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- 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
Excerpt from Autobiography of Isaac Newton Bassett
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.
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.
I had not thought until that suggestion was made of moving my family, but I was encouraged to bring my wife out, [to Denver, Colorado] in the hope it would benefit her health and I finally concluded to do so. I took two teams and went to St Josephs where the two families met me and from there went to Denver where we arrived early in September.
I found the business was wrecked the firm was really insolvent. I proceeded to close up the business. I was in a very embarrassing position. I had my wife and five children - the wife sick and no money. I was greatly depressed but proceeded back bravely to meet the crisis. My wife died in January 1861 and left me with the five children. I was indeed desolate and would not have cared to live if it had not been for my children.
When my wife died in 1861, I had her buried in a cemetery East of Denver and as marble or stone monuments could not then be procured I procured a wooden one painted and lettered to mark her grave, hoping that when railroads got to Denver I could have the remains moved to Aledo, but the monuments were destroyed so that the grave could not be identified. I regretted this as I thought it would have been a comfort to her children as well as myself to have her ashes in the family cemetery.
I was, also unfortunate in losing the identity of Clayton's grave. He was buried at Sugar Grove, and I had a tomb stone and materials to enclose his grave and a man paid to put them up which he was to do after I went to Denver, but he neglected it and when I returned I could not identify his grave. I have the names of my wife and Clayton Webster both on the monument in Aledo Cemetery.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1825 - 1861 (36 years)