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Bassett Family Association - , Modern Founder (originally founded in 1897)

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Splinters From The Tree May 2011

(1) Welcome
(2) Dr. Betteridge Bassett Essay on the Bassetts of Hints
(3) Elias Bassett of Fort Wayne, Indiana, cook and chef
(4) Joe Bassett and son Joe Bassett of Arizona, Cowboys
(5) Picture of John E. Bassett Hardware in New Haven, Connecticut
(6)  Simeon Martin Bassett, Music Teacher of Vermont
(7) F.A. Bassett and S.A. Bassett of Georgia Forgery Charges
((8) New family lines combined or added since the last newsletter
(9) DNA project update

Section 1 - Welcome

I want to thank Pat Newton for running the TNG section of the Bassett Family Association website. She has been in charge of inputting data and registering new users since we began the website. However, due to health and family obligations, she will no longer be able to perform this task.

I am looking for a new volunteer to help register users and oversee the inputting of data. If you might be interested, please let me know. If you would like to talk to Pat and ask her questions about her role, let me know and I can give you her email address.

We are still having problems with the William Bassett of Fortune tree in our website. We hope to have it corrected in the next few months as we finish entering the complete #1A William Bassett tree.

Money is available for two Bassett DNA tests. I would like to use one for a Bassett line from France and the other for a Bassett line from Lincolnshire or Northamptonshire England.

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Section 2 - Featured Bassett: Dr. Betteridge Bassett Essay

I am not sure what year the following document was written, but it was given to me several years ago by David Swinscoe of England, a leading authority of the Bassetts of Blore. The beginning of the article is shown below. Click on the link to read the complete edited article.

TWO FAMILIES: THE FALLING AND THE RISING WAVE
A STUDY IN SOCIAL MOBILITY

Dr H.T. Betteridge
44 Kersland Street
Glasgow G12 8BT

“Every family hath, as it were, divers predominant qualities in it which, as they are tempered together in marriage, give a certain tincture to all the descent.” (Fulke Greville, Life of Sir Philip Sidney, ed. Nowell Smith, 1907, p.4.)

These two families are the Bassets and the Betteridges. Bassetts are nowadays common enough all over the country, for their original feudal holdings were widely distributed in the Midlands and the South West. Betteridges, descendants of the Saxon serfs who over the centuries rose from under the heel of Norman overlords such as the Bassets (the usual aristocratic spelling) occur not nearly as frequently. They originally appear to have been clustered where Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Leicestershire adjoin, as well as on the border of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. These sites probably indicate two lines of the original immigration and settlement via the Rivers Trent and Tame and the Rivers Severn and Avon.

My  father was the eldest child of a union between these two very dissimilar families which took place in 1873.

http://bassettbranches.org/stories/BassettBetteridgeByBetteridge.pdf

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Section 3 - Featured Bassett: Elias Bassett of Fort Wayne, Cook and Chef

Elias Bassett descends from #295 Britton Bassett of North Carolina as follows
:
Britton Bassett and wife Easter
John Bassett (b. 1820) and wife Melvina Artis
Elias Bassett (b. 1873)

Elias Bassett of Fort Wayne, Indiana
Elias Bassett of Fort Wayne, Indiana

Freeman, August 23, 1913
Elias Bassett

        Mr. Bassett is one of Fort Wayne’s old residents, having lived here for twenty-one years. He is a native of Kansas, where he was born thirty-nine years ago, but left there when quite a small child. He was reared in Kokomo, Ind., on a farm. Mr. Bassett is a professional cook, being in that trade for about 19 years. He has served at some of the leading hotels, the Wayne hotel of this city being one of them. He had charge of the culinary work on a dining car for more than seven years, which gave him a chance to see much of the country. He married Miss Lydia Hall, of Kokomo, and they have three children, one of whom is now in high school. Mr. Bassett is a Mason with the thirty-second degree, and also a K. of P. Mr. Bassett is an active member of the A.M.E. church. He owns a pretty six-room home on Eliza street, which is  easily worth $3,000. Mr. Bassett’s standing among both white and colored is a No. 1, and he is regarded as one of Fort Wayne’s substantial citizens.

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Section 4 - Featured Bassett: Joe Bassett, Cowboy and son Joe Bassett Jr. of Arizona

Joe Bassett descends from #57B William Bassett of Georgia as follows:

William Bassett (died 1821)
Nathaniel Bassett and wife Miss Spear
Thomas Spear Bassett (b. 1818) and wife Sarah McLaughlin
Josiah Bassett (b. 1838)  and wife Susan Gibbs
Joseph Rueben Bassett (b. 1870) and wife Lola Rozella Burmister
Joseph Rolland Bassett (b. 1911)

Forth Worth Morning Register, December 29, 1900
Arizona Roping Contest

        A special from Phoenix, dated Sunday, says The most remarkable exhibition of steer tying in Arizona took place here today. Oscar Roberts and Joe Bassett, two noted cowboys, contest for a $1000 purse and the championship of Arizona.
        The steers were unusually wild and put the spectators to flight several times by breaking through the fence and into the crowd. Roberts’ time for the steers was six minutes fourteen seconds and Bassett’s time 7:23.
        Bassett made remarkable time on the first four steers and threatened to break the world’s record, but he battled with his last steer, a ferocious brute, for more than two minutes before he had him tied, breaking the animal’s leg and horns. The steer  was thrown four times, and each time regained his feet and made savage lunges at Bassett’s horse and created a panic in the crowd by plunging his long horns through women’s skirts.

Joe Bassett Jr., Arizona Cowboy Photo Courtesty of Paysonrimcountry.com
Joe Bassett Jr., Arizona Cowboy
Photo Courtesty of Paysonrimcountry.com

paysonrimcountry.com

Joe Bassett (1911-1973) was a top cowboy both on the range and in the arena. The highlight of his career came in 1942 when he won the title of World Champion Team Roper. The following year he was privileged to perform at Madison Square Garden, New York as a World Champion Team Roper. He stayed in the top ten in the Rodeo Cowboys Association team roping standings from 1945 to 1952. Again in 1952, he was named World Champion Roper, along with his partner, Asbury Schell.

Joe was known as the dean among trainers of racing Quarter Horses in Arizona. In 1969, he won the $100,000 Invitational Quarter Horse Stake Race at Los Alamitos, California, the top Quarter Horse meet in the nation.

Joe participated and won many Payson Rodeos. In the famous hotly-matched race of 1952, between Brown Bomber and Cindy McCue, Joe Bassett bull-dogged Wayne Ewing off his horse after the finish line because Ewing had batted Bomber in the face with his whip. Joe lost the race, but won the fight. Many had bet on this horse race, and when they saw the fight start, they put down bets on the fight.

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Section 5 - Featured Bassett: John E. Bassett Hardware of Connecticut

John E. Bassett had been featured twice before, the most recent being in October of 2008. Click on the link below to read the previous article on John and his hardware store.

http://www.bassettbranches.org/newsletters/2008/20081019/20081019.shtml

Picture of the J.E. Bassett & Co. Hardware and Cutlery Store, New Haven, Connecticut
Picture of the J.E. Bassett & Co. Hardware and Cutlery Store, New Haven, Connecticut
Purchased on ebay

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Section 6 - Featured Bassett: Simeon Martin Bassett, Music Teacher of Vermont

Simeon Martin Bassett was a descendant of #1A William Bassett of Plymouth as follows:

William Bassett and wife Elizabeth
Joseph Bassett (b. 1635) and wife Mary Lapham
William Bassett (b. 1667) and wife Mary Bumpas
Benjamin Bassett (b. 1712) and wife Hannah Macomber
Benjamin Bassett (b. 1742) and wife Mercy Crossman
Simeon Bassett (b. 1770)  and wife Abigail Huse
Simeon Martin Bassett (b. 1816)

Here is his family from the 1850 United States Federal Census of Vermont.

1850 Federal Census of Bakerfield, Orange County, Vermont (26 Sep 1850)
Simeon M. Bassett   34 M Massachusetts    Music teacher   2000  
Palina              28 F Vermont
Albert M.           10 M Vermont
William              2 M Vermont

St. Albans Messenger, September 4, 1839
St. Albans Messenger, September 4, 1839

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Section 7 - Featured Bassett: S.A. Bassett and F.A. Bassett of Fort Valley, Georgia

Stephen Allen Bassett and Francis Augustus Bassett are both descended from #48B Francis Bassett as follows:

Francis Bassett
William Bassett and wife Mary Phillips
Stephen Bassett (b. 1788) and wife Jane Morris
Line of S.A. Bassett
Line of F.A. Bassett
William Bassett (b.1828)
Stephen Elisha Bassett (b.1833)
Stephen Morris Bassett
William Augustus Bassett (b.1856)
Stephen Allen Bassett
Francis Augustus Bassett (b.1881)

Columbus Daily Enquirer, January 11, 1914
S.A. Bassett Has Double
At Any Rate  Man Secured $50 from a Bank in His Name
Arrested Friday On Forgery Charge
How a Smooth Artist Worked the Telegraph Wires Between
Columbus and Macon and Actually Got Good Money

        A man, who from all accounts is the veritable “double” of S.A. Bassett, a prominent business man of Powersville, Ga., near Macon, and who while in Columbus on December 3, last is said to have represented himself as S.A. Bassett, is alleged to have forged Bassett’s name to a telegram, thereby drawing $50 in cold cash from the Fourth National Bank of Macon, through the Fourth National Bank of Columbus, was arrested Friday in Valdosta and will be brought back to Columbus today to face the charge of forgery.
        The man was arrested in Valdosta after he had been followed from Columbus via Fort Valley to the South Georgia town, by a Burns detective of Atlanta, who began to work on the case about ten days ago. The arrest was made by the sheriff of Lowndes county, at the instigation of the Burns detective and the local authorities, and, according to a telegram received in Columbus yesterday, he is alleged to have confessed his guilt. Sheriff Beard sent Deputy Sheriff Palmer to Valdosta last night to bring the man back today. So far as is known here he has given no other name than that of Bassett.
        J.H. Huff, cashier of the Fourth National Bank, stated yesterday to a representative of the Enquirer-Sun concerning the alleged forgery, that Bassett came into the Fourth National Bank on December 3, and, introducing himself as S.A. Bassett, presented a telegram from the Fourth National Bank of Macon, stating that the Fourth National Bank of this city would pay him as per his request, $50. A cipher message from the Macon Bank was received about the same time authorizing the payment of the money. This, however, Mr. Huff refused to do until identification was furnished. The man called on George Wilhelm, a local business man, who furnished the identification, being confident that he was the same Bassett he had formerly known.
        Nothing more was thought of the incident until several days later when the real S.A. Bassett, who has an account with the Fourth National Bank at Macon, happened to be in the bank and the telegram signed with his name from Columbus was presented, then it was that the real Mr. Bassett offered proof that on the date named he was in Atlanta. Then the local authorities and Mr. Wilhelm got busy, and the Burns detective was placed on the case.

Columbus Daily Enquirer, January 13, 1914
F.A. Bassett Admits Guilt
Charged With Forging Name of S.A. Bassett, a Distant
Cousin and Who is Said to Be Well to Do Macon Man

        The man who claims his name is F.A. Bassett, and who is alleged to have secured money from the Fourth National Bank of Columbus, under the name of S.A. Bassett, stated yesterday afternoon to an Enquirer-Sun representative from his cell at the county jail that although he got the money, he knows nothing of when or by what he means he secured it.
        As stated in the Enquirer-Sun Sunday morning, Bassett is alleged to have gone to the bank on December 3, and asked for $50, and as the bank had a telegram from one of the Macon banks stating that it was “O.K.” to let him have it, they did so.
        It was later learned that the man who secured the money had done so by forging the name of S.A. Bassett to the telegram sent to the Macon bank, requesting it to wire the Columbus bank, and a Burns detective was put on the trail. Saturday Bassett was arrested in Valdosta and returned here Sunday by Deputy Palmer, where he will be held for action by the grand jury at the next term.
        When questioned yesterday afternoon Bassett stated that his home is in Fort Valley and that he was in Columbus and needed money at the time he is alleged to have sent the telegram. When asked what his real name was, he stated that it is F.A. Bassett and that he is a third or fourth cousin to S.A. Bassett, whose name he signed to the telegram. S.A. Bassett, he stated, is very wealthy, and on several previous occasions he had thought of going to him for a loan, but had never done so.
        The authorities say that he is an escaped convict from the state farm, but when questioned about this, Bassett denied it and stated that he escaped from the state asylum at Milledgeville last April, after being there two months.
        As yet the authorities have not been able to ascertain what his name is, but they are investigating and hope to know in a few days, if his name if F.A. Bassett or not.
        The case is being watched with much interest in Columbus, on account of the man whose name is alleged to have been forged to the request to the Macon bank.

Columbus Daily Enquirer, January 16, 1914
Bassett Released Under Bond of $200
It is Said That the Family is Going to Pay
All the Costs of Case to Avoid Prosecution

        F.A. Bassett, alias S.A. Bassett, who is alleged to have forged a check on the Fourth National Bank of Columbus for $50, has been released from the county jail under $200 bond, to appear at a preliminary hearing to be held in Judge Elfer’s court, where the warrant for his arrest was sworn out on December 24.
        Bassett’s brother was in the city yesterday. He brought letters to the effect that Bassett had been in inmate of the State Sanitarium at Milledgevile, and that he had taken the “Keely Cure” for the drink habit, in an effort to prove that Bassett was not responsible for his acts at the time the alleged forgery is said to have been committed.
        It is understood that members of the Bassett family, who live at Fort Valley, Ga., are going to pay all cost in the case and return the money secured from the bank. The case is now a matter of record, however, and will have to be investigated by the grand jury.
        Immediately after his release Bassett returned to his home in Fort Valley, where he will remain until the date set for the hearing.

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Section 8 - New family lines combined or added since the last newsletter

        The following family lines have been combined/eliminated since the last newsletter.

396B.  Richard Bassett of Carmarthenshire into the #202B Bassetts of Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales  
   
        The following family lines have been added since the last newsletter.

   49B.  Thomas Ozro Bassett of Manlius Center, New York
 396B.  Louis Bessette/Bassett of British Columbia, Canada

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Section 9 - DNA project update

We had no new participants in the Bassett DNA project this month.

DNA results are back from the #223B Bassetts of Denbigh, Wales. They are shown below.
They have no close Bassett matches.

dna

Donations of any amount can be made to the Bassett DNA project by clicking on the link below. Any funds donated will be used to fund select Bassett DNA tests that will further our project as a whole and benefit all Bassetts worldwide.

http://www.familytreedna.com/group-general-fund-contribution.aspx?g=Bassett

This is just a reminder that the DNA portion of the Bassett Family Association can be found at:

http://www.bassettbranches.org/dna/

A current spreadsheet of results can be found at:

http://www.bassettbranches.org/dna/BassettDNA.xls

If you don't have Excel and can't open the spreadsheet above, you can now see the DNA test results at the following website.

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Bassett/

Jeffrey Bassett
520 Salceda Drive
Mundelein, IL 60060 USA
email address link in header above