| Notes |
- Times-Herald, 19 Jun 1931
George W. Bassett
George W. Bassett Sr. died early Wednesday morning at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Mabel Bassett Coughlin, on Madison street, following an illness of about two years duration.
Born in Charleston, S.C., on July 4, 1857, Mr. Bassett spent the greater portion of his life here, where he was for many years yardmaster of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway.
Besides his daughter, he is survived by one son, George W. Bassett, Jr., of St. Augustine, prominent attorney and mayor of that city.
Funeral services were held from the late residence at 4 p.m. Wednesday with Dr. G. W. Rosenberry officiating.
Interment was made in West View Cemetery.
Local Knights of Phythias were in charge of services at the grave.
The Ocala Evening Start, September 17, 1902
Bassett Had Bughouse
Seaboard Agent at Palatka Victim of
What is Becoming a Common Complaint
Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 16, - A man giving his name as G. W. Bassett is here, having been found by the police this morning in a dazed condition. He says he went to sleep in Jacksonville a week ago and woke here today. He knows nothing of how he came here. His mind is not yet clear. He has railroad passed made out as agent of the S.A.L. at Palatka.
Investigation by the Metropolis develops that Mr. Bassett has been missing from that city a week. Bassett was formerly from Tallahassee and has lived in Palatka for many years. He is highly esteemed by all who know him. He has a wife and two children.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Bassett, George W., Jr., Lawyer and Judge Advocate-General--A native of Florida, who rose to eminence at the bar of his State and in political and military circles, the late George W. Bassett Jr., rendered distinguished service in many phases of public life. A former mayor of St. Augustine, he at different times filled other offices in the gift of the people. Prominent in the affairs of his party, he was at one time a member of the executive committee of the Democratic State Committee, and at the time of his decease he was serving as chairman of the St. Johns County Democratic Committee. Among the foremost military men of Florida, he had served in the United States Army, and at the time of his passing he held the rank of major in the Judge Advocate-General's Department in the National Guard of this State.
Ancestors of Major Bassett came early from France and settled in Charleston, South Carolina. His father, George W. Bassett, Sr., was a railroad official in Florida, who died in Palatka, this State. His mother, Corinne Elizabeth Moncrief, was of French extraction.
Born in Lake City, Columbia County, Florida, December 25, 1884, George W. Bassett, Jr., spent the greater part of his early youth in Palatka, Putnam County, and attended the public schools. His higher education was received at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland; Stetson University; and the University of Florida. After completing his course at the last-named institution, he enlisted in the United States Army. While in the service he devoted his spare time to the study of law and in 1907, on receipt of his honorable discharge from the army, he carried forward his law studies in the office of Alexander H. Odum, a laywer in Palatka.
Shortly after his first marriage he passed the Florida bar examinations, and was admitted to the bar of this State on June 17, 1912. He began practice in St. Augustine the same year and soon was certified for practice before the Florida Supreme Court, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth (Florida) District, the United States Court of Claims, and the United States Court for the Southern District of Florida. In addition to his activities in the higher courts of the State and the Nation, he died a large private law business in office and other local advisory capacities. Throughout the years he achieved a brilliant legal career and his services were in constant demand by important business houses and private citizens.
Among the numerous appointive and elective honors bestowed upon Mr. Bassett by the authorities and people of St. Augustine and St. Johns County were the offices of county attorney and solicitor to the Special Court of Record. In 1913 he was appointed United States commissioner for the St. Augustine District and served with fine judicial efficiency for ten years, when he resigned owing to the pressure of his private law practice. On January 29, 1929, his long devotion to the public service was further rewarded with election to the board of city commissioners of St. Augustine. Two days later his fellow-commissioners honored him still further by choosing him mayor of St. Augustine, in which office he served with outstanding results until he resigned in 1931. During his term as mayor he was closely associated with the Florida League of Municipalities, serving at one time as vice-president of this body, also as vice-chairman of its finance and taxation committee and as a member of its legislative committee. Among the messages of tribute and sympathy which came to the family following his death was one from E.P. Owen, Jr., of Jacksonville, secretary of the League, who wrote:
George Bassett's death will be mourned generally by his man city official friends throughout the State. His work in behalf of the League was outstanding; he was a brilliant, capable man, and I considered it a privilege to have him associated with me in the work of the League. His many splendid qualities earned the friendship of hundreds of persons, and I am only one of many who feel a sense of personal loss in his passing.
During almost all of his adult life Mr. Bassett divided his time between the military, the legal profession and municipal affairs. He was wont to say that, outside his home and family, his greatest interest in life was politics. At the time of his death he had recently been honored with reelection as chairman of the St. Johns County Democratic Committee. An intelligent and enthusiastic campaigner, he had often led his party's candidates to victory at the polls. He had obtained rare experience and performed distinctive service during his membership in the Florida Democratic State Executive Committee, in whose proceedings his presence, counsel and sagacity were highly prized. He was affiliated with the Florida State Bar Association and St. Johns County Bar Association. Among his treasured possessions was a medallion presented to him by the Spanish Consul at St. Augustine by command of the former King of Spain, entitling him to membership in the "Order of Queen Isabella." This rarely bestowed honor was conferred upon him in recognition of his services and courtesies to the Spanish Legation. His military career included being judge advocate-general for the State of Florida, to which post he was appointed June 4, 1917, by Governor John W. Martin. He was reappointed by Governor Doyle E. Carlton. SInce 1925 he had been a member of the State armory board of Florida. He was a member of the Officers Reserve Corps, United States Army, and was at once time president of St. Augustine branch of the Officers' Reserve Corps Association. For some years he had held the commission of major in the National Guard's Judge Advocate-General's Department, his interest in military affairs having never lessened from the time of his regular army service. He also served as attorney to the St. Augstine board of public instruction.
High in the councils of the Masonic fraternity, he had advanced through the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and held affiliation with Morocco Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Jacksonville. He was also a member of St. Augustine Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. A former president of the St. Augustine Rotary Club, he belonged also to the University Club, St. Augustine Chamber of Commerce, and Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Augustine. In his college days he played football and he had never lost his zest for the game. He was also fond of golf and horse racing.
Major George W. Bassett, Jr., married (first) Lena H. Devine, daughter of a prominent St. Petersburg family. She died in St. Augustine in 1930. The children of this marriage are: 1. Georgia Clarice, married W. Laurens Walker, president of the State Institute for the Deaf and Blind, at Cedar Springs, South Carolina. 2. Nan Elizabeth. He married (second), May 1, 1932, at Palatka, Loretta F. Dolan-Thurston, of New York City.
The death of Major Bassett occurred with distressing suddenness at Key West, Florida, August 17, 1932, when he was serving in his capacity as judge advocate-general with the 265gh Coast Artillery, National Guard, on its annual tour of field duty. He was brought to his home on Marine Street, St. Augustine, where a sorrowing people paid their last respects to one whom they had loved and honored. .........
The funeral of Major Bassett was held at his late home on Marine Street, St. Augustine, with the Rev. L. Fitz-James Hindry, rector of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, officiating. Then the flower-decked military caisson, conveying the body of the late public and military officer, was escorted to the National Cemetery by the Service Company, 124th Infantry, Florida National Guard. At the graveside the Masonic ritual was performed. As the Service Company stood at attention the casket was slowly lowered into its last resting place in the neighborhood of so many of Florida's faithful soldiers. A salute of three volleys was fired and "taps" was sounded, "marking the military recall from honorable earthly service". And there they left him to rest awhile, till a new dawn shall break on a better and a fairer day.
Florida (1513-1913) Past, Present and Future
By George M. Chapin (1914)
George W. Bassett, Jr.
Although one of the younger representatives of the Putnam county bar George W. Bassett, Jr., of Palatka, has already attained a position which older practitioners might well envy, his success being built upon his thorough study of the law and his careful preparation of cases. He was born in Lake City, Columbia county, Florida, on Christmas day of 1882, his parents being George W. and Corinne Elizabeth (Moncrief) Bassett, the former a native of Charlestown, South Carolina, and the latter of Montgomery, Alabama. The father came to this state prior to the Civil war and Mrs. Bassett was reared in Lake City, Florida, where their marriage was celebrated. For the past twenty-seven years they have been residents of Palatka where Mr. Bassett, who has been a railroad man throughout his entire life, is now acting as yard master for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. He was formerly conductor for sixteen or seventeen years, also station agent and ultimately was called to his present position. The family numbers but two children, the daughter being Mabel C., now the wife of D.J. Coughlin, of Palatka.
George W. Bassett, Jr., has been a resident of Palatka from the age of three years. He pursued his education in the public schools through the grammar grades and in the high school, and received appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis through the influence of Congressman Robert W. Davis, of the second district of Florida. He then attended the naval academy for eighteen months, at the end of which time he resigned because of ill health. He afterward spent nine months in the general offices of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad at Palatka and next entered the John B. Stetson University at De Land, pursuing a special course there. The following year he attended the University of Florida for four months but left that school when as a result of a competitive examination he was appointed to West Point. In 1904 he entered the regular army as a private, failing to take advantage of his appointment to West Point owing to the fact that he could secure a commission two years earlier by entering the army than by studying in the national military academy. In 1906 he was ordered to Fort Oglethorpe, at Chicamauga Park, Georgia, for examination for a commission. He passed both the physical and mental examination and then returned to his post at Fort Dade, Florida, but owing to the fact that he had not enough service to warrant his appointment to the position of second lieutenant in the artillery corps he took his discharge in 1907 as a sergeant major. He was made assistant construction engineer in the quartermaster's department after being discharged and continued to act in that capacity until March, 1908, when he resigned and entered the insurance business, being made assistant cashier of the Florida Life Insurance Company with headquarters at Tampa. He remained there for a year after which he was made district manager for the East Coast district of Florida and continued to act in that capacity until he resigned in May, 1910. He next took up the study of shorthand and for several months was in the office of A.H. Odom, an attorney. Later he was with Merryday & Walton, attorneys at Palatka, with whom he continued until January 1, 1912, when the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Merryday became a partner of S.J. Hilburn, Mr. Bassett securing the position of stenographer with the firm of Hilburn & Merryday. In the meantime he had taken up the study of law, pursuing it in addition to his shorthand work. He took the bar examination before the supreme court of Florida and was admitted to practice in all the state courts on the 13th of June, 1912, when he entered upon the active practice of his prefession in Palatka. He had mastered a system of stenography in thirty days, and eighteen months from the time he entered upon the study of law was admitted to the bar. He already has a fine practice in Putnam, St. John, Clay and Marion counties and it is constantly growing in volume and importance. Throughout his life he had a desire to study law and while in the army purchased and began reading Blackstone's Commentaries. He also, while in the army, taught the post school and was the chief plotter. Two months after he entered the service he was a non-commissioned officer and while with the army was nicknamged Judge, owing to the fact that he pleaded the case of a comrade who had become involved in some trouble in Tampa. Mr. Bassett represented him in the municipal court and won the case. He is very thorough, careful and painstaking in the prepartion of his cases and his native and acquired ability give every evidence of later success. On the 29th of October, 1912, by unanimous vote of the city council he was made city attorney for Hastings, Florida. He now represents R.G. Dun & Company and also the American Lawyers Company in this county and has recently been amde local counsel for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company for Putnam county.
On the 19th of January, 1908, Mr. Bassett was united in marriage to Miss Lena H. Divine, who for years has been city clerk and tax collector of St. Petersburg. Mr. and Mrs. Bassett have one child, Georgia Clarice, born at Tampa, August 13, 1909. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and Mr. Bassett votes with the democratic party. Laudable ambition has characterized him at every step in his career. He is not only a self-made, but also a self educated man making opportunities where none have existed and utilizing his advantages and native powers in such a way as to gain a creditable and enviable position among the enterprising citizens and leading young attorneys of Palatka.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1884 - 17 Aug 1932?