Anderson Mason and the right to vote

Berrier, G. Galin, "The Negro Suffrage Issue in Iowa - 1865-1868," The Annals of Iowa, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Spring 1968), Page 259.

I wrote a little yesterday about Anderson Mason, the Chariton barber who in December of 1868 became the first black Lucas Countyan to cast a vote.

There's at least one more story to tell about Mr. Mason, related to an event earlier that year, that suggests he was no one to be trifled with. And that may be why he infuriated John V. Faith, the racist copperhead who had founded The Chariton Democrat during the previous year.

The bone of contention was Chariton's road tax. At the time, there were no road or street crews in Lucas County. Instead, a road tax was levied against property owners who then had options --- either pay the tax in cash or work it off building and maintaining streets and roads. Many selected the work option and that was how things got done.

But when the tax collector approached Mason during the summer of 1868 --- he refused to pay. And he also refused to work on the roads. He was not, he said, entitled to vote --- a right he did not gain until after that year's Nov. 3 general election --- and therefore, he was not about to pay the road tax either. The matter went to trial, and Faith reported upon it in The Democrat of July 25, 1868, as follows:

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Legal Intelligence --- A rather interesting case came up before Justice Woodward last week, in which G.W. Dungan, road supervisor of district No. 4, was plaintiff and Anderson Mason (colored) was defendant.

Dungan had warned him out to work on the road as required by law, but Mason, entertaining high constitutional opinions upon the law, declined upon the grounds that he was not a voter of the State and, therefore, not compelled to work. Suit was instituted before the Justice, to recover the amount due for poll tax.

It was agreed between the parties that the case should be tried by a jury composed of two Democrats, two radicals (this translates as Republican in John-V.-Faith-ese) and two darkeys, all of whom were summoned, but one of the Democrats, not having the fear of God before his eyes nor a very strong inclination to officiate as a member of the aforesaid jury, refused to come, he having got wind of the disgusting proceeding. He was arrested on a writ of attachment for contempt, but was excused by the court.

The court adjourned for dinner before the panel was full. On resuming the trial, the other Democratic juryman failed to come to time, though the niggers and the other two radicals were present. After calling at the door for the delinquent juryman, the justice concluded that the panel had better be filled from among the bystanders.

In the meantime the two white radicals began to grow nervous under the practical operation of social and political equality, and after contemplating their unenviable situation for a few minutes they declined serving and retreated in huge disgust. The darkeys, however, feeling a sense of their importance and being desirous of laying aside all form prejudices against their white allies, maintained their seats with stoical fortitude, till the justice, seeing the impracticability of getting a jury composed of two political extremes, discharged them and ordered a new jury to be impaneled of white men, which was accordingly done.

The evidence was heard and the jury found for the defendant.

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In other words, the jury agreed with Anderson Mason --- Because he could not vote, he was not required to pay the road tax.

The provision limiting suffrage to white males had been included in Iowa's 1857 Constitution and the Union's Civil War victory had not changed that. Until ratification of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1870, suffrage remained in the hands of the states.

An amendment to the Iowa Constitution striking the word "white" finally passed the Iowa Legislature, thanks in large part to the work of Davenport Republican Edward Russell. The Legislature endorsed the amendment for the second time on March 31, 1868, and scheduled a statewide vote on it for Nov. 3.

Public opinion on the amendment was split --- in Lucas County, it would appear, about 50-50 --- and there was no guarantee it would pass.

That was the situation Anderson Mason and those jurors faced during the summer of 1868 when the issue of taxation without representation played out locally.

In the end, the amendment did pass on Nov. 3 with a 56.5 majority, although 20 counties --- including Lucas --- failed to endorse it. As the table above, lifted from a 1968 "Annals of Iowa" article by G. Galen Berrier, shows, 49.2 percent of Lucas County voters favored the amendment --- not quite enough. Among Lucas County's neighbors, the amendment passed in Clarke County (62.8%), Warren (61.6%), Monroe (55.9%) and Wayne (51.7%) but failed in Marion (46.7%), Appanoose (49.2%) and Decatur (42.9%).

So as of November 1868, Anderson's right as a black Iowan to vote was established --- and during December, he exercised it during city elections. Thereafter, presumably, he paid the road tax.

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Anderson was an Ohio native, born there about 1837, among the youngest of 13 children of Joseph and Sarah Mason, and so was in his early 30s while a resident of Chariton. He married Nancy Ann Davis on Jan. 10, 1854, in Miami County, Ohio.

Before 1860, Anderson and Nancy and their eldest son, also Joseph, moved west to Henry County, Iowa, with several of his siblings and their widowed mother, who died in Mount Pleasant during February of 1876 at the age of 97. He was working as a barber in Mount Pleasant during 1859-60.

Anderson served during the Civil War in Co. C, 114th U.S. Colored Troops --- an infantry unit. And not long after the war ended, the family relocated to Chariton where his shop was located in the vicinity of the Hatcher House hotel on the southwest corner of the square.

The family left Chariton for Creston during 1877, but by 1880 Anderson had opened a shop in Council Bluffs, then moved it across the Missouri River into Omaha by 1885. The remainder of his life was spent in Omaha, where he died During January of 1914, age about 77.