History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Edward R. Mason
EDWARD R. MASON was born December 8, 1846, at Franklinville, Cattaraugus County, New York, and at eleven years of age came with his parents to Bentonsport, Iowa. His boyhood years were spent in Van Buren County. He took a course of medicine at the Keokuk Medical College and practiced a short time. In 1864 he enlisted in Company K, in the Forty-fifth Regiment of “hundred days men,” serving until the close of the war as corporal. In politics Mr. Mason is a Republican and in 1869 he was appointed deputy clerk of the United States District and Circuit Courts. Five years later he was promoted to clerk of these courts, serving until 1900, when he resigned as clerk of the District Court retaining the clerkship of the Circuit Court. He has long held the positions of Master of Chancery and Commissioner in the Circuit Court. His home has been in Des Moines since 1869.