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. When Robert Owens told the Los Angeles County Sheriff that slaves were being illegally held, he gathered a posse which including Owens and his sons, other cowboys and vaqueros from the Owens ranch.
On January 19, she petitioned the court for freedom for herself and her extended family of 13 women and children. Mason and her family moved to Los Angeles where her daughter married the son of Robert and Minnie Owens. Mason worked as midwife and nurse, saved her money and purchased land in the heart of what is now downtown Los Angeles. Mason also organized First A. On January 21, , L. The ruling freed Mason and thirteen members of her extended family.
Mason moved her family to L. She continued working as a midwife and nurse, saving her money and using it to purchase land in what is now the heart of downtown L. There she organized First A. Church, the oldest African American Church in the city.
She donated to numerous charities, fed and sheltered the poor, and visited prisoners. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Evergreen Cemetery. On March 27, , the mayor of L. Explore This Park. Portrait of Biddy Mason date unknown Public Domain. Place of Birth:. They did not stay long in Los Angeles, whereafter Smith led them out of town to camp in what is now Santa Monica. The sheriff and his posse intercepted the party, served Smith with a habeas corpus and took Bridget and the others into protective custody.
Smith bribed and apparently even threatened the attorney representing Bridget and her companions. The court hearings became a huge event in the then small town of Los Angeles.
Judge Hayes heard for himself that Bridget and her fellow slaves, although not complaining of poor treatment by Smith, wanted their freedom. The judge ruled that she, her daughters Ellen, Ann, and Harriet and 10 others enslaved by Smith were free and free to remain in California.
The full text of his ruling was printed in the Los Angeles Star newspaper on February 2, Now free, but without a surname, Bridget chose to adopt the middle name of Mormon apostle and leader Amasa Mason Lyman and first mayor of San Bernardino. Biddy apparently had been close to and fond of the Lyman family.
To make a living, Mason went to work as a nurse and midwife. She found work with Los Angeles physicians, including Dr. John Strother Griffin, who may, being an astute investor, have advised her on real estate investing. Mason was careful to save her money, giving her opportunity, a little more than six years after her emancipation, to purchase her first property on Spring Street.
They found themselves owners of prime real estate in a rapidly growing town.
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