JASON RUSSELL, JUNIOR

1742-1825

 

Jason Junior was born March 7, 1742 in Monotomy (Arlington), Massachusetts. He married Elizabeth Locke in 1962. Their first three children were born in Menotomy. When he moved to Mason, there were seven more children born.

 

Jason Russell Junior, John Russell and Hubbard Russell, were brothers, and their sister, Elizabeth Russell Webber (married to Deacon Jotham Webber), were born in West Cambridge, then called Menotomy. (now Arlington). Their parents were Jason Russell Senior and Elizabeth Winship. The four of them moved and settled in Mason. Jason in 1769, Hubbard in 1772, John in 1774, and Deacon Webber in 1780. Hubbard served as selectman several years. This was before the Revolutionary War began.

 

Each of them brought up large families and lived to old age, Jason 84, John 86, Hubbard 88 years, and Elizabeth 82 years.  

 

Jason’s seven year old son, Josiah, was staying with his grandfather in Menotomy at the time of the April 19th battle in 1775, but was whisked away by is grandmother just before the fighting which saved his life. He was greatly impressed by the incident.

 

Later, Reverend Samuel Dana, of Groton, was dismissed as pastor because of his preaching loyalty to the British. Jason and his friend John Tarbell, were so outraged by the preaching, that they slaughtered one of Reverend Dana’s cows. To keep from being tried, Jason joined the army, enlisting in Wilton and fought in the American Revolution with Captain Mann at Bunker Hill.

 

It is said around their town that Jason’s wife was so smart to spin and weave, that she kept her husband so warmly clad during the winter at Valley Forge that he was able to do double duty.

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Jason returned to Mason after the war. His wife, Elizabeth, died on May 24, 1799 at the age of 54. Jason’s second marriage was to Lydia Loring, the widow “Mrs. Lydia Chambers” in 1799. Lydia’s first husband was Captain William Chambers.

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Jason died in Mason on September 26, 1825. He was eighty-three years old.