Henry F. Mason was a politician and justice of the Kansas Supreme Court.

Biography

Mason was born Henry Freeman Mason on February 17, 1860 to Lemuel and Lucy Mason in Racine, Wisconsin

Racine, Wisconsin

Racine is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 82,196...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1881. While at Wisconsin he was a member of the Wisconsin Alpha Chapter of Phi Delta Theta

Phi Delta Theta

Phi Delta Theta , also known as Phi Delt, is an international fraternity founded at Miami University in 1848 and headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, Beta Theta Pi, and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad. The fraternity has about 169 active chapters and colonies in over 43 U.S...

 Fraternity.

On November 26, 1891 he married Elizabeth Wilkinson, who died in 1909. He would later marry Lucy S. Greene on July 16, 1910. Mason died on May 4, 1927. Shortly after his death the library of the recently constructed Phi Delta Theta house at Washburn University

Washburn University

Washburn University is a co-educational, public institution of higher learning in Topeka, Kansas, USA. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,400 undergraduate students and...

 was dedicated in his honor.In 1928 he was posthumously inducted into Washburn's prestigious Sagamore Honor Society

Sagamore Honor Society

The Sagamore Society is the most exclusive honor society for men at Washburn University. Sagamore is not as controversial or as secretive as Yale's Skull and Bones but its members are known to include a governor, a member of Congress, two Army generals, and several judges, doctors and corporate...

.

Career

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Mason worked for a newspaper in Black River Falls, Wisconsin while studying law. He began the practice of law in Kansas in 1886. From 1889 to 1893 he served as county attorney for Finney County, Kansas. Later he would serve in the Kansas State House of Representatives from 1899 to 1902 and was a Justice of the Kansas State Supreme Court from 1903 to 1927. He was also a member of the faculty at Washburn Law School.