Major John Mason - Windsor, Connecticut
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 41° 51.481 W 072° 38.200
18T E 696166 N 4636712
Statue of the commander in Pequot War in Connecticut in 1637.
Waymark Code: WMC26H
Location: Connecticut, United States
Date Posted: 07/16/2011
Views: 11
"John Mason (c. 1600–1672) was an English Army Major who immigrated to New England in 1632. Within five years he had joined those moving west from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the nascent settlements along the Connecticut River that would become the Connecticut Colony. Tensions there rose between the settlers and the dominant Indian tribe in the area, the Pequots, ultimately leading to bloodshed. After some English settlers were found dead, the Connecticut Colony appointed Mason to lead an expedition against the Pequot stronghold in Mystic, Connecticut. The result is known as the Mystic Massacre, and it was the major engagement of the Pequot War, which virtually destroyed the Pequot tribe. Years later, he recounted his experiences in the Pequot War in his narrative Major Mason's Brief History of the Pequot War, which wasn't published until 1736.
After the war, Mason became Deputy Governor of Connecticut. He and a number of others were instrumental in the founding of Norwich, Connecticut, where he died in 1672." - Wikipedia
Below the statue is a plaque inscribed:
Major John Mason
Born 1600 In England Immigrated To New England In 1630
A Founder Of Windsor, Old Saybrook And Norwich
Magistrate And Chief Military Officer Of The Connecticut Colony
Deputy Governor And Acting Governor
A Patentee Of The Colonial Charter
Died 1672 In Norwich
Erected At Mystic In 1889 By The State Of Connecticut
Relocated In 1996 To Respect A Sacred Site
Of The 1637 Pequot War
The original plaque read:
ERECTED AD 1889
BY THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT,
TO COMMEMORATE THE HEROIC ACHIEVEMENT OF
MAJOR JOHN MASON
AND HIS COMRADES, WHO NEAR THIS SPOT IN 1867,
OVERTHREW THE PEQUOT INDIANS, AND
PRESERVED THE SETTLEMENTS FROM DESTRUCTION.