Family

Stanley-Mason Family

1926-1972

Beatrice Mason Stanley

Born Beatrice Birmingham, daughter of Emma (Stone) and Earnest F. Birmingham, on May 23, 1887, in New York. Beatrice had two sisters, Eleanor and Pearl (Polly). After graduating from St. Agatha school, Beatrice spent two years at Smith College, then attended the Academy of Design and Art Student League in New York. She worked as a nurse in an Army hospital during World War I.

Beatrice Birmingham married Melvin Wood in 1923, but the marriage ended in annulment in 1924. The following year, in 1925, Beatrice Birmingham went to Fort Yukon, Alaska, to work at the hospital. She later married two pioneer Alaskans. In 1926, Beatrice married Willoughby Mason. She traveled 600 miles up the Porcupine River for winter fur, trapping with him and his brother Reuben. After Mr. Mason died in 1935, Beatrice remarried Lewis V. Stanley. Stanley was a prospector who arrived in Alaska in 1897. He was in Nome in 1901, Chisana in 1913, and worked for several large mining companies throughout Alaska.

The Masons retired to Seattle in 1941, and their home became a gathering place for former Alaskans, a service that became known as "Alaskan Friends." Beatrice's life in Alaska is described in the unpublished manuscript "Return to the Frontier." Beatrice Mason Stanley passed away in Seattle on February 12, 1972.

Willoughby Mason

Willoughby Mason was born in 1871 to Peter and Lyndia Mason of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was one of twelve children born to the couple. Willoughby’s elder brother Reuben was in the Klondike for the gold rush of 1898, and he joined his brother in 1903 with the goal of mining. Willoughby Mason is credited as being the first man to navigate the entire length of the Mackenzie River to Herschel Island in a gasoline launch. Additionally, he is credited with being the first person to take horses to the mouth of Mackenzie. He fished and mined near the arctic coast and became lifelong friends with the explorer Vilhjamler Stefansson. Willoughby would join his brother Reuben in hunting and trapping up the Porcupine River during the winter and spending summers at Ft. Yukon and Circle Hot Springs.

Willoughby Mason met Beatrice at Ft. Yukon, and they married on July 5, 1925. From 1925-1934 they continued to live their pioneering life on the Porcupine River; however, Willoughby’s failing health forced the couple to give up their wilderness existence. Willoughby died on December 12, 1935, at Circle Hot Springs, Alaska.

Reuben continued the old way of life until 1947, when several strokes led Beatrice to move him into her home in Seattle. She later placed him in a board and care in Seattle, where Reuben lived until his death on October 2, 1954.

Lewis V. Stanley

Stanley was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, on April 25, 1876. When Lewis was six months old, the Stanley family moved to Davenport, Iowa. After his father deserted the family, Lewis helped run the family farm for his mother. Lewis Stanley moved to Alaska to prospect, and he was in Nome in 1901 and Chrisana in 1913 following the gold rushes. A brother and sister did follow him to Alaska, but they both passed away. Lewis married and had two boys, but the youngest died at age four. His wife passed away when his eldest son Dean was twelve years old.

Stanley worked for a large mining company that took him all over Alaska. He met Beatrice Mason in 1936 and married on January 16, 1937, in Fairbanks the following year. After his retirement in 1941, the couple moved to Seattle, WA, where they remained active in Alaskan affairs and clubs. Lewis Stanley died September 12, 1956, in Seattle.

Written by Leah Selinda Kusnierek, 2023.