| Notes |
- Joel Bean Bassett went to Minneapolis and accumulated a large property.
The 1850 census shows him with his brother Philip Bassett in Minnesota.
1850 Territorial Census for Washington County, Minnesota - pages 90 and 91 - (6 Sep 1850)
Phillip Bassett - 27 - M - New York - Farmer
Hannah - 22 - F - New York
Joel B. - 32 - M - New York
Charles A. - 4 - M - New Hampshire
George F. - 2 - M - Minnesota
1860 Federal Census of 2nd W., Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota (12 Nov 1860)
Joel Bassett - 43 - M - New Hampshire - Lumberman 10,000 500
Aurelia - 41 - F - Maine
Wm. - 6 - M - Minnesota - School
Julia Chase - 15 - F - Maine - School
Dudley Chase - 39 - M - Maine - Laborer
George Rusk - 21 - M - New Hampshire - Clerk
Washington Carpenter - 21 - M - Maine - Sawyer
Elias Carpenter - 25 - M - Maine - Teamster
Isabell Patterson - 23 - F - Ireland - School
Los Angeles Herald, Volume 34, Number 165, March 16, 1907
Capitalist Celebrates Ninetieth Birthday
J.B. Bassett, a wealthy capitalist, formerly from Minneapolis, celebrated his ninetieth birthday yesterday at the home of Mrs. Maria Heap, 2703 Brighton avenue.
Mr. Bassett received many congratulations from old friends, including Colonel John Sobieski, who has been acquainted with him for many years.
After amassing a fortune Mr. Bassett sold out his business interests in the east eight years ago and for the past seven years has provided for as many homes for his former employes, giving each one his check for $500, with the agreement that the present employer supply the remainder.
Mr. Bassett is in good health and expects to end his day in the City of the Angels.
Bassett Creek (Golden Valley, Minnesota)
Bassett Creek, flowing through the village area of Golden Valley and the city of Minneapolis, was named for Joel Bean Bassett, an early settler and lumberman, who was born in Wolfborough, N.H., March 17, 1817, and died in Los Angeles, Calif., February 1, 1912. He came to Minnesota in 1849, settling in St. Paul, but soon preempted a tract adjoining the Mississippi in Minneapolis, near the mouth of this creek; removed there in 1852 and afterward engaged in lumbering and flour milling; was a member of the territorial council, 1857; was Indian agent for Minnesota 1865-69.
History of the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota (1893)
Joel B. Bassett.
The Bassett family belongs to the French Huguenot stock. After St. Bartholomew, some of its members passed to the British islands, whence they joned the emigration which brought exiles from religious intolerance and persecution to the American colonies. The town records of Lynn, Mass., show the name among the citizens of that town as early as 1640, and the family records indicate that they remained there some years after the close of the Revolutionary war, whence they removed to New Hampshire.
In the early part of the present century Daniel Bassett, Sr., was a resident of Wolfboro, Stafford County, N.H. He cultivated a farm, and having been raised with religious principles promulgated by George Fox, he cultivated the gift within him, as the spirit gave him utterance, in the earnest but simple worship of the Society of Friends. He was uncompromising in his religious and political opinions. He was an early anti-slavery man, manumitting by a formal deed a slave that the laws of his state allowed him to hold as a chattel. In politics he was a Federalist, firmly supporting the Adams, and when the Whig party took the sucession, followed the fortunes and teachings of Clay and Webster, until it in turn was merged into the Republican organization.
The state of New Hampshire was Democratic from its organization until the year 1850. Franklin Pierce and John G. Atherton had full control of the Democratic party in the state, and distributed the federal and state patronage among their supporters. The question of slavery entered largely into political discussions. When John P. Hale, Mason W. Tappan and Daniel Bassett, Jr., with their associates, undertook to wrest the state from the Democratic party, and succeeded in electing a Republican governor and sent John P. Hale to the United States Senate, no man in the state did more to bring about the political revolution than the last named of the above.
Joel B. Bassett was born at Wolfboro, New Hampshire, in 1817, being the son of Daniel Bassett, Sr.
His early life was laborious, and frugal, being passed upon the rugged farm, which he assisted his father and brothers to cultivate. His scholastic advantages were such as the country school afforded, and an academy located in the village adjacent to the farm, which he attended about two years. He was endowed with a mind eager for the acquisition of knowledge, and with a keen perception of facts and occurrences passing before him, so that by reading and observations he acquired a general education in practical things. Throughout his busy life he has been an omniverious reader of the news of the day, of periodical literature, and of books of science, history, and the practical arts. He has at his home one of the most extensive and valuable private libraries to be found in the city, where he spends much of his leisure time.
As was customary with New England boys, young Bassett, remained at home, assisting his father in the labor of the farm until he reached his majority. He then went to the state of Maine and engaged in lumbering, working in the pineries, on the rivers, and in the mills for twelve years. During this time he was united in marriage with Miss Carpenter, who has been his life companion until one year ago, when she passed away. The only child of the marriage is W.L. Bassett, who was born and received his training and education in Minneapolis. He graduated with much eclat at the Minnesota State University, and after spending one year at Ann Arbor in the University of Michigan, in the law department, he engaged with his father in the management of the extensive lumber business of J.B. Bassett & Co.
Mr. Bassett arrived in St. Anthony in 1850, at about the same time as Isaac Atwater, Edward Murphy, Allen Harmon, C.W. Christmas, J.P. Wilson, Joseph Dean, Thomas Chambers, George W. Chowen and W.W. Wales, all pioneers, whose names are spoken with reverance by all the old residents of the city.
It will be remembered that at the time of his arrival, and for about five years afterwards, the lands on the west side of the Mississippi river, now adjacent to the falls, were covered by the military reservation, and lawful settlements could not be made on them. Regarding the claim made by him, Col. Stevens says in his "Personal Recollections", "Joel B. Bassett took up a quarter section above the creek that bears his name and immediately on the bank of the river. Having perfected his arrangements in the fall of 1851, in regard to it, at Fort Snelling, he moved on to it in May, 1852, and for several years, and in fact until it became too valuable for that purpose, occupied it exclusively for farming. He was as good a farmer as he has since proved to be a lumberman and business man". The truth of this commendation is evident from the fact mentioned by the same chronicler, that at the second annual fair of the Territorial Agricultural Society, held on the 17th of October, 1855, "for the first time in the history of the Upper Mississippi valley the dairy was represented by a good display of cheese, the product of Mrs. J.B. Bassett". This farm, which really contained but 140 acres, was sold in 1856 to Messrs Bradford and Garland to be platted into town lots. The price realized was $250 per acre, an advance not excelled in any of the more recent real estate booms of the town.
The creek which took its name from the first settler on its banks, the outlet of Medicine lake, which wound its tortuous course through the city, in a deep and rugged chasm, has long since disappeared from view, its waters swallowed by sewers, or finding their way to the river through arched masonary, and the gorge through which they then flowed, filled and leveled, is crossed by numerous railroad tracks and level streets, and is the site of elevators, warehouses, and business blocks.
While Mr. Bassett was cultivating his farm, he found time to pursue the occupation of earlier years, in the pineries, and on the river. Indeed he commenced the lumber business in some of its ruder forms, almost as soon as he had established himself in his new home - a busines which he has continued with scarcely an interruption, and at times on a gigantic scale. Pine lands, camps in the woods, drives, booms, saw mills, planers, lumber yards, have been his occupation, and their management, to his active habit and energetic mind, a diversion.
At the first county election, held in the fall of 1852, he was elected probate judge of the county. The election for the first and only time in the history of the county was unanimous, each candidate for a county office receiving seventy-one votes, the number constituting pretty nearly the entire population of the county, which then did not include St. Anthony. In February of the following year the Hennepin County Agricultural Society was incorporated by an act of the Territorial Legislature, and Judge Bassett was made one of its incorporators.
In 1854 Judge Bassett was nominated by the Whigs of the county as their candidate for member of the Territorial Council, but was not elected.
The following year he was nominated for member of the Territorial Council. He received a majority of the votes of Hennepin County, but his opponent, D.M. Hanson carried Carver County, whch belonged to the council district, by a sufficient majority to overcome Judge Bassett's majority in Hennepin County. Mr. Hanson died during his term of office, whereupon his former opponent was elected to a seat in the Territorial Council. During the session of the legislature Judge Bassett, ever attentive to the needs of his constituents, obtained a charter for the Mississippi & Rum River Boom Company. The company immediately organized and commenced the improvements which were so essential to the prosecution of the lumber trade. It has expended over $500,000 in improvements, employs from one to two hundred men, receives the logs driven into the Mississippi river at Brainard, drives them to its booms, and delivers them to the respective owners. Of this company Mr. Bassett is and for many years has been the president.
At the organization of a county government Judge Bassett was appointed one of the county commissioners, and assisted in dividing its territory into towns and giving them the names they now bear.
Judge Bassett was one of the notable band, who met in St. Anthony in 1856 and organized the Republican party in Minnesota. He had been an old line Whig, but his radical views on the slavery question impelled him to throw himself with zeal into the new party whose watchword was "freedom". Soon afterwards he purchased of W.A. Hotchkiss, its proprietor, the "Minnesota Democrat", and changed it to a Republican paper. Besides the offices already named, Judge Bassett was for a number of times elected to the city council, where his knowledge and practical views were of great service in organizing the rapidly growing departments of city administration.
The most important civil office which he has held was that of United States agent for the Chippewa Indians. It was conferred upon him in 1866 by President Andrew Jackson, and held for three years. During his administration of the office he brought about a treaty between the Chippewas of the Mississippi and the government, and thirty-six township of land in the western part of the state were set aside for the occupancy of the Indians, to which are now being removed all the Chippewa Indians in the State. During the term he built forty houses, a saw mill, a flouring mill, broke one thousand acres of land, and removed five hundred Indians to their new home. This land known as the White Earth reservation is well adapted for Indian civilization, and is destined to become the home of all the Indian tribes in the state, where the experiment of educating and civilizing them appears to be successful.
Though not a military office, the title of major has generally been attached to the holder of the Indian Agency, and Mr. Bassett did not escape, having been spoken of ever since he held the office as Major Bassett.
An enumeration of the most considerable of the business enterprises which he conducted, or has been largely interested in, will show the activity of his mind, and the practical character of his life.
As early as 1855 he built a steam saw mill on the river bank, at the mouth of the creek. This was destroyed by fire three years later. He then built the Pioneer mill on the dam of the Minneapolis Mill Company, which was operated by hydralic power. In 1857 he erected the first brick block in the city. It was at the corner of First street and Sixth avenue north. In 1859 he built a pail and tub factory, in which was manufactured all the pails, tubs, churns, wash boards, and half bushel measures that were used in Minnesota and northern Wisconsin, besides supplying large quantities to all the river towns as far as St. Louis.
In 1869 the Pioneer mill was sold, and a new one built on the site of the present city water works. Subsequently the ground occupied by this mill was sold to the city, and a new and larger saw mill was built on the river bank to the foot of Fifth avenue which was also operated by water power from the mill company's dam. This mill is still in operation, by the present firm of J.B. Bassett & Co. The firm also has a planing mll and lumber yard on Superior avenue adjacent to the tracks of the Minneapolis & St. Louis railroad.
In 1882 the Columbia Mill Co. was organized, of which Major Bassett was the principal stockholder, and the Columbia flour mill was built. It has a daily capacity of two thousand barrels of flour, and its product is among the best brands of flour sent out from the "Flour City".
Besides his own large interests in the flour manufacture of the city, Major Bassett is vice president of the Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company, which has a daily capacity to produce nine thousand barrels of flour.
As though these business enterprises were not sufficient to occupy his attention, Major Bassett has been for many years president of the Minneapolis Lumberman's Association, is an active member of the Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce. He was president of the Minneapolis Eastern Railroad Company for several years, and is now president of the Minneapolis Western Railroad Company. He has been largely instrumental in the removal of the threshing machine works from Fond du Lac to this city.
In the early days Minneapolis was noted for its spirited public meetings, to discuss local measures and even public questons. In those assemblies, which used to remind the writer of the strenous and turbulent meetings of the Athenian Democracy, the voice of Major Bassett was not seldom heard. He is a forcible public speaker, not in elegant phrase, or rhetorical periods, but in strong, homely common sense, and not unfrequently pointed with pretty sharp sarcasm. In conversation he is copious and full of suggestive ideas, the fruit of much reading, wide observation, and a restless intellect.
Major Bassett has a strong frame, is erect and active, and bears the weight of seventy-five years, without sensible abatement of vigor. His manner is abrupt, sometimes almost harsh, but the roughness is only the shaggy shell which surrounds a kernal of kind and sympathetic feeling. He has the sturdy principles of the Puritan, softened by the kindly training of a Quaker ancestry, but engrafted on a spirit little regardful of conventionalites, and chafing at the dogmatism of the orthodox church. His religious views are liberal and tolerant, believing that all the differenct sects are working, each in its own way, to better the condition of mankind. Though not identified with any particular church, he contributes liberally to the support of many. His creed is that broad expression of human brotherhood, which would do good to all manknd without distinction of nationality, race or color. His practice has ever been to do with his might whatever his hands may find to do. His life has been one of no common activity and energy. Minneapolis is filled with monuments of his enterprise, for his hands helped to lay the foundation stones of her civil structure, and have never been idle, while the magnificent fabric of her greatness has been reared.
The Pioneer mill did not long stand alone on the mill company's dam, as Leonard Day proceeded to build at once, and finished his mill in the fall of 1858, just after the mill of Bassett & Co., was completed. Mr. Day operated his mill until it was bought by the mill company. These two mills occupied the dam until 1862, when in that year W.E. Jones built a mill next to Leonard Day's. Mr. Jones sold his mill to Crooker Bros. & Lamoreaux in 1871. In 1863, Ankeny, Robinson & Clement (afterward Ankeny, Robinson & Pettit) built the fourth mill, and operated it until the mill company took it off their hands. D. Morrison built the fifth mill, and operated it until 1870, when his sons, George and Clinton Morrison succeeded to the ownership under the firm name of Morrison Bros. In 1876 they sold half of it to the Eastern Railroad company, and the balance to the mill company. W.D. Washburn built the sixth mill in 1865, and called it the Lincoln mill. Previous to this time he had his logs sawed by the thousand. He stocked his mill until 1873, when he sold it to Emerson Cole, and Cole & Hammond operated the mill until it was bought by the Minneapolis Mill Company.
In issuing leases to the six mills occupying the mill company's dam, the mill company retained a proviso that whenever, in its judgement, the time had arrived for the removal of the mills from the dam, it should have the privilege of purchasing them at an appraised valuation, and take possession at the end of any term of five years.
In 1876, the mill company came to the conclusion that the increase in the manufacture of flour warranted it in using all the water belonging to the water power for that industry; consequently the saw mills occupying the mill dam would have to be moved; so the mill company took advantage of its option in the leases, and as the various leases of the six mills expired declined to renew them and bought the property, and after leasing by the year for a few years dismantled the mills, until now all that remains of the six mills are the stone foundations.
In 1866-67, J.B. Bassett & Co. built the stone building now used as the city water works, and put in a saw mill in the lower story and a pail tub factory in the second story. In 1878 they built a wooden addition to the mill, adjoining on the north. The city authorities having decided to move the water works from the building now known as the Holly mill, purchased the saw mill building of Bassett & Co. in 1872, removed the top story and remodeled the building into the present city water works. Bassett & Co. moved their saw mill into the wooden part of the building immediately adjoining the water works. In 1880 the city purchased another piece of land of Bassett & Co. adjoining the water works, and they moved their mill to the lot adjoining on the north and built the present structure occupied as a saw mill, and operated it until 1890, when the mill was re-built and re-furnished. In 1882, Mr. Gilpatrick retired from the firm of J.B. Bassett & Co., and Mr. W.L. Bassett, the son of the remaining partner, took his place, and has since managed the business. Mr. J.B. Bassett, has, undoubtedly, been engaged in the manufacture of lumber more years consecutively than any other individual manufacturer in Minneapolis.
In 1862 Jos. Dean concluded to enter the lumber business. He sold the sash, door and blind factory, he had just purchased of Mr. Morey, to J.G. Smith. A few years previous to this the Messrs Harrison, consisting of W.M., T.A. and H.G. Harrison had been engaged in the milling business in Illinois, and having sold out just before the commencement of the War of the Rebellion, they moved to Minneapolis and brought considerable capital with them. They became associated with Mr. Dean under the firm name of J. Dean & Co. The citizens of Minneapolis were astonished at the audacity of the firm, in purchasing an entire block of ground, on which to pile lumber, bounded by First and Second streets and First and Second avenues south. The purchase price being $500 per lot, which seemed a very extravagant price to those of the citizens of Minneapolis who had passed through the panic of 1857 and 1858. The copartnership was completed in 1863, and an office was opened on the corner of First avenue south and Third street, on the ground now occupied by the Union National Bank. Soon after the organization of the firm, logs were purchased and sawed by the thousand in the St. Anthony water power Co.'s mills on the east side of the river. The firm continued to have its logs sawed by the thousand for the next three years, and in 1866 proceeded to build the Pacific mill at the foot of First avenue north on the river bank, and at the time it was built, it was the largest and most complete saw mill in Minneapolis. This mill was run by J. Dean & Co. unil 1876, when it was sold to Camp & Walker. In 1870 the firm built the Atlantic mill at the mouth of Bassett's creek, but this mill was only run for two years and burned March 29, 1872.
After J. Dean & Co. sold the Pacific mill in 1876 they decided to quit the lumber business, and immediately proceeded to close out their lumber and pine lands, and organized the Security Bank. While they were operating they carried on the largest business in the manufacture of lumber, at the Falls of St. Anthony.
History of Wolfeborough, New Hampshire
Parker (1901)
John Bassett came from Lynn, Mass., in 1790, and settled on a lot of land which has ever since been known as the Bassett farm. The buildings were erected at a considerable distance from the main road, the location where they stood being now approached by Mill Street, which has been somewhat recently opened. During the management of affairs by his grandson, Daniel Bassett Jr., the two-story part of the house was removed to North Main Street, and is now, with a portion of the farm, owned and occupied by the heirs of the late Abel Haley. The one-story part still remains with another portion of the farm where the buildings were first erected. Mr. Bassett's children were: Daniel, married Abigail Bean; John, married Ruth Wiggin; Lydia, married Samuel Newell; Hannah, married Joseph Varney; Sally; married Jonathan Buffum; Rebecca, married William Lyons.
Daniel, the eldest son, succeeded his father in the management of the farm, becoming a successful farmer. He spent most of his active life in Wolfeborough, but in old age accompanied his son, Daniel Bassett, Jr., to Minnesota, whither some of his children had previously emigrated. Following is a list of his children: John, went west when a young man; Hannah, married Amos Jones, of Gilmanton; Joel, went to Minneapolis and accumulated a large property; Daniel, married Jane Campney; Philip, went west; Ursula, married Joseph Canney, of Dover.
Daniel Bassett Jr.'s children were Abbie Susan, born Feb. 14, 1846, and Maria Jane, born Sept. 22, 1849. Mr. Bassett remained in Wolfeborough until middle age, and was thrifty; he then went to Minneapolis, and became wealthy. He was quite active in his adopted home politically and financially. His decease occurred in 1899.
John Bassett, second son of John the settler, was a farmer and school-teacher. For twenty-eight successive years he had charge of winter district schools, and during that period taught a few terms in the summer. He became the owner of a farm on the borders of Wolfeborough and Tuftonborough, the dividing line between the two towns passing through his house. Here he resided a number of years, but afterwards purchased the Thomas-Townsend-Fox-Tuttle farm, now occupied by his son George W. Bassett. His son John Newell Bassett then took possession of the Wolfeborough-Tuftonborough farm, where he reared a family consisting of one son, Charles S., who now lives on the farm, and two daughters. Mr. Bassett married Ruth Wiggin, a daughter of James Wiggin, and had children as follows: Daniel W., born Feb. 5, 1812, died young; John N., born March 2, 1815, married Lydia Langley; Charles D., born May 13, 1816, went west; Ruth, born May 7, 1820, married Isaac Lovering, of Freedom; Gulielma, born Jan. 28, 1822, married Jacob K. Purington, of Dover; James, born Sept. 23, 1825, west to Boston; George W., born March 28, 1829, married Roxanna Fullerton. George W. Bassett has three children, James A., Emma, and Clara.
The Duluth Evening Herald, Friday, June 28, 1895
Stealing Is What Several Big Lumbermen Are Charged With by Uncle Sam
And They Will have to pay $467.474.34 and Interest
Government Has Been Looking It Up for Two and a Half Years
St. Paul, June 28 ? The United States, in an action brought today in the circuit court by Special Counsel John E. Stryker, alleges that a number of the most prominent lumbermen of Minnesota have, without any warrant, been devastating the northern part of the state, denuding the territory of its timber, and that they must pay the full market value of the lumber to the amount of $467,474.34 and interest.
The defendants are: The Pine River Logging and Improvement company; Joel B. Bassett and William L. Bassett, co-partners as J.B. Bassett & Co.; John C. Pillsbury and Charles A. Smith, co-partners as C.. Smith & Co.
The technical offense is conversion, and the charge is that they unlawfully entered on the territory within the Mississippi and Winnebegoshish reservations and systematically cut the timber and converted the same to their own uses.
The timber has been worked into lumber of the value given. The government has been working up the case for two and one-half years.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1817 - 1912 (94 years)