WILLIAM FRANKLIN MASON

My grandfather, WILLIAM FRANKLIN MASON was born in Bruin, Elliott County, Kentucky on January 31, 1872 of JAMES MASON and CAROLINE BRICKEY. Grandfather had an older sister, SARAH JANE MASON.

His mother, CAROLINE BRICKEY, was the widow of her cousin, DANIEL MORGAN BRICKEY, who, as a Confederate soldier had died a prisoner of war at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois, with whom she had a family of seven - JAMES NELSON, SAMUEL PARISH, MARY ELIZABETH, ROBERT EMMETT, DANIEL MORGAN, MELISSA CAROLINE, AND SENA VICTORIA BRICKEY.

His father, JAMES MASON had been married twice before, both previous wives having passed away. The first marriage was to SALLY (SARAH) ELAM, with whom he had eleven children - SUSANA, MARY ELIZABETH, HARRIETT, JANE, JEMIMA, JESSE, ELIZA, THOMAS, NANCY, MARGARET AND FRANCES MASON.

The second marriage was to SAMANTHA J. RICE nee WRIGHT, with whom he had one son - STONEWELL JACKSON (JACK) MASON.

So all in all, he had one full sister and nineteen half-siblings. Needless to say, through the marriages of his brothers and sisters, he was related to many, many families in Elliott and Carter County, Kentucky.

Grandfather married ELIZA JANE MCDAVID of Deer Creek, Carter County, Kentucky, whose parents were WILLIAM EDWARD MCDAVID and AMANDA RICE STURGILL.

My grandparents had seven children - ERNEST LEROY, ALLEN, CALVIN SPARKS (my father), EDITH ELIZABETH, DAN, PAUL DAVID and RENA WINIFRED MASON. As of this date, year 2000, EDITH, PAUL and RENA are still living.

In 1914 he moved his family to Long Beach, California. We lived just blocks away from him and I remember that every time we came to visit, he would enter that into the day's page of a diary, as were many other events of that day. He passed away December 20, 1964 in Long Beach, California.

To the day grandfather died, at the age of 91, he had kept diaries. In 1954 he wrote a 252-page Journal on legal paper, from diaries and from memory. Included were three hand-drawn maps of the area showing names of homes, schools, churches, rivers and routes. In the Journal he wrote about his family and neighbors, the customs and dress, the superstitions, events, what the churches and schools were like (he taught in one-room schools)and how the houses and stores were built (he also worked for owners of stores or owned the store himself).

After transcribing the Journal, I indexed every name contained therein (another 34 pages),which makes it easy to look up any name requested. I would be happy to do so for anyone. The following are some of the entries in the Journal.

Send questions and comments to kycarter@columbus.rr.com

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