Mason Machine Works

[1] In 1835, Mason moved to Taunton, Massachusetts, to work for Crocker and Richmond, a company that made ring spinning frames for the cotton textile industry.

It was a specialized art requiring tools, materials, skills and designs that had been gradually increasing through the early part of the 19th century.

The ideas of early pioneers in the textile machine industry such as David Wilkinson at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and Paul Moody at Waltham, Massachusetts, were constantly being tinkered with and improved upon during this time.

The other, operating locomotive is Hecla & Torch Lake Railroad Number 3, a 0-6-4 engine of the Mason Bogie design built in 1873, currently at the Henry Ford Museum.

Also preserved is the tender that originally belonged to the Dalton locomotive, which the firm had built in 1864 for the United States Military Railroad.

When the engine was retired in 1890, its tender was salvaged and paired with the railroad's famed Texas locomotive, which had been built by Danforth, Cooke and Company.

[5][6][7] In 1861, with the start of the Civil War, Mason accepted a contract from the United States Government for the production of 100,000 Springfield model rifles.

In 1879, Mason's reputation for quality workmanship let to a contract to manufacture of the Campbell printing press, originally patented and built in Brooklyn, New York.

A portion of the site remains open and has not been redeveloped, due to likely soil contamination issues associated with the Machine Works operations.