Monterey-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Bassett, Abner 1823 - 1870
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 19, 2007, 11:31 pm

Author: Luther A. Ingersoll, Editor (1893)

ABNER BASSETT, deceased, was a pioneer of California. He came to the State in
1849. He was born in Maine, October 13, 1823, and he was one of twins, having a
twin sister, Jane, now Mrs. Bernice Burden, living near Fall River, Mississippi.
Abner Bassett was a son of Jonathan and Sarah Bassett, of Fall River. His father
was by trade a stonecutter, and did an extensive quarry business.

  Abner and his twin sister were the fourth born of the family, they being born
October 13, 1823. He married Miss Mary Ann Turner, a daughter of Ralph Turner, a
calico "block" printer by trade, and for several years he was the keeper of the
United States tavern at Belvadier, Massachusetts, near Boston.

  In 1849 Mr. Bassett came to California, went into the mines and engaged in
contracting and building in partnership with J. S. Emery, now of Oakland,
California, and they did an extensive business. They also built by contract for
the Government the dry-dock on Mare Island, taking the granite rock for the same
by water on a private ship from Point Lobos, south of Monterey. It was the use
of the granite rock that led the purchasers (which were themselves) of the
Rancho San Jose y Sur Chiquito, one of the most valuable places in Monterey county.

  Our subject's trip to California was made via Cape Horn, on the bark Mallery,
which he and his brother Alfred, with a company, purchased, loaded with stores,
and sailed from New York. The voyage to San Francisco harbor, covered a period
of seven months.

  Mrs. Bassett, August 8, 1853, arrived in San Francisco, following her husband
by the same route on the clipper Shooting Star, bringing with her her [sic] son
William T., then five years old. Mrs. Bassett was on the sea continuously for
four months and twenty-two days. The clipper was not a passenger ship and the
party comprised the captain, with his bride, Mrs. Bassett and her son, and three
others, including her brother, James Turner.

  For nine years the family made their home in San Francisco. They then lived
twenty-three years in Virginia City, Nevada, when Mr. Bassett had his exhausted
mining interests, and with J. S. Emery erected one of the first quartz mills
that crushed ore on the Comstock lead.

  He was a man of great energy and executive ability. He had broad ideas of
business, and was successful in his undertakings. He died September 22, 1870, in
the prime of his life. Mrs. Bassett still survives, and is in good health, and
lives at Pacific Grove, Monterey county.

  Mr. and Mrs. Bassett had six sons and two daughters, as follows: William
Thomas, who was born  in Fall River, Massachusetts, June 4, 1848, and is now a
member of Company F, cavalry, of the United States Army; Alice Annet, born in
San Francisco, June 8, 1854, and is now a resident of that city; Edward, and
Abner, born March 1, 1857, the first white twins born in the Golden Gate City;
Edward is foreman of a coal mine, and Abner is  now superintendent of the
Carmelo Land and Coal Company of Monterey. He was reared in Virginia City,
Nevada, and became an expert mining engineer, and managed the construction of
the most extensive mine shafts in the Comstock lead mines, one being 3,368 feet
deep-the deepest perpendicular shaft in the world. He married Catherine Mahoney
March 9, 1888; she is a native of New York. They have one son, Edward Franklyn,
born at Pacific Grove, California, March 19, 1890. The next born in Mr.
Bassett's family is Mary Watt, born also in San Francisco, March 12, 1859, and
is now living in that city, married; Charles, born also in that city, April 16,
1861, learned locomotive engineering and was employed in this capacity by the
Southern Pacific Railroad Company until 1882; next for a time he ran stationary
engines, and later pursued mining in Idaho from 1884 to 1888, when he disposed
of his mining interests and is now living at Hailey, Alturas county, Idaho. He
married in Idaho Miss Brella S. Stone, a native of Humboldt county, California,
and they have one daughter, Bessie, born May 22, 1883. Frank, the youngest of
Mr. Bassett's children, was born at Virginia City, Nevada, March 30, 1867, died
at Ketchum, Alturas county, Idaho, December 26, 1888, of typhoid pneumonia.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California.

Illustrated.

Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the
Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of
its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent
Citizens of To-day.



HENRY D. BARROWS,
Editor of the Historical Department.

LUTHER A. INGERSOLL,
Editor of the Biographical Department.

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."-Macaulay.


CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/monterey/bios/bassett506gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/

File size: 5.6 Kb