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Milwaukee street named after Michigan governor
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Stevens T. Mason, Michigan's First Governor
Mason Street is one of the oldest named streets in Milwaukee. It was named after Stevens Thomson Mason, who had been born near Leesburg, Virginia on October 27, 1811.
Mason came from a long line of influential Virginians. His great-grandfather, Thomas Mason, was chief justice of the Virginia supreme court, while George Mason, Thomas' brother, was part of the Philadelphia Convention (now known as the Constitutional Convention) in 1787. His grandfather, Stevens Thomson Mason, was a U.S. Senator and his uncle, Armistead Thomson Mason, was also a U.S. Senator, both from Virginia.
If not for his father, Mason could have lived a life of prestige in Virginia, but John T. Mason had the urge to go west. They moved Lexington, Kentucky, where his father quickly earned enough to buy a three-hundred acre estate. Unfortunately, though John was a good lawyer, he did not have good business sense and through a series of unfortunate schemes, he lost his fortune.
Through the help of a friend, John secured an appointment from President Andrew Jackson to become the Secretary of the Michigan Territory (which included Wisconsin at the time) and in 1830, the family arrived in Detroit, a backwater, uncivilized town or so it seemed to the pampered Virginians.
But if Detroit was a shock to the Masons, so too was young Mason a shock to Detroit. He dressed as though he were walking the cosmopolitan streets back east, complete with flowing coat and cane.
And he protected his father from the political intrigue within the political circles of Detroit. John was unprepared for the political infighting from the anti-Jackson crowd, but Stevens was not.
In 1831, President Jackson sent John Mason on a mission to Mexico and appointed Stevens to replace him as Secretary. Stevens was only 19 at the time and not even old enough to vote. Around this same time, the then Governor of the Michigan Territory Lewis Cass resigned and he was replaced by George B. Porter, who was essentially an absentee landlord. Mason was frequently left in charge.
Mason earned the nickname of the Boy Governor as he ran the territory in Porter's absence. He was instrumental in petitioning for Michigan statehood. He commissioned a territorial census that showed that the lower peninsula had 86,000 residents, more than the 60,000 required for statehood.
In 1934, Porter died during the cholera outbreak and Mason became governor of the Territory, which also encompassed Wisconsin until 1836. Michigan became a state in 1837 and Mason was elected its first governor. He served until 1840 and passed away on January 4, 1843.
Today there are many places and buildings named in Mason's honor in Michigan. A city and a county, there's a Mason Hall at Michigan State University and another at the University of Michigan, and several middle and high schools.
And a street in Milwaukee.
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