At the time Utah was still part of Mexico. In year-old Mason walked 1, miles behind a wagon caravan that eventually arrived in the Holladay-Cottonwood area of the Salt Lake Valley. In Smith and his family and slaves set out in a wagon caravan for San Bernardino, California to establish yet another Mormon community. Along the trek Mason met Charles H. Mason received additional encouragement by free black friends whom she met in California, Robert and Minnie Owens.
In December Robert Smith, fearing losing his slaves, decided to move with them to Texas , a slave state. Yes, a transatlantic call, all to learn more about a woman from San Bernardino. Gordon, a University of Pennsylvania professor of history and constitutional law, expects to make multiple visits to San Bernardino and Los Angeles in search of property and tax records, among other things.
Spring St. Bob Herman had taken me by in while showing me the sights. Jacqueline Chase and Grace Moremen had done the same in After circling the block on foot, my maps app set me straight and I crossed Spring to the west. This urban development was a far cry from the acre with a ditch of water and a willow fence Mason had bought more than years earlier.
A corner by the elevators has a Betye Saar piece representing the wood-frame house. Thirty years after its completion, the memorial is startlingly modern. According to historian Cecilia Rasmussen:. Dewitt, aided by wealthy black businessman Robert Owens, rode to their camp and served Smith a writ of habeas corpus. In January, , all eyes were on the courtroom of U.
District Judge Benjamin Hays as the trial began. Although Mason was not allowed to testify against a white person in court, Judge Hays invited her into his chambers, where she gave an entirely different account of what had happened. Smith told me I would be just as free in Texas as here. On January 19, Judge Hays ruled in favor of Mason and confirmed she was free.
Through the Owens, Mason met Dr. John Strother Griffin, a white native Southerner who was impressed with her nursing skills. She went to work with Dr. Griffin as a nurse and midwife, and would eventually deliver hundreds of babies in Los Angeles. In her big black medicine bag, she carried the tools of her trade—and the papers Judge Hays had given her affirming that she was free.
But her new life was not without heartache—in , her middle daughter Ann died, probably of smallpox. Both Owens and Griffin were involved in real estate and urged Mason to join them in this solid form of investment. By , she had finally saved enough money to buy the Spring Street property. In , a group of black Angelenos founded the First African Methodist Episcopal Church at her house; the church met at the Mason home until they were able to move to their own building.
She also continued to invest in real estate, while always making sure to give back. According to the Los Angeles Times :. She was a frequent visitor to the jail, speaking a word of cheer and leaving some token and a prayerful hope with every prisoner.
Like so many enslaved people during westward expansion, Biddy and her fellow slaves were compelled to join their owners. Regardless, Smith ventured into Southern California with Biddy and a number of other enslaved people and established a home in San Bernardino. The trek to California was fortuitous as she crossed paths with free black people eager to inform her that California outlawed slavery in and encouraged her to sue for her emancipation.
Further encouraging such a bold move was the blossoming relationship between her oldest daughter, Ellen, and the son of well-off black rancher Robert Owens. In , Robert Marion Smith feared that disapproving neighbors would force him to emancipate his slaves and opted to smuggle them out of the state and sell them in Texas. Robert Owens alerted the sheriff about the disappearance of Smith and his slaves and a posse of ranchers, cowboys and vaqueros intercepted Smith, preventing him from traveling to Texas.
Pico encouraged her to invest her money wisely and purchase property. She purchased a number of other properties around the downtown area as well, but was known for her civic investment and overall generosity. Mason was noted for visiting local prisoners to offer prayer and comfort, founding a daycare for the children of local working mothers, donating food and money to the poor, but most significantly, she allowed her home to be the first meeting place of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles.
She later donated the land upon which the first church was built. Top Image: This image is widely considered the earliest-known photograph of Los Angeles. Tending Nature. The Mallorca Files. Professor T Belgium.
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