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- Kinston Free Press, North Carolina, 2 Sep 1899
H.J. Bass & Co. (Picture included)
One of the biggest tobacco stemmeries in Kinston is the plant owned and operated by H.J. Bass & Co. Maj. Bass first went into the factory business in 1880 in Lynchburg, Va., where he commenced handling bright Tobacco.
As all these bright tobaccos were produced in North Carolina, the major says, he thought it would be chaper for Mahomet to go to the mountain thatn for the mountain to go to Mahomet, so in 1885 he moved to Durham, where in the fall of 1897 his factory was burnerd.
He had seen by this time that so far as bright tobacco was concerned he might as well have been back in Lynchburg as in Durham, becase he was completed to buy 95 per cent of the bright tobacco from the eastern counties whil he was located in Durham.
He looked about over the markets in Easter Carolina and after much study and mature consideration he decided that Kinston was the best market in which to locate his stemmery.
They have a large plant, 60x120 feet, three stories. They use a 708 horse power biler and a 35 horse power engine, and can dry 12,000 pound of tobacco a day. They employ an average of 100 hands. They ship tobacco direct from Kinston to several foreign countries.
Maj. Bass says that unless all signs fail he expects to see Kinston soon take front rank among the markets of Eastern Carolina. He has staked all upon the future of this market, and he is a strong and enthusicatic believer in it rapid growth and development.
H.J. Bass was born January 31, 1857, within a mile or so from Appomattox, where Gen. Lee surrendered. In 1859 his father moved to Lynchburg. On the death of his mother in 1866, he was sent back to Appomattox to school. He completed his academical education at the Kenmore University High School, at Amherst Court House, Va., after which he took a course in Bryant & Stratton?s Business College, Baltimre, Md., from which he received a diplom. This brought him up to 1875, when he went to work for $4 a week in a tobacco factory. After two months he left and was employed in a wholesale grocery store, where he, as the youngest clerk, and the negro porter had al lthe hard work to do. In a short while Mr. Bass was made assistant bookkeeper and continued to reside in a counting office until December 1, 1879, when he resigned, took a month?s vacation, went on a pleasure trip north, returned to Lynchburg and started a tobacco factgory January 1, 1880.
Maj. Bass is a pleasant gentlemen and a man of parts. He is well and favorably known in North Carolina and Virginia.
1900 Federal Census of Durham, Durham County, North Carolina (June 11, 1900)
Herbert Bass - 43 - Male - Jan 1857 - NC-NC-NC - Head - Tobacconist
Mary - 41 - Female - Oct 1858 - NC-NC-NC - Wife
Edwin J. - 10 - Male - Oct 1889 - NC-NC-NC - Son - At school
Mary A. - 7 - Female - Jun 1892 - NC-NC-NC - Daughter - At school
Maude B. - 6 - Female - May 1894 - NC-NC-NC - Daughter
Thomas W. - 1 - Male - Jan 1899 - NC-NC-NC - Son
Anna B. Buxton - 14 - Female - Mar 1886 - NC-NC-NC - Niece - At school
(Married 16 years, 7 children, 4 living)
Durham Herald Sun
Major Herbert Jones Bass
Major Herbert Jones Bass died last night at his home on West Chapel Hill Street after a long decline, hastened by recent stroke of paralysis which had kept him unconscious the last several days. Death had been expected and came as no surprise last night. It had been evident several days that he could not live and at 11:30 he died with all of his family about him. Major Bass was 54 years of age January 31. He was a native of Virginia, born in Appomattox and lived in Lynchburg from boyhood until 1885. He worked with several firms in that city during his young manhood and came to Durham in the year mentioned above. He went in to the tobacco business here, being persuaded to enter that industry because of the peculiar grade of product found in Durham. He went along splendidly until 1898 when his prizeries were burned and he left in that year for Kinston where he spent five years on the market. He never moved his family but came back to Durham in 1903 and has since lived here. More recently he ran a coal and wood yard and was in that business when he died. He was married in 1883 to Mary Narcissa Dillard, of Amherst County, and from that union there are four living children: Edwin (Yates), Mary Alice, Maude (Dillard) and Thomas (Dillard) Bass. Mrs. Bass is a sister of Judge William Dillard of Amherst circuit and is a daughter of the late General Terisha Washington Dillard, of that place. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bass come from the best Virginia families. Besides the industrial life that he has led, Major Bass was identified with the educational side of Durham and was secretary of the board of trustees of Trinity College a number of years. He was on the board that brought Bishop Kilgo to this community and throughout his life, he yielded to none in his devotion to the distinguished minister and to the college over which he presided so many years. No one act of the dead man's life was a prouder one than this. He will also place tomorrow with honors of that fraternity.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1857 - 1911 (54 years)