Truman Bassett descends from #1B John Bassett of Connecticut as follows:
John Bassett and wife Margery
Robert Bassett and wife Mary
Robert Bassett (b. 1640) and wife Elizabeth Riggs
Captain Samuel Bassett (b. 1692) and wife Deborah Bennett
Lieut. John Bassett (b. 1721) and wife Naomi Wooster
Truman Bassett (b. 1764) and wife Annie Pangbourne
Chatham Courier, Thursday, July 26, 1956
Few Problems Faced Chatham Farmer Who Tilled 1,600 Acres in 1790’s
By Ed Streeter
Four miles northeast of the village of Chatham is a small community known as Rock City. How it got its name is not certain because the land is fertile and has been tilled for more than a century and a half.
One of the large landowners who settled this section was Major Truman Bassett, an officer in the New York State Militia before the Revolutionary War. He received a grant of 1,600 acres from the British crown and built his residence on the present site of the Highland Farm now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Edgar H. Behrens.
An industrious and capable farmer, the major soon constructed log cabins on the outskirts of his farm and here resided more than a dozen tenants who worked the soil.
To give the modern day reader an idea of the size of Major Bassett’s farming interests, it should be noted that he owned, in addition to the Highland Farm, the properties now occupied by the Skinkle farm, the Quirine place, Donald Crouse’s farm, Dr. George Cummings’ place, the Frank Savastane and Elada Senith farms.
Also the Marshall and Lovejoy farms now owned by Columbia Box Board Mills, the Linthart Stearns, James Salzell, the Peter Bolce, the Ooms and George Staats farms.
PLOWED WITH OXEN
In 1790 the men who were employed by Major Bassett were of plain manners and frugal habits, well adapted to their occupation. They plowed the fields with oxen, planted their grain by hand, cut the crops with cradle or scythe and did the threshing by the strength of their arms. Fuel was supplied from the woods and lights were furnished by candles or kerosene lamps. Many of the woodlands of today were once fields where thousands of sheep were raised. These animals supplied wool that went into making of cloth for the entire family. At one time there were 138 looms in and around Chatham that turned out 73,000 yard of cloth each year.
Major Bassett had few of the problems facing the farmer of today. He kept only a few cows for his own use and what grain he raised was transported by ox carts to the mills along the Steeny Kill at Chatham Four Corners.
There were few visitors at the farm except for an occasional pack peddler selling his wares. In the 1870’s, William Rogowski of Chatham, toured the back roads of the county and James Snyder of Valatie had 19 tin pedlar carts on the roads. Lewis Dennis, father of Mrs. Jessie Dennis of Chatham, drove one of these wagons.
In the 1790’s there were no railroad in Chatham Township, and no postoffice until 1818 at which time Ebenezer Crockett was appointed the first postmaster. Mail was brought by post riders who carried a few newspapers and letters in their saddle bags.
DIDN’T DIE YOUNG
The Bassett family grew and prospered on the rolling hills of Rock City. Their children attended school in a one-room building which stood near the present Rock City school. The good air and healthy outdoor life of farming evidently gave the Bassetts a few added years. John Bassett, born August 1807, died October 1887 at the age of 80; his wife, Jane, was born in 1808 and died in February 1898, aged 88; Bennett, a son of Truman, died in 1875 and Anna, Truman’s wife, who was born in 1769 breathed her lst in 1858 at the advanced age of 89. There is no record in our local histories of the date of Major Truman Bassett’s death.
Sarah Bassett was the last of the family to reside in Rock City. A great granddaughter of old Truman, she purchased a farm of 299 acres in 1876 for $2,600. The original home is now destroyed but a second house on the site was built 45 years ago by Dr. Fay Maxon of Hartford, Conn., and is now occupied by Mr. Quirino.
The last descendants of the family who lived in Chatham were the late Mrs. Wilson Terry and Mrs. Guy M. Hoes. They were the daughters of Nathan Bassett. They family which once held sway over miles of Chatham territory is gone and they now sleep in the Chatham Rural Cemetery. The good land at Rock City is still being tilled, however, and it still yields the same excellent crops as it did in the days when Major Truman Bassett gave up the sword for the plowshare.