| Notes |
- William and Trixy Bell Bassett lived in Butler, Bates County, Missouri before moving to Okmulgee, Okmulgee County, Oklahoma.
1880 Federal Census of Clay County, Illinois
Nathaniel Bassett - 25 - M - IL-IN-IN - Head - Farmer
Elma - 23 - F - IL-IN-IL - Wife - Keeping House
Oscar - 2 - M - IL-IL-IL - Son
Mary Bradly - 17 - F - TN-TN-TN - Other - Sewing
Clarence Sirgarts - 6 - M - IL-IN-IL - Other - Attends School
Hugh Mayhill - 22 - M - IL-KY-KY - Other - Laborer
HISTORY OF OKMULGEE COUNTY, OKLAHOMA
Compiled and Edited Okmulgee Historical Society
By Lois Fast Gillum
William Oscar Bassett
William Oscar Bassett was born October 12, 1877. On June 4, 1902 he married Trixy Bell Burson. She was born March 7, 1878, in Union County, Ohio, the daughter of Thomas Oliver Burson and Edith Bault Burson.
W.O. and Trixy had four children. Their three daughters were educated at Ward-Belmont. Capitola Bassett, the eldest daughter, was married to Hiram Bedford Crosby. Hiram was Rector in the Episcopal Church and passed away some years ago in Banning, California. They had four children, two boys and two girls. Capitola is now in a rest home in Long Beach, California.
Carolyn Bassett, the second daughter, was married to T.O. Wright and they have a son and a daughter. Their home is in Elgin, Illinois.
Cathryn Bassett is the youngest daughter and was married to Don Williams, who is now deceased. They had two sons, Tom and Dick. Cathryn was a teacher for many years and lives at San Jacinto, California.
W.O. and Trixy's fourth child was William Oliver (Billy) Bassett, born April 25, 1916 and died October 31, 1922, at the age of six from polio.
The Bassetts came to Okmulgee about 1915 from Butler, Missouri. They had a beautiful home with servants' quarters on the rear of the property located in the five hundred block of North Seminole.
W.O. held various prominent jobs in Okmulgee. He was a stock holder in the Union National Bank, ran the Morris Plan Bank for a time and was very active in the oil business in Okmulgee County. In later years he was Okmulgee County Commissioner, a job he held at the time of his death. He passed away October 19, 1934 and is buried at the Okmulgee Cemetery.
After her husband's death, Trixy stayed in this area for awhile, then moved to San Bernardino, California, near her nephew, Fred Fast, formerly of Okmulgee. She worked during the war at Norton Air Force Base, San Bernardino, California later moving to Beaumont, California to make her home near her daughter, Capitola.
Trixy Bell Burson Bassett died May 25, 1957, in Beaumont, California. Her body was creamted and the ashes sent back to Okmulgee to be buried by her husband and son in the Okmulgee Cemetery.
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS
Shilo Museum 1989
Article by Marynm Shaw Bassett
Woodson W. Bassett, Sr.
Woodson William Bassett, Sr., was born April 24, 1880 in Iantha, Missouri. On January 23, 1919, he married Bertha (Bee) Irene Knerr, born August 19, 1893 in Allerton, Iowa, the daughter of George Frederick and Ida Corbett Knerr of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Woodson and Bee had four children - Betty Jane, born January 8, 1920, Dorothy Sue born February 20, 1921, Trixie Bee born October 30, 1922 and Woodson William, Jr., born November 7, 1926. The family moved to Fayetteville in 1936.
Woodson's ancesters originated in Virginia and migrated to Kentucky. His grandfather, Thomas Bassett, moved westward to Clay County, Illinois in the mid 1800's. He was a veteran of the Mexican War. When he returned from the war, he became a wagon master, guiding settlers and herding cattle to California. His first trip out and back took two years. He attempted a second trip by boat to establish a homestead for this family. He sailed from New York around the "Big Horn" to the Isthmus of Panama where he "took a fever" and died. Thomas was married to Nancy Ann Smith. They had three children - John Wesley, a teacher, Sarah Ann and Nathaniel.
Nathaniel "Than" Bassett was born March 18, 1854 in Clay County, Illinois. He married Elma Jane Williams, born in 1858. They went even farther west to Iantha, Missouri. They had three children: William Oscar, Woodson William and a daughter, Irkle Bell. Jane died when her youngest child was but two years of age. "Than" then married Ann Nance. They had one son, James D. (Jim) Bassett. A measles epidemic in 1901 caused the death of Irkle Bell. She was only seventeen. "Than" homesteaded a two-hundred acre farm in Haines Grove, Missouri. Editor of the Lamar Democrat often referred to him as the democratic leader of Barton County - a political avocation, all three of his sons and one great-grandson would inherit. Both Woodson and Oscar served as Clerks of Barton County, and Jim spent a major portion of his life as elected sheriff of Barton County. Oscar moved to Okmulgee, Oklahoma where he was elected to two terms as County Commissioner. He was joined there in the early 1900s by Woodson and they became successful, even quite wealthy, in the independent oil and gas leasing business. However, the 1929 market crash and ensuing depression swept their fortunes away and forced them to emotionally and economically restructure their lives. Oscar died of "a heart ailment" in 1934 and his family moved to California. In 1935, Jim witnessed the bizarre death of his nineteen year-old son, Maurice, who was a passenger in a monoplane which crashed near his father's office on the downtown square of Lamar, Missouri.
Family tragedies, economic depression and the pressing need to provide for and educatte their children, were all factors which motivated Woodson and Bee to move their family to Fayetteville in 1936. They could be near Bee's family and near a state university. All their children would eventually attend the University of Arkansas.
Woodson opened an office on the Fayetteville square and sold insurance and real estate and made appraisals for the Home Loan Bank. When their youngest child entered the University of Arkansas, Bee became an assistant to the registrar there, handling all World War II student veteran's affairs.
Woodson died December 6, 1964 and Bee, on September 7, 1971. Both are buried at Fairview Memorial Gardens, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The only remaining males in the Bassett geneological lineage of Thomas, Nathaniel and Woodson W. Bassett, Sr. are Woodson W. (Bill) Bassett Jr. and his two sons.
Bill is the senior member of the Bassett Law Firm, 221 North College Avenue, Fayetteville, Arkansas. On December 16, 1950, he married Marynm Shaw of Homer, Louisiana. They have three children: Woodson William (Woody) Bassett, III, born November 3, 1951 in Monroe, Louisiana; Beverly Marynm Bassett, born May 29, 1953 and Tod Corbett Bassett, born September 8, 1955 - both in Fayetteville, Arkansas. All are attorneys. Woody and Tod are members of the Bassett Law Firm. Woody is charman of the Washington County Democratic Party. Tod is married to the former Mary Helen Sugg of Fayetteville. Beverly was a member of the Mitchell Law Firm of Little Rock, Arkansas until her appointment by Governor Bill Clinton as the Securities Commissioner for the State of Arkansas - first woman to hold this position in Arkansas. She is married to Archie Schaffer III of Little Rock and they have one daughter, Eliot Shaw Schaffer, born June 11, 1987.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1877 - 1934 (57 years)