EBENEZER LOCKE MASON, JR. (1826-1901)

PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V23 2020 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 23, Number 12, March 22, 2020, Article 21

At my request following the previous article, and in line with the Ned Buntline topic, John Lupia submitted the following information from the online draft of his book of numismatic biographies for this week's installment of his series. This week's subject is dealer Ebenezer Locke Mason, Jr. Thanks! As always, this is an excerpt with the full article and bibliography available online. -Editor

Ebenezer Locke Mason, Jr., did not like the name Ebenezer and preferred to be called Eben, or Edward, or Ned. The majority of the documents of his life use these various names in place of Ebenezer.

Along his unusual career he evolved from being a tailor and saddler, to a poet, dime novelist and journalist, activist in the Order of the Lone Star, showman, entertainment agent, aeronautic engineer and pilot, Civil War soldier, United States Special Agent for the Department of the Interior who recovered the stolen Washington relics, musical song writer and publisher, photographer for carte de visite, curio shop owner, occasional book publisher, coin and stamp dealer, to the first full-time coin and stamp dealer who published a monthly coin and stamp magazine that ultimately folded after twenty-four years though he continued his coin business until his death as one of America's leading numismatic authorities.

There was never a dull moment in the life of Ebenezer, who was a high energy, driven and highly industrious and intellectually active personality. He knew many famous Americans including one of his oldest friends Edward Zane Carroll Judson popularly known as Ned Buntline, Buffalo Bill Cody, Professor Thaddeus Lowe, President Abraham Lincoln, Joseph J. Mickley.

Among numismatists he is best known for his coin magazine, photographic gallery of American coin collectors, coin price lists, contributions to coin journals and books, public debates and coin auction catalogs. However, Ebenezer is also well known among the students, scholars and researchers of magic and ventriloquism for his work in this field. He is also well known as the editor, personal friend, and traveling companion of Ned Buntline, a showman and American original, who made wild west and rifle shooting shows, and Buffalo Bill famous. American literature students, scholars and researchers know him for his colorful stories published in Ned Buntline's Own, under his favorite nom de plume, "Our Ned". During the presidential election of 1864 Ebenezer continued publishing songs, music and lyrics under the pseudonym "Our Ned," and are very famous to American historians, especially his Lincoln Songster. He is also famous as a pioneer balloonist and was active as an aeronaut during the Civil War. He is also famous as the man who was hired by the Department of the Interior to restore the stolen Washington relics during the Civil War, and did it.

Working on a traveling exhibition he purchased thousands of coins throughout the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada and resold them to two coin dealers, A. C. Kline, and Edward Cogan, and to the collectors Dr. Montroville Wilson Dickeson, and Joseph Napoleon Tricot Levick, all fellow residents of Philadelphia. At last, Mason became a full-time coin dealer opening a shop at 434 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, where he published a monthly magazine devoted to the hobbies of coins, postage stamps and other collectibles such as minerals, rare books, autographs, paper money, Indian relics, fossils, memorabilia and anything considered a novelty or curiosity fashionable at that time for hobbyists forming a collectors' cabinet. He began publishing his hobby magazine during the early Reconstruction Period in April 1867, on the second anniversary of the end of the Civil War.

There is much more in the online article (and far more yet in John's unpublished manuscript), but here's a segment describing how Mason came to step away from numismatics and into show business with his friend. -Editor

The first lacuna appears to be attributable to Ebenezer's involvement as manager of Ned Buntline's (Edward Zane Carroll Judson) theatrical tour, "The Scouts of the Prairie, written by Ned and starring himself, along with Buffalo Bill Cody and others." However, this is not exclusively the case. First, the show did not open in December 1872 at Philadelphia, but rather, in Chicago. So, Ebenezer was not immediately drawn into the management of the show but later on. As he tells us in his own words :

"in the winter of 1872 and '73, business troubles commenced throughout the United States. The subsequent failure of Jay Cooke, added fuel to the flame, and the underpinning of wealth, moderate incomes, and remunerative labor, was knocked aslant, causing ruin, wretchedness and want in many households. Of course, our favored hobby, numismatics, suffered in common during the general wreck and shrinkage, which occurred. Coin dealers "caved" in common with other trades, numismatic and other scientific journals went "to the wall," and not finding support on that "lay," sputtered and weakened and finally "gave up the ghost." In fact, there wasn't a "ghost of a chance" for the bread winners of our country "to make two ends meet," unless we except our friend Cook, of Boston, who combined the business of cobbling and coin dealing. Is it any wonder that Mason's Coin Collectors' Magazine bowed to the inevitable? We think not."

The failure of Jay Cooke & Co., on September 18, 1872 precipitated the Stock Market crash of 1872 to 1873. Coin collectors no longer could afford to buy coins or coin periodicals and Ebenezer was hit with that loss necessarily seeking secondary sources of income outside the scope of numismatics.

To read the complete article, see:
MASON, EBENEZER LOCKE, JR (http://www.numismaticmall.com/numismaticmall-com/mason-ebenezer-locke-mason-jr)