Fred Herbert Bassett, Inventor and Optician

Fred Herbert Bassett descends from #6B William Bassett of Connecticut as follows:

William Bassett and wife Hannah (Dickerman) Ives
Samuel Bassett (b. 1654) and wife Mary Dickerman
Abraham Bassett (b. 1692) and wife Mehitable Street
Abraham Bassett (b. 1733) and wife Lydia Smith
Charles Bassett (b. 1773) and wife Huldah Barrett
Lemuel Bassett (b. 1798) and wife Persis Gardner
Darwin Bassett (b. 1825) and wife Mary Angeline Blakesley
Fred Herbert Bassett (b. 1853)

Essex County New York Republican, Thursday Evening, June 18, 1885

Notes from Mrs. H.C. Loney, 1417 South Maple, Spokane, Washington (1930’s)

My father was an optician and quite an inventor, having at one time as many as 200 patents registered. Worked on invention similar to Holland tunnel machines (Discussed several times with Holland), also window shades, traps, etc. Had a complete small shop in back of his optical shop in Georgetown, D.C. for turning out models. He went to Kansas at age of six, his father ran post office and general store in Kansas (1858), built first church and first to be buried there-Hartford, Kan. He returned to Mass. shortly afterwards (due to his parents deaths), but during that time lived with Indians (after their death and while waiting for his uncle to arrive, via Prairie schooner, from St. Louis). Some years later my father guided in the mountains at Lake Placid, N.Y. later met Robert Louis Stevenson, and knew him well, thence moved to N.Y. City and worked in a shop on Madison Ave. in opticians’ shop.

The Electrical World, October 5, 1895, Page 389

The Holmes & Bassett Company, Waterbury, Conn., has been formed to manufacture and deal in curtain fixtures, electrical appliances, etc. The promoters are Walter W. Holmes, Charles L. Holmes, Waterbury, Conn.; Fred H. Bassett, Saranac Lake, N.Y. Capital stock $20,000.

The Elizabethtown Post, October 24, 1889, Page 2

      The Bassett Curtain Fixture Co., of Saranac Lake has been organized with F. H. Bassett, president; C.H. Kendall, secretary, and J.H. Mill, treasurer. Their capital stock is $10,000, and they will manufacture the celebrated adjustable curtain fixture invented by Mr. F.H. Bassett, at that place.

Scientific American, February 1, 1896, Page 86
The Bassett Curtain Fixture

      We illustrate on this page an excellent device for an adjustable and self-locking window curtain, which has been patented by Mr. F.H. Bassett, of Saranac Lake, N.Y., and is being manufactured and sold by The Holmes & Bassett Company of Waterbury, Conn.

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