My Genealogy Hound

JORDAN W. MASON. The subject of this review is a well known business man of Yates Center and an enterprising and popular liveryman of that city. He is one of those young men who came to Kansas from the east less than a quarter of a century ago with his labor as his capital and who has been persistently and continuously the companion of hard work during his residence in Woodson County. He became familiar with it first upon his father’s farm in Illinois and when he was left at the head of a large family, and responsible for their welfare to years of accountability, industry was the shield which protected them and the benefactor which provided them with the wants of life. Though his years number a half century no less than two score of them span the period of his life’s work.

Jordan W. Mason was born October 5 1850. Samuel Mason, his father, was a farmer residing near Miflinville, Pennsylvania, to which point he moved from about Morseton, New Jersey. He was born at the latter place in 1818, moved from there to Miflinville, thence to Kendall County, Illinois, where he spent the remainder of his life. There were six children in his father’s family, three sons and three daughters, one surviving. He grew to manhood about Miflinville and was there married to Katie Eckroth whose death occurred in Kendall County, Illinois. Their children were: Jordan W.; James; Libbie, wife of Nathan Colthirst, of Remington Indiana, and Lewis E., John M., Samuel E. and Lavina M., of Kendall County, Illinois.

Our subject secured very meager school advantages in the district schools and, when he became a man, work was about all he knew. In the fall of 1877 he came out to Kansas and secured a half section of new land in Owl Creek township, preparatory to his removal hence in the spring. The next year he unloaded his effects at Neosho Falls with Charles Diver and “Ren” Thurber, took possession of his piece of prairie and proceeded to make a farm of it. He resided there some years when he took up his residence in Yates Center and engaged in the butcher business. Changes in business were apparently rapid from this time on for some years, from butcher to farmer, teamster, freighter from Humboldt to Yates Center, and finally jobbing about from one thing to another that would yield a legitimate dollar. When work was scarce if he couldn’t get his price for doing work he took the other man’s and thus established a reputation for industry and reliability. November 20, 1893, he began the livery business with a stock of six ponies, four sets of old harness, three buggies and a spring wagon. His business methods were legitimate and, patronage sought him and prosperity followed in its wake. With success in business came an enlargement of his accommodations and expansion of stock and equipments to meet the needs of a well-ordered livery.

Mr. Mason was married in Woodson County, Kansas, December 24, 1882, to Emily Brodman, a lady of German birth and parentage. She was born in 1864 and was brought to the United States by a widowed mother, Mrs. Victoria Brodman, who died in Yates Center in 1889. Mr. and Mrs. Mason’s only child is a daughter, Cecil.