| Mason Family History According to a story written about this family called Chips Shaving Splinters in 1965 by Hazel White Nalley and information handed down through the generations, the following information was gathered on this family: Thomas Mason was born around 1810. He married Ruth Lemons around 1835. They lived on a farm in Marshall County, WV. Their children were Elizabeth, Jane, Henry H., William, Drusilla, James and Lucy. Their son Henry Hudson Mason was born in 1840. In 1861 at the age of 21, he joined the 1st West Virginia Infantry at New Martinsville, WV and served as a Private during the Civil War. On June 5, 1863 he was shot in the leg at the Battle of Piedmont in Virginia. He was taken to Staunton Hospital in Staunton, VA and then transferred to Andersonville Prison. When he was released, he was sent to a hospital in Maryland and then returned home. He was in bad physical health, like most other prisoners of war. His first meals at home consisted of one spoonful of broth at each meal until he regained his strength. He married Jane Henry on March 12, 1863. They purchased a 200 acre farm on Rt. 7, called Hog Run in Wetzel County, WV where they built a log cabin. He and Jane had several children: Belle, Robert, Thomas, Ruth Jane, Benjamin, Jahue, and Jacob Henry. Tragedy struck many times. In 1867 their son Robert died at the age of 16 months. Between 1867 and 1874 she had four more children. Henry contracted tuberculosis from his stay at Andersonville Prison and died in 1875, and she was pregnant with their youngest child Jacob Henry. She moved back to Ella, WV to live near her parents. Her parents built her a log cabin near the maple groves. In addition to her widow's pension, she gathered sugar water from the maple trees, boiled it down into syrup and sold it. She also would spin flax and yarn to sell. She saved money to finish paying for the farm on Hog Run. Her mother�s sister (Jane Thorburn) asked if she could help with the care of the children so Ruth Jane (age 5 at the time) and Benjamin (age 7) went to live with their aunt though they visited their mother often and they remained close. Her son Jacob Henry was born 4 months after his father died. They remained in Ella until 1894 when she and her family moved back to her farm on Hog Run. They moved into the old log cabin which she and her husband had shared so many year before. Her sons cut down trees, had a saw mill set in to saw the lumber and built a new house with five rooms downstairs and three rooms upstairs. In later years, the family of her son Henry lived with her in the house. When she died in 1918, her funeral was held in her home. She is buried by her husband in Fairview Cemetery in Marshall County. Her son Jacob Henry Mason who married Stella Frances Taylor (known as Aunt Frank to many) had six children: Vernon, Benjamin, Jane, Hazel, Odgar and Wilda. |