"Bridget Biddy Mason"(August 15,1818-January 15,1891)

Bridget was born a slave in Mississippi,she was owned by slave holders in Georgia and South

Carolina before she was returned to Mississippi.Her last owner,Robert Marion Smith,a Mississippi Mormon convert,followed the call of church leaders to settle in the west.Bridget and her three daughters and ten other African-American women and children joined Marion religious pilgrimage to establish a new Mormon community in Utah.In 1848 thirty-year-old Bridget walked 1,700 miles behind a 300-wagon caravan that eventually arrived in the Holladay-Cottonwood area of the Salt Lake Valley.Along the route west Bridget responsibilities included setting up and breaking camp,cooking the meals,herding the cattle,and serving as midwife as well as taking care of her three young daughters aged ten,four,and an inflant.In 1851 Marion and his family and slavesset out in a 150-wagon caravan for San Bernardino,to establish yet another Mormon community.Ignoring Brigham Young's warning that slaverly was illegal in California,Marion brought Bridget and other enslaved people people to to the new community.Along the trek Bridget met Charles H. and Elizabeth Flak Rowan,free blacks,who urged her to legally contest her slave status once she reached California, a free state.Bridget received additional encoouragement by free black friends whom she met in California,Robert and Minnie owens.In December 1855 Marion fearing losing his slaves,decided to move with them to Texas,a slave state.The Owens Family had a vested interest in the Mason family as one of their sons was romanticcally involved with Bridget daughter seventeen year old daughter.When Marion told the Los Angeles County Sheriff that slaves were being illegally held,he gathered a posse which included Robert and sons,other cowboys and vaqueros from the owens ranch.The posse apprehended Marion wagon trail in Cajon Pass,California,en route to Texas and prevented him from leaving the state.After spending five years enslaved in a "free"state state Bridget Mason challenged Marion for freedom.On January 19,1856 she petitioned the court for freedom for herself and her extended family of thirteen women and children.Los Angeles District Judge Benjamin Hayes took three days before handing down his ruling in favor Bridget and her exttended family,citing California's 1850 constitution which prohibited slaverly.Bridget had no legal last name as a slave.After emancipation,she chose to be known a Bridget Mason.Mason was the middle name of Amasa Lyman,Mormon Apostle and mayor of San Bernardino.she had spent many years in the company Amasa Lyman household.Bridget and her family moved to Los Angeles where her daughter married the son of Robert and Minnie Owens.She worked as a midwife and nurse,saved her money and purchased land in in the heart of what is now downtown Los Angeles.In 1872 Bridget was a founding First African Methodist Episcopal church,the city's first black church.The organizing meetings were held in home on Spring Street.She donated the land which the church was built.She spoke fluent Spanish and was a well-known figure downtown,especially at the old plaza,where she conducted business.She dined on occasion at the home of Pio Pico,the last governor of Mexican California and a wealthy Los Angeles land owner.Bridget is an honoree in the California Social Work Hall of Distinction.She also celebrated on Biddy Mason Day on November 16.