Bassett Family Association Database

Thomas Coke Bass

Male Abt 1823 - 1878  (~ 55 years)


Personal Information

  • Name Thomas Coke Bass 
    Born Abt 1823  North Carolina Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    _UID C88D5321033F5241882C9D4492F65D172FC1 
    Died 22 Sep 1878  Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Buried West Hill Cemetery, Sherman, Grayson County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Notes 
    • Handbook of Texas Online, Brian Hart
      Thomas Coke Bass (ca. 1830 ? 1878)

      Thomas Coke Bass, attorney and Confederate cavalry officer, was born about 1830 in Mississippi. He was admitted to the Mississippi bar about 1858 and moved to Sherman, Texas, where he established a practice specializing in land law. With the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860, Bass became an outspoken advocate of secession. He is credited with raising the first Confederate flag over the Grayson County Courthouse. With the onset of the Civil War, he raised a cavalry regiment in Grayson and Cooke counties and in June 1862 was commissioned a colonel in the Twentieth Texas Cavalry. In this position he saw action in Texas and Indian Territory and commanded the force that captured Fort Washita. In addition, his cavalry unit participated in the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, on December 7, 1862. Bass spent the remainder of the war defending Indian Territory. After the war he returned to his law practice in Sherman. In addition to this business, he published a newspaper, the Sherman Courier, for a short time in 1866. He married Ada Dalton Hocker on July 10, 1867. The couple had two sons and a daughter.
      As a land agent Bass developed a system to verify land claims, which he published as Best System of Abstract. He advertised the pamphlet, which explained his system and listed the legally available lands in Grayson, Denton, Collin, Cooke, and Fannin counties, in numerous national publications. This system and his advertisement of it apparently brought him considerable business. He gained local notoriety in 1874 when he purchased the decrepit, twenty-five-year-old Grayson County Courthouse, had it leveled, and sold the bricks for use in chimneys. In 1878 he responded to an appeal from Memphis, Tennessee, for aid in combating a devastating yellow fever epidemic. Bass and a companion, Dr. T. J. Heady, contracted the disease upon their arrival in Memphis, and Bass died there on September 22, 1878.


      1850 Federal Census of District #6, Itawamba County, Mississippi (September 5, 1850)
      Samuel Bass - 74 - Male - North Carolina - Farmer 1600
      Mary Ann - 67 - Female - North Carolina
      Thomas - 27 - Male - North Carolina - Laborer
      Lafayett - 25 - Male - North Carolina - Teacher
      Green - 23 - Male - North Carolina - Farmer
      Julius A. - 22 - Male - North Carolina
      Columbus - 20 - Male - Tennessee - Farmer
      James M. - 18 - Male - Tennessee - Farmer
      Martha J. - 14 - Female - Alabama
      Robert - 7 - Male - Alabama
    Person ID I10  Bass37 Samuel Bass of North Carolina
    Last Modified 19 Nov 2022 

    Father Samuel Bass,   b. Abt 1776, Halifax County, North Carolina Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Mother Mary Ann Stockton,   b. North Carolina Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F2  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Ada Dalton Hocker,   b. 18 Jul 1847, Richmond, Virginia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 20 Mar 1932, Sherman, Grayson County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 84 years) 
    Children 
     1. Antoinnette Porter Bass,   b. 26 Jun 1868, Sherman, Grayson County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 20 Apr 1966, Sherman, Grayson County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 97 years)
     2. Thomas Coke Bass,   b. 2 Spe 1871, Sherman, Grayson County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 23 Jan 1954, Sherman, Grayson County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 83 years)
     3. Robert Kincade Bass,   b. 25 Sep 1874, Sherman, Grayson County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 12 Apr 1950, Sherman, Grayson County, Texas Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 75 years)
    Last Modified 19 Nov 2022 
    Family ID F36  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart