Biography

06/10/1859 - 12/16/1944

Charles Wesley Sones (D24) Columbia, Lycoming, Montour and Sullivan Counties 1911-1930 (D24) Columbia, Lycoming, Montour and Sullivan Counties 1933-1938

Early Life:

Charles Wesley Sones, born June 10, 1859, Picture Rocks, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania; son of Thomas L. and Catherine Gray Sones; reared, farm; Muncy Normal School, Muncy, Pennsylvania; trained as teacher, no evidence he taught; engaged lumber office in the capacity of clerk, bookkeeper, Edward Lyon Lumber Company, 1877, fully engaged, lumber business, now the largest individual operator in Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company; engaged, financial institutions of Williamsport, Pennsylvania; founder, transient lumber town of Masten, Pennsylvania; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1911-1930; elected, Democrat, Special Election, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1933-1938; never married; died, December 16, 1944 (aged 85), Lycoming County, Pennsylvania; interment, Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Hughesville, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. 

Professional titles; business ownership; board memberships; local government; club memberships:

Member, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Masonic Lodges; member, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 122 South Main Street, Hughesville, Pennsylvania; donated new pipe organ to the church in memory of his mother; this organ was used until the 1970's.

Pennsylvania Politics:

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 24th district, Columbia, Lycoming, Montour and Sullivan Counties, 1911-1930; elected, Democrat, Special Election, Pennsylvania State Senate, 24th district, Columbia, Lycoming, Montour and Sullivan Counties, vacancy, death Fred Sprout, August 8, 1932, elected, November 8, 1932, seated, 1933-1938; committee assignments, Appropriations, Banks and Building and Loan Associations, Congressional Apportionment, Corporations, Elections, Finance, Forestry, Game and Fisheries, Judiciary Special , Mines and Mining, Municipal Affairs, Public Health and Sanitation, Public Roads and Highways, Railroad; served, Pennsylvania Panama Pacific Exposition Commission, Health Insurance Commission of Pennsylvania.

Legacy:

Masten, ghost town, lumber mill town, Cascade and McNett Townships, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, founded, 1905-1930. Owned the mill and town, worked under a contract, Union Tanning Company, which needed hemlock bark for tanning leather; also sold hardwoods from the area. The village was served by two railroad lines: Susquehanna and New York Railroad, Susquehanna and Eagles Mere Railroad. 

Contract with Sones expired and the mill, town, and railroads were purchased by the Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company, 1917. The mill was in operation from 1905 to September 18, 1930, when the last log was cut. After the mill closed, most of the houses were torn down and their lumber sold, Susquehanna and Eagles Mere Railroad was abandoned. On May 6, 1933, Civilian Conservation Corps "State Forest Camp" S-80-Pa was established at the site of Masten, CCC camp closed in 1940. Now, ghost town, site serves, trailhead for the Old Loggers Path, a loop hiking trail.

Cited:

Cox, Harold. "Senate Members S". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.

The Pennsylvania Manual, (1923-1924). Whitmore, R.E., (Compiler). Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pages 983, 990, Biographical Sketches of Senators, page 965.

Charles Wesley Sones (1859-1944) - Find a Grave Memorial