Mason family

Alanson T. Mason (1822-1905), a lumberman from Michigan, and his wife Nancy Hollenbeck Mason (1824-1900) arrived in Kittitas County, Washington, in May of 1877 and settled in what is now Thorp. A. T. Mason was born in Cayuga County, New York in 1822 and spent his childhood in Jamestown, New York. He began his life as lumberman at the age of twenty-one. He would later reside in Forest County, Pennsylvania before moving to northwest Michigan in the fall of 1862. While in Michigan he began a lumbering business in the thick woods between Reed City and Big Rapids. He remained in the lumbering business in Michigan until 1876 when he and his wife relocated to Plainsburg, California. The following year he moved to western Kittitas County, now Thorp, where he began operating a ranch and saw mill. At age 71 he retired and sold the family ranch in 1893. He and his wife purchased a home in Ellensburg the same year. He died at the Ellensburg home of his son-in-law, Humbolt Packwood, in 1905.

Nancy Hollenbeck Mason was born in Madison County, New York in 1825 to Daniel and Phoebe (Lonsdale) Hollenbeck. Alanson and Nancy were married in Jamestown, New York in 1843. The couple had been married for fifty-three years and had six children of which only three survived to adulthood. Nancy died in December of 1900.

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