BIO: Edward M. Bassett; New York State
surname: Bassett

submitted by W. David Samuelsen (no relation)
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Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm

http://www.usgwarchives.org/ny/nyfiles.htm
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An Illustrated Legislative Manual
The New York Red Book
Containing the Portraits and Biographies of the U.S. Senators, Governor, State
Officers and Members of the Legislature; also with the Portraits of Judges and
Court Reporters, the New Constitution of the State, Election and Population
Statistics, and General Facts of Interest.
By Edgar L. Murlin
New Constitution Compiled by R. C. Cumming, O. L. Potter and F. B. Gilbert
Published, Albany, J. B. Lyon Company, Publishers, 1909

Copyright by J. B. Lyon Company, 1909

     Edward M. Bassett of New York city was born in the city of Brooklyn in
1863 and was educated in the schools of Brooklyn and of Watertown, New York.
He then entered Hamilton College and after a two years' stay there entered
Amherst College, from which institution he was graduated in 1884. After
studying for two years at the Columbia Law School he was graduated by that
institution in 1886 and was admitted to the practice of law. While in the
Columbia Law School he taught in a private school. The following six years
after his graduation he conducted the law business of a contracting firm of
Buffalo that had many contracts. Of this concern George B. Bassett, a brother
of Edward M. Bassett, was the head. In 1892 Mr. Bassett returned to New York
and there engaged in general law practice.

     Mr. Bassett studied the business affairs of Queens and Kings counties
and invested money to a large extent for clients in those counties. Mayor Van
Wyck, in 1899, appointed him a member of the Board of Education. Mr. Bassett
held this position until 1902, when he was elected a Congressman, as a
Democrat, from the Fifth Congressional District. In 1905 Mr. Bassett's term of
office as Congressman expired. While a member of the Board of Education Mr.
Bassett was chairman of its Cities Committee and as such collected much data
of worth regarding property in the counties of Queens and Kings. At one period
of his career Mr. Bassett was a member of the Democratic General Committee of
Kings county. When appointed to the Public Service Commission Mr. Bassett was
Chairman of the Citizens' Central Committee, a body made up of delegates
representing organization in Kings county having an interest in the improving
of the Borough of Brooklyn. Mr. Bassett made a speciality before his
appointment as a Public Service Commissioner of securing for clients first
mortgages on property in Queens and Kings counties, and long before the recent
remarkable increase of population in the former county declared that it would
possess a larger population.