Mason was settled primarily by Germans (with a name like Grossmann this DOES have some appeal). One of the neatest things about Mason's little cottages (they are charming) is that many of them still have their original water towers beside them. They come in all shapes and sizes and what you see is only a sampling. Occasionally one will have a windmill attached and working. Some of the residents still use them as their sole source of water rather than tying into the city's water or just use them to water their lawns. There's even one at the cemetery (next to last photo). The last photo is one that someone has converted into a shed to store his lawn mower.In walking around, I just assumed the various "bases" were just that - bases... until last week when one owner saw me taking pictures of his and asked if I would like to see the inside of his. It turns out many/most of the stone bases were built by the Germans who used them as smoke houses - very thrifty thinking.
The one I saw had pegs on the beams where the sausages and meats were hung to be smoked. (You don't suppose the cemetery used their stone base as a crematorium, do you???)Anyway, carrying on the German theme... Mason is not far from the more famous Fredricksburg where my sister and mother took John to their favorite biergarten. He was a happy boy! (My sister and mother are perpetually happy!)
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