(1) Welcome
(2) Bassett-McKnight Family Bible for sale
(3) Marriage Certificate for Jonathan Bassett of Australia
(4) Christopher M. Bassett of Massachusetts, shot at wedding
(5) Clay Bassett, mayor of Citronelle, Alabama
(6) Major C.F. Bassett World War II Military Foot Locker for Sale
(7) G.W. Bassett Golden Wedding Anniversary
(8) New family lines combined or added since the last newsletter
(9) DNA project update
Section 1 - Welcome
I want to thank all those how sent in donations during the past month towards the Bassett DNA project. We now have funds to test several more Bassetts.
The following trees were added to the Bassett website database since the last newsletter:
79B. Joseph H. Bassett of Sag Harbor, New York (147 individuals)
83B. Lorenzo Alorian Bassett of Hannibal, New York (77 individuals)
429B. John Bassett of Harrisville, New York (78 individuals)
* * * * *
Section 2 - Featured Bassett: Bassett-McKnight Family Bible
Sylvia Bassett descends from #6B William Bassett as follows:
William Bassett and wife Hannah (Dickerman) Ives
John Bassett (b. 1652) and wife Mercy Todd
John Bassett (b. 1691) and wife Elizabeth Thompson
William Bassett (b. 1718) and wife Mabel Goodyear
Jared Bassett (b. 1749) and wife Sarah Goodyear
Joel Bassett (b. 1783) and wife Ruby Metcalf
Sylvia Bassett (b. 1811)
McKnight-Bassett family bible showing birth-marriage-death of Sylvia Bassett McKnight.
Currently for sale on ebay.
Gravestone of Sylvia Bassett McKnight from Find-A-Grave.
* * * * *
Section 3 - Featured Bassett: Marriage Certificate for Jonathan Bassett of Australia
In follow up to last month's newsletter, the following marriage record was found for Jonathan Bassett of Australia.
Marriage information provided by Rhonda Marte.
* * * * *
Section 4 - Featured Bassett: Christopher M. Bassett shot at wedding
Christopher M. Bassett was born in 1877 in St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada. He married Mary Mulcahey. I have not yet been able to find his Bassett ancestry.
Pawtucket Times, Rhode Island, Friday, October 16, 1903
Bride Shoots Wedding Guest
Christopher M. Bassett of Wellesley Hills Victim of Shot by His Sister-in-Law
Purely Accidental
She did not know the Weapon was Loaded
Bassett’s Wound May Prove Fatal
Providence, Oct. 15 – A distressing and perhaps a fatal shooting accident occurred at 30 Prairie avenue yesterday afternoon, the victim being Christopher M. Bassett of Washington street, Wellesley Hills, Mass.
Mr. and Mrs. Bassett came here Tuesday to attend the wedding of Mrs. Bassett’s sister Nellie to Neil Donahue, a blacksmith in the employ of the Rhode Island Company.
The wedding festivities were continued throughout the day and until late in the evening, the Bassetts remaining with the intention of returning home this afternoon.
Mr. Donahue had a self-cocking, 32-calibre 5-shot revolver, which he brought to his new home and showed it to his bride as it lay in a bureau drawer. Mrs. Donahue, some time later, took the revolver from the bureau to show it to her brother-in-law.
Bassett was seated and as she approached him she exclaimed “See what we’ve got, Christopher.” Mrs. Donahue did not know that the weapon was loaded, nor was she aware that her finger was upon the trigger.
Suddenly the weapon was discharged and with a groan Bassett dropped out of his chair to the floor. In the centre of his forehead was a wound from which blood was streaming. Horror stricken, the bride and her sister went to Bassett’s aid, while Donahue ran out for a doctor.
Two surgeons responded and found the injured man’s wound so serious that they ordered him sent to a private hospital. Before he was etherised he was semi-conscious and said that the shooting and been accidental.
The bullet was found to have pierced the inner table of the skull and to be pressing upon the brain. It, with several home splinters, was removed. Today the hospital surgeon said that Bassett had an even chance only of surviving his injury. Mrs. Donahue it prostrated on account of the shooting.
The police did not learn of the affair until Bassett was removed to the hospital, where they learned it was purely accidental.
Mrs. Bassett called upon Capt. Mowry and confirmed the version of the shooting as given by her sister.
Boston Herald, Thursday, October 15, 1903
The Victim A Blacksmith
Christopher M. Bassett, who is reported to have been accidentally shot yesterday in Providence, R.I., is a blacksmith and for the past two years has run a shop on Washington street, Wellesley Hills, with his brother. He is 29 years old, has a wife and one small child, and has made his home at Wellesley Hills for about six years.
Boston Journal, Monday, October 19, 1903
Smith Surviving Bullet In Brain
Case of Bassett Puzzles Doctors, Who Thought Wound Fatal
Special to The Boston Journal
Providence, R.I., Oct 19 – Christopher M. Bassett, the Wellesley Hills blacksmith, who was shot in the forehead last Wednesday by his sister-in-law, Mrs. Nellie Donahue, the day after her marriage on the 13th, will live. His case has puzzled the surgeons of the East Side Hospital from the first. When the bullet was proved for and removed, it was found that it has penetrated the skull and had lodged in the edge of the brain, making a wound that it was expected would prove fatal. Contrary to established precedents the surgeons say the patient has been gaining right along since the bullet was extracted and the wound is healing well.
Unless complications, which are not looked for now, set in he will recover fully. Bassett’s splendid physique stood him in good stead. Mrs. Donahue is in the custody of the woman probation officer pending the result of Bassett’s wound. She was arrested although everyone concerned in the case from the police down are certain that the shooting was wholly accidental.
* * * * *
Section 5 - Featured Bassett: Clay Bassett, Mayor of Citronelle, Alabama
Clay Bassett descends from #63B Thomas Bassett as follows:
Thomas Bassett
Hansford Bassett (b. 1809) and wife Susanna Harwell
William Howell Bassett (b. 1834) and wife Mary Ann Phelps
James Marion Bassett (b. 1866) and wife Carrie Little
William Hance Bassett (b. 1904) and wife Sarah Clay
Horace Clay Bassett
Mobile Register, Thursday, July 29, 1976
Press-Register, 25 Mar 2009
Horace Clay Bassett
BASSETT Horace Clay Bassett, age 79, of Citronelle, AL died Monday, March 23, 2009, at his residence. In his early years, Clay was in boxing and baseball leagues in Mobile and became a Staff Sergeant in the United States Army. After returning from duty, Clay began working with Southern Bell as a lineman. Shortly after he began individual contracting with the local oil field and later encroached into home and commercial contracting. Clay owned Bassett Ford, Ace Hardware, apartment complexes and many other small businesses throughout the years. To say he was a visionary would certainly be an understatement. Clay was currently the CEO of The Citmed Corporation and had been since 1986. He was an active real estate developer and served as a financial guidance counselor to many prospecting entrepreneurs. An avid civic leader, Clay was a member of the Kiwanis Club and Junior Chamber of Commerce. Clay served on the Citronelle City Council for four years and as Mayor of Citronelle for twenty years. He served on the Citronelle Water & Sewer Board for seven years and was founder and a director of South Alabama Utilities. Clay was a member of First Baptist Church - Citronelle and served as Chairman of the Board of Deacons, Finance Chairman and Sunday School Superintendent. He is preceded in death by his brother, Frank Bassett. He was a devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. He is survived by his wife of sixty years, Ruth Jones Bassett of Citronelle; Two Sons, Charlie (Terry) Bassett of Fairhope and John C. (Charmaine) Bassett of Citronelle; One Brother, Jimmy (Louise) Bassett of Austin, TX; Four Grandchildren, John Clay (Julie) Bassett, II, (Todd) Elizabeth Bassett McCain, (D.J.) Maree Bassett Landrum and Stefan (Kari) Glover; Six Great Grandchildren, Farrah, Jackson, Aynsley, AnnaBeth, Anderson and Baxter. A wake will be held from 6 PM to 8 PM on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at First Baptist Church - Citronelle where the funeral service will be held at 2PM on Thursday, March 26, 2009. Interment will be at Pine Crest Cemetery in Citronelle. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to First Baptist Church of Citronelle for construction of a porte-cochere. Freeman Funeral Home - Citronelle.
* * * * *
Section 6 - Featured Bassett: Major C.F. Bassett World War II Military Foot Locker
I have not yet identified this Major C.F. Bassett. This was recently for sale on ebay. Does anyone recognize the name?
I am pretty sure the 0-197726 is the World War II service number. C.E. means he was in the Army Corps of Engineers.
* * * * *
Section 7 - Featured Bassett: G.W. Bassett Golden Wedding Anniversary
George Washington Bassett descends from William Bassett of Plymouth as follows:
William Bassett and wife Elizabeth
Nathaniel Bassett (b. 1628) and wife Dorcas Joyce
Nathaniel Bassett and wife Joannah Borden
Nathaniel Bassett (b. 1704) and wife Mehitable Huntington
Elnathan Bassett (b. 1746) and wife Anne Southworth
Elnathan Bassett (b. 1790) and wife Luvia Buck
Gilbert Bingham Oscar Bassett (b. 1817) and wife Mary Smith
George Washington Bassett (b. 1845) and wife Alice Carey Lancaster
Golden Wedding Anniversary newspaper announcement
An Illustrated History of the Big Bend Country Embracing Lincoln, Douglas,
Adams and Franklin Counties, State of Washington (1904)
Hon. George W. Bassett, a leading business man of Washtucna, than whom few men now living have been more closely identified with the early history of the Northwest, is a native of Clinton county, Iowa, born December 31, 1845. He is the son of G.B.O. and Mary (Smith) Bassett, the father a native of Vermont and the mother of Canada. After their marriage the parents settled in Iowa, remained there until 1854, then removed to Filmore county, Minnesota, where they lived until 1866. With the Captain J.L. Fish expedition, they then removed to Helena, Montana, and in 1872 came to Walla Walla, Washington. They returned to Minnesota in 1878, where the father died during the same year. In 1889 the mother returned to Walla Walla, and now, at the age of eighty-seven, she is living with her son of whom we write. Our subject is of English, Welsh and Irish blood, his father having been of English-Welsh and his mother of Irish extraction. He is a member of a family of ten children, four of whom now live. Two brothers, Judge H.S. Bassett and G.B.O. Bassett, live at Preston, Minnesota, and another S.S. Bassett, is an attorney of Spokane.
Mr. Bassett received a grammar school education in Iowa, which was supplemented by a course in the Cedar Valley seminary at Osage, Iowa. In 1866, in company with his parents, he came to Montana, where he prospected and mined until he came to Walla Walla in 1869. During that same years he went on a tour to Salem, Oregon, and Olympia, Washington, then returned to Walla Walla and taught a term of school. The spring following he engaged in the business of buying horses in the territory of Washington and selling them in Montana, making his last trip in that business in 1872, when his father and mother returned with him to Walla Walla. Returning to Montana he engaged in mining until 1874. On August 24 of that year, he was married at Virginia City, Montana, to Alice C. Lancaster. Then he came again to Walla Walla and engaged in the freighting business, traversing Washington, Oregon and Idaho, until 1877, when he took a position as clerk in a store. Two years later he came to Washtucna, took land and in July, 1893, platted the townsite of Washtucna. In 1879 he brought his family to the place where he has since lived.
Upon coming to the present site of the town, he engaged in the stock business and has followed it, in connection with his other enterprises, to date. As Washtucna was a convenient stopping place for travellers going south to Walla Walla, Mr. Bassett opened an inn, about the time he made his home there, which inn became one of the most popular hostelries in eastern Washington. Mr. Bassett has acquired three thousand acres of land in the immediate vicinity of his town, and annually harvests and enormous quantity of grain and hay. His residence, which is in Washtucna, is the finest in the town.
Since the raising of wheat became an established industry of the country, our subject has been engaged more or less in speculating in that commodity. In 1901 he engaged in the hardware and farm implement business, but also continues to manage his farming operations.
Mr. Bassett's wife is the daughter of David and Mary (Pool) Lancaster, both of English birth. Early in life they came to the United States and settled in Michigan, where Mrs. Bassett was born. Besides Mrs. Bassett, they reared two other children, Gertrude A., and James W., both of Los Angeles, where the brother is an employee of the Wells Fargo Express Company.
The subject of our sketch has been active in politics ever since attaining his majority. He is a life-long Republican, and in 1885 he was elected to the office of county commissioner of Adams county, which office he held two consecutive terms. In 1882 he was appointed the first postmaster in Adams county, and retained that office until 1894. In 1903 he was elected a member of the State House of Representatives. He is a Mason and a member of the Presbyterian church.
Mr. and Mrs. Bassett have been parents of eight children, only four of whom are now living. They are L.L., married and living in Washtucna; Charles S., Esther and Georgia, who live with their parents.
* * * * *
Section 8 - New family lines combined or added since the last newsletter
The following family lines have been added since the last newsletter.
493B. William H. Bassett of San Jose, California (b. 1828)
494B. Ned Bassett of Sumter County, Alabama (b. 1864)
* * * * *
Section 9 - DNA project update
No new kits sent out this month.
Donations of any amount can be made to the Bassett DNA project by clicking
on the link below. Any funds donated will be used to fund select Bassett DNA
tests that will further our project as a whole and benefit all Bassetts worldwide.
