Okaloosa County Freemasons

FORT WALTON BEACH - Not much predates the Freemasons fraternity in Okaloosa County - not even the county itself.

Not the Marler Bridge, named for Freemason William T. Marler. Not the Brooks Bridge to Okaloosa Island, named for the Brooks family that boasts two original Freemasons. Not W.C. Pryor Middle School, named for another Freemason.

The fraternity has turned 100 years old here.

Members still meet regularly in downtown Fort Walton Beach, which makes the group one of the oldest standing organizations in Northwest Florida.

"Not the oldest profession, mind you," said John Lewis, past master and emcee of the group's recent special centennial meeting.

But the fact is that some of today's local Freemasons - as they sit in their antique upstairs lodge above the old Coach and Four Gifts - know more than most about Okaloosa County's history.

The organization got its start in 1908, when the area was in Santa Rosa County and Fort Walton Beach was still known as Brooks Landing and later as Camp Walton.

John Brooks Jr., the last of original Freemason John "Will" Brooks' nine children, was at the meeting, remembering his father - a jack-of-all-trades who served as the area's only deputy sheriff, tooth-puller, real estate agent, boat captain, auctioneer and lighthouse keeper.

Today, the men at the lodge say Freemasonry is not all about mysterious rituals or codes - many of them featured in movies and novels - but more about Will Brooks' kind of service.

"We don't really have that many secrets," Lewis said. "Just ask."

The group funds charities and local programs such as the Mozart piano competition at Playground Music - named for the historic composer who also was a Freemason. The chapter also is working with the rest of Florida's nearly 300 lodges on an identification program designed to help find lost children.

Mel Odum, a member since 1972 and master of the lodge in 1999, said the fraternity doesn't recruit. He said the lodge's doors are open to men who believe in God and ask to join.

"I'm proud to be a Mason with all of my friends here," he said