Notes |
- New York Herald
Sunday, January 20, 1900
Ninth Arrest For Wrecking Canal
Frank Bassett - Now in Jail in Rome, New York
Because of Recent Trouble in Forestport
Rome, New York - Saturday - Frank Bassett of Forestport, was arrested today in connection with the Forestport canal dam break. He is the ninth man ot be taken into custody on the charge of being concerned in wrecking the dam. Bassett was employed as a lock tender last year.
Excerpt from:
The Forestport Breaks: A Nineteenth Century Conspiracy Along the Black River
Frank Bassett was thirty-six years old, a canal bank watchman and occasional sawmill laborer with five children and a wife named May. He was of modest height and weighed about 175 pounds. A black-mustachioed, tobacco-using, eighteen-year resident of Forestport, he was regarded by his neighbors as honest and straitforward. He was trusted enough, after all, to have been named canal bank watchman. The Saturday evening arrest of Frank Bassett near his home on the Alder Creek road proved especially “heart-rending”, in the words of one reporter. His children were young and his wife, May, was vulnerable to trauma. Though not everyone knew it, her death records would show she was epileptic and could have a seizure in trying times. The distraught family watched helplessly in a driving rainstorm as Wetmore and a Pinkerton man put Bassett aboard a double sleigh led by two white ponies and took him away to jail. Everyone was miserably soaked by the time they arrived in Rome three hours later. Jailers placed Bassett in his jail cell and told him he was charged with causing the 1899 Forestport break.
On Monday, Utica attorney William Townsend sought a $5,000 bail for Bassett. Curtin agreed to it. Bassett was brought from Rome to Utica in anticipation of his release, and several propertied Forestport men indicated they would go his bail.
But then Bassett informed them Monday that he had already confessed to the Pinkertons, With that intelligence, Bassett’s ostensible friends, the lumbermen George Ainsworth and James Gallagher, turned around and returned to Forestport without him. If Bassett were spilling the beans, he could take care of his own affairs. Ainsworth and Gallagher, the Rome Daily Sentinel stated on 22 January, concluded that in light of his confession, “they had better keep their unencumbered property for the bonds of any others who might be arrested and from whom a confession could not be pumped.”
Forestport was closing ranks against outsiders. That night, a forlorn Bassett lamented to one of the Pinkerton detectives about the perversions of the bail system. Why was it that someone manly enough to confess his sins was not able to secure bail?
The Rome Daily Sentinel
Tuesday Evening, November 27, 1900
Bassett Goes to Prison
Frank Bassett, the Forestport feeder breaker, who was on Monday sentenced to Auburn prison for one year, was taken to the 11:09 train this morning by Deputy Sheriff Hugh P. Owens and turned over to Sheriff Buckley of Utica, who accompanied him to Auburn. Bassett was down-hearted and appeared to feel his position keenly. Before boarding the train he shook hands with Sheriff Owens and said: “I am going up there to behave myself so that I can get out as soon as possible and take care of my family.” Bassett has a wife and five children who are dependent on him for support.
Chief Detective H.W. Bearce of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who has so ably assisted District Attorney Curtin in bringing the Forestport feeder breakers to justice, has earned a deserved promotion, having been appointed over the agency in Philadelphia, as superintendent of the office in that city.
Rome Sentinel
New York
Monday Evening, September 20, 1948
Forestport
F.A. Bassett Expires at 83
FORESTPORT - Frank A. Bassett, 83, proprietor of the Forestport Hotel for many years, died Friday night at the Hines Nursing Home, Boonville. He had been ill for some time, and seriously ill for the past two months.
A native of Cohoes, he was born July 6, 1865, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Bassett, and came to Forestport as a young man.
On January 8, 1888, he married the former May Agnes Rockwell, Forestport. She died October 20, 1932.
After his arrival in Forestport, he followed the occupation of lumbering, and later conducted the Alder Creek Hotel for several years. After selling this property, he conducted the local hotel.
Surviving are four sons, Elmer F., George J. and Clarence E., Forestport, and F. Wade, Fulton; two daughters, Mrs. Lena L. Wickham and Mrs. Laura G. Rogers, Utica; and a sister, Mrs. Rose Demarest, Green Island.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. at the home of his son, Clarence E., Forestport. Burial, in charge of C.W. Trainor, will be in Alder Creek Cemetery.
1880 Federal Census of Cohoes, Albany County, New York (June 11, 1880)
Anthony Bassett - 42 - Male - CN-IR-VT - Head - Laborer
Mary - 36 - Female - NY-IR-VT - Wife - Housekeeper
James - 20 - Male - CN-IR-VT - Son - Laborer
Frank - 16 - Male - NY-IR-VT - Son - Laborer
Schuyler - 14 - Male - NY-IR-VT - Son - Work Cotton Mill
Rosa - 10 - Female - NY-IR-VT - Daughter - At School
George - 7 - Male - NY-IR-VT - Son - At School
John - 6 - Male - NY-IR-VT - Son
Exiana - 5 - Female - NY-IR-VT - Daughter
(IR - Ireland, CN - Canada)
1910 Federal Census of Forestport, Oneida County, New York (April 15, 1910)
Frank Bassett - 44 - Male - NY-CF-UN- Head - Laborer Saw Mill
Mary - 39 - Female - NY-NY-NY - Wife
Elmer - 20 - Male - NY-NY-NY - Son - Laborer Car Shop
George - 18 - Male - NY-NY-NY - Son - Laborer Saw Mill
Wade - 16 - Male - NY-NY-NY - Son
Lena - 14 - Female - NY-NY-NY - Daughter
Laura - 11 - Female - NY-NY-NY - Daughter
Stuart - 7 - Male - NY-NY-NY - Son
Clarence - 4 - Male - NY-NY-NY - Son
Warren - 2 - Male - NY-NY-NY - Son
(Married 21 years, 8 children, 8 living)
(CF - French Canadian, UN - Unknown)
1930 Federal Census of Forestport, Oneida County, New York (April 24, 1930)
Frank Bassett - 65 - Male - NY-NY-NY - Head - Laborer Hotel
Mary A. - 60 - Female - NY-NY-NY - Wife
Clarence - 25 - Male - NY-NY-NY - Son - Laborer Common
Warren - 23 - Male - NY-NY-NY - Son - Laborer Common
(Living on East River Road)
(Married at 25 and 19)
1940 Federal Census of Forestport, Oneida County, New York (April 9, 1940)
Frank Bassett (Widow) - 74 - Male - Head - Cohoes, New York - Retired Hotel Keeper
|