Silas Boxley Mason II (October 22, 1879 – April 14, 1936) was an American construction executive and racehorse owner, born in Orange County, Virginia.
A native Kentuckian, she was a descendant of Colonel Richard Henderson, who, along with General George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone, and others, were Kentucky pioneers who formed the Transylvania Land Company.
[9] In April 1929, the Warm Stable partnership purchased Preakness Stakes winner Victorian from Harry Payne Whitney as part of a three-horse deal.
A four-year-old at the time, Victorian raced and won into 1930, but the stallion had been acquired primarily for breeding purposes and stood at stud at the Masons’ Duntreath Farm near Lexington, Kentucky.
[6] However, five years later the colt Head Play made his owners famous with a second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby and a win in the Preakness Stakes.
Mason & Hanger was awarded a contract to rehabilitate, construct new facilities, and eventually operate the Iowa Ordnance Plant.
The Iowa plant started handling fissionable material in 1956, when it assembled the AIR-2 Genie, in addition to other missiles and artillery shells.
The company was then awarded construction of the George Washington Bridge's tower pier on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.
In 1942, after eight years, Coulee Dam construction was completed by a partnership consisting of Mason, Walsh, Atkinson & Kier (MWAK).
[5]: 49–55, 65–69, 92–110 The Silas Mason Company built and operated the Louisiana Ordnance Plant during World War II.
In 1949, they drilled the twelve tunnels needed for the Fort Randall Dam, eight for the penstocks, and four for Missouri River flood control.
The Lexington Herald wrote, "Throughout the last three decades, Silas B. Mason had been a leader in the building of railroads, aqueducts, docks, dams, tunnels, subways, skyscrapers, highways-in fact, nearly every branch of construction work in which leadership and the genius of a man like Silas Mason could serve nation, state, or private industry.