Walter Francis Mason Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1290-1291 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	WALTER FRANCIS MASON was born in Sparta, Monroe county, Wisconsin, 
on the 19th of November, 1858, being a son of Merville and Electa Maria 
(Pixley) Mason, his father having been a mechanic by vocation, but 
having been well educated in Hamilton College, New York, whence he 
removed to Wisconsin in the pioneer epoch, there turning his attention 
to teaching. He located in what is now the city of Milwaukee, and an 
idea of that city's status at the time may be gained when it is stated 
that he had charge of its entire public-school system and taught all the 
pupils in one room. He died in Greenwood, that state, in March, 1898, at 
the venerable age of seventy-six years and honored by all who knew him. 
His wife, who was educated in Oberlin College, Ohio, preceded him into 
eternal rest by about one year, having passed away in July, 1889. Our 
subject secured his early educational training in the public schools of 
his native state, having been graduated in the high school at 
Neillsville, Wisconsin, as a member of the class of 1875, while later he 
entered the literary department of the Wisconsin State University, at 
Madison, where he took the modern classical course and then entered the 
law department of the same institution, in which he was graduated in 
1884, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Mr. Mason passed his 
boyhood days on a farm, and from November, 1877, to June, 1884, in the 
intervals of attending school, he taught school and worked on farms, by 
which means he earned the money with which to complete his collegiate 
and professional studies. In September, 1884, he located in Marinette, 
Wisconsin, where he opened an office, but in the spring of the following 
year he removed to Thorp, that state, where he was engaged in practice 
until the spring of 1887, when he married and soon afterward changed his 
location to Faulkton, Faulk county, Dakota, where he successfully 
continued in the practice of his profession for the ensuing four years. 
From 1888 to 1891 he held the office of city attorney of Faulkton, and 
in 1890-91 he was the local attorney for the Chicago & Northwestern 
Railroad Company. In December of the latter year he came to Aberdeen, in 
order to have a wider sphere for his professional endeavors, and here he 
has maintained his home, having built up a large and important business 
in the special lines of real-estate, law and probate practice, in which 
lines he is considered an authority. In politics Mr. Mason is a staunch 
advocate of the principles of the Republican party, and both he and his 
wife are zealous and valued members of the Congregational church. 

	At Neillsville, Wisconsin, on the 24th of February, 1887, was 
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mason to Miss Etta B. Bryden, who came to 
that state from Nova Scotia in 1882. Of this union have been born six 
children, whose respective names and dates of birth are here given: 
Merville, April 13, 1888; Clarence Linden, November 5, 1889 (died 
October 3, 1895); Arthur Hugo, May 14, 1892; Alice Bryden, October 19, 
1894; Miriam Buland, June 4, 1898; and David, September 25, 1901.