Murder at Rocky Point Park by Kelly Sullivan Pezza

Author:Kelly Sullivan Pezza
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2014-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

10

THOSE LEFT BEHIND

Shadows Flee Away

Maggie’s maternal grandparents raised her brother, Mason Sheffield. The couple was well to do, and Mason was provided with a privileged lifestyle. In 1898, he applied to Webb’s Academy and Home for Shipbuilders, located at 188th Street in the Bronx, New York. The private undergraduate engineering college had been established by shipbuilder William Henry Webb in 1889. Having experienced the hardship of financing his own education, Webb wanted to offer young men interested in shipbuilding the opportunity to advance toward their chosen career without worrying about money. Those accepted at Webb’s Academy would receive four years of training at no expense. Built of New York brownstone in the Romanesque style to resemble a castle, the academy had an attached hospital and home for the aged where elderly shipbuilders and their wives were given a place to live free of charge.

In 1902, Mason graduated from the academy, along with eleven other students. On September 14, 1910, he married twenty-nine-year-old Elsie Lenore Thorp, who had also enjoyed a lifestyle of affluence. A resident of Stonington, her father was the proprietor of a hardware store, and their family’s staff at that time included two household servants.

Mason and his new wife removed to a home located at 165 Broadway in New York, where he worked as a draughtsman. The couple later relocated to 880 Clermont Street in Brooklyn, and Mason worked as a topographical draughtsman for Corporation Counsel Delany’s Bureau of Street Department.

In the fall of 1916, Mason returned to Mystic, where he and his wife took up residence at the Octagon House, a two-story structure built in 1850, on West Mystic Avenue at Willow Point, and he began designing boats. They called their home Rose View Cottage, and in the summer of 1917, Elsie held a tea to celebrate a visit from Mason’s aunt Mary Charlotte Brightman, who had brought along her grandson.

Later that year, Mason and Elsie removed to 5551 Pulaski Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Mason was an assistant designer for an engraving company. Elise had given birth to two sons in New York, in 1915 and 1917, and by 1920, Mason was employed as a shipyard draftsman. At that time, the family was living in a rented house at 2970 North Congress Road in Camden, New Jersey. A few years later, they moved to the town of Burlington and settled into a home at 423 Cinnamonson Avenue while Mason worked as a structural engineer.

By 1933, Mason and his family were back in New York, at Pearl River and, two years later, living at 45 Adrian Avenue in New York City, where Mason worked for the Board of Water Supply, located at 346 Broadway. He passed away on June 28, 1952.

Mason Crary Hill, the man who had taken on the responsibility of raising his grandson and providing him with great opportunity, was born in the winter of 1817 in New London, Connecticut. After the tragic death of his wife, Mary Ann, and his subsequent marriage to Margaret Wheeler, he enjoyed great success brought about by his shipbuilding venture.

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