Generals Wives

After this block we only have 1 more left...it's the block with the generals stars on it. This block is named after Margaret Mason Buell. In order to tell Margaret Buell's story, you have to begin with her first husband, Gen. Richard Mason, whose report of the California gold fields given to President Polk started the California gold rush! Gen. Mason's grandfather was active in the process of writing the Constitution, and he wrote the Virginia constitution and Virginia's bill of rights.

Brigadier General Richard Mason was the first military and civil governor of California. He died at Jefferson Barracks (St. Louis, Missouri) while he was the commanding officer there. The couple had three daughters. After his death, his widow, Margaret Mason, married Major General Don Carlos Buell, a veteran of the Union Army.


Gen. Don Carlos Buell was educated at West Point and served in the Mexican War and the Civil War, preparing Ohio's defenses. His leadership during the Civil War was questionable and he was forced to resign his commission on June 1 1864. Buell then moved to Kentucky, becoming president of the Green River Iron Company.In 1885 Buell received a presidential appointment as state pension agent, a position he held until 1890. Buell then married Margaret Mason of Mobile, Alabama, who had a 13-year old and 15-year old daughter. He died on November 19, 1898 in Paradise, Kentucky, and was buried in Bellefontaine cemetery in St. Louis.

Both generals, and their wife, Margaret Hunter Mason Buell, are buried on the same lot. It appears that being married between two Civil War generals appears to be Margaret Buell's claim to fame. Marking the grave of General Mason is a brown freestone memorial made in Philadelphia by John Struthers, the man who designed the marble sarcophagus in which the remains of George and Martha Washington repose at Mount Vernon.

I'm working now on sewing the blocks into rows. For some reason, I'm really anxious to see this on my 4-poster bed.

I'm distracted because I'm watching Anna Griffin on HSN scrapbook and craft day. I love her products!

till next time, keep stitchin'!
Mary