The Free State Shield and Square Club is a Masonic Degree Team, composed primarily of members of Maryland and Federal law enforcement officers, firefighters and career military men who are also members of the worlds largest fraternity: Freemasonry.

M. W. Brother Jack Biggs, in November of 1998, under dispensation of then M. W. Grand Master John C. Naquin, organized the Free State Shield & Square Club Degree Team. This Team of dedicated Masons continues to operate with permission of the Most Worshipful Grand Master of Masons in Maryland, and under the auspices of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Maryland.

In December of 1998, the team was invited, by Bro. Warren Peck, W. M. to James W. Bowers Lodge in Hancock, MD, where they conferred their first Master Mason Degree on Bro. James Hovis, a Maryland State Trooper.

The mission of the "Free State Shield and Square Club" is to help promote and further Maryland Freemasonry and Freemasonry in general. We hope to partly accomplish this task by offering to all subordinate Lodges the services of our degree team. This degree team is available to confer the Master Mason Degree on any and all qualified brethren. However we would especially enjoy conferring the Master Mason Degree on brethren who are also members of law enforcement, firefighters or military career men. In addition, we will entertain requests from bordering jurisdictions to exemplify the Maryland Master Mason Degree in their Lodges.

In just over five short years this team raised nearly 60 Master Masons, many of whom are law enforcement personnel.

Should you have questions regarding membership in the "Free State Shield and Square Club Degree Team," or if you are interested in scheduling the degree team to confer a Degree in your Lodge, please contact Jack Biggs by sending him an email to the address at the end of this paragraph.  Please note that this email address is a graphic representation of my email address, and you can't just click on it to make it send.