Mason Locke Weems, Jr.

Mason Locke Weems, physician, son of Dr. Mason Locke Weems, was born in Dumfries, Virginia, in 1807. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1826 and began practice in Washington, D.C. He married Asenath Otis Slade of Prince William County, Virginia, before he moved to Texas in 1838. They had seven children.

Weems lived for two years on Bay Prairie, Matagorda County, and then moved to a plantation six miles below Wharton. He was an incorporator of Matagorda University in 1845 and of the Columbia, Wharton and Austin Railroad in 1854. He was probate judge of Wharton County for several terms and on July 2, 1849, qualified for chief justice of the county. An extensive planter as well as a doctor, he carried on a correspondence on various Texas agricultural subjects with the United States Patent Commissioner. Weems was a master Mason and a Unitarian. He died in February 1856.