Stevens Thompson Mason Statue
Located in Capitol Park at the intersection of Griswold Avenue
and State Street in downtown Detroit
In 1830, President Jackson appointed John T.
Mason of Virginia to serve as Secretary of the Michigan Territory. He moved
to Michigan along with his
son, Stevens Mason, but decided in 1831 to leave Michigan and move abroad.
President Jackson promptly appointed his son as secretary of the territory,
although
he was only age 19 at the time. Lewis Cass was governor of the territory,
but spent much time outside Michigan. At those times, young Stevens Mason
served as acting governor. In 1831, President Jackson appointed George
Porter to serve as governor of the territory, but Porter died in the cholera
outbreak
of 1834 and Stevens Mason once again became acting governor.
Census 1830 counted about 32,000 residents of Michigan. At that time, a territory had to have a minimum population of 30,000 to apply to Congress to become a state. Stevens Mason devoted himself to converting Michigan from a territory to a state, but faced a challenge. When the Northwest Territory was laid out, there was an agreement that a line extending east and west from the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan would serve as a line dividing the Indiana and Ohio territories from Michigan. When Ohio became a state in 1803, Congress did not explicitly set the line dividing the state of Ohio from the territory of Michigan. After about 1825, the mouth of the Maumee River became an increasingly important port. The Erie Canal made transportation across New York feasible. After arriving at Lake Erie’s shore, individuals and products traveled on the Great Lakes to the Midwest. Some sailed from Buffalo around the entire Michigan Territory to ports on Lake Michigan, but developers saw the opportunity to build a rail line from the mouth of the Maumee to Chicago. People and products could sail across Lake Erie and then board a train for Midwestern destinations. Developers in Ohio also saw the possibility of connecting the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River through a series of canals that would cross Indiana as they linked the Maumee and Mississippi Rivers. The mouth of the Maumee looked to have a bright economic future in the early 1830s, even thought the city of Toledo was not yet established.
Surveyors favoring Michigan argued that an east-west line drawn from the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan put the mouth of the Maumee in Michigan, while surveyors favoring Ohio claimed the same area for that state. This led to a bloodless Michigan-Ohio war. At one point in 1835, Stevens Mason led a group of men into Ohio to claim a 500 square mile section of Ohio for Michigan. He fought so strongly that President Jackson attempted to remove him from office, but the Senate refused to approve a replace for Mason.
In October, 1835, Michigan voters approved a state constitution and, simultaneously elected the 24-year-old Stevens T. Mason to serve as the state's first governor. Congress debated statehood for Michigan in 1836. They were reluctant to approve Michigan’s claim for Toledo, perhaps because Ohio and Indiana—whose northern boundary might also change—had numerous electoral votes in that year’s presidential balloting, while Michigan would have only three electoral votes if it became a state. Congress rejected Michigan’s claim to the Toledo strip but, as a compromise, awarded Michigan the Upper Peninsula. Apparently there was debate in Michigan about this but Mason and others came to agree that statehood without the Toledo strip was better than remaining a territory. Thanks to Stevens Mason’s strong efforts, Michigan became a state in January, 1837. Mason was reelected governor that year and undertook a massive program of infrastructure improvements by calling for roads, railroads, the building of a canal at Sault Ste Marie, a free school system and the development of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Many of these were to be funded by state-backed bonds. Alas, the national fiscal panic of 1837 had devestating effects on the young state’s economy. Governor Mason found it difficult or impossible to sell the internal improvement bonds he had promoted. The state’s financial situation deteriorated and Governor Mason got the blame. He decided not to stand for reelection for a third term in 1839. He moved to New York City to practice law but, in 1843, he died of pneumonia just one week before his thirty-first birthday and about 95 years prior to the development of the sulfa drugs that would have kept him alive.
When Stevens Mason served as governor, the temporary capitol of the state was located very close to where his statue now stands. Lansing became the state’s capitol in 1848.
Sculptor: Albert Weinger
Date of Statue: 1908
City of Detroit Local Historic District: Not listed
State of Michigan Registry of Historic Sites: Not listed
National Registry of Historic Places. The statue of Governor Mason is located
with the Capitol Park Historic District (#99000338) established March 18,
1999 and bounded,
Roughly, by Clifford, Michigan, Washington and Woodward.
Photograph: Ren Farley; April, 2002
Description prepared: November, 2006
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