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- Iberian Sentinel, Missouri, Secember 1926
Henry Franklin Bass
Frank Bass of this place, mail carrier and Contractor for the Iberia-Ulman star route, met death by drowning in the Brushy Fork Creek Thursday afternoon, Dec. 23. When Mr. Bass reached the stream on his return trip from Ulman, the water, it is said, was rising rapidly due to excessive rain at the head of the stream. He was driving a Ford car heavily loaded with Christmas mail, and when he drove into the low-water bridge, the force of the current, it is thought, washed the car off the driveway into a hold of water just below the crossing.
According to reports Mr. Bass jumped onto the running board of the car and kept it from turning over. By this time, Cliff Williams, Grant Coburn and son, living near the ford came to his aid with a long rope. They threw the rope to Mr. Bass who tied his end of it to a car. The other end was tied to a stump on the bank. It is thought he had become numb by the exposure in the cold water, and when he attempted to follow the rope out, evidently he lacked sufficient strength to grip the rope and the force of the current swept him down stream. He was carried about 100 yards and when removed from the water, life was extinct.
The body was taken back to Ulman at the home of his brother, Charley, who is postmaster at that place, and held until the afternoon on Christmas day when interment was made in the Hickory Point Cemetery. Impressive funeral services were conducted by the Woodmen assisted by Eld. W.H. Scott of Eldon.
Henry Franklin Bass was born in Miller County, Mo., Aug. 10, 1880 and died Dec. 23, 1926, being 46 years, 4 months and 13 days old. He was united in marriage to Dosha Lee Groves, October 21, 1900, and to this union was born one daughter, Mrs. Ernest Abbett of Granite City, Ill.
He is survived by his wife and daughter, two brothers?Clyde and Charley of Ulman, and one sister?Mrs. Edd Farmer of near Eugene, Mo., besides a host of relatives and friends.
He united with the Ulman Christian Church in November 1920, of which he remained a member until his death. He was also a member of the Ulman M.W.A. Camp in which he carried a $1000 policy. The Sentinel joins in extending deep sympathy to the bereaved.
The Eldon Advertiser, Missouri, Thursday, 6 January 1994
Window to the Past By Peggy Smith Hake
Not long ago, I wrote about the drowning death of Frank Bass, and early Miller County rural mail carrier. I will now records some of his family history.
Henry Frank Bass was born in Miller County in the Little Richwoods near the Hickory Point community. He was born Aug. 10, 1880, the second child of Isaac T. Bass and Margaret Williams.
Frank Bass? ancestors were among the county?s earliest settlers. I believe his great-grandfather was Isaac Bass who homesteaded some land in Miller County before 1833. He settled near the Osage River, south of Tuscumbia. Isaac Bass Sr., may have had four children who were early settlers of the area as well. They were: William Bass b. 1818 in Kentucky m. Melvina McCubbin c/1840; Tolbird/Tolobert b. c.1820 Kentucky m. Martha G. Martin; Metheldred Bass b. 1822 Kentucky m. Paulina; and Lavenia Bass b. Kentucky m. Jonathan Humphries/Humphrey. I found record of an Isaac Bass family in the 1820 census of Barren County, Kentucky. I do not know for sure if he was the same man who came to Miller County, but I suspect it is the same family.
William Bass, son of Isaac, was born in Kentucky in 1818 and married Melvina McCubbin (1821-1902). William and Melvina were parents of seven children: Nancy Bass b. 1847 m. Charles P. Myers 1866; Metheldred Bass b. 1849 died young; John M. Bass b. 1851 m. Alice Williams 1876; Isaac T. Bass b. 1853 m. Margaret Williams; Sarah Elizabeth Bass, 1855 m. (1) General C. Martin (2) James Parkhurst (3) William Martin; Henry Joshua Bass b. 1859 m. Mary Emma Nicols 1882; and Rial/Riley S. Bass b. 1862 m. Ada Martin 1880. William and Melvina (McCubbin) Bass are both buried at Hickory Point Cemetery. He died in 1892 and Melvina lived with her children for ten years until her death in 1902.
Isaac T. Bass, son of William and Melvina, was born in 1853 in Richwoods Township. About 1874, at the age of 21 years, Isaac married Margaret/Maggie Williams. She was a native of Indiana, born in 1859. I believe her sister, Alice Williams, married Isaac?s brother, John M. Bass. At this time, I have not identified the parents of Maggie and Alice Williams. Isaac and Maggie were parents of four children, all born on the family farm in the Hickory Point vicinity. Their one daughter, Myrtle Bass, was born in 1876 and married Allman E. Farmer in 1896. The three sons were: Henry Frank Bass 1880-1926 m. Dosha L. Groves 1900; Clyde M. Bass 8183-1920 m. (1) Mary L. Bain (2) Lois (Burks) Crisp; and Charles B. Bass 1886-1956 m. Leftie M. Burks 1906.
Henry Frank Bass, son of Isaac, grandson of William and great-grandson of Isaac Sr., was born Aug. 10, 1880, the oldest son of Isaac and Maggie (Williams) Bass. On Oct. 21, 900, Frank Bass married Dosha L. Groves, oldest daughter of George Washington Groves (1856-1927) and Manerva Jane Smith (1866-1956). Dosha was born in Miller County Sept. 22, 1882 and died May 17, 1969. Her brothers and sisters were: Gordon Chester Groves 1884-1951 m. Sarah madden; Eva Ann Groves 1886-1936 m. Dow W. Wall; Robert E. Groves 1889-1951 m. Nellie Teaverbaugh; Roy A. Groves 1898-1949 m. Mabel Rider; Blanche Groves m. Victor Wilson. In the 1900 census of Miller County. Another daughter is listed: Millie M. Groves, born in December 1893. She must have died when young.
Frank Bass, mail carrier for the Ulman/Iberia Star Route, was attempting to deliver the mail on Thursday, Dec. 23, 1926. He picked up his mail bags at Ulman that morning and started back to Iberia. The days of Dec. 20-23 were harsh ones in 1926. According to the ?Diary of C.B. Wright? it had snowed hard and sleet came down in torrents on Dec. 21. It continued to rain and by Dec. 23 the creeks had swollen and were running out of their banks. Frank Bass arrived at the Brush Fork and tried to ford the flood waters, but did not make it to the other side. He perished in the icy, flooded waters of Brush Fork on Dec. 23, 1926. His body was recovered and he wa laid to rest in Hickory Point Cemetery near the land where he was born 47 years earlier.
NOTE: Gene Waite of Eldon contacted me to say he remembered well the day Frank Bass drowned. His father, Elmer Waite, was the postmaster at the Watkins Post Office, which was a stop over on the Iberia-Ulman Star Route. Frank came by Watkins about 9:30 a.m. that morning on his way to Ulman to pick up the mail for delivery back to Iberia. Frank was driving a Ford touring car with room in the back seat for the extra-heavy load of Christmas mail. Later, Elmer Waite recovered some of the letters so they could be delivered to their destination. Mr. Waite also informed me that Charlie Bass, brother to Frank was the postmaster at Ulman at the time of Frank?s death.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1880 - 1926 (46 years)