Frederick A. Basford Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Page 808

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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FREDERICK A. BASFORD, who occupies a prominent position among the 
leading agriculturists of Spink county, South Dakota, is a native of 
the far-off state of Vermont, his birth occurring in Burlington, 
January 8, 1841. His father was a prominent carpenter, shipbuilder and 
contractor of that place and helped Ericsson build his famous caloric 
boat. Our subject early became familiar with the business and worked 
with his father. In August, 1861, he enlisted in the Sixth Vermont 
Volunteer Infantry and was discharged May 14, 1862, on account of 
sickness, caused by army life. 

Returning to his home in Vermont, Mr. Basford remained there until he 
had sufficiently recovered to resume work at his trade, when he went to 
New York and found employment in a shipyard. From there he went to 
northeastern Iowa, where he spent one winter, returning to Vermont in 
the spring of 1866. He worked at his trade there until 1880, when he 
was again driven by the western fever to Dakota. In company with two of 
his brothers, he came to Spink county, where they lived alone all 
through the hard winter of 1880-81. For six weeks their only food was 
potatoes, not even having salt to season them with. In the spring they 
were joined by two other brothers, and the families of all. The five 
settled in one locality, taking up three thousand and forty acres in 
one body and a half section outside of the Basfordville region. 

Soon after, however, they sold seven quarter-sections for seven 
thousand seven hundred dollars, and in 1882 our subject sold his 
homestead of one hundred and sixty acres for two thousand dollars and 
moved to a place one mile south, where he purchased a relinquishment 
and has since resided. He now has two hundred and sixty acres under a 
high state of cultivation and improved with good and substantial 
buildings and has one hundred and twenty acres fenced off for pasture, 
as he is quite extensively interested in stock raising, keeping from 
twenty to thirty head of cattle and eight work horses. 

On the 18th of December, 1867, Mr. Basford married Miss Lucy Douglass, 
of Shelburne, Vermont, and they have become the parents of four 
children, namely: Frank, who is now a fireman on the Chicago & 
Northwestern railroad; Mrs. Lena Mahaffy, who is living near the old 
homestead; and Bessie and Elsie, both at home. A group portrait of this 
interesting family appears on another page. Politically, Mr. Basford is 
a Republican, being an ardent supporter of the "grand old party;" 
religiously he is an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church; 
and socially belongs to the Masonic fraternity and the Grand Army of 
the Republic. He is in favor of prohibition and equal suffrage, and 
never withholds his aid from any enterprise calculated to advance the 
moral, social or material welfare of his adopted county or state. He-is 
therefore a valued citizen of his community, and is held in high regard 
by all who know him.