James Pleasant Mason

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1854 Baptist minister James Pleasant Mason marries Mary Elizabeth Morgan Mary Elizabeth Morgan (1825-1894) had inherited a tract south of Chapel Hill that came down from early settler Mark Morgan through his son John and grandson Solomon P. Morgan. The couple had four daughters, two of whom died as infants.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: Chapel Hill Historic Sites Survey: Final Report (1992), p. 80
2. May 6, 1855 The Baptist Church of Chapel Hill opens its first church Services began on Sunday, May 6, 1855 in the brick meeting house, with vestibule, belfry and bell, that the Baptist congregation put up after it organized in September 1854. The building later became the Masonic temple of University Lodge. People: James Pleasant MasonSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Biblical Recorder, May 10, 1855, p. 2 (Dedication at Chapel Hill)
3. October 13, 1879 Baptist minister James P. Mason speaks at University Day At the 1879 University Day exercises, after President Kemp Battle's historical address, short talks were given by the Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, the Rev. James Pleasant Mason, the Methodist minister Mr. Heitman and several professors. People: Kemp Plummer Battle, Joseph Blount Cheshire Jr.Search the index · Internet Archive: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1912)
4. 1881 Typhoid kills the two surviving Mason daughters, and their father sets aside a family burial ground Martha James Mason and Carolina Varina Mason both died of typhoid fever in 1881; their father caught it as well but recovered. James P. Mason marked off a small plot on the family land where all four daughters and later both parents were buried inside an iron fence, beside the graves of Solomon and Ann Morgan.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: Chapel Hill Historic Sites Survey: Final Report (1992), p. 80
5. 1894 The Masons leave their farm and a scholarship fund to the university Mary Elizabeth Morgan Mason, who died in July 1894 a year after her husband James Pleasant Mason, left the university about 800 acres of Morgan family land near Chapel Hill. His $1,000 gift funded the education of poor students in the names of their daughters Martha and Varina, and their portraits were hung in the university library.Search the index · Internet Archive: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1912)