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- The County Record, Kingstree, South Carolina, Feburary 5, 1920
Death of Mr. Bass
Mr. W.L. Bass, long a resident of Lake City and a highly respected citizen, died last Friday night. Mr. Bass was a lawyer by profession and excelled in his work. He was a cripple, but up to about three weeks ago had seemed in good health. He was forced to take to his bed and a day or two before he died was thought to be improving. He is survived by two daughters, one in Florida and one living in Lake City. He was a familiar figure in Lake City and will be greatly missed there.
For a long time Mr. Bass was the Lake City correspondent of The County Record, but some years ago he moved to Florida and his connection with the paper ceased.
County Record, Kingstree, South Carolina, Thursday, January 15, 1903
Hon. W.L. Bass (Sketch included)
William Leonidas Bass was born and reared in that portion of Marion county now embraced in Florence county. He is the third son of Dr. Thomar R. Bass, who as a physician, a farmer, a citizen and a country gentleman was one of the most successful and highly respected of his day. Dr. Bass was a member of the first Democratic delegation sent from Marion county to the Legislature after the war and was a leader in the movement that in 1876 wrested the State from negro and carpet bag rule.
The boyhood days of the subject of this sketch were spent on his father?s farm in doing his share of farm work and attending the neighborhood schools. He was prepared for college by Mr. Arthur H. Harllee, now attorney-general of New Mexico, and E.C .Haynesworth, Esq., of Sumter. He entered the South Carolina College in 1882 and graduated in 1884 in the ?Teachers Course.? Was president of the Euphradian Society two successive terms and delivered the diploma to the graduating class of 1883. In 1895 was elected vice president of the alumni Association. After graduation he studied law in the office of Thos. M. Giland, Esq., and was admitted to the bar in December, 1885. He devoted quite a number of the years of his life to traeching. In 1891 he opened the Lake City High School which he built up from a very small beginning to be one of the best and most widely known school in Eastern South Carolina and won himself the reputation of being among the best teachers of the State. In 1896 he became superintendent of the Blackville Graded Schools. On account of bad health he abandoned teaching, and after a year in Florida and South Georgia spent in regaining his health, he returned to Lake City and opened his law office in January, 1899. Since thistime he has devoted himself exclusively to the law and has built up a good, steady and lucrative practice and had gained the reputation of being an earnest and save counsellor and a hard working and able advocate. He has been connected with some of the most important cases that have arisen in this section, among which we many mention the celebrated ?Baker case? and the Dispensary cases.
Men of Mark in South Carolina
by James Calvin Hemphill (1907)
William Leonidas Bass
BASS, WILLIAM LEONIDAS, teacher, superintendent of schools, editor, since 1899 engaged in the practice of law at Lake City, South Carolina, and solicitor for the Bank of Lake City, was born six miles from Scranton, Florence, now Marion county, South Carolina, on the 10th of March, 1862. His father, Thomas Randolph Bass, a physician and farmer, was a member of the house of representatives of South Carolina from 1872 to 1874, representing Marion county; and he led the first Democratic delegation elected after the "Reconstruction" period. He is spoken of by his son as a man of marked ability, energy and devotion to duty, and of high principle. His ancestors came from Burton-on-Trent, England.
His great-grandfather, Henry Bass, settled in Transylvania county, Virginia, before the Revolution. Joseph Bass, his son, removed from Virginia to Marion county, where his son, Thomas Randolph Bass, and his grandson, William L. Bass, were born. Thomas R. Bass married Mary Anna Carter, who is the mother of Mr. William L. Bass. All his early boyhood was passed in the country. He had robust health until his thirteenth year, when paraplegia permanently crippled him, compelling him then and ever since to walk only with the help of a crutch. His natural taste for reading and for experimenting with machinery and with electrical devices, marked even before his thirteenth year, was perhaps strengthened after he was cut off from the forms of active exercise common in boyhood and youth. He was trained to work with his hands in his early boyhood and "learned to love work and regular tasks." He had the advantage only of the ordinary common schools until he was thirteen; for several years after that time poor health interfered with study; but in June, 1884, he completed the course for teachers at South Carolina college.
He then read law in the office of Honorable Thomas M. Gilland at Kingstree, and by examination before the supreme court he was admitted to the bar in 1885. It is interesting to note in Mr. Bass's record, of the books which have had the strongest influence upon his life, the names of authors to whom so many of the strong men of the last half century have felt themselves indebted for inspiration and moral fiber. He names: "The Bible and Josephus, Plutarch, Guizot's History of Civilization, Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, Carlyle's Sartor Resartus, Macaulay's History, and Hugh Miller's Testimony of the Rocks, with Campbell's poetry." In 1889 he took the position of principal of the Lake City high school; and in 1896 he resigned that position to become superintendent of the graded schools of Blackville, South Carolina. From 1897 to 1898 he was editor of the Valdosta (Georgia) "Mercury." Since 1899 he has been practicing law at Lake City. His natural bent and his ambition and desire led him toward the study of natural science and the pursuit of physical, chemical and electrical research; but necessity and the logic of events have made him a lawyer; and he has attained a good measure of success in his profession. For many years he has contributed articles to the newspapers and periodical press. On the 16th of June, 1886, he married Miss Eddie R. Lucas, daughter of Edward R. Lucas, of Darlington, South Carolina, who was in charge of the printing of currency at Columbia for the Confederate States during the war. They have had four children, two of whom are living in 1907. While in college he was a member of the Euphradian society, serving for two terms as its president. He is vice-chancellor commander in the Knights of Pythias. He has been prominent in the order and the work of the Good Templars. In his party relations he acts and votes with the Democratic party. He was a member of the house of representatives of South Carolina from 1902 to 1906. In the year last named he was elected senator from Williamsburg, which office he now holds. He is connected with the Missionary Baptist denomination. His favorite amusement and exercise he has found in fishing. He writes: "I also enjoy the use of an automobile, but I find nothing comparable with the 'big end of a fishing rod.'" To the younger people of South Carolina he offers this suggestion: "Learn that luxury enervates; and that mere money-getting is an unworthy aim in life, and an aim which is followed by no truly great and earnest man."
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Bassett Family Association Database
1862 - 1920 (57 years)