NOAH MASON, Springfield, Illinois, was born February 25, 1807, fifteen miles from Belfast, Maine; was married in Sangamon county, February 19, 1835, to Martha Nuckolls. They had six children, and Mrs. Mason died, March 24, 1852. Noah Mason, Jr., was married August 9, 1853, to Elizabeth Talbot. They had one child. Mr. Mason 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 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 members of the family, he was aroused and his life saved. His first business transaction was in Pope county, Illinois. 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 Lean Point, New York, 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 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 this 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, Sr., raised cotton for many years after coming to this 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. 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; 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 miles; 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 the 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 the county; he has retired from active business, and now, in 1881, resides in Springfield.