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<\/a>Gravestone of Herman Sherman Bassett<\/p>\nA History Of The State Of Washington
\nLloyd Spencer, 1937
\nVolume III
\nThe Harrington Citizen: Herman S. Bassett<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Back at the turn of the century, in 1898 to be exact, one Jim Goodwin started the \u201cHarrington Citizen\u201d in the Lincoln County town of the same name. Less than a decade later it was purchased by Herman S. Bassett, by whom it has since been published, with the exception of an interim, when he sold to Robert E. Gay, worked for him, then bought back. It is probable that the long life of the \u201cCitizen\u201d and the length of time it has been published by one man, constitutes something of a record for Washington smaller town newspapers. This journal is a weekly, of approximately five hundred circulation, and is Independent Republican in its politics and thoroughly modern and constructive in its editorial policy.<\/p>\n
Herman S. Bassett, born in Virginia, October 27, 1869, came to Washington with his parents Wilbur Fiske and Adelia Lenora (Lewis) Bassett, the year after his birth. The family history has an appeal to anyone interested in the pioneers of the Pacific Northwest. Both father and mother were natives of Hartford, and New Haven, Connecticut, and Wilbur Fiske Bassett, a Yale student, was one of the original \u201cForty-Niners\u201d who crossed the continent by ox-team to find fortune along the watercourses of California. He placer mined for several years; washed the first gold in the camp of Orofino, in Idaho; spent his winters in New York, Washington, District of Columbia, and Connecticut, and in these yearly trips to the mining regions of the Northwest, was twice around Cape Horn, and three times across the Isthmus of Panama. He was among the none too many who actually took large amounts of gold from the ground; and returned East to spend the rest of his life. Like many another, the attraction of the Far West proved too powerful to be resisted and he and his family arrived in Washington in 1871. They located about sixteen miles southwest of Spokane, where he farmed for a dozen years before removing to Cheney, this State. Their first daughter is believed to be the first white child born at Spokane Falls. Both parents are deceased and lie buried in Spokane and Wilbur, Washington.<\/p>\n
Herman S. Bassett was given the advantages of a good education, but early learned the printer\u2019s trade on the \u201cCheney Sentinel,\u201d under George W. Stewart. In 1890 he went to Sprague, where he remained for five and a half years. In 1895 he became associated with Howard Spinning, selling out his interests a decade later. In 1905 Mr. Bassett purchased the \u201cEdwall Press,\u201d but two years later sold the paper to buy the \u201cHarrington Citizen\u201d which he has operated practically ever since, both efficiently and successfully He also established the \u201cKrupp Signal,\u201d which after three years was destroyed by fire. Mr. Bassett is a member of the State Press Association, the National Editorial Association, and is a past president of the Lincoln County Press Association. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and the Order of the Eastern Star. He is of the Congregational faith and devotes a great deal of his own means and time, together with the influence of this paper to promote religious, charitable and humanitarian projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Herman Sherman 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 Jonadab Bassett (b. 1695) and wife Mary Phippeny Benjamin Bassett … Continue reading