On September 13, 1839, Mastin was born as the fourth of nine children had by Reuben Frasier and Letita Minerva Mastin née Browne in
Aberdeen, Mississippi. Reuben collected
mulberries, but in September 1841, sold his property and moved the family to
Pontotoc, becoming a blacksmith. In 1849, Frasier and his eldest son John went to capitalize on the
California Gold Rush, with John dying near the
Great Salt Lake from
cholera and Frasier completing the trip. Mastin's grandpa in
South Carolina, Reuben, deeded Letita 160 acres of land in
Pontotoc County during this time. On September 19, 1850, Frasier was reported as back with his wife and seven children, a blacksmith owning $1,000 in real estate, and owning two slaves. That year six of the children, including Mastin, attended school. Frasier returned to California thereafter and in 1857, his family settled with him in
Quincy. In 1858, Mastin moved to
Gila City,
New Mexico Territory, where he worked as an attorney. In 1860, he was elected as the city's delegate to the
constitutional assembly held in
Tucson from April 2 to 5. The result was the promulgation of the provisional
Arizona Territory, with
Lewis S. Owings as
governor. Owings appointed Mastin
attorney general of
Castle Dome County (within modern-day
Yuma County). On August 15, 1860,
the census listed him as an unmarried merchant with $2,000 in real estate and $6,500 in personal property; at that point he also operated a mining business in
Piños Altos,
Doña Ana County, where gold was discovered in May. Still practicing law, in December, he discovered a
quartz lode along the
Continental Divide near Piños Altos, naming it the Pacific. He also found a second, which he named the Atlantic. In 1861, he co-owned a ranch with
Thomas Jefferson Helm. Gaining local popularity,
The Mesilla Times titled him "colonel". It also reported him as practicing law in
Mesilla County, with his office in Piños Altos, and in the
Supreme Court of the Territory of Arizona on February 16, 1861; such was reiterated on March 2. On March 16, Mastin, representative of Piños Altos, voted in a convention in
Mesilla to form
Confederate Arizona. On May 15, Mastin was shot by John Portell in Mesilla, with a bounty for $200 being posted the next day. On July 18, Mastin formed the
Arizona Guards, and on August 1, Arizona seceded under Governor
John R. Baylor; the Arizona Guards entered the
Confederate Army, being stationed for 12 months at
Fort Fillmore. The guards mostly scouted and engaged the
Apache, pursuing as far as
Lake Guzmán,
Second Federal Republic of Mexico. However, on September 27, his
brachial artery was severely wounded during the
Battle of Pinos Altos while repelling 250–300 Apaches; he died of
blood poisoning on October 7. The following day, the guards and the citizens of Piños Altos held a funeral, in which they decided to bear a medal on his left arm for 30 days. Lieutenant Helm was elected as his successor. Mastin was buried in the Piños Altos cemetery, with his marker reading "Marston". In 1866, during a second gold rush in Piños Altos, Virgil Mastin constructed a 15-
stamp mill for the Atlantic. By the time the Piños Altos mines were abandoned in the 1870s, the area had produced nearly $3,000,000 worth of gold over thirty years. ==Sources==