Richard Barnes Mason

Background

Richard Barnes Mason was born on January 16, 1797 in Fairfax County, Virginia, in the environs of Mt. Vernon. He was the son of George Mason VI by his second wife, Eleanor Patton, and a great-grandson of George Mason of "Gunston Hall. "

Education

The boy was carefully educated, principally by tutor.

Career

On September 2, 1817, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 8th Infantry of the regular army. Owing to the temporarily rapid promotion in that branch of the service, he was immediately advanced to the grade of first lieutenant, and on July 31, 1819, was made a captain of the 1st Infantry, which participated in the Black Hawk War. In the same regiment with Zachary Taylor, he took part in the successful battle of the Bad Axe, August 2, 1832. Two days after Congress created the First Dragoons on March 2, 1833, he was elected as its major, a distinction heightened by the fact that the unit later became the first regiment of Cavalry in the United States army. He rose to be its lieutenant-colonel on July 4, 1836, and its colonel on June 30, 1846. When Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny, who had just commanded the regiment, went on his memorable conquest of New Mexico and California at the outset of the War with Mexico, he took Mason and some of the dragoons with him. They reached and occupied Los Angeles in January 1847. Shortly thereafter, when Kearny was called to other fields, Mason again relieved him and became the military commander of that region, authorized to establish temporary civil government in California. Although Mason understood the supreme power of the province to be vested in himself, he assumed a conservative attitude and continued the alcalde. In view of the situation, he decided that it would be unwise to establish a government on the old Mexican basis. Accordingly he and his staff prepared a code of laws "for the better government of California. " But on the news that Mexico had ceded the territory to the United States, Mason felt that the responsibility for its government had shifted to Congress and withheld the distribution of the code. Meanwhile, lacking a uniform and understood law, the settlers chafed and became restless. The discovery of gold in 1848, with its consequent influx of "forty-niners, " made the situation more tense. Mason delayed in providing standard laws in the faith that Congress would act, but in neither the session of 1848 nor that of 1849 was any measure taken. As a consequence the citizens began to take the initiative to the extent of forming the Legislative Assembly of San Francisco. At this juncture Brig. -Gen. Persifor F. Smith relieved Mason as military commander, and in April 1849, Brig. -Gen. Bennet Riley relieved him as acting-governor of California. Though Mason had given painstaking attention to the civil affairs of the territory, he had allowed technical impediments to outweigh emergency needs. Altogether his command, though negative, was constructive. He was brevetted a brigadier-general, May 30, 1848, for meritorious conduct. During his tour of duty he visited with Lieutenant (afterward General) W. T. Sherman the initial operations of the gold collectors in the El Dorado. After his relief in California, Mason returned to the headquarters of the First Dragoons at Jefferson Barracks, Mo. , where he died on July 25, 1850.

Achievements

• Richard Barnes Mason was the first military and civil governor of California. His report at Monterey, August 17, 1848 (copy in Revere, post), remains today the most authentic and descriptive story of the discovery of the gold deposits in California, especially at Sutter's Fort. It was copied in all parts of the world, published everywhere in the newspapers, and distributed in thousands of pamphlets. In 1882, the Post at Point San Jose in San Francisco, California was renamed Fort Mason in his honour, and served as an Army base for more than 100 years. There is also a Mason Street in downtown San Francisco.

Connections

Mason married Elizabeth Margaret Hunter on 28 January 1836. Richard and Elizabeth had three daughters.

Father:

George Mason, V

30 April 1753 – 5 December 1796 Was a planter, businessman, and militia leader.

Granduncle:

Thomson Mason

14 August 1733 – 26 February 1785 Was a prominent Virginia lawyer, jurist, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Brother:

George Mason VI

August 11, 1786 - August 21, 1834 Was a prominent Virginia planter.

Grandfather:

George Mason

December 11, 1725 – October 7, 1792 Was a Virginia planter and politician, and a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of three delegates, together with fellow Virginian Edmund Randolph and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, who refused to sign the constitution.

Wife:

Margaret Hunter Buell

1821 - 10 August 1881

Daughter:

Emma Twiggs Mason Wheaton

17 October 1836–16 February 1864

Daughter:

Alice Graham Mason

1843–10 February 1847

Daughter:

Elizabeth Mary Ann Barnes “Betsy” Hooe Mason Graham

1768 - 1814

Daughter:

Elizabeth Mary Ann Sally Mason

20 August 1838–19 November 1912

Cousin:

John Thomson Mason Jr.

May 9, 1815 – March 28, 1873 Was a U.S. Congressman from Maryland, representing the sixth district from 1841 to 1843.

Cousin:

William Temple Thomson Mason

July 24, 1782–1862 Was a prominent Virginia farmer and businessman.

Cousin:

Stevens Thomson Mason

October 27, 1811 – January 4, 1843 Was an American politician who served as the 1st Governor of Michigan from 1835 to 1840.

Cousin:

Armistead Thomson Mason

August 4, 1787 – February 6, 1819 Was a U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1816 to 1817.

Cousin:

John Thomson Mason

January 8, 1787 – April 17, 1850 Was an American lawyer, United States marshal, Secretary of Michigan Territory from 1830 through 1831, land agent, and an important figure in the Texas Revolution.

Cousin:

Thomson Francis Mason

1785 – 21 December 1838 Was a prominent jurist, lawyer, planter, councilman, judge, and the mayor of Alexandria, District of Columbia (now Virginia) between 1827 and 1830.

Cousin:

James Murray Mason

November 3, 1798 – April 28, 1871 Was a US Representative and US Senator from Virginia.