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- The North Adams Transcript, Massachusetts, Saturday, 27 February 1937
Lewis Writes Of Florida Native
Homer Franklin Bassett, Famed Entomologist
And Librarian
Although College Education Ambition Was Thwarted
Yale Made Him Honorary M.A.
Homer Franklin Bassett, a native of the neighboring town of Florida, who, although thwarted in his ambition to obtain a college education, acquired a trans-atlantic reputation as and entomologist, developed the Bronson library at Waterbury, Ct., and was awarded the honorary degree of M.A. by Yale university in recognition of his scholarly attainments, is the subject of the latest article by Attorney Joseph Ward Lewis of Pittsfield in his series on ?Berkshire Men of Worth.?
The article follows:
In 1849, compelled by ill health to leave the College Preparatory School at Oberlin, O., before he had completed his first yar, Homer Franklin Bassett, managed to exchange some recently purchased college text books for a copy of Wood?s Botany. He read the book and threading proved to be the turning point in his life. It opened a new world, fascinating in the extreme and the study of botany and kindred branches of natural history from that time occupied all the leisure hours in his busy life.
Mr. Bassett was born in Florida in this county on Sept. 2, 1836 and died in Waterbury, Conn., on June 28, 1902; he was buried there in the Riverside cemetery. He was the son of Ezra and Keziah (Watt) Bassett. When the boy was 10 years old he went with his parents to Ohio and settled on a farm in Rockport. Until he was 20 years of age he worked on the farm; he had some schooling and spent a few terms at Berea Seminary where he worked to pay his expenses. Later he attended the preparatory school at Oberlin and, industrious and eager to get an education, he overworked and had to give up0 his long cherished plant for a college course. He taught school in Ohio and Connecticut for many years and for a time was in the real estate and insurance business at Waterbury, Conn.
About 1862 he began to study insect life, confining his research almost entirely to those which produced gall. He discovered and described about 100 species and pointed out many interesting and important facts regarding their habits. His skill as an entomologist acquired for him a trans-atlantic reputation in that, his favorite field of study. He was familiar with most of the flowering plants of Wester New England, Northern Ohio and Eastern Kansas. In 1870 the Silas Bronson Library was founded in Waterbury and Mr. Bassett applied for the position of librarian. W. I. Fletcher was considered to have a prior claim and he was appointed. He resigned, however, in August 1872 and Mr. Bassett took his place. The Bronson Library had some 13,000 volumes when he became librarian, but their arrangement, classification and cataloguing did not met the new librarian?s approval; he made an entirely new arrangement and classification of the books and devised a system of cataloguing and installed it, to the gratification of the library?s regents and its patrons. They system adopted was the Dewey with slight modifications. The original building which had been built for the library proved much too small and a new building was erected and occupied in 1894. Mr. Bassett made many suggestions as to the choice of the lot, size of the building, its heating, lighting and ventilating systems. The number of books in the library increased to almost 100,000 during his service as librarian. He retired in 1901. He gave his berbarium of 1600 plants to the Bronson library.
Yale university awarded an honorary degree of M.A. on Mr. Bassett June 17, 1894 in recognition of his scholarly acquirements and his service of over 20 years at the Bronson library. The degree was conferred by President Timothy Dwight. (This President Dwight was the grandson of an earlier President Timothy Dwight of Yale whose mother, was Mary, daughter of Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian of Stockbridge.)
He was town treasurer for one years, member of the board of education for many years, and of the board of school visitors; he was a member of the executive board of the Waterbury English & Classical school; and secretary of the Waterbury Temperance Union; one of the original members of Citizens? Engine Co. 2, of the volunteer fire department; one of the original members of the Scientific Society; corresponding secretary of the Naturalists? club; member of the Board of Court martial of the Chatfield Guard.
In connection with library work he assisted in organizing Poole?s Index, his assignment consisting of indexing 50-60 volumes of the Edinburgh Review went to him by the American Library Association.
Mr. Bassett was married three times, May 21, 1848 to Sarah A. Tomlinson, who died Aug. 4 of the same year; April 8, 1856 to Lovina Alcott, niece of the famous Dr. William Alcott; she died Aug. 11, 1880; and on July 17, 1884 he married Margaret D. Judd. He was the father of two daughters, Antoinette Alcott and Helen Margaret Bassett and one son, Frank Alcott.
A portrait of Mr. Bassett hangs on the wall of the Bronson library; it shows a fine face with no mustache but long and perfectly white beard.
1850 Federal Census of Rockport Township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio (23 Oct 1850)
Ezra Bassett - 51 - M - Massachusetts - Farmer 3200
Abigail(?) - 45 - F - Massachusetts
Homer - 23 - M - Massachusetts - Farmer
Henry - 21 - M - Massachusetts
Charles - 16 - M - Massachusetts
Dwight - 14 - M - Massachusetts
John - 13 - M - Ohio
Marilla - 18 - F - Massachusetts
Elizabeth - 9 - F - Ohio
1880 Federal Census of Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut
Homer F. Bassett - 53 - M - MA-MA-MA - Head - Librarian
L.A. - 43 - F - CT-CT-CT - Wife
A.N. - 23 - F - OH-MA-CT - Daughter - Teacher
Frank A. - 14 - M - CT-MA-CT - Son - School
Minnie Hemmingway - 21 - F - CT-CT-NY - Other - Home
Bassett Family by Elizabeth Bassett McAlister
Ezra Bassett, an early settler in this part of Ohio, came from Florida, Massachusetts in the year 1829. He brought with him his family consisting of wife, Kesiah DeWitt Bassett, and five children, Homer, Henry, Marilla, Charles and Dwight. Three other children were born in Ohio, Elizabeth, John and William.
In coming to Ohio, they travelled by wagon from Florida, Massachusetts to Albany, New York From Albany to Buffalo via the Erie canal and from Buffalo to Cleveland by steam boat.
They settled on a farm of fifty-seven acres on the corner of Puritas Springs Boulevard and Grayton Road. Houses that they lived in are still standing. They bought land on both sides of Rocky River Drive, a fifty acre parcel on the West Side and Barber property of about one hundred acres. When Ezra Bassett died they were living in a pretty home in Brooklyn Village, now a part of Cleveland.
The children were brought up in a Christian home. Each day was reverently begun by the reading of Scriptures and followed by all kneeling in prayer. Several of the children attended Oberlin College. They attended a Baptist church which stood on the corner of Riverside Drive and Lorain Road and later they attended the church now known as the West Park Congregational Church. Ezra Bassett was a deacon in the church and held civic ofices.
Homer Bassett went back to New England and was city librarian in Waterbury, Connecticut for many years. He was also an author.
Henry joined the "forty niners" to California in search of gold. He made his home in California.
Marilla married Lorin Nichols and stayed in Rockport as did her sister Elizabeth who married Charles Jordan.
Charles and Dwight lived on the farms in Rocky River Drive.
John enlisted in the Civil War, was taken ill and died and his body was sent home for burial. A group of his comrades paid the expenses but Grandfather showed his appreciation by sending back to them one hundred dollars.
William, the youngest, also settled in Rockport.
Above the fireplace in the old house, and on either side were cupboards where grandmother kept good things to eat. Before we could talk, we used to point up to where the raisin cake was kept, and such cake and such bread I have never tasted anything so good since.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 2, 1902
Homer F. Bassett Dead
Well Known Entomologist and Former Resident of Rockport
Special to the Plain Dealer
WATERBURY, Ct., July 1 - Homer F. Bassett, a former citizen of Rockport, O., died here today, aged seventy-six years. He was an educator at Berea and Oberlin college, settling in Rockport on a farm. His winters were spent in teaching in Ohio and his summers upon his Rockport farm. He was a noted entomologist and author of several standard works on this branch of science.
The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography
(Picture included)
Bassett, Homer Franklin, librarian, was born at Florida, Berkshire co., Mass., Sept. 2, 1826, son of Ezra and Keziah (Witt) Bassett. When he was ten years old he removed with his parents to Ohio and settled on a farm in Rockport. He worked on the farm until he was twenty years old, enjoying limited school advantages, although by working to pay his expenses while at school he spent a few terms at the Berea Seminary. Later he was a student in the College Preparatory School at Oberlin for nearly a year. Overwork, however, obliged him not only to leave the school a few weeks before the end of the year, but forced him to give up his long cherished plan of taking a college course. In 1849, when leaving Oberlin, he managed to exchange some recently purchased college text-books for a copy of "Wood's Botany". This simple act proved to be a turning point in his life. The book opened to him a new world, and the study of botany and kindred branches of natural history from that time occupied the leisure hours of a busy life. His health remained poor, he spent the next summer in western Massachusetts, and in the fall visited relatives in Connecticut. Here he was urged to teach the winter school in a small district in the town of Wolcott. This was the beginning of his work as a teacher. He spent sixteen years in the schoolroom, the last eight in a large private school in Waterbury, Conn. About 1862 he began the study of insect life, confining himself almost entirely to the gall-producing insects of the Hymenoptera and Cynipidae. He discovered and described a large number of species, and learned several interesting and important facts regarding their habits. When the Silas Bronson Library was founded in 1870 he appled for the position of librarian. Mr. W.I. Fletcher was appointed, however, as having a prior claim, but when he resigned in August, 1872, Mr. Bassett was asked to take his place. He found in the Bronson library in 1872, about 13,000 volumes. These he rearranged, catalogued, and classified to the gratification of the board of regents and the public, and instituted many reforms in the conduct of the routine management. The origiinal building in which the books were kept being much too small, a new library building was erected and occupied in 1894. During his service as librarian, the number of volumes increased to nearly 100,000. Yale University graduated him M.A. in 1894. Mr. Bassett was married three times: (1) May 1, 1848, to Sarah A. Tomlinson; (2) Apr. 8, 1855, to Lovina Alcott; (3) July 17, 1884, to Margaret D. Judd. He was the father of two daughters, Antionette Alcott and Helen Margaret Bassett. He died in Waterbury, Conn., June 28, 1902.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1826 - 1902 (75 years)