| Notes |
- Black Pioneers, An Untold Story by William Loren Katz
By 1854 Fayette County in northeast Iowa was home for the Basses, a large, intrepid black pioneer family. In the 1930s Quaker aid had helped Sion Bass and his wife leave Virginia for Indiana. In the 1840s eighty Bass members moved to Illinois only to find hostile white neighbors. Less than half of their children had the opportunity to read and only four of twenty four children were allowed to attend school. The Basses then built a school associated with their church, and it became the center of community life.
From Illinois, Bass sons led half of the original family, including more than a dozen school-aged children, to Iowa, when they first appeared in Fayette, whites were antagonistic, and the community decided to keep to themselves.
1820 Federal Census of Robeson County, North Carolina
Sion Bass 131110-301000
1 male under 10, 3 males 10-16, 1 male 16-18, 1 male 16-26, 1 male 26-45, 3 females under 10, 1 female 16-26
1830 Federal Census of Vanderburgh County, Indiana
Sion Bass - Free Colored Person 02110-31010
2 males 10-23, 1 male 24-35, 1 male 36-54, 3 females under 10, 1 female 10-23, 1 female 36-54
1840 Federal Census of Johnston, Gibson County, Indiana
Sion Bass - Free Colored Person 310010-11001
3 males under 10, 1 male 10-23, 1 male 56-100, 1 female under 10, 1 female 10-23, 1 female 56-100
1850 Federal Census of District #21, Iroquois County, Illinois (April 23, 1850)
Sion Bass - Mulatto - 68 - Male - North Carolina - Farmer 300
Sarah - Mulatto - 73 - Female - North Carolina
Frances - Mulatto - 23 - Female - Alabama
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Bassett Family Association Database
1782 - 1869 (87 years)