My Genealogy Hound

ADDISON MASON is engaged in the cultivation of grapes which has been found to make the largest returns proportionate to the amount of labor expended of any crop grown in Chautauqua county, Addison Mason is a son of Hezekiah and Rosanna (Rich) Mason, and was born in Washington county, New York, November 30, 1822. Great-grandfather Mason was a native of Nova Scotia where he was engaged as a Baptist minister, but came when an elderly man to Massachusetts, where he died. His son, too, was a native of the land of the Acadians and they may have been allied to that honest, happy, but too confiding people whom the rude hand and merciless arm of the English victors tore from their homes in 1755. In any event grandfather Mason came first to Massachusetts and then pushed on until he reached Washington county, New York, where he met and married Hannah Mason, who, although of the same name was of no kin to him. They reared a family of six sons and three daughters. Upon the mother’s side, the ancestors came from New England for some generations. Hezekiah Mason (father) first looked out upon the light of day within the confines of Washington county, this State, on an April day of the year which began this century. Twenty-four years later he passed through the almost interminable forests of central and western New York and finally reached Chautauqua county, where he made but a short stay and passed on into Pennsylvania, locating near North East. Hezekiah Mason was a carder and weaver by trade but, leaving Pennsylvania, he returned to the southern part of Ripley and followed farming until his death in 1848. He was a democrat, tilled the offices of supervisor and justice of the peace and was a deacon in the Baptist church. He married Rosanna Rich and reared a family of five sons and two daughters: Addison; Miranda, is the wife of Glover Wattles; Diana, married to Ira Gay, of Ripley; George, wedded Abbie Teller and is a tinsmith at Geneva, Ohio; Judson, was born at what is called Rouse Well, Pa.; and Edgar, married Ella Beatty and follows milling in Pennsylvania.

Addison Mason received an education which at the time was considered good and then he was apprenticed to and learned the secrets of carding and cloth-dressing, which trade he followed for eight years. In 1850 he began farming and has since been so employed together with doing more or less carpenter work.

On October 12, 1848, he married Harriet Rice, a daughter of Horace Rice who came from Massachusetts to North East, Pa., where he follows farming, and a granddaughter of John Rice, also of the Bay State. Her maternal grandfather was Theodore Gilbert, of Connecticut, who married a Miss Cale, a daughter of a sea-captain, prominent in his day. Mr. and Mrs. Mason have had a happy union and were blessed with the following children: Oscar L., born November 19, 1850, married Flora Bell and now lives in the town of Ripley with a family of three children, Eva, Clara and Addison, Jr.; Clarence H., born December 29, 1855, married Florence Perry, daughter of W. B. Perry (see sketch). He lives in Ripley and is a farmer and grape grower, owning about thirty acres of vineyard. Their children are: Perry, Ella, Horace, Effie and Harriet; and Harriet E., born January 13, 1859, is the wife of Fred N. Randall, a son of Nelson Randall. Fred N. Randall is a merchant and grape grower living in Ripley and has two sons: Frederick M. and Byron A.

Addison Mason is a republican and has been elected assessor and supervisor two terms. He is also a member of the Equitable Aid Union, has good judgment and is one of the foremost citizens of his town.