Bridget
"Biddy"
Mason won freedom from slavery, worked as a nurse/midwife and
then became a successful entrepreneur and a generous contributor
to social causes. She was born August 15, 1818 in Mississippi,
U.S.A. as a slave on a plantation owned by Robert Marion Smith
and Rebecca (Crosby) Smith. She had three daughters, Ellen,
Ann and Harriet, whose father was reputedly Smith himself. In
1847, Smith became a Mormon convert and decided to move to the
Utah Territory with his household and slaves. In this strenuous
two-thousand-mile cross-country trek, Mason was responsible
for herding the cattle. She also prepared meals, acted as a
midwife and took care of her children.
In 1851, Smith moved his household
again, this time to San Bernardino, California, where Brigham
Young was starting a Mormon community. Smith probably did not
know that California had been admitted to the Union in 1850
as a free state and that slavery was forbidden there. Mason
petitioned the court and in 1856 won freedom for herself and
for her daughters. She moved to Los Angeles and found employment
as a nurse and midwife. Hard work and her nursing skills allowed
her to become economically independent.
Mason was also very frugal and
only ten years after gaining her freedom, she bought a site
on Spring Street for $250. She instructed her children never
to abandon this site. Mason was one of the first black women
to own land in Los Angeles. This site is now in the center of
the commercial district in the heart of Los Angeles. In 1884,
she sold a parcel of the land for $1500 and built a commercial
building with spaces for rental on the remaining land. She continued
making wise decisions in her business and real estate transactions
and her financial fortunes continued to increase until she accumulated
a fortune of almost $300,000. Her grandson, Robert Curry Owens,
a real estate developer and politician, was the richest African-American
in Los Angeles at one time.
Biddy Mason also gave generously
to various charities and provided food and shelter for the poor
of all races. Lines of needy people were often forming at 331
South Spring Street. She also remembered the jail inmates whom
she visited often. In 1872 she and her son-in-law, Charles Owens,
founded and financed the Los Angeles branch of the First African
Methodist Episcopal church, L.A.'s first black church.
Biddy Mason died January 15,
1891 and was buried in an unmarked grave at Evergreen cemetery
in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles. Nearly a century later,
on March 27, 1988 a tombstone was unveiled which marked her
grave for the first time in a ceremony attended by Mayor Tom
Bradley and about three thousand members of the First African
Methodist Episcopal church.
Thursday, November 16, 1989 was
declared a Biddy Mason Day and a memorial of her achievements
was unveiled at the Broadway Spring Center located between Spring
Street and Broadway at Third Street.
http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/mason-b.html
Biddy Mason Home Site
Women in History.
Biddy Mason biography.
04/24/2003 14:49:44. Lakewood Public Library.
Thursday, April 24, 2003. <http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/maso-bid.htm>.
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