Her treatment of smallpox patients deserves specific attention. Smallpox was one of the most feared epidemic diseases of the nineteenth century, with mortality rates in unvaccinated populations that could reach thirty percent or more. Healthcare providers who treated smallpox patients faced real personal risk. Some practitioners refused to treat smallpox cases or limited their exposure significantly. Mason’s willingness to treat these patients reflects both her knowledge of herbal remedies that could manage symptoms and reduce suffering, and a professional commitment that extended to the most vulnerable and dangerous cases.
The herbal remedies she used had been developed within the tradition of enslaved medical practice — knowledge accumulated over generations of Black women who served as healers in communities without access to formally trained physicians. This tradition drew on West African medical knowledge, on knowledge acquired from Native American communities, and on the practical experience of treating a wide range of conditions with available plant materials. Mason brought this tradition with her to California and applied it in a new context.
## The 1866 Purchase: Building Security
The purchase of property on Spring Street in 1866 came ten years after emancipation. The timing matters: ten years is long enough for Mason to have accumulated savings from her midwifery practice, to have established the community relationships that would make the transaction possible, and to have assessed the Los Angeles real estate landscape well enough to identify a location with long-term value.
The selection of the Spring Street corridor between 3rd and 4th Street was, in retrospect, an excellent choice. This block was in what was becoming the commercial and civic center of Los Angeles as the city grew and organized itself in the American urban pattern that was replacing the more dispersed Mexican-era settlement pattern. Property in this location would be affected positively by the city’s growth regardless of which specific industries or activities drove that growth.