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- Thomas Bassett migrated to Clay County, Illinois sometime before 1840. He walked to Franklin County, Missouri and worked in the lead mines. He fought in the Mexican War. He was wagon master of a group that drove a herd of cattle to California and returned. He was returning to California to make arrangements to move his family there when he died of a fever in Panama. His body was returned to Clay County, Illinois for burial.
1850 Federal Census of Clay County, Illinois
Thomas Bassett - 25 - M - Kentucky - Farmer
Nancy - 20 - F - Missouri
Sarah A. - 1 - F - Illinois
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS
Shilo Museum 1989
Article by Marynm Shaw Bassett
Woodson W. Bassett, Sr.
Woodson William Bassett, Sr., was born April 24, 1880 in Iantha, Missouri. On January 23, 1919, he married Bertha (Bee) Irene Knerr, born August 19, 1893 in Allerton, Iowa, the daughter of George Frederick and Ida Corbett Knerr of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Woodson and Bee had four children - Betty Jane, born January 8, 1920, Dorothy Sue born February 20, 1921, Trixie Bee born October 30, 1922 and Woodson William, Jr., born November 7, 1926. The family moved to Fayetteville in 1936.
Woodson's ancesters originated in Virginia and migrated to Kentucky. His grandfather, Thomas Bassett, moved westward to Clay County, Illinois in the mid 1800's. He was a veteran of the Mexican War. When he returned from the war, he became a wagon master, guiding settlers and herding cattle to California. His first trip out and back took two years. He attempted a second trip by boat to establish a homestead for this family. He sailed from New York around the "Big Horn" to the Isthmus of Panama where he "took a fever" and died. Thomas was married to Nancy Ann Smith. They had three children - John Wesley, a teacher, Sarah Ann and Nathaniel.
Nathaniel "Than" Bassett was born March 18, 1854 in Clay County, Illinois. He married Elma Jane Williams, born in 1858. They went even farther west to Iantha, Missouri. They had three children: William Oscar, Woodson William and a daughter, Irkle Bell. Jane died when her youngest child was but two years of age. "Than" then married Ann Nance. They had one son, James D. (Jim) Bassett. A measles epidemic in 1901 caused the death of Irkle Bell. She was only seventeen. "Than" homesteaded a two-hundred acre farm in Haines Grove, Missouri. Editor of the Lamar Democrat often referred to him as the democratic leader of Barton County - a political avocation, all three of his sons and one great-grandson would inherit. Both Woodson and Oscar served as Clerks of Barton County, and Jim spent a major portion of his life as elected sheriff of Barton County. Oscar moved to Okmulgee, Oklahoma where he was elected to two terms as County Commissioner. He was joined there in the early 1900s by Woodson and they became successful, even quite wealthy, in the independent oil and gas leasing business. However, the 1929 market crash and ensuing depression swept their fortunes away and forced them to emotionally and economically restructure their lives. Oscar died of "a heart ailment" in 1934 and his family moved to California. In 1935, Jim witnessed the bizarre death of his nineteen year-old son, Maurice, who was a passenger in a monoplane which crashed near his father's office on the downtown square of Lamar, Missouri.
Family tragedies, economic depression and the pressing need to provide for and educatte their children, were all factors which motivated Woodson and Bee to move their family to Fayetteville in 1936. They could be near Bee's family and near a state university. All their children would eventually attend the University of Arkansas.
Woodson opened an office on the Fayetteville square and sold insurance and real estate and made appraisals for the Home Loan Bank. When their youngest child entered the University of Arkansas, Bee became an assistant to the registrar there, handling all World War II student veteran's affairs.
Woodson died December 6, 1964 and Bee, on September 7, 1971. Both are buried at Fairview Memorial Gardens, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The only remaining males in the Bassett geneological lineage of Thomas, Nathaniel and Woodson W. Bassett, Sr. are Woodson W. (Bill) Bassett Jr. and his two sons.
Bill is the senior member of the Bassett Law Firm, 221 North College Avenue, Fayetteville, Arkansas. On December 16, 1950, he married Marynm Shaw of Homer, Louisiana. They have three children: Woodson William (Woody) Bassett, III, born November 3, 1951 in Monroe, Louisiana; Beverly Marynm Bassett, born May 29, 1953 and Tod Corbett Bassett, born September 8, 1955 - both in Fayetteville, Arkansas. All are attorneys. Woody and Tod are members of the Bassett Law Firm. Woody is charman of the Washington County Democratic Party. Tod is married to the former Mary Helen Sugg of Fayetteville. Beverly was a member of the Mitchell Law Firm of Little Rock, Arkansas until her appointment by Governor Bill Clinton as the Securities Commissioner for the State of Arkansas - first woman to hold this position in Arkansas. She is married to Archie Schaffer III of Little Rock and they have one daughter, Eliot Shaw Schaffer, born June 11, 1987.
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Bassett Family Association Database
Abt 1825 - 1856 (31 years)