Samuel Mason was born in Norfolk, Virginia to a distinguished family on November 8, 1739, and raised in what is now Charles Town, West Virginia. He married Rosanna Dorsey in about 1767 and the couple would eventually have eight children. In 1773, he moved his family to Ohio County, West Virginia. During the American Revolution, he became a captain of the Ohio County Militia, Virginia State Forces in January 1777. He was given command of Fort Henry on the Ohio frontier, in present-day West Virginia.
In the summer of 1777, while colonial soldiers to the east were fighting the war for independence, Mason feared attacks by the Indian allies of the British. He was proven correct on August 31, 1777, when a band of Native Americans from several eastern tribes attacked the fort.
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