The Peru Gazette

Photo – L-R Greg Badger, Phil Mason Jr., Ann Mason, Douglas Mason, Melvin Irwin.

Albert Mason right and his six sons

By John T Ryan

Peru – July 8, 2023 – It must have been a memorable morning for Phillip, Ann, and Douglas Mason as they watched a painting that recalls their family’s place in Peru’s history being put in place at Heyworth/Mason Park. The three are great-grandchildren of Albert Mason, founder of A. Mason Lumber Company. They watched as artist Greg Badger and Town Councilman Melvin Irwin put the painting in place on the Heyworth/Mason Building. It reproduces an image that once hung in Phillip Mason’s office, the father of Phillip Jr. and Ann, who were present today. In 2016, the Masons donated the original to the Town of Peru. Today it resides in the town hall’s main room. 

A nearby historic marker recalls when A. Mason Lumber Company was Peru’s leading employer. Operating from 1883 to 1972, in its heyday, it employed about eighty-five people during the summer and up to two hundred men and fifty teams of horses in the winter. Many recall the logs floating in the Little AuSable River behind today’s Gazebo before the river transported them to the mill.

Click here to learn more about the A. Mason Lumber Company story. 

To learn more about the Heyworth/Mason painting project, click his link