Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/311

 MASON

MASON

Mikado (which he presented to the Boston Art Museum), and the doctor's degree from Tokio university. He resumed his work in Boston, 1883, and subsequently s{)ent some months in study at Berlin and Leipzig for the purpose of improving his system. He published his system at his own expense and in six months had met the entire investment of $10,000 from the sale of books and charts. His plan of teaching grew into the " National System," used in schools tliroughout the United States and in Germany, and was the foundation of the publishing house of Ginn & Co., Boston. His services were ac- knowledged by a public reception tendered him in Bostoji, Mass., May 25, 1895. He died in Buckfield, Maine. July 14, 1896.

MASON, Moses, representative, was born in Oxford county, Maine, June 2, 1789 ; son of Moses and Eunice (Ayers) Mason ; grandson of Moses and Lydia (Knap) Mason and of William Ayers, and a descendant of Capt. Hugh Mason, who settled in Watertown, Mass., in 1634. He studied medicine in the office of his brother-in- law, Dr. James Ayers, and began to practice «t Bethel Hill, Maine, in 1813. He was appointed the first postmaster at Bethel in 1814. He was married, June 15, 1815, to Agnes Straw of New- field. He was justice of the peace, 1821-66 ; county commissioner, 1831-34 ; a Democratic representative in the 23d and 24th congresses, 1833-37 ; and a member of the governor's council in 1843 and 1845. He was made a trustee of the insane liospital in 1844 ; was a selectman of the town for fourteen years, and was president of Gould's academy, 1854-66. He died at Bethel, Maine, June 25, 1866.

MASON, Otis Tufton, ethnologist was born in Eastport, Me., April 10, 1838 ; son of John and Rachel (Lincoln) Mason ; grandson of Tufton Mason, and a descendant of Capt. John Mason, the founder of New Hampshire and the explorer of the New England coast in 1617. His father w^as engaged for years in the New England, Vir- ginia and West India trade, but in 1840 lost his fortune and removed his family to New Jersey, residing at Red Bank and Haddonfield. He purchased a part of the Mt. Vernon estate called "Woodlawn" from the Lewis family in 1849; removed his family to Virginia in that year and engaged in farming. Otis received a preparatory education at home, and was graduated at Columbian college, A.B., 1860, A.M., 1862, and taught school to procure the necessary tuition. He was principal of Columbian College prepara- tory school, 1861-84, and from 1870 devoted liimself to the study of ethnology and anthro- pology in its widest sense. He was married, Oct. ti3, 1862, to Sarah, daughter of John and Emily Henderson of Alexandria, Va. He worked on

the principle that the apparatas and methods of the naturalist may be applied to the study of our race and that anthroi)ology should be in the strictest sense tiie natural history of man. He was professor of anthropology in Columbian university, 1884-98, and curator of the department of ethnology in the U.S. National museum at Washington, D.C., 1884-1901. He was an hono- rary and corresponding member of many Amer- ican and European scientific societies and received the decoration of Otticier de I'lnstruc- tion Publique from the French government in 1889. He received the degree of Ph.D. in 1879 and LL.D. in 1897, from Columbian universitj', and was elected a trustee of that institution in 1889. He contributed to the American Naturalist and to the publications of the Smithsonian Insti- tution and the U.S. National museum, and is the author of : Tlie Antiquities of Guadaloupe (1885); Ihe Hupa Indian Industries (IHSQ) ; Cradles of the North American Indians (1887); Wonwn's Share in Primitive Culture (1894); Primitive Transportation (1894); and Origin of Inventions (1895).

MASON, Richard Sharpe, educator, was born in Barbadoes, W.I., Dec. 29, 1795; son of Philip and Martha (Sliarpe) Mason. He was brought to the United States in 1807 by his mother and uncle, who settled in Philadelphia, Pa. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, A.B., 1813, A.M., 1816 ; studied theology, and was made deacon in the Protestant Episcopal church in 1817, and priest in 1820. He was rector of Christ church. New Berne, N.C., 1818-28; of Trinity church, Geneva, N.Y., 1828-30; president and Charles! Sartain professor of evidences! of Christianity', Hobart col-j lege, Geneva, N.Y., 1830-35;] president of Newark college, Newark, Del., 1835-40, and rector of Christ church, Raleigh, N.C., 1840-74. He was | _

married in 1823 to Mary Ann,^^^'2jv*K0HJ'; daugliter of John Council Bryan of New Berne, N.C. He was president of the annual diocesan conventions, president of the standing committee of the diocese, and deputy to the general conventions of the Protestant Episco- pal church from the diocese of North Carolina for many years. He was a trustee of Hol)art college, 1829-35, and received the degree of D.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1830. He is the author of : A Letter to the Bishop of North Carolina on the Subject of his Late Pastoral (1850), &nd Baptism of Infants Defended from the Objections of Antipcedo Baptists, edited by his son, the Rev. Richard Henry Mason (1874). He died in Raleigh, N.C, Feb. 21, 1874.