Freemasons can trace their history back to the 1600’s, when the organized Stone Mason Guilds began to admit members who were “non-stone-working” men into their organizations. These men that were admitted into the Fraternity were of the “Age of Enlightenment” period and felt that the principles that defined Stone Mason Guild’s were a good basis for their mission of making “Good Men Better”. You see the men of the “Age of Enlightenment” believed that reason and individualism should replace tradition. These fundamental principles of Freemasonry have transcended the world over and over for hundreds of years.
Today there are more than four million Freemasons worldwide; Fourteen United Presidents and thirteen signers of the Declaration of Independence were all Freemasons. The most famous Freemason, George Washington, oversaw the committee that drew up the Constitution of the United States. Today those very principles that were the foundation of Freemasonry back in the 1600’s are the very same principles that are practiced by Fraternal Brothers in Masonic Temples all throughout cities and towns Worldwide.