MORMONS AND MASONRY A relationship between Mormonism and Masonry
goes back to the beginning of the Restoration: several of the
first Latter-day Saints were also Masons, including Hyrum Smith,
Newel K. Whitney, Heber C. Kimball, and Brigham Young. At the
end of 1841, LDS Masons in Nauvoo organized what would become
the first of four Masonic lodges in Mormon communities. Joseph
Smith applied for admission as soon as the first lodge was
formed and was raised to the degree of Master Mason in March
1842. Less than two months later, Joseph administered the
endowment for the first time in the upper room of his red brick
store--the same room where he had been initiated into Masonry.
During the period that the Saints were building the Nauvoo
Temple, they also built a Masonic temple, and over 1300 Latter-
day Saints became Master Masons before fleeing Nauvoo. The
growth of the Mormons' lodges was irregularly rapid: by way of
comparison, consider that in 1840, there were only about two
thousand Masons in the entire Unite