The first Druze immigrants landed on the shores of the North American Continent in the late 19th century, and as the numbers of these immigrants rose, there was a strong desire and need for brotherhood, fellowship, kinship, and camaraderie among them. In 1907, a group of those immigrant Druzes who had settled in and near Seattle, Washington, and who were known for their sincerity and enlightenment, organized the first fraternal organization which they called “El-Bakaurat Ed-Dirziyat.’ ( El-Bakaurat) is an Arabic word and means the first fruit. It was properly used to indicate the first fraternal-Druze society in the United States. There is on record that Mr. Assaad Cramery from Ain Zahalta, Lebanon, along with Dr. Nasseem Saleem from Jubieh, Lebanon was among the original founders of the “El-Bakaurat Ed-Dirziyat.’ Mr. Henry Flehan, ADS historian, has on record an emblem of the Seattle organization dated February 8, 1908. Mr. Abbass Dakdouk from Cleveland, Ohio gave Mr. Flehan the emblem in trust.

(El-Bakaurat Ed-Dirziyat will be used throughout this work for the spelling of the Society regardless of the manner in which it was written in any of the accounts researched to produce this work. This spelling was taken from the badge of Branch #2 El-Bakaurat Ed-Dirziyat in Detroit, Michigan).