| Notes |
- Isaac Newton Bassett was a lawyer in Aledo, Illinois in a family firm with his brother Judge John Ray Bassett.
The Champaign Daily Gazette, Illinois, Thursday, 9 September 1915
Oldest Attorney Celebrates
Aledo, Ill., Sept. 9 ? Isaac Newton Bassett, the oldest practicing attorney in Illinois and the oldest Master Mason in Mercy county, celebrated his ninetieth birthday at his home here. From point of age Mr. Bassett is the oldest mason in Illinois, it is believed.
The aged attorney was admitted to the Illinois bar by Justices Treat and Caton in 1854. he was made a Master Mason in the same year.
A public reception was held at the Bassett home all day.
From "History of Mercer and Henderson Counties", "I.N. Bassett, of the law firm Bassett & Wharton, has practiced here continuously since 1857."
1850 Federal Census of Lewis County, Kentucky
Isaac N. Bassett - 24 - M - Merchant - Kentucky
Scienda - 25 - F - Ohio
Fletcher S. - 2 - M - Kentucky
Clayton W. - 5/12 - M - Kentucky
1860 Federal Census of Mercer County, Illinois
Isaac N. Bassett - 34 - M - Kentucky - Lawyer
Lucinda J. - 34 - F - Ohio
Fletcher S. - 13 - M - Kentucky
Flora A. - 10 - F - Illinois
Minotta - 8 - F - Illinois
Thomas - 6 - F - Illinois
Luella - 3 - F - llinois
Mary J. Bassett - 25 - F - Illinois
1870 Federal Census of Aledo, Mercer County, Illinois (11 Jul 1870)
Isaac N. Bassett - 44 - M - Kentucky - Lawyer 10,000 3,000
Caroline - 36 - F - Pennsylvania - Keeping House
Flora A. - 18 - F - Kentucky
Laura M. - 15 - F - Illinois
Thomas W. - 13 - M - Illinois
Luella - 11 - F - Illinois
Ray H. - 6 - M - Illinois
Fletcher S. - 22 - M - Kentucky - Midshipman U.S. Navy
Gerty Clara Bell - 15 - F - Illinois
Bertram - 3 - M - Illinois
1880 Federal Census of Mercer, Mercer County, Illinois
J.N. Bassett - 55 - M - KY-KY-KY - Head - Lawyer
Carolin - 45 - F - PA-PA-PA - Wife - Keeping House
Nota - 25 - F - IL-KY-OH - Daughter - Keep Kook
Thomas - 23 - M - IL-KY-OH - Son - Law Student
Lula - 21 - F - IL-KY-OH - Daughter - At Home
Victor - 9 - M - IL-KY-PA - Son
Bessie - 6 - F - IL-KY-PA - Daughter
Clara Yerty - 26 - F - IL-PA-PA - Daughter - Book Store and St.
History of Mercer County (1882)
Isaac Newton Bassett was born in Lewis county, Kentucky, September 8, 1825. His early life was spent on his father's farm, where he received such educational advantages as were afforded by the common schools of that day. He tried merchandising for a while, but not finding it as remunerative as he had hoped, studied law, and has practiced for over thirty-five years, attaining a name and reputation throughout the state; one of prominence and honor of which he may well feel proud. In 1852 he removed to Mercer county, settling in Keithsburg, and as a member of the firm Johnson, Willits & Bassett commenced the practice of law here. In 1855 he was elected county treasurer, holding the office for four years. He removed to Aledo in 1857 when the county seat was removed, and has ever since been a leading and honored resident of the village. In 1847 he married Miss Scienda T. Moore, by whom he had six children, five of whom are still living: Fletcher S., lieutenant United States navy; Thomas W., attorney at law, Lacqui Parle, Minnesota; Flora, wife of William N. Graham, cashier of Farmers' Bank, Aledo; Nota, and Lulu, both at home. His wife died in 1861. In 1862 he married Mrs. Caroline H. Yerty, a sister of J.E. Harroun, who had one child, Miss Clara, who is still at home, and who, with Miss Nota Bassett, is conducting a bood, stationery and millinery business, under name of Bassett & Yerty. By his second wife Mr. Bassett has had four children, two of whom have died; Victor Hugo, a boy of eleven years, and Bessie, a girl of eight years. From 1847 to 1870, he was connected with the Methodist Episcopal church, but in the latter year joined the Congregationalists, to which he still belongs. He has also been a Mason for many years. While not what is termed rich, Mr. Bassett has made for himself a good home, surrounded by the comforts and luxuries of life. His family hold a leading and enviable position in society, and in the church which is honored by their membership. Mr. Bassett is at present the senior member of the firm of Bassett & Wharton, the latter now serving his second term as state's attorney, and they enjoy a large and lucrative practice in the circuit, appellate, state, and federal courts.
Isaac Newton Bassett's
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Copied from the original manuscript by Anna Stowell Bassett in 1934
Transcribed by Mata Swenson Stapleton and Edward E. Swenson in 2003
Aledo, Illinois, March 27th 1897
Some years ago, (1888-1892) while my son Victor was at college, he wrote me requesting a history of my family and of my own life, to be reduced to writing by me and left for benefit of my children and descendents.
While no one of the family nearly related to me, were distinguished either as scholars, politicians, statesmen or in any of the learned professions, yet it is of interest to a family to have preserved the lineage and general history of its members. To fulfill the request of my son and urged upon me by other members of the family, I commenced to write as much as I knew of my ancestors and members of the family that I thought would be of any interest value to my descendents, but after writing a few pages, I was interrupted by sickness and other occupations and neglected to resume the narrative for years.
I now undertake this duty, but my material is meager in regard to the family of my parents prior to their time, as I have no family record or other record of the family prior to that of my father. I derived some knowledge, however from my father and others through conversation which, however, is meager, but will be of some help in tracing the genealogy of the family. I will therefore record the same in the following pages with an autobiography of my own life.
I (Isaac Newton Bassett) was born in Lewis Co. Kentucky, September 8th 1825 in a country place two miles west of the little village of Quincy and one-half mile from the Ohio River. My father owned a little farm bordering on a little stream called Montgomery Creek. Kinnikonnick a much larger stream, was west a half mile and it ran in an easterly direction for nearly two miles, receiving the water of Montgomery Creek and emptying into the Ohio river. Its course was for the two miles reverse of the Ohio and the water was by reason thereof backed up for three miles in high water and at all times for a half of a mile.
My Father's house was just at the foot of the hills, which bordered on a little creek. The Ohio R. bottoms were about one half mile wide and the country back was hilly or mountainous and the land was all heavily timbered, principally white oak, black oak, chestnut and poplar with hard and soft maple, beech, and sycamore in the bottoms. Other timber in less quantity was buckeye, sweet gum, black Gum, Black Locust, Honey Locust, Hackberry, Black Walnut, White Walnut, Mulberry, Serviceberry, Linden or Bass Wood, Ash, Hickory, Dogberry, Ironwood, Sourwood, Sassafras, Spruce, Pine, Pitch and Yellow Pine, Wild Cherry, Black Jack, Red Oak Cedar, Slippery Elm, Water Elm, Birch and White Pine with an undergrowth of Pawpaw, Hazel, Spicewood, Chinkapin [chinqquapin or dwarf chestnut], Leather Wood, Black Haw, Red Haw, Wild Plum and Whortleberry and along the streams occasionally, Cottonwood, Willow, Weeping Willow and occasionally a Cucumber Tree and Holly. There was, also, of wild fruit,, Blackberries, Raspberries and Dewberries, Mulberries, Whortleberries, Service Berries, Plums, Paw Paws, and Haws.
The country abounded with stone and gravel, the streams running over gravel beds and sometimes solid rock all of which was sandstone in the vicinity where I was born; or boulders of a more flinty formation. The water was all soft and springs were abundant.
My Father's Family:
Bassett is an old family in England and came to England with William, the Conqueror of Normandy. We are of that family probably that came to Virginia (William Bassett) previous to 1692.
My Father said the family was of English origin with a little Welsh blood, and the head of the American family came to America in the early settlement of the country.
I was informed by a gentlemen who married a Bassett that he had investigated the history of the family and tracked all of the Bassetts back to Simeon Bassett and Macy Bassett who settled in Massachusetts with the early Pilgrims. I have some doubts about this being correct but have no information that is reliable to deny or affirm the statement. (Since writing the above, I am convinced it is a mistake). I am inclined to believe that my Father's ancestors settled in Virginia, Maryland or Delaware and that they were not of the Puritan stock but Cavaliers. My Father was born in Delaware and came to Kentucky while quite young with his mother and elder brothers. [In the left margin: "Really in New Jersey: VHB" (Victor Hugo Bassett)]
The maiden name of my paternal grandmother was Susan Ray, but I know nothing of her family. Her husband, my grandfather, John Bassett, died when my father was three days old.
The children he left were Alexander, Amos, George, John, Sarah and Isaac, the latter being my father. When the family came to Kentucky, I am unable to tell, but it was not far from the commencement of the 19th century.
They first settled on the Ohio River bottom just west of Portsmouth on the Kentucky side where they remained for several years. At that time, Portsmouth was hardly known and just West of it was the village of Alexandria which for a few years was the rival of Portsmouth, but finally became extinct. I remembered seeing some of the old deserted buildings: substantial stone structures, in my boyhood days. It was just opposite this village that my father's family settled and the place was flourishing then. In this village, my maternal grandfather Hall settled and there my father became acquainted with my Mother, Frances Asbury Hall, fell in love, and married her in 1818.
Returning to the Bassett family, I was informed by my father that Richard Bassett, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Gov. of Delaware in 1798, and afterwards U.S. Senator, was a distant relative and of the same family.Also, Elizabeth Bassett, wife of Benjamin Harrison and mother of William H. Harrison afterwards President of the U.S. was a distant relative.
Elizabeth Bassett Harrison was a daughter of Burwell Bassett who was a son of William Bassett of Virginia who married Anne Dandridge. (Sister of Martha Washington) My Grandmother Bassett, after the death of my grandfather, married a man by the name of Cole and had two children by him - Samuel and Hester. On account of the cruelty of Cole to my father and some of the other children, my Grandmother separated from him, and he by some false pretense, got Samuel while young and took him away and he was never seen by his mother or his brothers and sisters afterwards. But he was heard from after I was grown and he was married and settled somewhere in Missouri, but we know nothing more of him.
My Uncle Alexander Bassett was married and settled in Elkhart Co, Indiana. I do not know the maiden name of his wife. He died about 1845. His Children were William, Amos, George, Daniel and some others whose names I do not know. I never saw any of them but Amos who visited us in 1845. He was afterwards married in Michigan and I heard from him by letter in 1870. He was then in Ill. near Bloomington. My Uncle Amos was unfortunate in his first marriage and the family never referred to it and seemed desirous of blotting it out of their memory. [added in pencil: "nothing important now nor any disgrace".] He subsequently married a widow woman whose maiden name was Walinsgsford. A family who lived in Fleming Co, Kentucky and was in good circumstances. She first married a man named Waring, a very respectable family of Greenup Co Kentucky. Her husband died leaving her with two children, Joseph and Frances. My Uncle married her and settled in the Valley of Montgomery Creek, two miles from my Father's place. His farm was in the little creek bottoms about 30 or 40 rods wide and extended along the creek over half a mile.
Amos Bassett had five children, Elizabeth, John, Harriet, Sophia and Martha. Elizabeth and John died in the summer of 1833 when they were just budding into womanhood and manhood. Harriet was married in 1847 to George W. Johnson and is still living on the headwater of the little Montgomery Creek. She had six children but I do not know anything about them.
Sophia and Martha were both married and have since died, but I do not remember who they married nor what children they left. These girls of my Uncle, with his stepchildren were among my playmates and schoolmates and my visits to my uncle Amos were always very pleasant. Uncle Amos was a small man or rather medium. He was thin or medium in flesh about 5 ft. 8 in. height and weighed (about) 140 - 145 lbs. He was well proportioned, erect and elastic in his step. His education, as with all of the family, only limited: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. He was a man of unexceptional character. He had no enemies, yet he was firm in character. He was industrious, strictly temperate, quiet in his manners, and upright in all of his dealings. He lived to an advanced age - upwards of 86 and died about 1868, but the exact year I do not know. In religion he was Methodist, in politics, a Whig, in the war, a staunch Unionist.
Joseph Waring, his stepson, bought the old place of my Uncle, married a girl by the name of Martin and raised a family of I think, six children. They are some of them living on the old place. Joseph died some three years ago.
Frances, the stepdaughter, married Reuben Thompson in 1838 or 1839. She died a few years after, having three children. I do not know where they are, nor their names.
My Uncle, Geo. Bassett bought the place where I was born, while he was a bachelor and sold it to my father. He was married and settled in Gallia Co., Ohio where he died, having several children, but I do not know whom he married, when he died, nor how many children he left nor their names. My Uncle John Bassett, married a Miss Waring, a sister of the husband of Sarah Walingsford, whom my Uncle Amos married. Uncle John settled on Montgomery Creek one mile East of my Father's place. His land joined my Father's on the east and my Uncle Amos on the west. He had a watermill on the little stream where he sawed lumber and ground corn.
In Kentucky, corn bread was the great staple of life. Ten times as much corn bread was used in my early days as of wheat bread. I have seen great lines of horses tied to the fence while waiting for the grist to be ground. The way of carrying the grist to the mill was in a two bu[shel] sack thrown across the horse, a boy on top ot it.
Uncle John's first wife died early. I never saw her. She had four children, three of whom drowned at the same time in the little stream of Montgomery, while quite young. Alexander, the 4th, lived to manhood, was married and bought part of this Father's place where he lived until about 1886. His wife died before him. She was Leah Meredith, a sister of his father's second wife. He left one son and two daughters. He was about six years my senior, was about 6 ft tall, well built, and of fine appearance. Was a most excellent man but wanting in energy. Although he inherited considerable property from his grandfather Waring's estate, and from an Uncle Waring, and from his father's estate, he failed in his financial career and had to borrow money from time to time from his cousin Joseph Waring, the step-son of his Uncle Amos. This indebtedness was more than his farm was worth which passed into the hands of Joseph Waring upon Alexander's death, but Joseph was very kind to him so long as he lived and would not foreclose his mortgage until after his death. Cousin Alexander was a schoolmate of mine. He would visit my father's family, often staying over night. He would smoke a cob pipe and the boy, my brothers and I, would take great pleasure in filling it with tobacco for him to smoke, putting in a little powder at the bottom, to explode it while smoking. It was great fun for us and he never appeared the least vexed over it. I loved him almost as a brother, better than I loved any other cousin. He and his father under the old days of the 40's were Democrats - the only Democrats in the family. All the rest being Whigs, but they, were staunch Union Men and were most loyal during the Civil War and Alexander became a Republican then and remained so till his death. Peace to his bones.
My Uncle John remarried a widower for quite a number of years, but was married in 1833 to Elizabeth Meredith by her he had four children, John, Susan, Mary and Sarah. They were all of an indolent turn of character. The girls married trifling worthless men and I know nothing about where they are. John was a wild fellow. The last I heard of him, he was in the South.
My uncle John was a fleshy man, about 5 ft 11 inches in height, well framed, and of a florid or ruddy complexion. He was of a rather blustering manner, but of an excellent heart and kindly dispostion. Mentally he was strong and was quite a conversationalist. He liked to talk on the political questions and we have had many a lively bout, but he was always a great friend of mine and of my brothers. He was a Methodist and was honest, truthful and upright. This second wife died in 1844 and he died about 1867.
My Aunt Sarah was married to Mathew Thomson and settled on a farm just west of my father's adjoining it and extending to Kinniconick west. The Thompson family was an old Virginia family. There were, besides Matthew, four brothers, John, William, Alexander and Milton, all who lived not far from my father's in Kentucky. My Aunt Sarah had a very large family. The oldest was Margaret, who married Joseph Moore (a cousin of Scienda Moore, my first wife). He had a very good farm in Kentucky on the Ohio river, west of my father's farm, two or three miles. Joseph Moore and Margaret died there, the latter about 1870, the former about 1883. But the exact years I cannot state. They left one son, Foster, who is living on the old farm and has a very nice family of daughters some of whom are married. They - Margaret and Joseph - left one daughter who married a man named Honecker and who lives in Greenup or Carter, Co, Kentucky. The second daughter of Aunt Sarah Thompson was Susan who married Thomas Warring (a Methodist preacher, cousin of Joseph Waring and Alexander Bassett) about 1830. Susan died about two years after marriage, leaving one child, a son who grew to manhood and who may be living yet. Thomas Warring was subsequently married to Rachel Murphy, a sister of Samuel Murphy who married my oldest Sister. Thomas Waring settle in Louisville, KY and engaged in trade. He left home on business about 1844 and was never heard of afterward. It was believed that he was murdered.
Nancy Thompson was the third daughter of Aunt Sarah. She married Robert Garland about 1833 and died about 1837 or 1838 leaving two children, girls - Synthia [sic] and Sarah. Sarah married Rose Harrison(?) and I do not remember whether Synthia married or not, but I think both of them are dead.
Robert Garland subsequently married Amanda Skidmore and in 1840 bought of my father the little home where I was born. His second wife died some years after and subsequently Robert Garland died on the farm he bought of my Father. He was a large man, 6 ft 4 in, and well proportioned.
The fourth daughter of Aunt Sarah, Ann, married Anderson Garland, a brother of Robert Garland, about the year 1835. She is still living with her daughter at Greenup Co. Kentucky, but I do not remember whom the daughters Grace and Ann married. She, also, had one son Rose, who is a bachelor some 50 years old still living. He was rather given to dissipation and of very little force of character.
Anderson Garland was a very handsome man, about 6 ft tall; his brother Robert was 6 ft 4 inches. Their mother married a second husband George Washington Bruce, who lived not far from us. There was, also, another half-brother Nathaniel Garland who lived near my Father's and died there since 1876. He was also six feet tall.
They also, had a sister Synthia who was married to James Keith about 1838. James Keith moved from there to Knox Co, Ill, but I never met him afterwards.
Garland's mother was a large woman, and she had four children by her second marriage to wit: - Thomas, Perry, Horatio and George. They were all large men. Perry and Horatio died after growing up to manhood, unmarried. Thomas married Susan Crawford and died about 1860. George married a daughter of Thomas Stratton who lived near my father. George remained on the old Bassett place until his death about 1892. He was near my age and all of them were energetic intelligent and good men. Washington Bruce, their father, was blind. He bought a large tract of land on and along Kinniconick Creek and built as many as four sawmills on Kinniconick all in operation at one time. Bruce's land extended some four miles along the stream. He was a great landholder and a great litigant and became very much involved before his death, but his sons paid off his debts and saved their land.
Anderson Garland was a trading man for some years and made some money. He engaged in the steamboat business on the Ohio R. about 1850 and after making some money finally lost all he had. He never recovered his grip. In 1857 he bought the house I built in Quincy, KY. And where I had lived and he kept tavern for some years. Later on he kept tavern in Vanceburg, Ky. but he took to drinking and became a drunken sot and died about 1890.
Mary, the 5th daughter of Aunt Sarah Thompson married a man by the name of Parker, an old family in KY, but this one was quite poor and not possessed of much energy. He died some years after and Mary, also died about 1870 leaving several children. I don't know what has become of them but saw one daughter at Foster Moore's in 1880. Sarah and Evaline the next two daughters with John, a son of Aunt Sarah, died in 1833 and 1834. Matthew a son of Aunt Sarah was married to a girl named Noel in Scioto Co. Ohio near Portsmouth and engaged in the grocery business which he conducted for 25 or 30 years and died in 1889, or about that time, leaving one son, Frank, who is still in the business.
George, the youngest son and child of Aunt Sarah went into the mercantile business at Ironton, Ohio, afterwards at Rockport, KY and later at Portsmouth, Ohio. I think he is yet alive and doing business in Portsmouth. (He died in 1895.) He married a Miss Rowley of Vanceburg KY and she is living at Chillicothe, IL, with several children. (This I have just learned in the year 1898 from his sister Ann Garland.)
My father's sister, Hester Cole was married to John Clark. He was a local Methodist Episcopal preacher. He was quite poor and commenced trading with very little money. He gradually increased his capital, settled in Gallia, Gallia Co, Ohio, and kept a general store for a great many years. Subsequently, he moved to Millersport, Ohio, on the Ohio River and kept a general store there for a number of years and became quite well off but in his later years, by the failure of his debtors for whom he expended quite an amount of money and was endorser and security he lost nearly all that he had made. He used to visit my father with my aunt and brought their children or some of them from time to time with them. Aunt was a large woman, quite cheerful and full of jokes. She used to tell about a little matter regarding her big feet and laugh over it. She wore a number seven shoe and often found difficulty getting her size. At one time, when Uncle had bought a new stock of goods she went into the store and took out all the number 7 shoes. Uncle had not yet opened up and checked off the goods. When he came to do so he found the count one pair short in the first lot. He went to Aunt and asked her if she had got any shoes out of the lot. She answered yes. In a few minutes he came and asked if she had taken a pair out of the next lot. She answered in the affirmative and there gathered up all the shoes she had taken and took them to the store and laid them down. Uncle took an inventory of them and told her to keep them.
Aunt Hester died about 1857 or 58 and Uncle John Clark died at or near Evansville, Ind when on a business trip there a few years later. They had a large family. Thompson, the oldest son, named for my Uncle Mathew Thompson, engaged first in merchandise, afterwards in hotel business in Burliington, Ohio and subsequently married a widow lady in Lewis Co, KY, near Vanceburg and was living there a few years ago.
Susan, the only daughter, married a man by the name of Shelton in Gallia Co. Ohio and died in the 40's nearly 50 years ago. I think she left some children but do not know where they are.
Amos, the 2nd son engaged in merchandise in various places - once in Vanceburg, KY, and was in the steamboat business on the Ohio R. one or two years about 1844-1845. He finally settled in Cincinnati, OH where he and a younger brother, Alexander engaged in the wholesale grocery business which they continued for many years. Amos finally retired and the last I heard from him he was living out at Walnut Hills, Cincinnati and Alexander was still conducting the grocery business. Amos had started two of his sons in business in Vanceburg, KY about 1880. They may be there yet but Amos is doubtless dead.
George, the next son, engaged in the grocery business in Ironton, Ohio where he was living in 1829. He was not social as were his brothers Thompson and Amos and cared little for his relatives. Quincy, another son of Aunt Hester's was in the mercantile business in Portsmouth, Ohio for a few years but in 1892 he was living near Millersport (?) Ohio on the Ohio R. This I think completes the writing of my Father's family down to his children.
My Mother's Family:
As I have already said, my Mother's maiden name was Hall. Her father Eskridge Hall came to America from England. He was also a local Methodist preacher. I do not know where he first settled, but he was in Alexandria, Scioto Co. Ohio in 1818 when my Father married Francis Asbury, his daughter. Grandfather Hall had in all, four daughters and two sons.
John Hall the oldest son when 17 years old ran away from home in order to go into the volunteer service in the war of 1812. He served during the war or the greater part of it. He was in the Battle of New Orleans and received a wound, which broke his skull, and it was trepanned by beating out a 25-cent piece to take the place of the bone removed. He recovered but his family knew nothing about his wounds until long after. He never wrote home and did not return until 1830. He had become addicted to drinking intoxicants and was somewhat obnoxious on that account. I can just remember of his coming to my father's house about 1831 when I was six years old. He remained some months with my father's family but left during the year and was never heard of afterwards. My father said he was quite intelligent and related some very interesting events in his life, but I cannot relate them. The other son Richard died when 16 years old.
Mary Hall, my mother's sister was married to Jacob Dixon, a Methodist preacher. He was well educated - was a graduate of Ohio University was of a poetic temperament but erratic. He edited a small volume of how own poems, about 1834, among them, some beautiful lines on the death of my Mother. I am sorry that I do not own a copy of this little book. I think my brother John has a copy. Sometime before 1840 Uncle Dixon studied medicine, and from this time until his death which occurred in or about 1850. He continued to practice medicine.
Mary Hall Dixon's oldest daughter Eliza married Bigger (?) Head about 1843. He lived in Highland Co. Ohio and moved to Jasper Co. Iowa in 1852 buying a quarter section of land near where the little village of Prairie City is now located. She became blind a few years afterward and died there about 1870. She had a number of children - the oldest Albert was living in Arkansas a year ago. I do not know how many are living nor where the others are located. I visited them in 1864. I think there were two boys and four girls.
Eskridge Dixon, the oldest son of Mary Hall Dixon entered the ministry when he was 23 years old and was a member of one of the Ohio Conferences of the M.E. church in the itinerant ministry until his death, which happened about 1888. He was sensible, able man, a student and filled with many important pulpits. At one time he was on the circuit where my father's first wife's father resided in Scioto Co. Ohio. He was married but I do not know whether he left any children or not. I never saw him but once. He visited my Father's family in 1844 or 1845.
Joseph, the second son, was as erratic as his father, was well educated in the common schools of Ohio with special instruction from his father. He was talented and had a fine command of language. I was quite well acquainted with him. He visited us in 1846, or perhaps 1845 and then went to Cincinnati. He had written a little romantic story which he sold to the Cincinnati Enquirer, a Democratic Newspaper, this under the Editorial of (?) Brough, a brother of John Brough, afterwards Governor of Ohio. Although a Whig, he was employed by the Enquirer as bookkeeper and to write events for two or three years. During this time my business took me to Cincinnati frequently and I often remained for a week or more and was with him quite often. In the fall of 1849 he came to my house in Quincy, KY as clerk in a store for myself & Brother Allen. I was married and he boarded with me. A few months later he was employed to teach school there and continued to board with me for nearly a year. He had contracted the habits of strong drink and sometimes to excess but only twice while he was with us did I know of his using it, both times he took too much. He finally left and went to Marion, Ohio where he taught school, joined the Methodist Church and resolved to quit drink. From there he went to New Boston, Illinois in the fall of 1850 or spring of 1851-52. He taught school in the Eliza School district in the fall and winter of 1851-2. He had been trained to exhort by the M.E. church and finally to preach and had preached a few sermons but just before I came out there in April 1852 he had indulged in drink with some convivial friends and it created considerable excitement. I found him greatly depressed in spirit. I encouraged him all I could and urged him to go forward and avoid the error again. The people forgave him and he was engaged as clerk and salesman by Wm Drury - the wealthy man who has just died - in a store in a New Boston. He determined to enter the itinerant ministry and in September sent in his name to the Rock River conference for an appointment. Howard Mory the minister who had filled the pulpit of New Boston the preceding year secured him the appointment to Moline Station in Illinois, Howard Mory being appointed to Rock Island Station. He was a great admirer of Joseph Dixon's talent and thus hoped to be near him so to be with him frequently and exchange pulpits; but the old habit came on again and while Manuel Mory was absent to Conference, Cousin Joseph again got intoxicated. Mr. Mory was greatly mortified and disappointed. Cousin Joseph did not wait to see him, but against the protests of his best friends he left Illinois. I had moved with my family to Mercer County before he left and tried to prevail on him not to go, but all in vain. He left without taking his trunk and was not heard from for six months. He then sent for his trunk and in a short time was heard from at Des Moines Iowa, where he was engaged on the Iowa State Register then under the control of (?) Sypher afterwards a carpetbagger in Louisiana and member of Congress from there after the war.
He remained on the Register for quite a number of years, almost the editor in 1864-65 when it was in charge of (?) Palmer who later was a member of Congress and afterwards post master of Chicago and has just been appointed National Printer at Washington D.C.
Joseph Dixon married Mary Doughty in 1858 or 59 in Aledo Ill at my home. His wife was a daughter of Reverend Thomas Doughty, a Methodist minister and was a sister of Josephine Cunningham and Lucien B. Doughty of Aledo. He became blind about 1869-70. After his blindness he edited a book "Lights and Shadows" describing incidents of his life and experiences. Also engaged in lecturing to some extent but did not attain to any notoriety as his afflictions and dissipation had impaired his once brilliant intelligence. He died some years ago and his wife died since. He left two children;; the eldest is living in Des Moines Iowa.
A daughter left is married but I do not know where she is or if she is yet living.
Mary Jane, a daughter of aunt Mary Dixon married a main by the name of Smith. They moved to Adel,, Dallas Co, Iowa in 1853-54. She has since died. Her husband is living there yet.
William H. Dixon's third son of Mary Dixon is living in New Boston where he has been since 1857. He was a tailor by trade and has followed that all this time. He has always been strictly temperate and a moral, upright citizen. He was married to Jane Beach in 1857. Both are alive and have four sons, Clarence, Clifford, Sharon and Fred. All living in New Boston and Fred is at this time coroner of Mercer Co. All are married.
George, the fourth son of Mary Dixon came to Illinois with his brother Wm in 1857. He became insane a few years afterwards and was sent to the insane asylum at Jacksonville, Ill in 1852. Afterwards to an asylum in Ohio and has since died. This is all of Aunt Mary Hall Dixon's family.
My Mother's sister Nancy was married to Samuel Willets. She was his third wife and somewhat advanced in age before she was married - over forty I think.
Shortly after the marriage Samuel Willits moved to Mercer Co Ill. - about 1839-1840 and settled near New Boston on a farm. Sam L. Willets had six children by his former wives but my Aunt Nancy never had any children.
Samuel Willett's children were Sarah, by his first wife, married to Davis who died leaving her a widow with some five children. She never married again. I think she died about ten years ago. One of her daughters, Levinia, is the wife of Leonidas Volney Willets and nephew of Sam L. Willets and lives at Watsonville, California. Nancy another daughter of Sarah David died shortly after marriage.
I do not know what has become of her three sons. Sam L. Willet's second daughter Jane married Sam L. Sheriff who resided in New Boston. She died soon after not leaving any children.
George, oldest son of Sam L. Willets married a girl named Iris. He died about 1850 not leaving any children.
Charles Willets, another son married Rachel Thornton a sister of Hiram W. Thornton of Millersburg, Illinois and Aunt of GeorgeThornton. He had several children who are mostly living in Iowa. Rachel died and he was married a second time, and has several children by his second wife. Charles was a prosperous farmer here in Illinois, afterwards in Iowa. He is now living at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and at this writing April 11th he is expected to live but a few days (he died in April 1897).
Jesse Willets, another son of Samuel Willets, married Mary A. Shields and resided in Mercer co until his death about 8 years ago. His widow still lives in New Boston (died 1899) and he has several children living in Mercer co. Ill.
Job Willets, youngest son of Sam L. Willets married first a Miss Prentiss, sister of Stanton V. Prentiss in New Boston, afterwards a Craft. He moved to Chicago a number of years ago and died there leaving his widow and several children.
Sarah, my mother's third sister, was married to John Ware settled in Piketon, Oho and died there. She left one child only, Eskridge Ware. I do not know whether he is dead or not but presume he is dead as he was older than I am.
Mr Grandfather Hall was married a second time to a widow and his second wife had a daughter by her former marriage, Sarah who was first married to a Doughty, afterwards to William Avery. She had one daughter only by Doughty who was married to his cousin Thomas Henry Doughty in New Boston. They had several children, one of whom is the wife of Dr. Tovie of Galesburg. This completes the history, so far as I know of my mother's family and brings me down to Father and Mother and their decedents.
My Father Isaac Bassett was born in Delaware [or N.J., Victor Hugo Bassett], August 4, 1791 and his father died three days thereafter. His mother moved to Lewis Co. Kentucky while my father was a boy and he lived in that county and Greenup Co. the remainder of his life, first near Portsmouth, Ohio, afterwards near the little village of Quincy KY, where he had a little farm and engage in the lumber business, building flat-boats and running them to Cincinnati, Ohio for sale and cutting logs and floating them to Cincinnati. My father was about 5 Ft 10 in. in height and always corpulent. In his later life, quite so, weighing 240 lbs. He was well built, broad shouldered and when young, firm of muscle. Naturally he had a fine constitution. His eyes and hair were black, features regular with a well-developed brain, complexion darkish but not very dark. His teeth were regular and well formed and were all sound when he died at 72. He was always temperate in his habits as far as using intoxicants but was rather inclined to indulge his appetite in eating. There was born to him, by my mother, eight children - to wit - Sabina, John Ray, Luke, Allen, and Alexander (twins) Isaac Newton, Frances Ann, Mary Jane and Sarah Susannah. Alexander died when about one year old and Sara Susannah when she was two months old. The other six are all living at this time, April 19, 1897, and were in May 1900.
My Mother was a woman of medium height and build, of light complexion, black or grey eyes and light hair. My Father received only a very common education, but his language was free from provincialisms and slang phrases. He acted as post-master for a great number of years and as justice of the peace. He and my Mother were both members of the M.E. church. My Father was a class leader from my earliest recollections until his health would not permit of his acting. He was also a licensed exhorter for a great many years.
My mother died of consumption Feb 10, 1833 when Sarah Susannah was six months old. She was better educated than my father and of a more nervous temperament. I remember her quite well altho' not eight years old when she died. I have always felt that her death was a great loss to me. She was more ambitious for intellectual culture than was my father and she was far superior to my stepmother who took her place in mental culture and training.
Aledo, Ill. May 21st 1900
After more than two years suspension, I resume my narrative, first having corrected some of the historical statements in the former narrative.
To continue in the line of the former narrative, I will trace my Father's life in those matters not enumerated in the foregoing narrative.
My Father was a very truthful, upright man and no one was more highly respected in the neighborhood than he was. He was the leader in the M.E. church, which was the only organized church in the neighborhood or within ten miles of us. The preaching place was often at my Father's home, but most generally the schoolhouse and was on weekdays as the circuit was a four weeks one with two preachers assigned to it and there were more than twenty preaching places in the circuit, the term circuit-rider would truly apply to them.
My Father lived in two log cabins, one room in each and here the family of six children, father and mother with sometimes two hired hands lived.
My mother died of consumption, and my oldest sister was then only thirteen years old. She with the hired girl kept house for a year or more, the youngest sister having died, my sister then became the housekeeper dispensing with the services of the hired girl.
In 1834 my father married a second time to Anna Wilson who was an entire stranger to us, and her family lived some thirty miles from us. She was a very good women but she had very little education and culture and poor health in twelve months after the marriage. She became almost an invalid and gradually grew weaker and became bed ridden for four or five years and finally died Feb 8, 1842.
Notwithstanding her weak condition, she gave birth to children rapidly, four having been born within less than three years after the marriage. Elizabeth Ellen on the 22nd of October 1835. She lived until July 23rd 1854 and died unmarried. Hester Ann and Sarah Ann were twins born Oct 25th 1836 - only lived 5 days, - Susannah Ray born August 26th 1837, died Sept 14th 1838. Also Amos Whitaker born Feb 8, 1839 died August 11th 1855. Thus all the children of the 2nd marriage died young and un-married.
During the lifetime of the second wife in the spring of 1840, my father sold his little farm and moved five miles away, first into Greenup Co. He bought 40 acres of land of my Uncle John Bassett for 50 cents an acre. It was at the head of several little streams on high land. White-oak Creek to the East, Briery to the North and Montgomery to the West. It was poor land but heavily timbered and some of it cleared for cultivation. I was then 14 years old and there were then 8 children in the family.
Here we built two log cabins separated by a spare roofed area for the third room. These cabins were made by cutting yellow poplar or tulip trees of from 16 to 18 inches in diameter into logs about 16 ft. long and then splitting the trees or logs into halves and building the cabins with these half logs placing the split side in which was hewed or as we termed it scutched down making it smooth inside. The clapboards shaved were nailed over the spaces between logs making a very, neat clean inside. The bark was left on the outside and the spaces between were plastered with clay making a warm house. The floors were made of white ash round boards dressed and scutched. The roof was made of clapboards four feet in length without nails by using poles to weight them down and keep them in place and they made a very good roof. Rough doors and window frames were made where needed and the doors were rough hung on wooden hinges and with wooden latches inside with a string attached and passed through a hole to the outside by which the latch could be lifted from the outside. This string could be pulled in and then intruders could not open the door - hence the origin of the phrase that "The latch string is out". This was our humble home. No one lived nearer than one mile from us while we lived there and we had no associates nearer than three miles as the people living nearer to us than this were very ignorant and of bad character.
We were three miles from our Uncle Amos's who was west of us and three miles from Samuel Truitts who was east of us and other persons with whom we associated were farther from us. My Father still went to church at the old place where he would hold class meetings on Sundays. He also held meetings at the houses of the other people nearer us and finally organized a church and took in quite a number of members of the women and a few of the men and did some very good missionary work with them.
Going back a few years, I can recall the great meteorite shower of 1832. One of the meteors exploded, as the sparks fell from it, it alarmed my brother John, who was looking at them, very much.
In 1833 occurred one of the great rises in the Ohio River - the rise being 64 ft. above low water mark at Cincinnati. The water backed up Montgomery Creek and covered half of Father's little farm, floating the fences and coming near to our (little) farm.
In the summer of 1833 the bloody flux was very bad in our neighborhood, this was the year following the first outbreak of cholera in an epidemic form in the United States. Many of our neighbors died of the flux among them my cousins John and Eveline Thompson and Elizabeth and John Bassett. My father spent almost two months in nursing and assisting our sick neighbors. We did not have it in our family, only in a very mild form by Brother Allen. Our farm was a small one and we would raise corn principally on it. Some oats and wheat. We did not have any pasture as stock ran at large then and there was abundant pasture. The near bottomlands were lovely, beach timber and there were thousands of squirrels in the woods. The hogs would fatten on the beech nuts and live during the winter on acorns, chestnuts and hickory nuts and would get fat on these nuts. Some years the nut crop would fail and then the hogs would have to be fed corn.
My Father in addition to this little farm engaged in building flat boats, which he would sell in Cincinnati. The heavy timbers for these boats were sawed by hand with what was called a whipsaw. A log would be squared with axes the four sides made moderately smooth with the hand axe and then placed on strong logs extended so that a man could stand under it. The whip saw was a long heavy saw held so that it would cut only on the downward stroke. One man would stand on top of the timber, one under, each having a handle of the ends of the saw and would proceed to saw the timber by using the saw and making a downward stroke.
While we were living on the old place I received what little schooling or school education that our primitive schools afforded. In the wintertime there was three months of school. A schoolhouse was built of logs by common contributions of the people in the neighborhood. We had no school-law in force then for building schoolhouses or supporting schools in country places. There was a big fireplace in the end of the house. The seats were benches made of slabs procured from the timber and four holes bored in them in which were inserted legs to support them. I have sat months on these rough seats without any back to them and when small, my feet would not touch the floor and would dangle in the air. For writing desk, holes were bored in the side logs and long pins driven in, with a notch at the outer end on which a hard board was placed running the entire length of one side of the building. This was the writing desk. The instruction was generally in the alphabet, Spelling, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. English grammar was seldom taught. Geography never. Neither was Algebra or the Higher Mathematics taught. I never studied English Grammar in the schools. The principal thing in the schools was spelling. We used the Noah Webster Spelling book and a spelling class was formed which advanced all the scholars who could spell without a book. The class would stand up in a line morning and evening and before dismissal, and the words were given out by the teacher and spelled in rotation. If a word was mssed it was passed to the next until spelled correctly and the speller would take the place of the one who first misspelled it. I was from early boyhood, the best speller in school although my sisters Sabrina and Frances and Brother John were nearly my equal.
We peeled chestnut-oak bark and cut hoop-poles and made staves, which were hauled to the river after we had moved to the hill place. When I was eighteen years old I made my first trip to Cincinnati with a flat boat loaded with wood and tanbark. When I was in my twentieth year my brother Allen bought an undivided interest in a little stock of goods at the river. George Truitt was his partner. I went and stayed in the store from early in the spring of 1845 until the next October. In addition to selling goods we had wood year, that is sold wood to the steamboats, which then burned wood almost entirely.
This wood we kept in small boats ranked up in cord piles and the steamboats when going up-stream would take usually two of the three boats in tow and which underway would unload the boats. We would go along and when the steamboat got what wood it wanted we would be cast loose and float with the current home. Often we would be taken in the nighttime and towed four miles or more and when the river was low it would take two hours to float back.
I made my first trip to Cincinnati in the fall or rather the winter of 1844-5 with a flat boat for my Father. Cincinnati then had 40,000 inhabitants. The little Miami Railroad was the only one built then and it only extended up the little Miami River twenty or thirty miles. Here I saw the first locomotive I had ever seen and afterwards in 1850 my first railroad travel was over this road to Morrow some thirty miles.
About this time, (May 1844) Morse constructed the first line of his electric telegraph between Baltimore and Washington City. In 1845 while I was attending the store for my brother I became acquainted with Scienda Isle Moore and soon fell in love with her. I was so young that I felt that I ought not think of getting married and as she was about six months older than I was and had quite a number of suitors I tried to restrain my love and remain in the back ground and see if she would accept some other beau. I knew in the fall that she had refused the offer of one very enthusiastic lover, but I had not declared my love for her. We had been together considerably and I felt that she, at least, respected me and was quite friendly. I was taken sick, October 1845 and returned to my Father's. I concluded that as I was the youngest son except the little half-brother I ought to stay with my Father. I tried for four months to forget my loved one or to break off my affection for her, but I could not. She was in my thought and not only every day, almost every hour of the day and in the spring of 1846 I determined I would go and see her for during this time I had not seen her at all. I then continued to go see her not and then, but in June following I thou't she gave me a slight and I broke off and did not go to see her for three months, altho' during that time I frequently met her at some gatherings, but I suffered secretly on account of the fancied slight and I found my love for her was intense and like Banquo's ghost would not down at the bidding. I finally wrote her a long letter in which I avowed my love to her for the first time and asked her why I was slighted. I met her accidentally the next day that she got this letter, before she had answered it and she declared that she had not slighted me and that my company had always been acceptable to her. This caused me to renew my visits to her and we were married the 4th of March following.
In the meantime, I had bought a half interest in the little store with my brother L.A. in the fall of 1846 and I conducted the business under the name of L.A. and I.N. Bassett until sometime in 1850.
When I was married my sisters Sabrina and Frances were keeping house for Brother L.A. and I in a house adjoining our store building, so I brought my wife to our home and we remained there until December 1847 when a great rise in the Ohio R. carried our dwelling house away. We moved into rooms of L.S. Moore's house near by and there my son Fletcher Stewart was born on the 20th December. I had to move again in the spring into a house in Samuel Hill's place nearby and remained there a year or more until I built a house in the village of Quincy which Samuel Hill had laid out and where we moved in 1849. In the meantime we built a storehouse there and removed our business from Truitt's landing the old place of business. We bought chestnut oak tan bark, staves, hoop poles and wood and boated these to Cincinnati by flatboat. We met with heavy losses, first by the great [?] in 1847 when we lost 175 cords of wood, a flatboat and 400 bushels of corn, and in the fall of 1849 we lost heavily on hoop poles and staves, so we closed our business in 1850.
Meanwhile in January in 1849, my second son Clayton Webster was born and my sister Sabrina was married to Samuel Murphy, a widower nearby who had four children.. She is still living this 23rd day of December 1900 on the farm owned by her husband in Kentucky and has four children of her own to wit, Isaac Murphy, who is married and lives at Portsmouth, Ohio. Henry Clay Murphy, a bachelor living with her, Florence, a maiden daughter living with her and Louise Finkelstein married and lives in Kansas City, Missouri. My sister's husband died some six years ago.
My brother John R. studied law in Kentucky and commenced the practice of law there in 1854 or 55 at Clarksburg the county, seat at that time of Lewis Co. KY. My Father who then had no children with him moved to Clarksburg and Brother John lived with them. John R. was married to Cynthia A. Stricklett at Clarksburg in the fall, Dec 21st of 1856 and in the spring of 1857 he came to Keithsburg, Ill where I was located practicing law and entered into a co-partnership with me and remained until 1869. In the meantime he served on term as Co. judge of Mercer Co. He then bought a farm near Aledo, Ill and moved to that and remained there until the spring of 1883 serving 5 years during that time as County Judge. He then moved to Burlingame Kansas and is now on a farm 8 miles from there. He has children living, to wit: William who is married and lives at Topeka, Kansas and is car-inspector in the shops of the A.T. and S.F.R.R. Co; Elizabeth [added later: "Green," perhaps her married name] who is unmarried, is a teacher and is now at the Rosebud Indian Agency, South Dakota. Mattie, who is married to Alex Stahl and lives near her father; Lewis who lives with his father; Henry Clay who is conductor on the Santa Fe Railroad. Other children, Effie, Frank and Arthur, Ralph, (Effie and Ralph are dead).
My Brother L.A. and I continued in the mercantile business until sometime in 1850. We met serious losses in 1849 and 50 and closed out the business. My brother L.A. was married in the spring of 1852 to Laura S. Copen who lived at Cincinnati, but her parents lived at Parkersburg, VA. After their marriage, in the fall of 1850 he moved to Cincinnati and engaged in the lumber trade, principally staves and hoop poles. He remained there until the spring of 1858 having made and saved some money. He then moved to Aledo, Ill, where he engaged in general merchandise and remained until the fall of 1860 when he returned to Cincinnati and engaged in Mercantile business until 1867, then bought a farm at Oxford Ohio and lived there one year. From there went to Monticello, Indiana and engaged in mercantile pursuits and until the spring of 1869 when he went to Louisville, KY afterwards to Cincinnati, then back to Louisville where he was for two years or more General Agent of the Victor Sewing Machine Co. In 1873 he moved to St. Louis, Mo. and lived there five or six years. After that he lived at various places in the South for a number of years until about 1890 when he settled near Deland Florida where he had started a fruit farm and he is still living there at this writing, Jan 13th 1901. His wife died in the latter part of the year 1896. They did not have any children but took a girl to raise and practically adopted her in 1856 or 1857. Jennie Bassett as she was named was married about 1875 to a Dr. Nixon who was then living in Louisville, KY, but moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas and died there about 1895. This adopted daughter is now living at Little Rock, Arkansas, a widow without children and teaches music. She has been very kind to her adopted father in his old age.
After the dissolution of the co-partnership between my brother and me I commenced studying law which I continued as best I could until I was admitted to practice in the fall of 1854 in Mercer Co, Ill. I did not have any perception, nor was I near any lawyer with whom I could consult until in the fall of 1852. My general education was, also, so limited that I had to enlarge that and I taught a term of school in the winter of 1850-51. In 1851 with another man I engaged in buying tan bark and towing it to Cincinnati and in freighting lumber in flatboats for others. These flatboats were 18 ft wide and from 90-100 feet long. The boats were constructed by using gunwales, which were obtained from large yellow poplar trees, and were sawed out 8 in. thick and from 32 to 40 in. deep at the stump end and from 20 to 26 inches at the top end - the difference in depth being caused by the tapering of the tree. These poplar trees were pretty abundant in KY and Ohio and sometimes grew to the diameter of 5 ft, often without a limb for 80 to 100 ft. up. The tree would be cut down and it it did not break in the fall, then it would be cut off at the top as far up as it could be used and each side heaved down by axes to the divided width, if two sets of gunwales could be gotten out of it 32 inches in width, but usually only one set could be obtained long enough for these large boats and often a shorter set for the boats that were used to keep wood for sale for steamboats about 65 ft long. Then the top and bottom of the log after the sides were dressed down would be squared off for the desired depth that the log would allow. After that was done, the big square timber would have to be placed on a crib ready to be sawed by the whipsaw. This was done by cutting logs about 18 inches in diameter some eight or ten feet long and commence to build a crib under the big squared timber near the center of gravity. One end of the big stick of lumber would be raised by pries and levers and the crib commenced a log being placed under it at right angles, then ten or more men would get on the top of the timber at the same end and weight it down so that the other end would tip up - like a see-saw, then a log placed across a few feet from the first one and then were changed to the other and weighing it down so that the other end would tip up and that end of the crib raised and so on until the whole timber was raised high enough for a man to stand under it, then two men with a whip-saw would saw a slab of each gunwale as I have described in describing how other lumber was sawed with a whip-saw.
The gunwales were tied together by girders and the girders were (?) timbers, was a foundation for the bottom, which was 1-1/2 in. white oak lumber. The boat was built near the edge of the water in the river bottom up and then launched and turned in the water. This was done by nailing cleats on the side of one gunwale and putting boards on them and throwing dirt or stone on one side sinking that side in the water and the boat would turn over, then bail it out and put siding on it so that it would be landed with depth of four feet. It could then carry 80 cords of wood or tan bark.
All kinds of freight were carried in them in very early days. They could be roofed or covered over for the carriage of freight that had to be protected from the weather. They could be run by hand. There were oars one to each side and a steering oar. The steering oar was made of out a long slim tree usually poplar and were nearly as long as the boat. A block made out of the butt end - and it was heavy or a studding at the stern of the boat where it could easily handle the blade and being the heaviest. The other end would be under the center of the boat. The steersman would stand at the inner end and was the one to direct the course of the boat. The side oars were 36 feet long being a little forward of the center of the boat and were large clumsy things. One or two men would handle each side oar to give the motive power to the boat for steering purposes. I learned the river from Portsmouth to Cincinnati and would pilot oar our boats. I can now, almost 50 years since I left there, trace the channel of the river from Portsmouth to Cincinnati, name every bar or obstruction, every little stream of any size that emptied into the Ohio and every town or village on the banks of the river, with a description of the bars or obstructions and how to direct the boat so as to avoid obstacles. We usually carried four men to one of these boats - the pilot and three men at the oars. The side oars were not used except for propelling the boat to keep it off of the shore and bars and for landing. We also had an anchor and a skiff, or small boat when we landed. We did not run the boat against the shore, but when we got it near the shore, two men would get into the skiff and take one end of the hawser or cable, coil a part of it in the skiff and then one of the men would take the oars and propel the skiff to the shore the other one holding the line, the third man on the boat would play out the line, that is, let it go out as fast as the skitf proceeded to the shore. When the skiff got to the land the men would take the line and go to a tree or some object on shore that they could tie to and make it fast, then the men on the boat would take a few turns around the snubbing mast on the boat and hold it until the line tightened and then gradually allow it to play out until the boat was checked. Some judgment was necessary in doing this. The momentum of the heavy boat was such often, especially when the river was high that a fastening of both ends of the line so it could not play out would cause it to break. These lines were made about 1000 yards long, often longer, and on our boats 1-1/4 inches in diameter.
In the spring of 1852, I concluded to go out and seek a new home. I left early in April by steamboat to Cincinnati and from there to St. Louis and continued to New Boston, Illinois being ten days in making the trip. I left my family until I should find a location. After remaining in New Boston about one week I took a steamer again for St. Louis and from there by steamer up the Illinois River to Pekin where Samuel and Luke Worley were settled and where Samuel Worley, my former roommate had bought land. I remained there several weeks and then went by steamer to Naples [Maples?], Ill where the Railroad from Springfield terminated. It was a small place but of considerable mercantile importance. A line of steamboats ran from there to St Louis and a great deal of lumber was unloaded from canal boats brought from Chicago for interior railroad points. There was an extensive lumber mill here which not only sawed logs into boards but also cut laths, staves and planed lumber and (?) also had a turning lathe and manufactured furniture unfinished.
I worked in the mill for several weeks and then in connection with another man went up above Naples a few miles on the opposite side of the Illinois River on Crooked Creek and got out a raft of sycamore logs for the owner of the mill. I then sent for my family to come out on a steamer to St Louis and I went there to remain to meet them.
I got work there in a lumberyard, later in a mill, and still later on the dry dock. My family came early in July - wife, three children and my sister Frances. I rented a house and continued work but I could just earn enough to pay my rent and pay for food and table expenses - nothing left for clothing. It was the hardest period of my life so far. I was weighed down with forebodings of the future. I had no intuition of remaining in St. Louis if I could get away but where should I go? That was the first query, but the next important one was how should I get away? I had not enough money to take my family far and what should I do? If I should get sick, then what would become of my family? This was the burden of tho't that never left me. But in it all my good wife and good sister never complained, never reproached nor found fault with me.
I wrote to my Uncle Willets in New Boston and he had my cousin Joseph Dixon write to me to come there at once that they would hire me in his district to teach their winter school. So about the first of September I took steamboat for Keokuk with my family where we had to change and go ten miles to Montrose by Hack (to get around the rapids at low water) and then took steamer to New Boston. It raised a great burden - but I had to go to a pawnshop and pawn some bed clothing and books to get ten dollars to enable me to pay my expenses. I had bought a little cheap, second-hand furniture in St Louis, which I sold. We retained only our beds and bedding, cupboard ware etc. I landed in New Boston with only $3.25 in my pocket and had to go in debt for a cook-stove and a little furniture.
I rented rooms in the Danforth house at the foot of the bluff north of New Boston 6 miles and wintered there. Elias Willets, a nephew of Uncle Sam L Willits, had rented the house to winter in it and let me have four rooms. Here is where I first met Elias Willets who had bought land and was making a home on it near Uncle Willets. I worked for him during the fall and commenced my school about the first of December. It was a subscription school and I only made $22 a month. I walked three miles morning and evening to attend the school - would to on the Bay Island on Saturday and cut wood and Elias Willits would haul it home and divide it with me, I would cut it into stove-wood lengths mornings and evenings.
During
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Bassett Family Association Database
1825 - 1920 (94 years)