The following is a short Biography from the life of WILLIAM
FRANLIN MASON. Throughout his life time of 91 years,
Mr. Mason kept
a journal or diary of his lifes experiences.
My grandfather, WILLIAM FRANKLIN MASON was born in Bruin,
Elliott Co., Ky on
January 31, 1872 of JAMES MASON
and CAROLINE BRICKEY. Grandfather had an older sister, SARAH
JANE MASON.
His mother, CAROLINE BRICKEY, was the widow
of her cousin, DANIEL MORGAN BRICKEY, who,
as a
Confederate soldier had died a prisoner of war at Camp Douglas, Chicago,
Illinois, with whom
she had a family of seven - JAMES NELSON,
SAMUEL PARISH, MARY ELIZABETH, ROBERT EMMETT, DANIEL
MORGAN, MELISSA CAROLINE, AND SENA VICTORIA BRICKEY.
His father, JAMES MASON had been married twice before, both previous
wives having passed
away. The first marriage was to SALLY (SARAH)
ELAM, with whom he had eleven children - SUSANA,
MARY
ELIZABETH, HARRIETT, JANE, JEMIMA, JESSE, ELIZA, THOMAS,
NANCY, MARGARET AND FRANCES MASON.
The second
marriage was to SAMANTHA J. RICE nee WRIGHT, with whom
he had one son - STONEWELL
JACKSON (JACK) MASON.
So all in all,
he had one full sister and nineteen half-siblings. Needless to say,
through the marriages of his brothers and sisters, he was related to many,
many families in
Elliott and Carter County, Kentucky.
Grandfather married
ELIZA JANE MCDAVID of Deer Creek, Carter County, Kentucky, whose
parents were WILLIAM EDWARD MCDAVID and AMANDA RICE
STURGILL.
My grandparents had seven children - ERNEST LEROY,
ALLEN, CALVIN SPARKS (my father),
EDITH ELIZABETH, DAN,
PAUL DAVID and RENA WINIFRED MASON. As of this date,
year 2000, EDITH,
PAUL and RENA are still living.
In 1914 he moved
his family to Long Beach, California. We lived just blocks away
from
him and I remember that every time we came to visit, he would
enter that into the days page of
a diary, as were many, the events of that day.
He passed away December 20, 1964 in Long Beach,
California.
To the day
grandfather died, at the age of 91, he had kept diaries. In 1954 he wrote
a
252-page Journal on legal paper, from diaries and from memory. Included
were three hand-drawn
maps of the area showing names of homes,
schools, churches, rivers and routes. In the Journal he
wrote
about his family and neighbors, the customs and dress, the superstitions,
events, what the
churches and schools were like (he taught in one-room
schools)and how the houses and stores were
built (he also worked for
owners of stores or owned the store himself).
After transcribing
the Journal, I indexed every name contained therein (another 34
pages),
which makes it easy to look up any name requested.
I would be happy to do so for anyone.
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