ABSTRACT
The Springfield City Directories for the years 1868–69 through 1880–81 were used to identify the Black residents and to study occupational mobility. Laborers were constantly changing residence, many of them moving almost yearly whether or not they changed jobs. In 1860 Mason sold the fire station lot to the city on the condition that the land be used for public purposes. In 1885, for the nominal sum of one dollar, Mason released all restrictions so the city could build the fire station. In 1817, Thomas was born a slave in Oxford, Maryland. At the age of ten he was put to work as a waiter on a steamboat in Chesapeake Bay. In 1853, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, where he worked in a hotel patronized by both Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. In 1860, Thomas was part of a group which informed Lincoln of his nomination for the office of president.
