Near Lost Creek in Harrison County, West Virginia — The American South (Appalachia)

“Randolph Mason”

Photographed by J. J. Prats, April 11, 2021

1. “Randolph Mason” Marker

Inscription. Near by was the home of the late Melville Davisson Post, author of many novels, but particularly noted for his stories concerning the strange points of law, woven about the fictitious character “Randolph Mason.”

Erected 2009 by West Virginia Archives & History.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Arts, Letters, Music.

Location. 39° 9.962′ N, 80° 15.592′ W. Marker is near Lost Creek, West Virginia, in Harrison County. It is on Buckhannon Pike (West Virginia Route 20) one mile Route 57, on the left when traveling south. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 7 Lightning Point Dr, Lost Creek WV 26385, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in West Virginia’s Little Kanawha Valley.

It is also in the American South,

specifically in the Upper South,

in Appalachia,

and specifically in Northern Appalachia. Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 8 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Barbour County / Harrison County (approx. 2.7 miles away); Quiet Dell School and Museum

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(approx. 4½ miles away); B & O Depot (approx. 5 miles away); Veteran Honor Roll (approx. 6 miles away); Center Branch Church (approx. 6.3 miles away); Veterans Memorial (approx. 6½ miles away); World War II Memorial (approx. 6½ miles away); a different marker also named Veterans Memorial (approx. 7.2 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Lost Creek.

Also see . . . Wikipedia entry for Melville Davisson Post. Excerpt:

In the first two volumes (The Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason and The Man of Last Resort, published 1896–1897), Mason is depicted as an utterly amoral character who advises criminals how to commit wrongdoings without breaking the letter of the law. The best-known of these stories is "The Corpus Delicti", in which Mason's client murders a blackmailing lover and dissolves her dismembered corpse in acid. Despite overwhelming circumstantial evidence, Mason secures his client's acquittal on the grounds that no body has been found and there are no eyewitnesses to the woman's death. (New York law at the time allowed one of these two conditions to be established by circumstantial evidence, but not both.) Post deflected criticism of such sensational stories by declaring that he was publicly exposing weaknesses in the law that needed to be rectified. Nevertheless, in a third volume (1908's The
Photographed by J. J. Prats, April 11, 2021

2. “Randolph Mason” Marker
Corrector of Destinies), Mason had become a reformed man who used his knowledge of the law for more beneficent purposes. Post explained Mason's change of character by stating the lawyer had been suffering from mental illness in the two earlier volumes.

(Submitted on May 23, 2021.)

Credits. This page was last revised on May 23, 2021. It was originally submitted on May 23, 2021, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. This page has been viewed 533 times since then and 57 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on May 23, 2021, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio.