| Notes |
- 14B752333. Joseph E. Bessette – born 1855 in St. Athanase, Quebec,
Canada, married Emma Bassett (#14B77C.C36), daughter of Israel
Bassett.
Progressive Men of Montana
Joseph E. Bessette
Born and reared at St. Athanase, province of Quebec, Canada, in humble circumstances and obliged to work on his father’s farm until he was sixteen years old with scarcely any attendance at school, then hiring out to the Vermont Central Railway Company and making his own way in the world, the subject of this review neither found nor inherited his opportunities, but hewed them out by his own indomitable energy and capacity. He was the third of ten children born to Charles and Sophia (Brassau) Bessette, natives of Quebec, where the father conducted a small farm with the help of his children. Born in 1855, at the age of sixteen he left his home farm, going to Pigeon Hill in his native province, where he worked at farming two seasons for wages and secured two winters’ schooling. Form there he went to Phillipsburg, Quebec, and worked one year in a marble quarry. He next apprenticed himself to learn the trade of house, sign and coach painting, and at the end of his three years’ apprenticeship, in 1878, he went to Bismarck, N.D., where he spent a month looking about for work or a suitable locality to settle in. From there he went to the Black Hills on a gold hunt, and worked one winter as yardman at Fort Meade. In the spring he went to Terraville and worked all summer at his trade. He painted the Caledonia mill and Superintendent Rigby’s residence and other buildings. In the fall he went to work as painter for the Homestake Mining Company, under supervision of Superintendent Mason. He spent the winter of 1881-2 with an uncle at Fond du Lac, Wis., and on February 12, 1882, was married at that town to Miss Emma Bessette, daughter of J. Bessette, a harness manufacturer and dealer. In April he went by train to Miles City, Mont., camping a week while waiting for a freight outfit. He then moved to Fort Keough, at that time a supply yard for the Northern Pacific extension, and from there went by wagon train to old Coulson, where he camped on the river bank about a month, spending three weeks on the trip. He left Coulson with W.L. Allrad, and went up the Yellowstone valley on foot, hunting suitable land to take up. The journey was full of difficulty and hardship because of the mud and water; and at Young’s Point they were laid up there days in a heavy snowstorm. He returned to a point about a mile and half east of Park City and homesteaded 160 acres of land, where he now owns 480 acres all fenced an irrigated, 200 acres being under good cultivation. His crops in 1901 were eighty tons of timothy hay, three crops of alfalfa from thirty-five acres, 800 bushels of oats, 200 of wheat, forty-eight of alfalfa seed, and three acres of corn. He has nearly a hundred head of cattle and one-fourth as many horses. The ranch is improved with a fine dwelling and good outbuildings, and is in every way well equipped for successful tillage. After locating his ranch, Mr. Bessette temporarily lived in a log house in Park City, working on the ranch and at sheep-shearing and other jobs to get wire for fencing and lumber for building. In 1885 the family moved to the ranch. His first crop was twenty acres of oats, and since then his progress has been steady, rapid and continuous. After the death of his wife he married in 1892 Miss Esther Williams, a native of Westville, Ind. He has three children living of the six resulting from his two marriages, one of whom is the offspring of his first wife and the other two of his second. They are Charles, and Merle and Josephine, attending school.
Mr. Bessette is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, including the degree of Honor, and also belongs to the Yeomen of America. Politically he is a Republican; in religious faith a Catholic. He is recognized as a leading citizen in his neighborhood, and one of the progressive and enterprising farmers of Yellowstone county.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1855 - 