Bassett Family Association Database

Colonel Allan Lee Bassett

Male 1827 - 1892  (65 years)


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  • Name Allan Lee Bassett 
    Prefix Colonel 
    Born 28 Feb 1827  Near Birmingham, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    _UID F7CC5A0779E1424A87CF888C578E48B35446 
    Died 14 Dec 1892  Newark, Essex County, New Jersey Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Notes 
    • New York Herald Tribune
      December 15, 1892
      Allen L. Bassett
      Allen L. Bassett, president of the Board of Trade of Newark, died at his house, No. 17 Clinton avenue, Newark, yesterday, in his sixty-sixth year, from pleura-pneumonia. Mr. Bassett was born in Derby, a suburb of New Haven, Connecticut. Before he was of age he went to New York City and there engaged in the wholesale and jobbing hardware business until the war broke out, when he became Captain of Company D, 23rd Regiment, New York Volunteers, and served as such until after the battle of Gettysburg. Impaired health compelled him to resign his commission. In 1879 he went to Newark. Within a few years, he organized and became the first president of the Prudential Insurance Company. He remained with that company four years, and then associated himself, as resident manager, with the Metropolitan Industrial Insurance Company, of New York. This position he held at his death. Mr. Bassett became a member of the Newark Board of Trade in June, 1880, and was soon one of its most active and useful members. He was vice-president and president in 1887 and 1888, and was elected again as president that year. Mr. Bassett was a Republican, and he spoke for the party in many campaigns, but the only office he ever held was that of Coroner. He left a widow and two children. The latter are Carroll Phillips Bassett, a civil engineer, and Allena Bassett.

      New York Times
      Decembr 15, 1892
      Col. Allan Lee Bassett
      Col. Allan Lee Bassett, a well-known citizen of Newark, New Jersey, died at his home there yesterday of pneumonia. He was born in Derby, Connecticut, in February, 1827. In 1865 he removed to Newark and went into the real estate business. At one time he was President of the County Republican Committee, and when he died he was President of the Newark Board of Trade. He served in the rebellion as Colonel of the Twenty-third Regiment, N.G.S.N.J. He was a distant relative of President Harrison.

      Cyclopedia of New Jersey Biography (1923)
      Bassett, Allan Lee - Soldier, Editor, Underwriter
      Allan Lee Bassett was born on the family farm in New Haven county, near Derby, Connecticut, on February 28, 1827. His ancestors were of old Puritan stock. John Bassett, the first of his paternal line in this country, came to New Haven from England in 1642, and many of his descendants were prominent in the colonial life of New England, being landowners, farmers, educators, legislators and soldiers. His maternal ancestors were no less distinguished. His mother, Nancy Lee, was a descendant in the sixth generation of John Eliot, the Apostle, who emigrated in 1631 from England to Massachusetts, where he made himself famous not only for his learning but for his labors and sufferings as a missionary among the Indians.
      The parents of Allan desired to educate him for a professional career, as in the case of his brothers, Eliot and Benjamin, who were graduates of Yale College; one becoming a clergyman and the other physician. Accordingly, young Allan was sent to Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, where he received sound preparation for college. His enterprising spirit and eager desire to take part in the busy scenes of life could not, however, brook the delay incident to a college course, and at the age of eighteen he went to New York City to enter the commercial house of his uncle, Benjamin Franklin Lee, as a clerk. During the succeeding twenty years he was actively engaged in commercial affairs, organized and successfully conducted the firm of Bassett & Mace, manufacturers and wholesale dealers in twine and hardware.
      When the Civil War broke out he organized a military company known as the Brooklyn Greys, of which he was made captain. It was attached under the name of Company D to the Twenty-third Regiment, National Guard of the State of New York, and took part in quelling the New York riots and in the battle of Gettysburg. He remained at the head of the company until the close of the war, when he returned to his home in Brooklyn, disposed of his business, resigned his commission in the regiment, and with his family removed to Irvington, New Jersey. In May, 1866, he established the "Northern Monthly and New Jersey Magazine," of which he was editor and sole proprietor. Its editorial department furnishes evidence of Captain Bassett's good judgement and literary taste as a writer. Two years of close application in this editorial work induced him to sell "The Magazine" to the Putnams of New York, and it was thereafter published as "Putnam's Magazine and Northern Monthly".
      Soon after abandoning the editorial chair in 1870, he engaged in the real estate business. The financial panic which took place during the following two years drove all land speculators from the market and with them went his occupation as well as a large share of his earnings. On the return of better times in 1875, he organized the Prudential Insurance Company, now one of the most important institutions of its kind in the country. He became its first president, and largely through his efforts the company was placed upon the basis which made possible the wonderful success which has followed. But differences of opinion arising in the conduct of its affairs, he withdrew in 1879 and associated himself with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York, and continued throughout the remainder of his life to occupy a position as superintendent in New Jersey, making Newark his residence.
      Captain Bassett was a staunch Republican, and for several years chairman of the Essex County Republican Committee. He was always among the foremost in enterprises whose aim was the welfare of the community in which he lived. He was a prominent and influential member of the Board of Trade of the City of Newark, and was elected as its president for four terms, an honor without precedent in that organization. He was also a member of the Washington Association, which was established for the purpose of purchasing and preserving Washington's Headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey. In the New Jersey Historical Society he also manifested much interest, and labored zealously to secure a fireproof building for its valuable collections. From early life he was an earnest, consistent Christian, active in every good work. His genial nature endeared him to every one who knew him, and his wonderful energy and executive abilities gave him prominence in every movement, public or private, in which he took part.
      In December, 1853, Captain Bassett married Caroline, daughter of John Phillips, M.D. of Bristol, Pennsylvania. Six children were born to them, four of whom and their mother died during his residence in Brooklyn.
      Captain Bassett died at his home in Newark, New Jersey, on December 14, 1892. He is survived by a daughter, Allena, wife of Reverend John Balcom Shaw, D.D., LL.D., president of Elmira College, New York; and a son, Carroll P. Bassett, of Summit, New Jersey.

      1870 Federal Census of Clinton, Essex County, New Jersey (6 Jun 1870)
      Allan L. Bassett - 42 - M - Connecticut - Farmer 36,000
      Anna S. - 42 - F - New York - Housekeeping
      Allena - 9 - F - Connecticut - At home 4500 2000
      Carroll D. - 7- M - Connecticut - At home 4500 2000

      1880 Federal Census of Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
      Allen L. Bassett - 53 - M - CT-CT-CT - Head - Insurance
      Annie S. - 52 - F - NY-IR-IR - Wife
      Allena P. - 19 - F - NY------ - Daughter
      Carrol P. - 17 - M - NY------ - Son - At college
      Sarah M. Trimm - 45 - F - IR-EN-IR - Other
      Austin H. Striker - B - 14 - M - NY-NJ-NJ - Other
    Person ID I683  1B John Bassett of Connecticut
    Last Modified 9 Dec 2012 

    Father John Bassett,   b. 1779,   d. 16 Aug 1858, Derby, New Haven County, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 79 years) 
    Mother Nancy Atwater Lee 
    Married 1809 
    Family ID F112  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Caroline Phillips,   b. 1828,   d. 1865  (Age 37 years) 
    Married Dec 1853 
    Children 
     1. Bassett
     2. Bassett
     3. Bassett
     4. Bassett
    +5. Allena Bassett,   b. Abt 1861, Brooklyn, New York Find all individuals with events at this location
    +6. Carroll Phillips Bassett,   b. 27 Feb 1863, Brooklyn, New York Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Jan 1952  (Age 88 years)
    Family ID F266  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 2 Annie Smith (Hannah) Richards,   b. Abt 1828, New York City, New York Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 5 Mar 1899, Manhattan, New York City, New York Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 71 years) 
    Married 1866 
    Family ID F499  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart