There was a big panic about freemasons in the early 1800s, really interesting stuff. A lot of people suspected something sinister about them already and after a failed high-level cover up of a murder involving over a dozen freemasons happened it snowballed into what became the first third party in the United States, the Anti-Masonic party. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morgan_(anti-Mason)

Feel free to ask questions. I've dug pretty deep.