| Notes |
- 1880 Federal Census of Brewster, Barnstable County, Massachusetts (7 Jun 1880)
Greenleaf Bassett 44 M MA MA MA Head Brittannia Worker
Elizabeth 43 F VT MA MA Wife Keeping house
Arthur 17 M MA MA VT Son
Walter G. 8 M MA MA VT Son At school
Part 7: The Search for a Leper Colony Site (1904-1905)
Louisiana was the first state to offer medical treatment for leprosy, but the
Louisiana Leper Home, which opened in 1894, was only available to Louisiana
residents. When several people in eastern Massachusetts were found to have
leprosy in 1904, Massachusetts made plans to open a facility for its own
leprous residents.
Before the Commonwealth bought Penikese Island from George and Fred Homer,
state officials purchased an isolated 66-acre farm in Brewster on Cape Cod,
known as the Bassett Farm on the north shore of Seymour's Pond. The
Massachusetts Board of Charity, the department then responsible for public
health, purchased the land on December 31, 1904 for $1,550 from Franklin
Underwood. (Underwood had just bought the farm the day before from Greenleaf
Bassett and his wife for $50 less.)
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Bassett Family Association Database
1835 - 1910 (74 years)