William Henry Mason- is this your grandson?

William Henry Mason was born 14 Feb 1876 in Marion County Tennessee (His parents were Joh Mason 1854-1919 and Aretta Smith 1860-1897). William Henry married Rebecca Emaline Powers around 1894 (based on the ages of the children no marriage record has been found).

The children of of William Henry Mason and Rebecca Powers Mason were:

1. Fred Mason b 21 Dec 1896 in TN d 24 Nov 1956 in Birmingham, Jefferson County Alabama
2. Nell Dolian Mason Butt b 29 Dec 1898 in Marion County TN d. 07 Jan 7 1993 Birmigham, Jefferson County Alabama
3. Essie Mason Andrews b 1901 in Marion County TN d. 13 Jun 1951 Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama
4. Lilian Mason Dollar b 20 Aug 1904 Marion County TN d 13 Jun 1981 Jefferson County, Alabama
5. Jessie Mason Chenault Fields b 1907 Marion County TN d before 1990
6. William Brady Mason b 30 Jul 1913 d 14 Oct 1975 Biloxi, Harrison Mississippi

I have a wonderful photo (finally) of my GG Grandmother Rebecca Powers Mason and her son Fred Mason dated 1818. Fred is in his WWI uniform. (Thank you to my cousin for finding this picture and sending it to me)

Now to my conundrum. I have another photo, this time of William Henry Mason along with Virgie Scott (his 2nd wife who he married in 1946) and an unidentified male in a US Naval uniform. The male looks a lot like Fred Mason (in the above picture) and I have been thinking that he could be William Mason son of Fred (have we used the name William Mason enough yet?). William Mason, son of Fred, was in the US Navy (according to a photo of his headstone on Find A Grave) though the photo of him on his memorial he is older and hard to tell if they are the same person.

I’ve looked over photos of other grandchildren of William Henry and Rebecca and none of them are appropriate ages or match this individual.

William Henry Mason moved with his wife and children from Marion County Tennessee to work in the iron and steel plants that were operating on the west side of Birmingham Alabama. My great grandmother, Nell Mason, used to tell us the story of all the kids riding in a covered wagon down to Birmingham because they could not afford train tickets and her dad had good job waiting for him as a foreman with Tennessee Iron and Coal Company.

So, who is the uniformed man in the photo?

Ruth Ann Mason Ford, William Henry’s sister and her husband also moved down to Birmingham to live and her husband also worked in the plants. Ruth Ann had 2 girls so this rules out her children.

Could he be a nephew coming through the area, William Henry had 9 full siblings and a handful of half siblings (I’m still sorting out if all the kids of John Mason and his 2nd wife are John’s or from her previous husband, this also makes DNA matches a joy to work with on this line).

I do not know the answer to the riddle of who this man was. I may never know, or maybe a distant cousin will come along and say “hey that is my great uncle XYZ”. But I can tell you I’m thrilled to have these older photos and can see my GG Grandparents.