**My family and I owe a debt to researcher Greg Furness for much of the information that we have about Lafayette and his family. Thank you Mr. Furness!**

My 4th great-grandfather was Lafayette Mason. Born in Ellenburg in Clinton County, NY on March 20, 1827 to William Mason and Diana Robinson. In 1846, at age 19, he married Mary E. Wheeler from Willsboro in Essex County, NY. That same year, abolitionist Gerrit Smith, offered Black men up to 40 acres each to farm in Adirondacks. Lafayette answered that call and settled with his wife in Elizabethtown, NY.

LaFayette Mason’s listing in the 1855 New York State Agricultural listing clearly demonstrates how Lafayette interacted with his 40 acres-

The couple had 11 known children all born on the New York side of Lake Champlain in Elizabethtown. In June of 1860, Lafayette purchased an additional 351 acres from Gerrit Smith for $702.60.

In December of 1862, Lafayette enlisted in the service. He was assigned to the 118th Infantry and while at war was captured at Fair Oaks, VA in October of 1864. He was released from the POW prison in March of 1865.

By the time Lafayette returned to his farm after the war, he was in debt because of taxes on the property. His eldest child was only in his teens and the youngest were just babies. The family was not able to make enough money to pay bills while Lafayette was away at war. In 1866, the land purchased from Smith was transferred to a relative of Smith’s clerk for non-payment. By 1870, the family had moved west to Iowa but not without leaving the three eldest daughters married and settled on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain. Frances, Orphia, and Thirza all married men from Addison county between 1869 and 1871.

The Masons eventually settled on a homestead in Dakota territory. Lafayette had received the track of land for his civil war service. This track of land and all of the others like it had recently been viciously ripped from the Dakota people as a result of the 1862 US-Dakota War. The homestead was located in Minnehaha, Dakota Territory now known as Palisades, South Dakota near the border of Minnesota.

Lafayette died in July of 1879 as evidenced by Schedule 5 of the 1880 Federal Census of the Dakota Territories. His wife, Mary, was listed as a widow on the same census. By 1885, Mary was living in Minnesota with daughter Jane and near their son Lewis.I have yet to locate a death record for Lafayette but will keep searching.

Aquene,

Cher