Joseph (or Joe) E. Mason was born December 7, 1907 near Clinton, Oklahoma, the son of Henry Hiram and Amanda Jane Mason. After graduating from Wichita High School in Kansas, he attended the School of Religion at Marshall, Texas, part of Bishop College, from 1932-1935 and in 1933 was licensed at Calvary Baptist Church. He later received his Bachelors from Friends University in 1964 and did graduate coursework at the Univesity of Utah and Wichita State University.

In 1942, Mason went to the Second Baptist Church in Caldwell, Kansas as an interim pastor, where he served for over two years. From 1946-1948 he was interim pastor in South Hoisington, Kansas. In 1952 he became pastor for the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Abilene, KS, where he remained until 1965.

In 1962, Mason founded the Seventeenth Street Mission in his hometown of Wichita, KS. He began pastoring there after he left Mt. Zion, and in 1972 the mission was organized into the Seventheenth Street Baptist Church. He retired from that church in 1983 after 50 years of service in the Baptist Church.

Joseph E. Mason married Pina Ruthelma Edwards in 1939. They had five children: Henry Edwards, Kein Monroe, Beverly Joe (or Dollie), Marilyn Pina, and Jan Patrice. Reverend Mason died May 30, 1988.

[Information retrieved from collection materials.]