand Lodge of England with universal signs and passwords. The evolution process had brought us to what we have today.

Thus, in 1717, Masonry created a formal organization in England when the first Grand Lodge was formed. A Grand Lodge is the administrative body in charge of Masonry in some geographical area.

Let us not forget that Freemasonry was alive and well, in the forming of this great nation. Many of the signers of the "Declaration of Independence" were Masons. The constitution had many Masons in its conception. There are so many Masons important to what America is today that it would take hours to cover who they were and what they did. Here, we will touch upon this topic briefly. In the United States, there is a Grand Lodge in each state and the State of California. In Canada, there is a Grand Lodge in each province. Local organizations of Masons are called lodges. There are lodges in most towns, and large cities usually have several. There are about 13,200 lodges in the United States.

Masonry started in Great Britain and did get to America in a time when travel was by horseback and sailing ship, Masonry spread with amazing speed. By 1731, when Benjamin Franklin joined the fraternity, there were already several lodges in the Colonies, and Masonry spread rapidly as America expanded west. In addition to Franklin, many of the Founding Fathers -- men such as George Washington, Paul Revere, Joseph Warren, and John Hancock -- were Masons. Masons and Masonry played an important part in the Revolutionary War and an even more important part in the Constitutional Convention and the debates surrounding the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Many of those debates were held in Masonic lodges.