"Seattle and Environs, 1852-1924." Vol. 2. Hon. C. H. Hanford, Editor. Pioneer Historical Pub. Co., 1924. p. 234. JAMES TATE MASON. M. D. Dr. James Tate Mason has been a resident of Seattle since 1909, during which time he has made steady progress in his profession until he has attained rank among the leading surgeons not only of Seattle but of the Pacific Northwest as well. He is a native of Virginia, born on May 22, 1882, near Lahore, Orange county, son of Dr. Clayton Rice and Mary Moore (Woolfolke) Mason, and in both paternal and maternal lines he descends from old families of the Dominion state. Captain Henry Claiborne Mason, grandfather of Dr. Mason, of this review, was well known as a civil engineer and railroad construction contractor, and was in charge of the construction of the greater part of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad through Virginia and West Virginia. Dr. Clayton Rice Mason, son of Captain Mason, was born in Virginia and at the age of sixteen years-enlisted for service as a private in the Confederate army. He was wounded and taken prisoner and confined in the federal prison at Elmira, New York, for eighteen months, or until after the close of the war. He then studied medicine and was graduated from the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about 1869. After practicing his profession for a few years he abandoned it because of his poor health, the result of the wound he received in the army and devoted the later years of his life to the management of his plantation in Orange county, Virginia. There his death occurred in 1904. He married Mary Moore Woolfolke, who is now the wife of Dr. William J. Crittenden of Orange county, Virginia. J. Tate Mason attended the district schools and prepared for college at the Locustdale Military Academy at Culpeper, Virginia. He matriculated in the University of Virginia in 1901 and was graduated in 1905, with the degree of M. D. He then became a resident physician at the Philadelphia Polyclinic Hospital, where he remained for about eighteen months, following which he spent a period at the Municipal Hospital in that city. Dr. Mason started for the Pacific Northwest in the spring of 1907, on the steamer President, going through the Straits of Magellan. He entered the employ of the Pacific Coast Company as surgeon at their coal mines at Black Diamond, Washington, where he remained until 1909, when he located in Seattle. He began private practice and was appointed county jail physician by the late Robert T. Hodge, then sheriff of King county, this appointment being the first wherein the sheriff of the county exercised his powers to make the appointment, which had previously been done by the county commissioners. Dr. Mason served in this capacity for four years, meanwhile continuing his private practice. In 1913 he became a candidate for the office of county coroner and was elected, his promise being that he would establish a public morgue, and under his direction the present fine public morgue was completed. Dr. Mason was reelected and served two terms as coroner and in 1917 was appointed head of staff of the King County Hospital and served until the expiration of his term on January 1, 1923. This hospital during this time was the first establishment of the northwest in which the cases were classified according to a definite nomenclature, and the present system of the records of the hospital was also established. In 1919, in association with Dr. John M. Blackford and Dr. J. Thomas Dowling, Dr. Mason formed the Virginia Mason Hospital, Incorporated and began the erection of the Virginia Mason Hospital, a six-story structure at the northwest corner of Terry avenue and Spring street, which also contains the Mason-Blackford-Dowling Clinic. This complete establishment is pronounced the finest of its kind on the Pacific coast. Since 1913 Dr. Mason has specialized in surgery, for his work since that time has been almost entirely along surgical lines. In addition to being surgeon of the Virginia Mason Hospital, Dr. Mason is president of the corporation. In politics Dr. Mason.is a republican, while along strictly professional lines he has membership connection with the King County, Washington State and American Medical Associations. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is secretary of the surgical section of that body, being the first member of that organization on the Pacific coast to hold that office. He belongs to the Phi Gamma Delta, the Nu Sigma Nu and the honorary Alpha Kappa Alpha and is also a member of the Rainier Club, the University Club and the Seattle Golf Club. With his family he attends the services of the Episcopal church. In 1912, in Seattle, Dr. Mason was married to Laura DeWolfe Whittlesey, daughter of Charles F. and Louise (DeWolfe) Whittlesey and granddaughter of Captain Frederick DeWolfe. The three children of Dr. and Mrs. Mason are: James Tate, Jr., Mary Virginia and Frederick DeWolfe. The family residence is at No. 1220 Federal avenue. ******************* Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in October 2008 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.