Central Washington University Archives
Guide to the Mason Family Ledger
Date: October 22, 2007
Date Span: 1879-1892 Size: 0.25 cubic feet; 1 15” x 6” ledger (225 pages) Number of Boxes: 1 legal half sized document case and 1 oversized box. Type of material: Bound ledger. Physical condition: Fair with some foxing, effects of aging along with torn and missing pages. Arrangement: Arranged by author. Historical or Biographical Sketch: Alanson T. Mason (1822-1905), a lumberman from Michigan, and his wife Nancy Hollenbeck Mason (1824-1900) arrived in Kittitas County, Washington in May of 1877 and settled in what is now Thorp. A. T. Mason was born in Cayuga County, New York in 1822 and spent his childhood in Jamestown, New York. He began his life as lumberman at the age of twenty-one. He would later reside in Forest County, Pennsylvania before moving to northwest Michigan in the fall of 1862. While in Michigan he began a lumbering business in the thick woods between Reed City and Big Rapids. He remained in the lumbering business in Michigan until 1876 when he and his wife relocated to Plainsburg, California. The following year he moved to western Kittitas County, now Thorp, where he began operating a ranch and saw mill. At age 71 he retired and sold the family ranch in 1893. He and his wife purchased a home in Ellensburg the same year. He died at the Ellensburg home of his son-in-law, Humbolt Packwood, in 1905. Nancy Hollenbeck Mason was born in Madison County, New York in 1825 to Daniel and Phoebe (Lonsdale) Hollenbeck. Alanson and Nancy were married in Jamestown, New York in 1843. The couple had been married for fifty-three years and had six children of which only three survived to adulthood. Nancy died in December of 1900. Martin Mason, the eldest surviving child, was born in 1848 in Jamestown, New York. Most of Martin’s childhood was spent in Jamestown and in Michigan on the family farm and lumber mill. He married Anna Silsby in 1869 and purchased his own farm, near his father’s, not long afterwards. Martin and Anna moved to Kittitas County, Washington in 1886, where he purchased a one hundred sixty acre cattle ranch two miles west of Ellensburg. Anna died unexpectedly in 1889. Martin was remarried a year later to Mary Harrison, a widow from Ellensburg who was born in New York in 1848. Martin and his second wife moved to West Seattle, Washington sometime during the late 1890s. James W. Mason, the second son of Alanson and Nancy, was born in New York State about 1853. He spent his early childhood in Jamestown, New York and in the backwoods of northwest Michigan. In 1874, he married Ruth Fancher and purchased a farm in Reed City. At the encouragement of his father, he and his family moved to Thorp in the spring of 1885. The next year, James purchased a ranch near Thorp and began farming wheat and hay. By the end of the 19th Century, James and the younger members of his family moved to Whatcom County, Washington. Luna Janette Mason, the only surviving daughter of Alanson and Nancy, was born in 1862 in Jamestown, New York. She arrived in Kittitas County with her parents in 1877 at the age of 15. In December of 1878, she married W. Humbolt Packwood. She and her husband moved to Ellensburg, Washington soon after the town was established. Humbolt died in March of 1907. Luna never remarried. She worked as a nurse and seamstress in Ellensburg until her retirement. She died on November 24, 1958 at age 94. Scope and Content Note: The ledger is believed to have been created by the members of the Alanson Mason family of Kittitas County, Washington. Pages 1 through 15 consist of clippings of poems and recipes from late19th Century newspapers and magazines. Pages 16 through 45 appear to be credit and debit entries from A. T. Mason’s Lumber Mill in Kittitas County from 1879 to 1881, most dating from 1879. Entries include the names of prominent pioneers and early settlers to the Kittitas Valley. Pages 50 through 101 appear to be the daily journal of Nancy Hollenbeck Mason, from January 1, 1888 to July 17, 1888 and from January 1, 1891 to January 15, 1891. Page 218 has a written agreement, signed April 15, 1885, between Daniel Harmon, Martin Mason and James L. Mills on the management and operation of the Thorp Mill for one year. There are numerous blank pages and a few pages of various indecipherable notes. Included in the collection are issues of newspapers that were folded and placed in the ledger. Research Note: Open to the public for educational research.
Inventory List:
Box 1
1. Ledger
2. Loose papers found in ledger
3. Research notes on family history
4. Transcripts of the Nancy Hollenbeck Mason Journal
Box 2
1. Oversized issues of newspapers found in ledger
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