History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917; - citizen hylbom blog

Personal Sketches 231
So the ship building went on until the breaking out of the Rebellion,
when the stirring sounds of axe and maUet that had so long enlivened the
Barney ville marshes were silenced forever, and there remains nothing now
to tell of the activity which once prevailed there.
James H. Mason
James Harding Mason, son of Olney and Lillis (Pierce) Mason, was
born in Swansea, August 18, 1817. He learned the trade of wheelwright.
He married Mary E., daughter of the Hon. George S. and Betsy (Nichols)
Austin; and their children were Frederick A., George Eugene; and Ellen
Beed who married Arthur W. Welhngton, and they are the parents of
Charles Frederick, mentioned in the Wellington family records. About
1844 he was chosen selectman, and served three years. He removed to
Taunton soon after, where he resided until 1867, when he returned to
Swansea Village where he worked at his trade, having a shop near Gray's
Corner, until an advanced age. He was many years engaged in the public
affairs of the town, being selectman from March 1869, until March 1891;
and the last 16 years he was Chairman of the Board—the longest term
known in the history of the Town. He was also tax-collector several years,
and in 1882, he represented the (Tenth Bristol) district, of which Swansea
was a part, in the legislature of the Commonwealth.
He died in Swansea, June 11, 1893. In his church affiliations he was
associated with the Universalist Chapel at Hortonville.
Hon. Frank Shaw Stevens
On Aug. 5, 1827 there was born in Rutland Vermont to Chauncy and
Lucinda Stevens a child who in his maturer years became the faithful
adopted son of this town.
Frank Shaw Stevens, the subject of this sketch, saw for the first time
the old ]New England Village of Swansea on Christmas morning 1858
coming from California with his wife, who was a native of this town, and
living here until the time of his death April 25, 1898—a period of nearly
two score years.
Varied and unusual influences in the life of Mr. Stevens made a man
quite unlike a bred New Englander.
When the great gold fever of '49 swept over the country his young
blood responded to the challenge and he was among the first of the Argonauts
to cross the Plains leaving his home in Westfield, N. Y., and making
his way with other seekers of gold over the Lakes down the Mississippi and
up the Missouri to Omaha in a stream craft—thence across the Plains and
over the Rockies by saddle and the "Prarie Schooner" to Sacramento—
journey of four months.
Many were the thrilling phases of California life in those days !
a
Dagger
and revolver were as essential to a man's equipment as pick and spade.
Mr. Stevens was a member, probably one of the organizers, of the
renowned Vigilance Committee of San Francisco, an organization that in
1851 owed its conception to the absence of effective protective laws. It
held in its hands legislative, judicial and executive powers. Its history is
a brief and thrilling one.
The gold fields did not long hold the attention of our young pioneer.
His love of horses was a stronger influence^and we find.he drove with his own
hand the first mail stage between Sacramento and Portland Oregon, and
in 1854 became the Vice-President of the Consolidated California Stage