The Boy Governor

continued

Mason moved to New York City, where his wife had family, but died of pneumonia less than two years later. He was just thirty-one.

Faber, who spent most of his career at the now defunct Ann Arbor News, spent about three years working on the book. His one regret is that he wishes he could have learned more about Mason's wife, Julia Phelps Mason.

It's known that the couple met when Mason was in New York looking for financing for the canal and railroad projects, and they had three children, but that's about it. "There's a paucity of details," says Faber. "I'd love to know more how they met, their courtship, and what a New York society girl thought of Detroit."   

[Originally published in February, 2013.]