Life and times of Stevens Thomson Mason, the boy governor of Michigan

Preface

/^N several occasions I have heard Mr. Hemans ^-^ remark, ''There seems to be no work in Michigan covering the period from 1837 to 1845, the most eventful years of the State, as it was the period of her birth, and filled full of the trials subsequent to such an event. ' ' He said he could never find data on the political parties of that time, nor on Governor Mason and other prominent men of the day, unless by consulting old newspapers and pioneer collections. He determined to gather together all these fragments of historical knowledge, even if in an unsatisfactory manner to himself, place them together in one work and call it the ''Life and Times of Stevens T. Mason — the Boy Governor."

When a child, Mr. Hemans had been told that Governor Mason, the first Governor of this State, had died in a gutter after an evening's debauch. As he grew to young manhood and stood before the beautiful painting of the Governor in Representative Hall at Lansing and gazed upon that face so full of culture and refinement, the desire was born in his heart to try and refute this criticism and other calumnies heaped upon the Boy Governor. As he began collecting and reading, he became more and more convinced that many unjust remarks had been showered upon Governor Mason, that the beautiful, upright conscientious character of the man had never been shown in its true light. Mr. Hemans' desire grew stronger as his knowledge became deeper in his subject, and I really know that he had the greatest love and admiration for Governor Mason. We all know that if love fills our hearts our hardest task becomes easy. So Mr. Hemans, so deeply in love with his subject, put his

4 PREFACE

life 's best endeavors into collecting and putting together and writing this story of the Boy Governor, and it was his pride to think of presenting it to this great State of Michigan, for which State I believe Mr. Hemans gave his life. But his last two years were filled so full of physical pain and suffering that he was unable to finish this work, and Mr. William L, Jenks has kindly written the last chapter.

I remember so distinctly Mr. Hemans entering the home one evening and remarking, ''Governor Mason has a living daughter in Newark, N. J., and I must get into communication with her. ' ' He immediately wrote to her and received a charming, helpful letter in return. The daughter, Mrs. Wright, suggested that Mr. Hemans write to Miss Emily V. Mason, a sister of Stevens T. Mason, who was still active and interesting at the age of 93.

The friendship between Miss Mason and Mr. Hemans was an unusual one. She seemed almost to consider Mr. Hemans as a brother, and the information she gave him helped him wonderfully in the story of her brother Stevens.

The Governor had another sister, Mrs. Laura Chichester who lived in Virginia, and whom Mr. Hemans visited during his researches. Lexington, Ky. was once the old home of the Mason family, also other towns in that State, and Mr. Hemans visited all these and secured pictures of the old homes which are found in this work. Nearly all of the pictures included in this volume have been collected by great endeavors and at a great expense. Many of them were from old brooches, daguerreotypes, almanacs, paintings and from old things pulled from rubbish heaps. The pictures Mr. Hemans and myself have

PREFACE 6

paid hundreds of dollars for. He could not content himself when he got on the trail of a picture unless he secured it, regardless of labor or expense, so deep was his interest in his work. His greatest regret, as I remember, was not to secure the picture of John Norvell, early Detroit postmaster and Michigan statesman; his labors in this direction were almost endless. Miss Emily Mason endeavored to secure this picture but the search had to be given up.

Nearly all of the chapters concerning the family and their home life have been gleaned from letters from Miss Mason. In her delightful manner she wrote many letters of their charming home life. These letters I have in Mr. Hemans' Historical Collection and they with the above collection will some time be a part of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collection.

"When Mr. Hemans discovered that Stevens T. Mason died and was buried in New York, he began wishing that he might be the means of bringing the remains of the Boy Governor back to the State of Michigan. His endeavors were crowned with success and Governor Warner appointed Mr. Hemans as one of the three commissioners to go to New York and bring back the remains and place them in a suitable burial spot in Detroit. Then began his personal acquaintance with the daughter and sisters of Governor Mason. The grandson, Edward Wright, Jr. of Newark, N. J., a young man of great culture and ability piloted the commission to the Governor's last resting place, pictures of which are found in the pages of this volume. So the friendship between the Mason family and Mr. Hemans grew, and also the interest in his work deepened and became a part of his life.

6 PREFACE

This story was written entirely in the evenings after the hard day's work upon his usual daily tasks at his office. This for many years was his source of pleasure, all he seemed to yearn for; he seemed to love this Boy Governor and his life and times like a sweetheart. Page after page flew from his fingers only to be rewritten time and again; never would a page be considered to be perfectly right or fit until I had carefully listened to his reading of it; the chapters and the story became so familiar to me that 1 knew it almost as well as he. In my memory there stands out so vividly Mr. Hemans at his table in our old Mason home, pen in hand happily engaged in his work. His fear was that he would never see it finished or that it might not be worthy of print when finished, but he would remark, ''"Wife, it has been worth all the effort."

I have spent days in the Detroit Public Library reading old Detroit newspapers of the years 1837-1845, carefully reading those old musty pages to get some interesting item for him. Also I spent some time at Marshall, Mich, with Mr. John Patterson, a Marshall pioneer, who had a valuable collection of early newspapers. All my labors were labors of love and the delight expressed on his face when I would return from a search of that kind was a payment enough for me.

Now if in return the people of Michigan will read this volume and find in it any interesting and helpful thoughts it will be a great pleasure to me and somehow I feel that Mr. Hemans from ''The Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" mil know that his labor of love was not all in vain.

MRS. HEMANS.

Mason, Michigan, November 4, 1918.

Contents

Chapter. Page.

I. Ill the (^Id Domiiiioii 11

II. The Sojourn in Kentucky 21

CHAPTER I In the Old Dominion

ON the 3rd of September, 1651, was fought the memorable battle of Worcester, where the ill-starred army of Prince Charles went down to irretrievable defeat before the onslaught of Cromwell and his ''Ironsides." Worcester was the last battle of the Civil War, and Cromwell was wont to refer to it in after times as the "crowning mercy of God," because it crushed the present hopes of the Royalists for the restoration of the throne and crown.

From the blood-stained field, whereon lay six thousand of his faithful followers, the young prince fled under cover of the night, a fugitive in mean disguise, to be the central figure in many an adventure and romantic escape until weeks later he was landed upon the shore of France. Many a cavalier of noble lineage and proud estate who had cast his future with the son of the beheaded king surrendered property and estate and sought personal safety in voluntary banishment from the scenes of his native land. Many fled to Holland, France and adjacent countries, while still many more sought an asylum amid the newer scenes and larger opportunities of Virginia, the colony of the new world which was then giving new direction to the thoughts and imagination of Englishmen.

Among the many who at this time and for this reason became emigrants to the Old Dominion was one George. Mason of Staffordshire. The long centuries tell little of his life story before he landed at the primitive village on the James. The family name appears among the members of the second parliament of Charles I, and a family tradition has preserved the story of his having commanded a troop of horse among the defeated at the battle of Worcester. The early colonial records of Virginia contribute but meager notice of George Mason the emigrant. They show that as the owner of an extensive estate he was a forceful character in the new community, ever active and equal to its demands; but his chief claim to distinction will always be that he was a progenitor of one of the most illustrious families of the new world. A son, Lieutenant-Colonel George Mason, in 1700 became Commander-in-Chief of the Jamestown militia, and held other offices of honor and distinction in the colony. A third George Mason, son of the latter, likewise won a reputation for exceptional attainments. Early in life he became a Justice of the Peace, the office at that time being one of first importance in the judicial affairs of the colony. He likewise became Sheriff of the County of Stafford, and when in 1716 Governor Spottswood and his ** Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" accomplished the then famous journey across the Blue Eidge Mountains to the Shenandoah Valley and took formal possession of the country by firing a volley and drinking to the

IN THE OLD DOMINION 13

health of the king in champagne, to the health of the princess in burgundy, and to the rest of the royal family in claret, Colonel Mason was one of the number.

In 1721 George Mason married Ann Thomson, the daughter of Stevens Thomson, Attorney General for Virginia during a portion of the reign of Queen Anne. Their two sons, George and Thomson, were destined to fill larger places during the later days of the colonial period and the earlier days of the republic. Five miles from Mount Vernon on an inlet of the broad Potomac stands Gunston Hall, the colonial home of George Mason, who in his day was the trusted friend of Washington, of Jefferson, of Patrick Henry and that galaxy of great Virginians who wrought so nobly in the cause of liberty, and for the upbuilding of a new government dedicated to its cause.

In statecraft George Mason ranked with the men of first abilities. His great mind conceived and his hand penned the famous Declaration of Rights and the first constitution of Virginia. To tell the incidents of his service to his country would require the limits of a volume rather than a paragraph. To Gunston Hall went Lafayette as an honored guest, and there likewise went the patriots of the day to catch the inspiration of his master mind. It is not strange that the Negroes and simple folk of the neighborhood still believe that the sage who was once the master, at intervals yet returns to walk at night its spacious grounds, recalling the olden days. It is befitting the honor of the Old Dominion State that the form of George Mason, cast in deathless bronze, should stand with that of John Marshall and the other illustrious sons of the early day about the equestrian statue of "Washington upon the campus of the Capitol at Richmond.

Thomas Mason, the younger brother, was likemse a man of more than ordinary intellectual grasp and power. He studied law in the Temple at London and at his death in 1785 ranked with the first in ability and attainments at the bar of Virginia. As early as 1774 he published a series of papers urging open resistance to the demands of the mother country. In 1778 he was appointed a member of the first Supreme Court of his State. He was twice a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and served in other capacities which at once bespoke the reality of his abilities and the confidence of his constituents.

The home of Thomas Mason was in Loudoun County, Virginia, where he became the owner of a vast tract of land. His manor house was erected at Easpberry Plain, some four miles from the village of Leesburg, where the Blue Ridge Mountains are lost in the gentle swells of a rich, undulating country, which the present-day inhabitant will tell you is ''the garden spot of the world." Thomson Mason was twice married. The eldest son of his first marriage was Stevens Thomson Mason, born in Stafford in 1760. This young man, Thomson Mason — young, for he died in 1803 — had all the fire and vigor of his ancestors. At the age of twenty he had reached the rank of Colonel in the Revolutionary Army and later saw service in many a hard campaign. He was a member of the Virginia Convention of 1788 and of the United States Senate from 1794 to the date of his death. His wife was Mary Armstead, a lady who possessed a mind

IN THE OLD DOMINION 15

of great strength and power as well as a face and figure of more than ordinary charm and beauty.

The home life of Stevens Thomson Mason had all of the charm that surrounded the home life of the best days of Virginia. Raspberry Plain and extensive lands were his portion of his father's estate. The old manor house with its spacious halls and broad veranda, its setting of native forest trees with the double line of locusts that marked the drive to the highway a quarter of a mile away, were all marks of a hospitality inborn and gracious that was there enthroned. There was even an element of fascination and delight in the row of whitewashed cabins where the numerous company of servants which the establishment supported were given the means of every physical comfort. Slavery at Raspberry Plain and indeed upon the plantations of the Masons generally was an institution that imposed quite as many duties on the master as burdens on the servant. The bond between them was genuine and real, as both demonstrated on many occasions. George Mason was a member of the convention which framed the Federal Constitution, and no man of his State took more advanced ground than did he on the great question of human slavery; while the brother Thomson left evidence of the reality of his interest in the form of substantial bequests insuring the future comfort of the servants whose fidelity he recognized as a claim upon his bounty.

The Mason home, moreover, was not the home of either vanity or indolence. It was the home of the old Virginia aristocracy where pride of family, culture and appreciation of the true dignity of labor were all religiously inculcated. To this end the will of Thomson Mason contained a provision that neither of his younger sons ''should reside on the south side of the James River or below Williamsburg before they respectively attain the age of twenty-one years, lest they should imbibe more exalted notions of their own importance than I could wish any child of mine to possess."

Such were the surroundings and social atmosphere of the home in which Senator Stevens T. Mason lived and in which his children, two sons and two daughters, were born. The sons were Armstead Thomson Mason, member of Congress and a general in the War of 1812, and General John Thomson Mason, who became Secretary of Michigan Territory and who was the father of Stevens Thomson Mason, the first Governor of the State. Although Senator Stevens T. Mason died in 1803, he lived long enough to impress his personality upon his sons, and inspire them with an aspiration for high attainments. Men of learning, wit and eloquence, the leaders in the larger affairs of the State and Nation, were frequent partakers of the hospitality of Raspberry Plain, imparting to the lads a degree of refinement not otherwise obtained, while their minds were opened to the vast world beyond the plantation limits by occasional visits with their father to the city of Philadelphia and other places where official and other business called him. In 1808 John T. Mason had progressed beyond the instructions of the private tutor who in that day was an adjunct in every family of considerable estate, and was a student in the famous college of William and Mary at Williamsburg, which even then could count scores of names made eminent in the highest walks of life, who claimed it as

.STE^■E^•S THOMSON MASON

(»f KasplxTiy rUiiii. Va.. 17<i()-lS08, Grandfather of Gov. Stevens Thomson Mnson.

MARY ARMISTEAD, VA.,

Daughter of Robert Armistead, Grandmother of Gov. Stevens Thomsaii :M>is( of Michigan. From a colored crayon by James Sharpless, probably in 1794.

y. B

IN THE OLD DOMINION 17

their Alma Mater. It was here that John T. Mason met Elizabeth Moir, the daughter of a Scotch family longdomiciled upon Virginia soil. The chance meeting was the commencement of an attachment that a year later resulted in his taking her as his bride to his Loudoun County home.

John T. Mason had already come into possession of his share of his father's estate, which portion was considered an ample fortune for that day. On a portion of the old plantation thus inherited he erected a model dwelling to which he gave the name of Moirfield, in honor of his bride, although it was only for a short time their residence. He had begun the practice of the legal profession for which he had made preparation, and for a time the nearby to\vn of Leesburg, the county seat of Loudoun County, was his home. There are letters in existence which lead us to believe that it was while living here that the subject of this volume, Stevens Mason Mason, was born, much as we would like to believe, as it has been sometimes stated, that he was born in the old manor house at Raspberry Plain. The date of his birth was October 27, 1811, and we may be sure that the advent of this son, the first among the children of the Senator and his queenly wife, — although a daughter had been born the year before, — was the occasion of genuine rejoicing in the family. We can well imagine the scene when a little later the army of kinsfolk gathered at the little church for the christening of the baby with the name of his illustrious grandfather, Stevens Thomson Mason. The solemn service concluded, the company repaired for the concluding festivities to the old manor which was fittingly garnished for the important occasion; a family reunion, Christmas and a wedding were the only events of more importance than a christening. Familty tradition tells of christenings when from far and near as many as three hundred of the kinsfolk gathered to partake of the joys of the occasion, and we may be sure that upon this event they were equally loyal. In keeping with family custom the broad halls and spacious rooms of the old homestead were bright with the festoons of autumn decorations. It was a day of gaiety for the ' ' quality, ' ' and long after it had passed was a theme of conversation among the servants.

The career of the future Governor of Michigan on Virginia soil was destined to be of short duration, but as so frequently happens in human experience, accident rather than design was the occasion for the fact that his boyhood was spent in the State of Kentucky. At this time the two sisters of the father were in the charm of their young womanhood. They were, as might be expected, drawn to "Washington as participators in its social gaieties. There Catherine, the elder, met and became the wife of Honorable William T. Barry, then a young Kentucky congressman, later Postmaster General in the Cabinet of President Jackson. Mary, the younger, became the fiancee of Honorable Benjamin Howard, also a member of Congress from Kentucky, who at about that time had become Governor of the Territory of Louisiana from which the Territory of Missouri was later formed. The mother was reluctant to give her consent to a marriage that would remove her youngest daughter so far from kith and kin as Missouri; but the lovers had a strong champion in the brother John, who not only was loyal to his sister in her love, but became a convert to

IN THE OLD DOMINION 19

the claim of the greater opportunities of the newer West where the glories of the empire were in waiting. The romance, if such it may be termed, ended in the marriage of the lovers, and they with the family of the brother started as emigrants to the land beyond the Mississippi. Such a venture in 1812 was not a matter of small moment, for it meant the passage of the mountains and weary weeks in the wilderness and upon the rivers, with a company that approached the magnitude of a caravan, for the family of the father had now been augmented by the arrival of the maternal grandparents who had come from Williamsburg to make a home mth their daughter. A lumbering coach-and-four provided for the ladies and children ; the gentlemen were in the saddle ; while a score of servants from the grandfather's estate trudged on afoot or rode the wagons that conveyed the effects and provisions for so large a company. But fate had seemingly decreed that they were not to reach their intended destination. Upon arriving at the city of Lexington, Kentucky, weary from weeks of journey, Indian uprisings upon the frontier and portentious war movements were the factors which persuaded them to make that place their home until both had passed away.

John Mason at once set about the conservation of his moderately extensive property interests until affairs should permit the prosecution of his original intention. Governor Howard tendered his services to the Government, which gave him a commission as Brigadier General. In the meantime the war continued. Congress created the Territory of Missouri and gave the governorship into other hands. In the early spring of 1813 an event happened that had more to do mth determining the intentions of the family than had either war or politics. Death entered the family circle and claimed the bride of a year, the sister of John Mason, the wife of General Howard. It is probable that all intention of proceeding farther westward was then abandoned ; if not it certainly must have been when a few months later the broken-hearted husband was laid beside the wife and sister.

Chapter II

'T^O the Virginia emigrant of the early days, Kentucky -■- was a land of rich and varied charms. Then as now the gentle undulations of the central blue-grass country awoke enthusiasm in the breast of the beholder. Its mighty forests, fertile soil and deep flowing rivers bespoke for it a future of more than ordinary hope and promise. Long before John Mason set his face westward thousands of Virginians had crossed into the land of Boone and Kenton and had laid the foundations and raised the superstructure of a State. As early as 1812 Lexington was a town that could boast of all the refinements of communities long tempered by age. Schools and churches of high character had made their advent, social graces and the lighter accomplishments had many votaries. It was as large as Cincinnati and four years later a traveler said of it, "The inhabitants are as polished and, I regret to add, as luxurious as those of Boston, New York or Baltimore."

It was natural that John Mason should have readily accepted the fate which had brought him hither and that he should have at once entered into the business and social life of the community. With but short delay he took up the practice of his profession at the bar where the names of Clay, Barry, Breckenridge and others were already famous, and soon won for himself a respectable clientage and the reputation of a solid and responsible citizen. The first three or four years of residence at Lexington developed little of exceptional family interest. Acquaintanceship was extended and the father looked forward with, every assurance of a prosperous career. During the first two years' residence, two sons were born to die in infancy, although young Thomson continued to develop into sturdy boyhood. The maternal grandparents were still inmates of the home and the grandmother found as much delight as did the children in recounting the stories of the Revolution and the colonial days of old Virginia. Even before Tom had essayed to solve the mystery of books and lessons, he knew by heart the stories of the students at "William and Mary's College, the old days at Williamsburg and the great doings at the Capitol before the war. The second sister, Emily Virginia, who in later years became the trusted confidant of the brother, was born in 1815. A little later the father purchased a large estate some three and one-half miles from town to which the family were removed. Even before this time John Mason had acquired many large and valuable properties both in Lexington and in the surrounding country and for some years thereafter his real estate holdings were upon a scale quite beyond the ordinary. The country home was located upon what was then kno^^^l as the Boonsborough Road, now the Lexington and Richmond Pike, a short distance beyond "Ashland," the famous home of Henry Clay. Although the lapse of years had swept away every old-time association, the old manor still stands, a sad and silent witness of a forgotten generation. The house, built by Colonel Levi Todd in 1780, is said to be the first brick house west of the Alleghany Mountains. Many historic associations are connected with the old homestead, for Colonel Levi Todd was the ancestor of Mary Todd, the wife of Abraham Lincoln, and the old house in later years when it had passed into other hands was the scene of their entertainment and the home of other illustrious personages in Kentucky history.

Upon its becoming the home of the Masons it was given the name of *' Serenity Hall" after the home of the father's maternal grandfather, Robert Armstead, of Louisa County, Virginia. The days at ''Serenity Hall" were the joyous days of the family residence at Lexington. It was an estate of between two and three hundred acres of the famous blue grass. The old house at that time could claim an approach to the appointments and dignity of a palace. The old servants were again about the family recalling the old days and early associations. "Granny Peg" who had been purchased as a child from a slaver on the James River as an act of compassion by William Moir, as the mother's maid, was here at liberty to scold while she rendered tireless, faithful service. Here Tishey the cook, and Jackson the coachman, in unconscious servitude performed their daily duties with pride of place and association. The home and farm maintained a company of more than twenty servants who in the homestead, spinninghouse, shop and field made a community that was quite self-supporting. Even in such a home, life was simple; satisfying pleasure abounded in field and forest and in the social intercourse with friends and neighbors. Sundays always found the families at the Episcopal Church where all were communicants and where each found mental and social as well as spiritual satisfaction. Young Tom, now a lad of six years, with his sister Mary a year his senior, were now receiving daily instruction from Mr. January, the tutor, who had come out from Virginia. The monotony of the school days was varied by a romp about the quarters with Sam, Robert, Evelena or Coty, or perhaps in listening to some folklore tale from the lips of old Peff or Granny Peg, whose store of wonders was well nigh inexhaustible. At infrequent intervals the family was treated to the delight of a journey back to the old Virginia home. The father did not relinquish his professional labors even when he assumed the cares of a farm proprietor, and time brought still others. In 1817 a branch of the United States Bank was organized at Lexington and John Mason became one of its directors. While other enterprises claimed his interest and attention, yet on occasions the father found time from his business and professional career to join in those trips back to his own boyhood home.

Long years afterwards, the joys of those journeys remained with those who participated in them. It required the better part of three weeks for the old coach and its four-horse team to cover the distance. The travelers never tired of the changing scenes amid the hills and valleys that filled the way. Daily the midday meal was devoured beside some spring or babbling brook, while the nights were spent beneath the roofs of the homes of the pioneers where they were treated to the crude but unstinted hospitality of that early day. In later years one of the children recalled that it was the custom of the mother on these journeys to charge the one who rode ahead to find the stopping places for the night, to select the house that had curtains at the windows, reasoning that curtains were a true mark of both affluence and gentility. The arrival at the old home at Raspberry Plain and the meeting of the numerous kinfolk was the crowning joy of the journey. At times pressing business required that the father should forego the companionship of his wife and children and should make the journey hurriedly and alone. One such occasion plunged the family into deepest sorrow. It was when in the early days of 1819 a swift messenger brought the sad tidings that the father's beloved and only brother, Armstead Thomson Mason, had been killed in a duel with his cousin. Colonel John McCarty. At Leesburg the old inhabitants mil still tell you the old story as it has been handed from the father to the son: how the quarrel started between Mason and McCarty, who were opposing candidates for congress ; how they met with rifles on the famous dueling ground at Bladensburg, Maryland; how at the signal both rifles cracked with one report; how the bullet from Mason's weapon shattered McCarty 's arm and how the one from McCarty 's rifle struck the lock of the one in Mason's hands, split in two, one-half burying itself in the heart of the victim. They Avill tell you further of how because of the tragedy a beautiful young lady refused to become McCarty 's bride and how later they were brought together by the magic of a song, and they may tell you how years later their child and first born of their union, dead from a weapon in his own hands, lay in the same room at old Easpberry Plain that had been the death chamber of Armstead Thomson Mason. The death of this brother was a sore blow to John Mason, for the tie between them was of the tenderest, the only son of the former having been given the name of the cousin,