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- 1880 Federal Census of Town 5, Frontier County, Nebraska
Thomas M. Basset 27 M OH EN OH Head Farmer
Viola E. 19 F MO NY OH Wife Keeping House
Forence 7/12 F IA OH MO Daughter
1900 Federal Census of Whitewater Precinct, McPherson County, NE (21 Jun 1900)
Thomas M. Bassett 47 M Jun 1850 OH EN OH Head Ranchman
Viola 37 F Feb 1862 MO NY -- Wife
Florence 20 F Oct 1879 IA OH MO Daughter
Lawrence 16 M Sep 1883 NE OH MO Son
Walter 14 M May 1886 NE OH MO Son
Emily 12 F May 1888 NE OH MO Daughter
Bettie 6 F Jun 1894 NE OH MO Daughter
Ruth 3 F Dec 1896 NE OH MO Daughter
The Thomas Malon Bassett Family
By Mrs. Dorothy Lawyer
My grandfather, Thomas Malon Bassett, was born in Ohio on January 14, 1853. Sometime prior to 1879 this family migrated to Iowa where Malon met and married Viola Edwina Hayward in January of 1879. She was the eldest daughter of Richard and Sarah Hayward born in Hamburg, Iowa, February 9, 1861. Early in the summer of 1880, she moved with her husband to Red Willow County near McCook, Nebraska, where they lived for about eight years. There Florence (my mother), Gertrude, Laverna and Walter were born. In the year 1888, the family came in a covered wagon to what is now known as northwestern McPherson County, where they homesteaded. It is now known as the Old Bassett Valley and is now owned by the Max Rothwell family.
My grandfather, Malon, was a blacksmith, so he set up shop and it became a center for many miles around where people gathered to have their work done. They reared their family amid many hardships of the pioneer day.
Betty, Emily, Nellie and a son, Robert (died in infancy) were born on the homestead. My mother, Florence, the oldest daughter, married Edward Abel, a young man who had migrated from Michigan tot he Brady, Nebraska area.
My father took a homestead in what was McPherson County. Later the county was divided into two parts. The west was called Arthur County. Our sod house was in Arthur County and the barn was in McPherson County.
I don't know just how long we lived there. The water level raised so we had water all around the house. We were near Brown Lake. My dad bought land in the west part of the valley (known as the Denny place) and we moved to high ground.
We were a family of seven children: Clara, Edna, George, Dorothy, Helen, Anne and Don.
My father died February 14, 1926. My mother and George (my oldest brother) ran the ranch for years. Mother died May 26, 1956, so my brother bought the ranch, but later sold it to Lewis Stambough.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1853 - 1920 (67 years)