Stevens Thomson Mason was born on October 27, 1811 in Loudoun County, Virginia, probably at Leesburg, where his father was practising law, the second of the eight children of John Thomson and Elizabeth (Moir) Mason, and a grandson of Stevens Thomson Mason. In 1812 the family migrated to Kentucky, settling first at Lexington and later at Owingsville and Mt. Sterling. At one time they were tenants of Henry Clay's "Ashland. " John Mason was a brother-in-law of William Taylor Barry and counted Andrew Jackson and Richard Mentor Johnson among his friends.
Education
Mason attended Transylvania University.
Career
In 1828 Stevens or Tom, as he was usually called, left Transylvania University and became a grocer's helper, for his father was in financial straits. Two years later President Jackson rescued the sinking fortunes of the family by appointing John Mason secretary of Michigan Territory. Father and son arrived at Detroit together July 18, 1830, but a year later the Secretary resigned and set out for Texas and Mexico, ostensibly on private business but conjecturally on a mission for the President, who promptly named Stevens Thomson Mason to the vacant secretariat. The appointment excited general indignation and protest, for Mason was only nineteen years old. Ignoring the furore, he took the oath of office July 25, 1831, and conducted himself so discreetly that he gained acceptance. During most of the next five years he was acting governor ex officio. He seized the leadership of the movement for statehood and vigorously prosecuted the boundary dispute with Ohio, calling out the militia to guard the disputed area. According to the Ordinance of 1787, the northern boundary of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois should have been a line running east and west from the southern bend of Lake Michigan, but in carving these states out of the Northwest Territory, this stipulation of the Ordinance had been disregarded. Mason's insistence on Michigan's right to the "Toledo strip" was a serious embarrassment to President Jackson and the Democratic party. Congress refused to admit Michigan as a state until the dispute was settled in Ohio's favor, but as compensation the Upper Peninsula was added to the state of Michigan. Mason was elected the first governor of Michigan in 1836 and served two terms. He appointed an able superintendent of public instruction, used his veto to protect the university lands, and proved himself a friend of education. He opposed imprisonment for debt and solitary confinement in the penitentiary, advocated a geological survey, and in general showed an enlightened attitude toward public problems. Unfortunately, he was too inexperienced to perceive the danger lurking in the banking law of 1837 or to negotiate successfully with Eastern bankers for the flotation of $5, 200, 000 of state bonds. In consequence the state suffered severely from the financial stringency that set in in 1837, and Mason was held accountable for much of the trouble. Declining to run again for governor, he retired in January 1840. At the invitation of his successor, a Whig, he wrote a farewell message to the legislature, which refused to receive it. In 1841 he removed to New York, where he practised law until his death in 1843 after a short illness.
Achievements
Mason known as the 1st Governor of Michigan 1835-1840. He served as the Governor of Michigan from 1835 to 1840. Also served as Secretary of Michigan Territory in 1831, and Governor of Michigan Territory from 1834 to 1835. As the "boy governor" he became a romantic hero in Michigan, and in 1905 his body was reinterred, with fitting ceremony, in Capitol Square, Detroit. There are also several places named in his honor: The city of Mason, Michigan, the county seat of Ingham County, where the state capital, Lansing, is located. Mason County, Michigan; Mason Hall at Michigan State University; Mason Hall at the University of Michigan; Stevens T. Mason Building in Lansing, Michigan; Mason Senior High School in Erie Township, Michigan; Stevens T. Mason Elementary School in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan; Stevens T. Mason Middle School in Waterford Township, Michigan; Mason Elementary School in Detroit, Michigan.
Personality
Mason was modest, courteous, and affable, spoke and wrote intelligently, and was precocious in his political sagacity.
Connections
Mason had been married November 1, 1838, to Julia Elizabeth Phelps of New York, who with three children survived him.
Father:
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.
Mother:
Elizabeth (Moir) Mason
Grandfather:
Stevens Thomson Mason
December 29, 1760 – May 10, 1803
Was a Colonel in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, a member of the Virginia state legislature and a Republican U.S. Senator from Virginia (1794–1803).
Wife:
Julia Elizabeth Phelps
Daughter:
Dorothea Eliza Mason Wright
October 29, 1840 – October 4, 1916
Son:
Thaddeus Phelps Mason
March 11, 1842–April 1847
Son:
Stevens Thomson Mason Jr.
August 1, 1839 – January 27, 1843
Great-grandfather:
Thomson Mason
14 August 1733 – 26 February 1785
Was a prominent Virginia lawyer, jurist, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia.
