Claibourne Rice Mason

Background

Claiborne Rice Mason was the son of Rev. Peter Mason, a Baptist minister. He was born in Chesterfield County, Va. (Waddell, post), but spent at least part of his early boyhood in Richmond. His ancestors had removed on account of religious persecution from the south of England to Holland and from there came to America. His mother, Elizabeth, died when the lad was very young, and at the age of eight he ran away from home and made his living for a time doing chores on a farm in Pennsylvania. Later he carried mail in Maryland, and at the age of sixteen or seventeen worked in Washington as apprentice to a ship's carpenter.

Career

In 1829 he began his career as a contractor in connection with the construction of the Midlothian Railway of Virginia, one of the earliest in the country. In 1836 he began the Louisa Railroad, the oldest part of the line that later became the Chesapeake & Ohio, and for a time he acted as its superintendent. An interesting feature in the operation of this railroad was the stable car containing four horses which were used for the purpose of helping the engine pull the train up hill. After the war Mason returned to railroad contracting. In 1872, when the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway completed its line from Richmond to Huntington, he drove the last spike at Hawks' Nest, thirty-six years after he had turned the first shovelful of earth for the old Louisa Railroad at Doswell. He died at his home in 1885.

Achievements

• He was a contractor, perhaps the largest, on the Virginia Central Railroad. At the outbreak of the Civil War, though he was past sixty years of age, he raised a company of Confederate volunteers, mainly at his own expense, and was chosen captain. He saw his chief service under "Stonewall" Jackson, and in the army came to be known as "Jackson's bridge builder. " Jackson's brilliant successes were unquestionably due in part to the short cuts made possible by Mason's resourcefulness. Among his notable achievements on the Chesapeake & Ohio were the construction of Jerry's Run Fill, 575 feet high, and the Lewis Tunnel. He had contracts also on the Valley Railroad of Virginia, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Cincinnati Southern, the Kentucky Central, the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac, the Richmond & Allegheny, the Richmond & Mecklenburg, the Kentucky Union, and the Virginia & North Carolina Extension. The last large contract executed under his personal supervision was for the Southern Pennsylvania Railroad.

Personality

Not an engineer by training, he possessed many of the attributes of the engineer. He had an uncanny mathematical ability, and it was said of him that he could look at a hill and declare immediately how many cubic yards of material it contained. His special talent lay in his ability to plan and execute jointly. A story is told that once when Jackson needed a bridge quickly in order to cross the Shenandoah River he instructed his engineers to prepare plans for Mason, but before the plans were finished the bridge was built. Mason was a man of mild deportment, good physique, and tireless energy. Believing in the policy of a protective livelihood other than contracting, some time before the Civil War he bought a farm at Swope's Station, Augusta County, Va. , which was his home thereafter until his death. Here he cared for his horses and mules during off seasons and stored his surplus contracting equipment. Through the Mason Syndicate and the Mason & Hanger Company, Inc. , of New York, of which he is considered the founder, two of his sons and their sons and grandsons were carrying on construction activity a hundred years after Mason took his first contract.

Connections

On March 13, 1838, he married Drucilla W. Boxley, who bore him eleven children, three of whom died young.

Father:

Rev. Peter Mason

Mother:

Elizabeth Mason

Wife:

Drucilla W. Boxley

References

• Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871,