When my mother was a school girl at Hermit Lakes Colorado she asked her grandfather about her ancestry and she received this in a letter. Genealogy of the English side of our family (As written to Olive Mason Lilley, by her grandfather, David Alfred mason) (About 1902-08) It is 70 years since our family left England and things have changed very much in that time. If you take your map of England and follow the east coast from the mouth of the river Humber, up about 60 miles you will find Flamberough, and about halfway between these two points and 40 miles inland, you will find the City of York. It is the capital of the Shire or county of York. About 30 miles south of York, you will find the city of Leeds. At the time I write of Leeds it had a population of about 25,000 to 30,000 people and was surrounded by a line of suburban towns, among which was Holbeck and Armliegh. Since then the city has grown until it has more than 500,000 people, and has taken all these small towns. My fathers people, the Masons, were established in Armleigh, and my mothers people, the Whittakers, in Holbeck. You must remember that in all the old countries families held the same trade for generations. My fathers branch of the Mason family were clothmakers. The city of Leeds was the center of the cloth trade of the world, and famous for its broadcloth. My great-uncle, John Mason was a land holder and was very rich. Another branch of the family ran into the aristocracy and included the Dukes of Armleigh, but that did not help us any for we sprang from one of the younger sons, and had to go out into the world and make our way as best we could. But blood will tell and the record of the younger branch of the Yorkshire family of Masons has nothing in it that anyone need be ashamed of. My old grandfather used to boast that none of them ever went to prison for a crime, some of them went to prison for conscience sake, but not for crime. About 1832 a corporation was formed in North Hampton. Mass, to build a factory to manufacture cloth. All the machinery had to come from England, and a master mechanic to set it up and start it running. And as Leeds was the center of the cloth trade of the world, they went there for what they wanted, and my grandfather, William Mason, was pointed out to them as being eminently fitted to set up their machinery and put their works in full running order. He has just a reserve in business and was just in a humor to accept it. And so for a large salary, he came to this country, and most of his family came with him. My uncle David and his family and my uncle William and his wife, and my aunt Martha and her husband, William Moffat all came over with the old man and helped to start the factory at North Hampton. My father was a cripple and had to use a crutch all his life. And as he would not be able to make his living as a mechanic his father gave him a fine education. And when the rest of the family came to this country, he was the principal of the largest school in the city of Leeds, and a preacher three times on Sunday. And wherever Kit Mason went to preach, the crowds went with him. He truly was an iterant Methodist preacher. Soon after the factory was started at North Hampton. Uncle David and Uncle Moffat leased a cotton factory and turned it into a woolen mill and started to make cloth on their own account. But they did not have capital to carry it through. And after that Uncle David joined the England conference of the M.E, church and became a regular preacher. After that Uncle William and Moffat went to Cedar Falls, Iowa, and built a mill and were very successful. The last I heard of them, they had a large establishment valued at something like $100,000 and were doing very well. Grandfather did not live long after he got the factory started but took sick and broke down and died, in 1839 or 1840. After the rest of the family came to this country, my father got lonesome and resigned his school and came to this country. He joined the New England Conference of the M.E. Church in 1836 and became a very popular preacher and well known all over the New England States. When father came to this country he left mother and the children with grandmother Whittaker (my mothers mother). She was a grand old woman as ever stood on two feet. She gave us a home and did her best to make us comfortable for two years, until father could send for us and she gave us provisions to last us all the way to New York. Genealogy of The American Side of Our Family (Written to Olive Mason Lilley by her grandfather, David Alfred Mason) (About 1902-08) I think the best way to counteract the Englishman is to tell you something of the Yankee that is in you. In the first place then, let me introduce you to Captain Sam Preston of General Washingtons Army. He was a green farmer boy, but as soon as he heard of the battle of Lexington he shouldered his old musket and started to the front. I am not sure whether he was at Bunker Hill or not, but I think he was. And from that time until the end of the war he never left the army until he was mustered out in 1783 at the close of the Revolutionary War. He was in most of the big battles and was at Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered. He went into the war as a raw farmer boy and came out a captain honored and respected by everyone that knew him. Soon after the war Captain Sam married Tryphosa Ingraham ( I think about 1789 ). She was a daughter of the great Ingraham family of Massachusetts. Perhaps you will remember a few years ago a man wrote to your father for the list of his childrens names and ages, as he wanted to enroll you in the genealogy of the Ingraham family; but I am getting off track. To come back to Captain Sam Preston, he had two sons, John and Sumner Preston. I think in about 1820, Sumner Preston married Tryphosa Church of the old Plymouth Colony Church family, a lineal descendant of Captain Ben Church who fought King Phillip. I married Sumner and Tryphosa Prestons second daughter, Olive Preston, and I am proud to say that your father, C.C.Mason, was our only son. Now if you will look over this account carefully, you will discover two things, first that Captain Sam Preston of General Washingtons army was your fathers great-grandfather. Second, that Tryphosa Church a direct lineal descendant of Captain Ben Church, who fought King Phillip, was your great-grandmother. And I think that you will also discover that by these marriages you are connected with three of the oldest families of the New England states: the Churches, the Ingrahams, and the Prestons. Now I have tried to make this account as plain and simple as I could. I am afraid you will get tangled up in it before you get through. Now perhaps you would like to know where I get this from. Well, I got it from your great-grandfather, Sumner Preston. Ask your father if he remembers him. I think you will find that you have some of the bluest of the old puritanical blue-blood of New England running through your veins, and if any girl in the U.S. has a right to call herself a daughter of the American Revolution you surely have. I was more than glad to hear that you are so proud of your Yankee ancestors, they were all good people, not rich but honest, and not afraid to go out into the wilderness and hew out a home for themselves and their children by the labor of their hands and the sweat of their brow and ready if the necessity came to go out to battle and shed their blood and lay down their lives if need be for the welfare of the nation.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 18:35:00 +0000
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