John Mason Statue

1889 InviteJM Monument group

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the Civil War a statue movement was sweeping the nation – local citizens and organizations were erecting monuments of heroes and patriots everywhere. The prominent citizens of Mystic, Connecticut decided to create a larger than life bronze and granite monument of Major John Mason, the commander of the Colonial forces in the 1637 Pequot War, the very first declared and sustained conflict in the early colonies. In 1889 the John Mason Statue was placed at the intersection of Pequot Avenue and Clift Street in Mystic, Conn. near what was thought to be the location of the fortified Pequot village where the Mistick Massacre occurred. After the war the Colonial government declared the once dominant Pequot Tribe to be extinct. Even though a few survivors and their descendants continued to remain in their former territory, they were ignored along with occasional complaints about the statue being on the sacred site where their ancestors perished. The statue remained there for 103 years, that is until the early nineteen nineties when the resurgent Pequot’s managed to obtain federal recognition and build a large gambling and entertainment empire. Former and new complaints could no longer be ignored and in the spirit of a current political correctness movement and studying the sensitivity and appropriateness of the statues location, a committee chartered by the Town of Groton, CT. recommended that it be relocated. In 1996 the State of Connecticut (DEP / Parks Dept.) decided to relocate the statue of Major John Mason to the historic Palisado Green in Windsor, CT. which is where John Mason lived at the time of the war. The original plaque which glorified him for the war victory was removed and given to the Mystic River Historical Society and a new plaque outlining the Major’s career replaced it. This essentially re-birthed the statue to now represent John Mason in a more balanced and comprehensive manner for a lifetime of public service including many prominent accomplishments as the preeminent founder of the nascent Connecticut Colony

* Commander of the first American Naval task force against the pirate Dixie Bull 1633
* Lieutenant at Dorchester and civil engineer of fortifications at Castle Harbor 1634
* Deputy for Dorchester to Massachusetts Bay Colony General Court 1634 – 1635
* Captain and Commander of Colonial forces in the Pequot War 1637
* Deputy for Windsor Colony to Connecticut Court 1637 – 1641
* Commander of Saybrook Fort 1647 – 1659 & Colonial War Committee 1653 – 1654
* Major General – chief military officer of the United Colonies 1654 – 1672
* Deputy Governor of the Connecticut Colony 1660 – 1668
* Acting Governor 1661 – 1663
* Commissioner of the United Colonies 1654 – 1661
* Patentee of the original Connecticut Constitution 1662
* Overseer (first Indian Agent) and Administrator of Mohegan Lands 1659 – 1672

Click Here   John Mason Statue   to learn more details about the controversial committee process –  how and why the statue was relocated and re-birthed in 1996

Click Here  for the  Wikipedia Biography  of Major John Mason

Mason Mon MysticJ M Windsor