Mason, Thomas Williams, 1839-1921

Thomas Williams Mason was a lawyer and cotton planter who conducted the bulk of his professional activities in and around the town of Garysburg, Northampton County, N.C. After his discharge from the Confederate Army in 1865, Mason took up residence with his wife's family at Longview Plantation, outside Garysburg, and from there supervised both his own planting interests and those of his father-in-law, William Henry Gray. In the years after 1877, Mason was active in state and local politics and as lawyer in Northampton County. In the latter part of his life, Mason often acted as a collections agent for various grocers and purveyors of dry goods in the region.

Thomas Williams Mason was born on 3 January 1839 at the Brunswick Plantation in Brunswick County, Va. He was named for his first cousin, Nathaniel Thomas Williams, who may have been visiting Brunswick Plantation at the time. Williams gave his namesake the Huon Plantation located in Madison Parish, La., as a birthday gift.

Mason attended the University of North Carolina from 1854 to 1858. Thereafter, he studied law at the University of Virginia, receiving his degree in 1860. During this time, he paid court to Elizabeth Marshall Gray, daughter of William Henry Gray of Longview Plantation near Garysburg, N.C. They were married at Longview on 25 September 1860.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Mason sided with the Confederacy. He was commissioned a lieutenant and assigned as aide-de-camp to General Robert Ransom. Mason attained the rank of captain, seeing action at Sharpsburg, Boone's Mill, and in the Richmond line.

At the end of the war, Mason returned to his father-in-law's plantation to oversee farming operations. In 1877, he was admitted to the bar of Northampton County, N.C. Mason served terms in both houses of the North Carolina State Legislature and was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the United States Senate in 1894, and also ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1896. He served on the North Carolina Railroad Commission from 1891 to 1894, and, from 1885 to 1909, he was a trustee of the University of North Carolina. He was also a judge in Northampton County.

Mason fathered four children, three of whom survived to adulthood. Two of his daughters, Bettie Gray and Sallie Williams, married members of the Long family. The third daughter, Ruth, went blind in childhood and never married.