John Mason, farmer and lumberman, Sterling Run, was born in what is now Gibson township, Cameron county, Penn., March 22, 1822, and is a son of Joseph and Margaret (Grugan) Mason, who settled in Gibson township in 1811. His paternal grandfather was Jacob Mason, who, while on a hunting trip, froze to death in Lycoming county. His maternal grandfather was Alexander Grugan*, a pioneer of what is now Clinton county, Penn. John Mason was reared in Gibson township, and in 1847 settled in Wharton, Potter county, Penn., where he was engaged in lumbering fourteen years. He then returned to Gibson, and purchased a part of his father's homestead and land adjoining, a good share of which he cleared and improved, and where he has resided since 1861. He married, in 1845, Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin and Nancy (Jordan) Brooks, of Grove Township, Cameron County, and they have eight children:** Maranda (Mrs. Elisha Lewis), Nancy A. (Mrs Hiram Smith), John G., Jane (Mrs. Elihu Devling), Garibaldi, James B. Mc., Julia (Mrs. Jane Strawbridge) and Joseph A. Mr. Mason is a prominent citizen of Gibson township. He was the first jury commissioner of Cameron county, and in politics is a Democrat.

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*Charles and Nancy or Eliza (Burney) Grugan were John Mason's maternal grandparents. Alexander Grugan was the son of Charles and Nancy (or Eliza), and John Mason's uncle:
The Historical View of Clinton County, D.D. Maynard, 1874, pp 153-154. Quotation from the Honorable Coleman Grugan, son of Alexander Grugan—
"I know but little except that my grandfather, Charles Grugan, together with his brother John, came from somewhere in the north of Ireland, at what time I do not know, but probably it was about the year 1770, that they landed in New York and parted company. John went north towards Canada, and my grandfather came to Pennsylvania. They were what was called Scots-Irish. My grandfather seems, at least, to have been a good penman, and signed his name Grogan. He died while his children were small, and the school teacher spelled the name as it is now written. Charles Grugan married the sister of James Burney, already mentioned, and lived in Buffalo Valley, this State, and it is said was doing well, till one cold winter night, in returning home from a woodchopping with a yoke of oxen, (having probably after the manner of his countrymen imbibed to freely,) the drifting snows of the valley became his winding sheet. This happened five months before his son James was born. Consequently he was one at least who had never seen his father. After some years the widow of Charles married Henry Van Gundy. By her first husband she had two sons, Alexander and James and two daughters. One of them died while yet a young woman; the other married Joseph Mason, known as Squire Mason. He lived and died on the Driftwood branch of the Sinnamahoning; ..."

**According to notes from others, Maranda married Elihu (not Elisha) Lewis, Jane married Eugene (not Elihu) Devling, and Julia married James (not Jane!) Strawbridge.

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