2014 REUNION booklet
Russ Mason handed out copies of this booklet at the reunion.
Mason Family Reunion
Colorado, 2014
Colorado, 2014
Frances Cora Hurd & Robert John Mason
Robert John Mason
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Frances Cora Hurd Mason
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James Mason talks about his father, Robert John Mason:
Dad was in the sash and door business in Chicago, and he had [our Fairview Farm house] built according to his order on a ‘time and materials’ basis. He always said that our house was built to last a hundred years. It’s still there today (as of 1977) so it just might make it. Father commuted to work in Chicago. One of us kids would take the horses and drive Dad to the East Grove (Fairview) Station, and then go meet him again in the evening. When things got bad following the financial panic of 1907, he decided to become a full-time farmer. Dad sold the farm in 1911 and we moved to the city. Eighty acres just weren’t enough to support a family, and besides all of the kids were older. One of the reasons we moved out there in the first place was because Dad thought it would be a nice place for kids to get a good start in life. He was right. |
Ida Frances Marshall (Muffet) talks about her grandmother, Frances Cora Hurd Mason:
Grandma was a great person and gave me a lot of good advice on things I should do and clothes I should have. She had a great sense of humor and sometimes got the giggles about something. One time she had a nail of some kind in under her dentures and got up from the dinner table to remove it. She had been doing some repairs around the house or something. We all giggled about that. Another time when Aunt Jane and I came home from work she had made a cake. After we had dinner she told us that she had made one that was a failure and had to go out to the corner store to get more ingredients. She went down the steep back stairs to get rid of the failure, and then went out the front to the store. She giggled about that too. |
NOTE: This chart has been updated in a few places since the 2014 Mason Family Reunion with more accurate information.
From the British Isles to North America
John Hurd, his wife Isabel, and their son Adam arrived in Boston from Allerton, England in 1640.
John and his family most likely left England as a part of the Great Migration of 1629–40, with roughly 20,000 relocating to each of four destinations: Ireland, New England, the West Indies, and the Netherlands.
In Massachusetts his sons Adam and John joined him when he decided to explore the Connecticut River. They expected to be the original explorers, but found Dutch Settlers already living along the river. It was not an easy voyage; at night when it was cold, they would get off the boat, dig caves in the banks of the river and sleep in the caves. They may have done this several times before deciding where to settle in Connecticut.
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John Gardiner, along with his teenage children Thomas and Mary (aka Molly), arrived in Ontario from Stanhope, England in 1817.
In England the Gardiners were part time farmers and lead miners. After the Battle of Waterloo (June 18th, 1815), the demand for lead bullets crashed as did prices, which resulted in lead mines being closed. At the same time there was a major volcanic eruption in Indonesia (Mt. Tambora - April 10th, 1815), one of the largest ever recorded. This caused several summers of “no sun” in England, which resulted in failed harvests. The combination of lead mines closing and poor harvests meant hard times for the Gardiners. So they undertook a difficult ocean voyage to begin their new life in Canada.
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Samuel Mason arrived in Canada sometime in the first half of the 1800s from an unknown location in Ireland.
There seems to be no information available to tell us where in Ireland the Masons lived or what their names were. On the next page is an 1851 Canadian census that indicates that all of Samuel and Mary’s children were born in Canada, which would mean that Samuel must have arrived no later than 1834.
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John Brighton Howard, his wife Sarah Frances Pratt, and their daughter Elizabeth arrived in the United States in 1845 from Wisbech, England.
Although, according to St. Peter's Church burial records, it appears that John B. Howard’s grandfather was in the workhouse at the time of his death in 1827, it’s not yet clear what factors motivated John and Sarah to emigrate in 1845.
John Hurd, his wife Isabel, and their son Adam arrived in Boston from Allerton, England in 1640.
John and his family most likely left England as a part of the Great Migration of 1629–40, with roughly 20,000 relocating to each of four destinations: Ireland, New England, the West Indies, and the Netherlands.
In Massachusetts his sons Adam and John joined him when he decided to explore the Connecticut River. They expected to be the original explorers, but found Dutch Settlers already living along the river. It was not an easy voyage; at night when it was cold, they would get off the boat, dig caves in the banks of the river and sleep in the caves. They may have done this several times before deciding where to settle in Connecticut.
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John Gardiner, along with his teenage children Thomas and Mary (aka Molly), arrived in Ontario from Stanhope, England in 1817.
In England the Gardiners were part time farmers and lead miners. After the Battle of Waterloo (June 18th, 1815), the demand for lead bullets crashed as did prices, which resulted in lead mines being closed. At the same time there was a major volcanic eruption in Indonesia (Mt. Tambora - April 10th, 1815), one of the largest ever recorded. This caused several summers of “no sun” in England, which resulted in failed harvests. The combination of lead mines closing and poor harvests meant hard times for the Gardiners. So they undertook a difficult ocean voyage to begin their new life in Canada.
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Samuel Mason arrived in Canada sometime in the first half of the 1800s from an unknown location in Ireland.
There seems to be no information available to tell us where in Ireland the Masons lived or what their names were. On the next page is an 1851 Canadian census that indicates that all of Samuel and Mary’s children were born in Canada, which would mean that Samuel must have arrived no later than 1834.
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John Brighton Howard, his wife Sarah Frances Pratt, and their daughter Elizabeth arrived in the United States in 1845 from Wisbech, England.
Although, according to St. Peter's Church burial records, it appears that John B. Howard’s grandfather was in the workhouse at the time of his death in 1827, it’s not yet clear what factors motivated John and Sarah to emigrate in 1845.
1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia about Samuel Mason and his family
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In the 1851 census above, James Mason (right) is listed as 17, which means he was born in 1834, as our family records indicate. However, in the 1880 census below, James Mason is listed as 43, which would mean he was born in 1837. Which is correct?
1880 Census - Chicago, Illinois 
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“One of my grandparents’ favorite stories was telling about how, as young married folks, they were present at the Wigwam in Chicago when Abraham Lincoln was nominated to run for president.” – Jim Mason, 1977
Ziba & Elizabeth Hurd
Jane Mason - 1915
Having heard Ziba and Elizabeth Hurd talk about being at the Wigwam for the nomination of Abe Lincoln, Jane Mason later clipped and saved this historical article about that event from the Chicago Tribune.
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Ziba Hurd (1785-1854)
Founder of Castile, NY
Excerpts from The Genesee Country and
Especially the Story of Castile by Katherine Barnes:
On the nineteenth day of July, 1816, the Ziba Hurds came in an ox cart from Vermont with their three children, Eliza, nine, Norman, eight and Hannah, two.
It was characteristic of these pioneers that they should start building a schoolhouse almost before they built their own homes, in spite of discouraging weather. They were here to stay and took the weather in stride.
The first religious meeting was held in this schoolhouse that had just been built, and the gathering was neither Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Christian in denomination. There was no minister present. Mr. Hurd read from Watts sermons, which he had brought from Vermont. These meetings were held until cold weather came and Ziba went back to Vermont after much-needed supplies.
Before he went back to Vermont, Ziba Hurd was to clear a piece of land in what was to be the Village of Castile. No Indians or other settlers had ever touched an axe to it. It was a deep, dense forest primeval. This area was chosen because a branch of Wolf Creek ran through it, and there was also a good spring.
Ziba had [also] cleared the land included in that site that has been known for years as the VanArsdale place. On this land, Ziba proposed to build a home. He erected a lean-to log shanty on the other side of the street to live in while he built his home.
Having done this, he went back to Vermont, leaving his wife and three children in the new raw Genesee Country. When he returned in the spring, he brought with him two yoke of oxen, two cows, two potash kettles, one double wagon, and several hundred yards of cleansed cloth. Of course, Ziba could hardly come alone with all that cavalcade, so his brother-in-law, Jonathan Gilbert, and his mother, Lucinda Hurd, came back with him. Ziba and Sally were thirty years old, having been born in 1786, while the mother was fifty.
It was characteristic of these pioneers that they should start building a schoolhouse almost before they built their own homes, in spite of discouraging weather. They were here to stay and took the weather in stride.
The first religious meeting was held in this schoolhouse that had just been built, and the gathering was neither Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Christian in denomination. There was no minister present. Mr. Hurd read from Watts sermons, which he had brought from Vermont. These meetings were held until cold weather came and Ziba went back to Vermont after much-needed supplies.
Before he went back to Vermont, Ziba Hurd was to clear a piece of land in what was to be the Village of Castile. No Indians or other settlers had ever touched an axe to it. It was a deep, dense forest primeval. This area was chosen because a branch of Wolf Creek ran through it, and there was also a good spring.
Ziba had [also] cleared the land included in that site that has been known for years as the VanArsdale place. On this land, Ziba proposed to build a home. He erected a lean-to log shanty on the other side of the street to live in while he built his home.
Having done this, he went back to Vermont, leaving his wife and three children in the new raw Genesee Country. When he returned in the spring, he brought with him two yoke of oxen, two cows, two potash kettles, one double wagon, and several hundred yards of cleansed cloth. Of course, Ziba could hardly come alone with all that cavalcade, so his brother-in-law, Jonathan Gilbert, and his mother, Lucinda Hurd, came back with him. Ziba and Sally were thirty years old, having been born in 1786, while the mother was fifty.
A note written to Matilda Belden Smith in 1849 by her grandfather Ziba Hurd
Matilda
Your grandfather descended paternally from the English and maternally from Scotch descent. His native place was the town of Tinmouth in the county of Rutland and State of Vermont, at which place he settled and lived until he was 31 years of age. In that year 1816 he emigrated with his family to the State of New York, and settled in the wilderness in the then town of Perry in the county of Genesee (now the town of Castile in the county of Wyoming).
He with his family had to undergo all the perils and privations incident to the settling of a new country. Notwithstanding the hardships, trials and perils of settling a new country, there seems to be something pleasant to stimulate the mind and body to action, and every movement seems to unfold something new. The very idea that the village of Castile where he now lives was 33 years ago all a wilderness, and that he with others were instrumental in making the village what it now is, is sufficient to awake the emotions of pride in the breast of a weak mortal.
But I forbear. The scene will soon change and I shall be no more. It becomes us to so live before God that when we are called hence we may inherit a building, not made with hands, eternally in the Heavens.
Castile April 18th, 1849
Your grandfather descended paternally from the English and maternally from Scotch descent. His native place was the town of Tinmouth in the county of Rutland and State of Vermont, at which place he settled and lived until he was 31 years of age. In that year 1816 he emigrated with his family to the State of New York, and settled in the wilderness in the then town of Perry in the county of Genesee (now the town of Castile in the county of Wyoming).
He with his family had to undergo all the perils and privations incident to the settling of a new country. Notwithstanding the hardships, trials and perils of settling a new country, there seems to be something pleasant to stimulate the mind and body to action, and every movement seems to unfold something new. The very idea that the village of Castile where he now lives was 33 years ago all a wilderness, and that he with others were instrumental in making the village what it now is, is sufficient to awake the emotions of pride in the breast of a weak mortal.
But I forbear. The scene will soon change and I shall be no more. It becomes us to so live before God that when we are called hence we may inherit a building, not made with hands, eternally in the Heavens.
Castile April 18th, 1849