Iowa
Bentonsville
Mason House Inn
The Mason House Inn was built in 1846, originally
called the Ashland House, and was owned by William Robinson.
Nestled on the banks of the beautiful Des Moines River,
to serve as a hotel to serve the steamboat travelers going
from St. Louis to Fort Des Moines and Fort Dodge on the
Des Moines River. Built by Mormon craftsmen from Nauvoo,
Illinois, who stayed in Bentonsport for several years, working
and gathering supplies before making their trek westward
to Salt Lake City, Utah.
In 1857, Lewis and Nancy Mason purchased the Ashland House.
The Mason family brought many antique furnishings from New
York in 1857, and today more than half of the original appointments
remain They changed the name to the Phoenix Hotel, but the
townspeople called the place the "Mason House",
and the name stayed. It was Nancy who started the tradition
of "a cookie jar in every room".
The Mason House was used as a "holding hospital"
for the wounded soldiers waiting for the train or boats
to take them to the Keokuk hospital during the Civil War,
It was also a station on the Underground Railway where the
family hid slaves as they fled to freedom in the North at
great risk to their own lives.
The son told of his experience, “I was
sent out to the barn with a basket of bread and meat and
told to take it up to the hay loft. I did so and as I put
the basket on the floor near the stairs, I saw two or more
black curly heads stick out from the hay, and you can imagine
my fright and that it did not take long to get back to the
house. Smart enough to know better, and saving the poor
fellows from being sent back to slavery, I told no.
I learned afterwards that my father's house and barn was
the first station on the Underground Railway, being about
ten miles from the Missouri line. In the dark of night,
the Negroes came, knowing where to go to eat and sleep.
Then they directed them on to a Quaker settlement at Salem
as near as I now remember. My father was a great lover of
law, and yet I wonder when I think of it, he helped escaping
slaves, and in that way openly violated the law. He got
into some trouble with his church but they did not expel
or indict him although they threatened him with both
The picture on the left shows the barn used in the Underground
Railroad along with the house, taken in 1887. The barn was
torn down and no longer standing.
One of the upstairs bedrooms was the scene of a murder,
another explanation for one of the many ghosts who call
the old house, home. The Mason House stayed in the Mason
Family for 99 years, and then the family sold it to Herbert
and Burretta Redhead in 1956. They ran it as a Bed and Breakfast
and a museum for thirty-three years. They bought the old
Bonaparte train station and brought it over to the lot next
to the Inn and ran it as a General Store.
In 1989, Bill and Sheral McDermet bought the Inn and did
extensive refurbishing. This included remodeling the train
station and connecting it to the Mason House, providing
for ground level accommodations.
A guest told the owner that as she sat in a rocking chair
reading her book and her husband was in the shower, the
room suddenly got very cold and a column of fog formed about
four feet in front of her. Then it suddenly disappeared.
It was not scary, just weird. I wanted you to know the place
is haunted."
A boy about 12 or 13 years old, dressed in knickers hangs
out on the second floor landing. He is waiting for something
or someone. He likes to play tricks on the guests. He sees
us and waves at guests and then looks confused and sad when
they do not wave back. The staff call him George. George
likes to knock on doors, and when people open the door,
there is no one there. He likes to take things and put them
in other rooms. He likes to pull the pins on the old alarm
clocks and make them ring. Maybe he was the one tugging
the man's sleeve in Room 5.
An old lady on the third floor, south bedroom,
who likes to look through our boxes, stored in that room.
The owners’ daughter has her bedroom in the north
bedroom on the third floor and she says she has seen an
old lady in a long white nightgown standing in the doorway
to that room. She was visible for a second and then she
vanished.
People staying in Room 5, which is directly below that room,
hear thumping up there like something was dropped on the
floor. Another guest complained of being kept awake all
night by a squeaking rocking chair up there. There is no
rocking chair in that room. It is just a storage room.
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