Monday, January 10, 2011

Lincoln Mason: Family Abandoner?

Lincoln Mason
b: abt 1806
d: Unknown
m. 25 Dec 1835 to Lourane (Lourany) Duggins in Harrison County, Indiana

In my previous post, I was finally able to solve a mystery regarding the family of Louisa Jane Mason, my 3rd great grandmother. After discovering transcription errors from the 1850 census in the database I was using, I found that Louisa Jane's parents were Lincoln Mason and Lourane Duggins.

Upon finding this, I immediately thought the name "Lincoln Mason" sounded familiar to me. Sure enough, I had read a bio on him about a year ago while researching the Mason family from Harrison County, Indiana. I was unable to connect the dots at the time, but now I have evidence that supports Lincoln Mason as my 4th great grandfather.

The bio that I read on Lincoln appears in the book, Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford... By John M. Gresham Company. The information is actually included within a biographical sketch of William G. Mason, Lincoln's son (and Louisa Jane's brother).

It seems that Lincoln Mason suddenly disappeared in the fall of 1851 while making a trip to Louisville, Kentucky. He was never seen or heard from again.

At first, this seems like a tragic story; however, a post on RootsWeb from a researcher named Karen reveals a theory that Lincoln Mason have lived well after his disappearance in 1851. Lincoln may have actually had several families, disappearing on at least 2 of them.

Her data seems to support the following marriages (I have not confirmed most of this):

  1. Lincoln Mason m. Sarah Carter in Floyd County, Indiana, 6 Feb 1830.
    Floyd County borders Harrison County in Indiana
  2. Lincoln Mason m. Lourane Duggins in Harrison County, Indiana, 25 Dec 1835
    Then, Lincoln disappears in 1851 during a trip to Louisville.
  3. Lincoln Mason m. Elizabeth ?
    1860 Census in St. Clare County, Illinois
    Lincoln's occupation is listed as a cooper (same as Lincoln from Harrison County)
    A former researcher claims that Lincoln disappeared on this family as well.
  4. Lincoln Mason m. Sally Will in Casey County, Kentucky, 16 May 1876
    1880 Census in Casey County shows Lincoln being born in Kentucky

This information offers a quite compelling argument to support the theory that this was a man that could not stay in one place for long, often abandoning his family. It would be interesting to research these other instances of Lincoln Mason to see if they have past records and data that would conflict with this theory of these all being the same Lincoln Mason.

I have included the bio on William G. Mason below:

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