Lots of different views about pre-1750 or so it seems.
But right, 31 of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention were Freemasons - so over half the men in the room who both planned and voted on what shaped this country. And the majority of Washington's Generals were Freemasons, so the folks who led the war to secure the new country were also members of the Fraternity.
Same with Texas. Many of the biggest names of our history were Freemasons - Sam Houston, Ben Milam, Stephen F. Austin, Lorenzo de Zavala, William Travis, James Bowie, James Fannin, Juan Seguin, James Bonham and many more. Every President, Vice President, and Secretary of State of the Republic of Texas was a Freemason.
Some of the handful of Presidents of the Republic were also Grand Masters of the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas. One President of the Republic, Mirabeau Lamar, a Freemason - founded the public education system in Texas and we still have a Masonic award given to educators in Texas that carries his name. And of course schools across the state are named for him and the other Freemasons who pushed through that legislation.
The vast majority of downtown streets in Houston are named for early Texas Freemasons, their influence, and names are all around.
Masonry's footprints are all around us.
For me, I'm just not terribly caught up in where it came from before. Solomon's Temple, Knights Templar and all the symbolism pertaining to each is mostly window dressing to me. The surer a man seems about any of it the more skeptical I become, with a pretty quick loss of interest to follow. I think there is likely one real answer.
Noone knows.