MASON, NOAH, was born Jan. 15, 1782, at Mendon, Worcester county, Mass. He was bound to a hard master, ran away, and followed the life of a sailor for about five years. Lucinda Stetson was born June 14, 1782, in Hanover, Plymouth county, Mass. They were married July 15, 1804. Soon after marriage Mr. Mason left on a voyage to China and the East Indies, and was absent twenty-one months. On his return they moved to the vicinity of Belfast, Hancock county, Maine, where they had three children. In 1812 he moved to Madison county, N. Y., thence to Genesee county, in the same State, in 1814, where two children were born. In the spring of 1819 he moved to Olean Point, on the Allegheny river, and in the autumn of 1821 united with two other families in building a boat, in which the three families descended the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, landing in Pope county, Illinois, where another son was born, and they called his name Seth. After remaining two and a half years, the family left for what is now Tazewell county, but on reaching Sugar creek, in what is now Auburn township, April 10, 1824, decided to settle there. Of the six children--

NOAH, Jun., born Feb. 25, 1807, fifteen miles from Belfast, Maine, married in Sangamon county, Feb. 19, 1835, to Martha Nuckolls. They had six children, and Mrs. Martha Mason died, Mar. 24, 1852. Noah Mason, Jun., was married Aug. 9, 1853, to Elizabeth Talbott. They had one child. Of all his children, GEORGE T., born Feb. 11, 1836, married June 9, 1861, to Anna Brooks. They have three children, and reside in Auburn township. JANE, born July 22, 1837, married William R. Hill, Oct. 8, 1858. They have four children, and reside in Auburn township. JOHN L., born March 15, 1839, has represented Chatham township for several years in the County Board of Supervisors, He was married May 4, 1876, in Springfield, Ill., to Mildred Harker, and resides one mile northwest of Auburn, Sangamon county, Illinois. MARY ANN, born Jan. 1, 1842, was married Jan. 1, 1861, to James M. Stout. See his name. AMANDA died, aged seven years. ELMINA E., born Oct. 4, 1847, was married April 25, 1866, to Ira Ryan. They have three children, and reside in Girard. MARTHA C., born April 11, 1849, was married May 30, 1872, to James P. Brasfield, have one child, NOAH W., and reside at Loami. NOAH D., the only child by the second wife, born Oct. 3, 1854, resides with his parents. Noah Mason, Jun, has met with some narrow escapes from death. He still exhibits a spot on his head, whiter than the rest, as the mark of a severe fall in childhood. Once, in New York, he accompanied his father to the woods, where he was clearing timber from the land, when the weather was extremely cold. Noah became sleepy and sat down under a tree. When his father's attention was called to him he could not be wakened. He was carried to the house, and with the utmost exertion of all the members of the family, he was aroused and his life saved. His first business transaction was in Pope county, Ill. He was paddling about in the Ohio river in a boat of his own building, when a stranger hailed him with "What will you take for your boat?" He replied, one dollar. The man handed him a two dollar bill, and Noah, with much running to and fro, returned the change, only to find, after his boat was gone, that the two dollar bill was a counterfeit. From childhood Mr. Mason has been remarkable for presence of mind. While the Mason family were at Olean Point, N. Y., on the Allegheny river, Noah was one day engaged in his favorite amusement of paddling about on a slab in the river, and had gone with the current some distance down the stream, when suddenly he heard a noise, and looking up he saw a tree falling towards him. He was a good swimmer, and quick as thought he jumped off his slab, diving to the bottom. He heard the tree splash in the water above him, and he came to the surface among its branches, unhurt. Again, his father, with another man, were felling trees, and the limb of one tree had lodged against a knot on another, balancing in mid-air. Noah was trimming the branches from those that had fallen, and unconsciously came under this loose limb, and it fell. He heard it coming, and threw himself down beside a large log, which the limb fell across, immediately over his head, and he escaped with only a fright. Again, he was hauling stakes for a fence, when he came to the deep ford on Sugar creek, Sangamon county. On driving in, the load slipped forward on the horses, and Noah landed on the wagon tongue. The The horses began kicking and running, and he thought his time had come; but he made one desperate jump, clearing the horses' heels and front wagon wheel, and landed head-first in the water. Fortunately he took the lines with him, which enabled him to stop the horses. When the Masons arrived in Sangamon county, horse-mills were the only kind in use; but soon other kinds were built. Nearly all the bread used was made from Indian corn. Mr. Mason, Sen., raised cotton for many years after coming to Sangamon county, and there were two cotton-gins built near him. The nearest carding machine was at Sangamo, and owned by a Mr. Broadwell. After the wool and cotton were carded, the different families manufactured their own cloth, and this constituted the wearing apparel of both males and females. Peaches were almost a sure crop, and Mr. Thomas Black had a copper still attached to his horse-mill; and Noah M., Jun., assisted him in making pure whisky from corn, and pure brandy from peaches. He also cut hickory wood for Mr. Black at thirty-seven and one-half cents per cord, and made rails the summer he was twenty-one years old, for thirty-seven and one-half cents per hundred, and cut corn in the fall, sixteen hills square, for five cents per shock or fifty cents per day. In this way he clothed himself, and had sixteen and one-half dollars--all in silver half dollars--when he started, with a number of others, March 19, 1829, for the Galena lead mines; was there six summers and two winters including the winter of the deep snow. Mr. Mason served in four different companies during the Black Hawk war. In 1834 he had five eighty-acre tracts of land, bought with money earned by himself in the lead mines. The prairie-flies were a great annoyance in summer, and in order to avoid them plowing among the corn was frequently done at night. Whisky was thought to be indispensable in early times in the harvest field, but Mr. Mason proved to the contrary. He threshed his wheat with horses, and cleaned it with a fanning mill. With the help of a boy, one season he prepared one load of wheat per week for four weeks, and sold it in Alton for forty cents per bushel. He has hauled wheat to St. Louis, selling it for thirty-eight cents per bushel. The merchants had their goods hauled on wagons from St. Louis and Chicago. Mr. Mason and nine others brought goods from the latter city for Mr. Bela Webster, of Springfield, at one dollar per hundred pounds, and were three weeks going and coming. Mr. Mason is one of the successful farmers of Sangamon county. He has retired from active business, and now--1876--resides in Springfield, Illinois.

LUCINDA, born July 24, 1809, in Maine, married in Sangamon county to B. F. Hutton. They reside in Chatham township, Sangamon county, Illinois.

THOMAS, born Aug. 2, 1812, in Maine, married in Sangamon county to Elizabeth Husband. They had four children, namely--NOAH died, aged sixteen years. EMILY married Jacob Brunk. See his name. ELIZABETH married William Epling, who was born in 1840, in Giles county, Va. They have two children, THEODORE ULYSSES and CHARLES W. Mr. Epling has recently brought from Virginia his two sisters, Adaline and Hesiltine, and his brother, John H. He resides three and one-half miles south of Chatham. WILLIAM T. married Nancy Dodds. They have one child, and live two miles northwest of Auburn, Illinois. Mrs. Elizabeth Mason died in 1851, and Thomas Mason died, Sept. 5, 1871, both in Sangamon county.

ELIZABETH, born Feb. 4, 1816, in New York, married in Sangamon county to Ezra Barnes. See his name.

CAROLINE, born Feb. 13, 1819, married in Sangamon county to Madison Curvey. They had four children, and Mrs. Curvey died in the spring of 1854. Her son, ORRIN, married Ann Roberts, and lives in Chatham township.

SETH, born Jan. 3, 1823, in Pope county, Ill., married, Aug. 21, 1851, to Eleanor Kent, who was born May 28, 1831, in Harrison county, Ohio. They have no family. Seth Mason resides on the farm where his father settled in 1824, in Auburn township. He has in his possession a trunk made of camphor wood which his father brought from China, with a set of table ware made to order there, with the initials of himself and wife (N. L. M.) on each piece. The chest was filled with silks and other rich goods.

Noah Mason, Sen., died, Nov. 18, 1834, and his widow died, October, 1862, both in Sangamon county, Illinois.