Seventh Generation (Continued)
Family of Willard Mason (348) & Mary Whiting

747. Luther Whiting Mason (Willard6, Ebenezer5, Jonas4, John3, John2, Hugh1). Born Turner, Maine, on 3 Apr 1818. Died Buckfield, Maine, on 14 Jul 1896. Data from Mason.

"Mr. Mason was five feet, nine and one-half inches, the smallest of his brothers, some of whom were six feet. His father, Willard Mason, owned large tracts of land in Maine and was under contract to fell lumber and deliver the timber therefrom, but disastrous floods destroyed the labor and outlay of months, bringing on ruin, followed shortly by his death.
"Luther was taken in charge by his elder half-brother, a last maker and a most worthy man who rejoiced in his little brother's musical gifts and aided him as far as he could, but the boy had to work, so in the winter time he arose at four a.m., in order to be able to do his duty and still attend classes. With remarkable perseverance he wrote his studies, including later on, Latin and Greek, on a blackboard and learned them while pursuing his labors.
"Dr. Ephraim Cutter, M.D., LL.D., of New York, wrote of him: 'Early in his youth Professor Mason taught music with great success, in fact, he was instructor of music in the academies he attended as a pupil. His desire was to go to foreign lands as a missionary, but circumstances interfering, he confined himself to music. The world has profited by this subversion. He taught music in Delaware and Maryland before 1850, marrying Miss Hannah Ellis Allen, one of his choir singers, at Baltimore. In 1853 he was located at Louisville, Kentucky, as musical director in the public schools. About 1858 he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and attained great success in the management of large bodies of children. It has been said that there was no man living who could handle children as he does. His work at Cincinnati has borne splendid fruit. Some regard the formation of its splendid conservatory as due to Prof. Mason's efforts and results with children's music in the public schools.'
"He served one hundred days on the Federal side in the Civil War, having volunteered as a private, but was detailed as drum-major. In 1864 he was called to Boston, and in spite of obstacles which would have deterred others, less sincere and earnest, he had a great triumph in his special work, namely, the training of teachers ignorant of music, so that they might be able to teach from the charts which he had perfected. There was no type suitable so he made them. He was a positive man and positive men meet with opposition, but he made a good record, and when he was leaving for Japan he had a farewell reception which was presided over by the Hon. F. 0. Prince, the mayor, Mr. C. C. Perkins, as chairman of the musical committee of Boston, the president of the Handel and Haydn Oratorios and others presented him with an address engrossed on vellum and finely mounted, showing the high estimation in which his work was held. He also received a fine microscope, and about a thousand persons were present.
"Upon his return from Japan he was given an equally cordial reception at the New England Conservatory of Music, His Honor, Mayor Palmer of Boston, presiding. Forty thousand teachers in Japan are now using his system. When he first entered on his duties in Boston, the school children knew the trivial negro melodies of the day by note only, the effect of his energy was that 50,000 Boston children learned to read music of the German type.
"Dr. Lowell Mason, the father of modern church music, after watching him teach on one occasion, clapped him on the shoulder and said, 'I could not do that. There is only one man in the world who can, and that is you.'
"When he was in Japan (around 1880) the Empress publicly thanked him for his work, which comprised, beside a public and girl's high schools, teachers classes, a school of music, including an orchestra of European and Japanese instruments, pianoforte lessons and tuning in the homes of nobility, lessons in singing to Kalakua, King of the Sandwich Islands, while the latter was then on a visit, and tri-weekly meetings with the commission of His Majesty, the Mikado's household musicians and poets, to whom he played music, mostly of German origin, and when to their liking, he explained the sentiments of the songs. The court poets would versify these into appropriate Japanese rhythm and thus it came about that song books were compiled and that German folksongs are now sung in Japanese all over the Empire. On leaving Japan the Mikado presented him with a magnificent pattern of gold cloth. Such distinctions were accorded him, including the Dr.'s degree of the Tokio University, which had never before been shown to foreign musicians in Japan.
"He spent four months in Berlin in order to study the training of the celebrated Donn (Cathedral) choir by Prof. Albert Becker, one of the soundest and most authoritative of modern times. Then he went to Leipzig and spent weeks attending classes, especially the elementary ones, in all the various branches of education, in order to obtain indications for the purpose of improving his 'National Musical Course,' a system already popular in the United States for some twenty years and the cause of his singular success in Japan. When in Leipzig he had only one copy of his charts and books with him, so first one and then another of the authoritative musicians had to be induced to call, inspect and have matters explained. The result was astonishing. One and all were so impressed with his system that he received a special invitation to, give an address in May 1891 at the monthly meeting of the Leipzig' Music Teachers Association, a highly intellectual but very conservative body. He at first declined, urging that he had come to learn, not to teach, but finally consented, and the critics paid him the highest of compliments. His methods were adopted with honors by German teachers. He was commissioned a Royal Instructor by the Mikado of Japan.
"His love for his fellow creatures makes him think with the babe, the virile and old. He is never so happy as when helping his neighbors, almost stern looking when his face is in repose, his whole face fairly shines, his eyes light up with kindly warmth when he sees an opportunity for doing good. This remarkable man, one of the greatest pedagogues that any country, Germany not excepted, has ever produced."
The foregoing biography is copied from a newspaper clipping published thirty years ago and sent by Mrs. James Basil McLaughlin (Dorothy Mason) of Montrose, Calif.
Prof. Mason's love for children was not only for his pupils but extended to his nieces and nephews whom he frequently took blackberrying and gathering wild flowers, making himself as young and as merry as they.

He married Hannah Ellis Allen, daughter of Hezekiah Allen & Juletta Whiting, in Oct 1844 in Baltimore, Md. Born Dover, Mass., on 22 Sep 1813. Died Buckfield, Maine. Data from Mason.

They had the following children:
i.  Katherine. Born in 1850. Died Buckfield, Maine, in 1912. Unmarried. Data from Mason.
1370 ii.  Virginia Almira (1852-1929)

748. Dr. Essec Whiting Mason (Willard6, Ebenezer5, Jonas4, John3, John2, Hugh1). Born Turner, Maine, on 26 Nov 1824. Died Louisville, Ky., on 26 Apr 1872. Residence: Louisville, Ky. Data from Mason.

Dr. Mason spent most of his boyhood days in Boston, Mass. Later he studied medicine and dentistry in Baltimore, Md. He never practiced medicine but went to Kentucky, and becoming deeply attached to it remained there and practiced dentistry. He was musically inclined and at ten years of age sang in a Boston church, later he became a church soloist and having a delightful baritone voice sang in the choir at the Episcopal Cathedral, in Louisville, for many years. He would not sing on a salary and was called "The Sweet Singer in Israel." His wife was of a poetic nature and wrote beautiful verse.

He married Mary Shallcross, daughter of Stephen Shallcross & Eliza Magruder, on 14 Sep 1853 in Louisville, Ky. Born St. Louis, Mo., in Jul 1833. Died Worthington, Louisville, on 28 Feb 1904. Data from Mason.

Her father was of Manchester, England, and married Eliza Magruder of Kentucky.

They had the following children:
i.  Mary Bell. Born Louisville, Ky., in Jun 1854. Died on 13 Dec 1879. Unmarried. Data from Mason.
1371 ii.  Edwin Morgan (1856-1921)
1372 iii.  Jessie (1857->1932)
iv.  Georgia DeHart. Born Louisville, Ky., on 17 Dec 1859. Died on 30 Aug 1876. Unmarried. Data from Mason.
1373 v.  Annie McDowell (1861-1889)
1374 vi.  Willard Wilson (1864-)
vii.  Foree. Born Goshen, Oldham Co., Ky., in Jul 1872. Died in Oct 1872. Data from Mason.

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