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- Tampa Tribune, June 9, 1912 (Excerpt)
Volunteers At Fire, One Meets Death And Other Lies Broken In Hospital
Volunteering to aid the firemen fighting flames at the Centro Asturiano Clubhouse, southeast corner Palm and Nebraska avenues, last night, H.B. Bassett, a traveling man, was killed outright and Will A. Tucker was perhaps fatally injured when the great cement apex of the building crashed down upon a portico where they were standing.
Tampa Tribune, June 10, 1912 (Excerpt)
Bassett On Eve Of Wedding Tennessee Girl
Bassett’s Brother Arrives
On the Coast Line train last night Aubrey Bassett of Jacksonville, brother of H.B. Bassett, arrived in Tampa and this morning he will accompany the body to Jacksonville for interment. These two young men were the only children of a widowed mother, and both were traveling men, the victim of the accident Saturday night having been the South Florida representative of the Standard Oil Company, and Aubrey traveling for the American Produce Company.
Henry Bassett had been with the Standard Oil Company for five years, starting in the Jacksonville office. There he and Keely Coo, present Tampa agent for the company, became fast friends, and when Cook came to Tampa he brought Bassett into this territory.
Saturday night Bassett and Cook had dinner together and had gone to the German club when fire was discovered at the Centro Asturiano, only a block away. The two went to the scene of the fire together and started to get the Cuban families of the neighborhood to leave their cottages so that in case of fire they would be safe. It was while they were doing this that they became separated and Cook did not know until yesterday morning that Bassett had met his death.
Yesterday morning Cook took charge of the effects of his dead friend, wired the Florida manager of the company, W.W. Zachry, at Jacksonville, to inform the mother and brother of Bassett of the tragedy, and had the body embalmed. Last night he met the brother of the dead man and transferred the effects.
Bassett Soon to Wed
Henry Bassett was engaged to a young woman of Fayetteville, Tenn., and returned from that city last Friday. On the train coming to Tampa he told a friend that he went to Fayetteville to be married, but that the serious illness of his fiance’s father had caused the wedding to be postponed.
“He was always a fearless chap,” said Keely Cook yesterday afternoon, speaking of his dead friend. “It has been only a short time since a friend of his in Jacksonville was asphyxiated and the doctors said transfusion of blood was the only hope. Bassett promptly bared his arm to the knife, and the friend recovered. He was only 23 years old, but he was every inch a solid man.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1886 - 1912 (26 years)