John W. Mason

John W. Mason (January 13, 1842 – April 23, 1917) was an American lawyer, judge, and politician who served as the twelfth Commissioner of Internal Revenue of the United States, from March 21, 1889 to April 18, 1893, and as a justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia from his appointment on November 1, 1915 to December 31, 1916.

Early life, education, and military service Born on a farm in Monongalia County, Virginia (later West Virginia), in 1842, his "opportunities for schooling were somewhat meager", but he attended his local public schools for a number of years, and later graduated from Monongalia Academy in Morgantown, West Virginia, which subsequently became the foundation of the West Virginia University, in which, for a short time, he was a teacher. He "took part in the principal battles of West Virginia and the great valley of Virginia", and was honorably discharged in September 1864.

After the war, he returned to teaching school and reading law in the office of Judge John Hagans in Monongalia County, gaining admission to the bar in 1867. and held that office for four years, serving from March 21, 1889 to April 18, 1893.

Following the death of Judge Hagans in 1900, Mason was appointed to fill out Hagans' unexpired term, and was subsequently elected to the seat. For thirteen years thereafter he served as Circuit Court Judge of the Fourteenth Circuit. Shortly after his voluntary retirement from the bench he was made a member of the Virginia State Debt Commission. In the summer of 1915 a vacancy occurred on the state supreme court, and Mason was appointed November 1 of that year to fill this vacancy, serving until January 1, 1917. After leaving the supreme bench, he retired to private life in Fairmont.

Personal life Mason married Rebecca E. Wallace of Morgantown, West Virginia, on September 6, 1870. They had one son, John William Mason Jr., who also became an attorney and served in World War I.

Mason was a Presbyterian and Freemason. He died in Fairmont, West Virginia, at the age of 75.