Excerpts from the Journal of William Franklin Mason
Submitted by Kay Mason <KLMPIANO@aol.com on May,30, 2000

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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.


The following sections of this journal mention areas of Boyd
County Ky and are included herein to save you research time as
the above introduction states the full journal included 252
pages.

Baseball and A Cracked Head
Submitted by Kay Mason <KLMPIANO@aol.com on May 17, 2000


Pages 223-224: 
          
"In summer the young men around Cannonsburg made up a sort of
ball club and played neighboring village clubs on Saturday &
Sunday afternoons. While the quality of game played was not very
high the effort and enthusiasm were terrific and rooters and
players were fiercely loyal to the home teams. 
 
One afternoon, about 1903 or 1904 - late Aug. or early Sept.,
Cannonsburg played a team from Normal, a small place on the Ohio
River below Catlettsburg.  The grounds were in an old pasture - a
part of the Geiger Farm in a nicely shaded spot.  The local boys
got the idea that the Normal team looked down on them as "Country
Jakes" and so feelings were not good to start with. 
 
Right soon after play one SCOTT, in running the bases, collided
with ALBERT JORDAN of the local team and knocked him off third
base and continued on to home plate.  {ALBERT] JORDAN floowed and
made the charge that the collision was intentional and SCOTT
claimed it was accidental.  After a short wrangel, the game was
resumed and played out without further dispute of notice. 
             
As the crowd dispersed a boy handed a bat to [ALBERT] JORDAN and,
as he walked away with it, he became aware that someone was
walking by his side and, glancing to see who it was, saw that it
was SCOTT - who answered his look with a scowl.  The look so
angered [ALBERT] JORDAN that he suddenly swung the bat and struck
SCOTT across his right eye and diagonally upward to the hairline
above the left eye - leaving a dent in the flesh and bone. 
SCOTT dropped instantly.  I was only a few feet away and saw his
friends gather him up and place him in a buggy.  He looked like a
dying man to me. 
 
Mr. [ALBERT] JORDAN went home and, expecting to be arrested, he
kept out of sight.  As he was our friend, ELIZA [MCDAVID MASON]
and I decided to help get him out of the County till matters
became more settled.  So after a talk with him we left in our
buggy at night and drove up into Elliott County and made
arrangements for him to stay at my nephew's - (CALVIN SPARKS) -
but he couldn't make himself stay - just too far in the country -
so when I went home he went also.  He soon went to his mother at
Milton, W. Va., and from there to Wickersham, Washington - and
lived there and in that section till his death in 1948.  He was
honest & truthful and a true firend, but had a very high temper. 
 
In 1935 ELIZA [MCDAVID MASON] and I were at his place in Skagit
County, Wash. for about 2 hours while pasing through the country
and in 1938 he and his 4th & last wife stayed overnight with us
here [Long Beach, CA]. 
 
The man SCOTT was shot and killed in a brawl several years after
we came west.  Lucky for me [ALBERT] JORDAN was not arrested, as
I had volated the law by trying to hide him from the officers." 
 
Kay Mason 
              
Grandfather Discribes Cannonsburg of 1901
Submitted by Kay Mason <KLMPIANO@aol.com on May 15, 2000

Page 202: 
 
     "So on the 17th of May, 1901 (or thereabouts), a beautiful
sunny day, we arrived in Cannonsburg - the little place with the
big name - and moved our plunder into the west side of "Uncle" 
MIKE O'BRIEN's house and set up to operate a general store in the
two story and basement Brick, built about 1850 - the upper story
used by the Masons and Odd Fellows as a lodge hall. 

     At this time there was an empty store house across the road,
the Catlettsburg Pike, south of the Brick and a blacksmith shop
east of it in the s.w. corner and east of the shop, across the
Ashland Pike, in the s. e. corner, E. E. EASTHAM had a stock of
goods in a frame store building and west of the Brick store was
another blacksmith shop.  Two stores and two blacksmith shops -
and not enough trade for one of each. 
 
     Across the road, in front of the brick store, Uncle MIKE
O'BRIEN lived in a two story log house with his family - JOHN,
BRIDGIE, MAGGIE, MIKE, KATE [O'BRIEN] - MAYME and DAN [O'BRIEN]
all grown.  Their ban was west of their house on their triangular
piece of land of about five acres.  EASTHAM's lived in the n.e.
corner of the Pike Crossing in front of their store.  WILLIAM H.
NUNLEY & wife east of EASTHAM's on the opposite side of Marsh
Run. J. M. "BABE'" ROSS east of NUNLEY's steam grist mill, north
and west, on the bank of the creek; Mrs. AMANDA BROWN's
residence; WILLIAM HANDLEY's residence and ALBERT JORDAN's under
a big maple tree. 

     G. W. CALVIN, who owned the land north and west lived about
a mile west near the East Fork Bridge on the south side of the
Pike and his barn on a knoll east of his house on the opposite
side of the Catlettsburg Pike. HENRY NUNLEY lived a short
distance south east of EASTHAM's store on the hillside up a
little branch beyond a vacant log house.  About a quarter of a
mile south on the Ashland Pike on a hillside east of the Pike
stood the Public School and a Methodist Church" 

Finished