My Genealogy Hound

HON. S. C. BASSETT is one of the original members of the Soldiers’ Free Homestead Colony, by which the town of Gibbon, Nebr., and its vicinity were settled, and is one who has stood steadfastly by the home of his adoption amidst all discouragements and disappointments, and who in so doing has been profited far beyond the average old settler.

Mr. Bassett is a native of New York, having been born in Delaware county, that state. He was reared partly in Virginia, whither his parents moved when he was young, and partly in Steuben county, N. Y., whither they returned after a residence of eight years in the South. He entered the Union army in 1863, at the age of nineteen, enlisting in Company E, One Hundred and Forty-second New York infantry, and served till the surrender. His regiment remained on garrison duty about Washington till April, 1863, when it went to the front and participated in the campaign of Gordon’s division up to the Peninsula in June, and in the Maryland march, and was then ordered to Morris Island, S. C., where it remained till May, 1864. Joining Butler’s Army of the James, at that date it began its real service. It participated in nine hotly contested engagements in Virginia and the Carolinas, winding up with Fort Fisher, and lost, out of a total enlistment of one thousand, three hundred and seventy men, five hundred and two in killed and wounded. The subject of this notice was with it during its entire term of service from the date of his enlistment, and so far as fell to him, as a private soldier, helped to win for it its laurels and the distinctive appellation as one of the “Three Hundred Fighting Regiments” of the Union army.

Returning to New York, he settled down to farming, the pursuit to which he was reared, and followed it till coming to Nebraska in April, 1871. On locating in Buffalo county, he took a homestead in Shelton township, two and a half miles northeast of the town of Gibbon, where he has since resided, having been actively engaged in agriculture and kindred pursuits. Mr. Bassett is one of the prosperous, well-to-do farmers of his community. He has other interests besides farming, and has held some offices of an official and semi-official nature. He is now, and has been for a number of years, prominently connected with the Nebraska State Dairymen’s Association, having been the first president of that association, and is now, and has been for three years past, its secretary. His duties in connection with this association absorb much of his time. He collects a vast amount of material of value to the dairy interests of the state, which he lays before the reading public from time to time, in the shape of printed reports, and also contributes extensively to the journals of the day articles of a practical bearing on the dairy and live stock interests of the state. He is an unfailing attendant at the fairs, conventions and associations of an agricultural nature, and participates in the discussion of topics relating to subjects falling within the line of his endeavor. Mr. Bassett filled acceptably, for one term, the position of representative from Buffalo county to the state legislature, having been elected November, 1884, and served during the session of 1884-5. In the discharge of his public duties he exhibited the same zeal, energy and sound intelligence that characterize him in private life and in the prosecution of his own affairs, and he quit his office at the expiration of his term, bearing with him the gratitude and highest esteem of the people whom he served, as well as the respect and good will of his associates and co-laborers. For the churches, schools, social and moral interests of his community, he has at all times exerted a favorable influence, and for every interest of this nature, as well as of a material kind, his name stands pledged, and his help is counted on as a foregone conclusion. Mr. Bassett has as much modesty as he has merit, and he shrinks instinctively from public notice. He is a student of books as well as of men, and, while making no pretension as a scholar, he possesses many of the accomplishments of a man of letters, carrying into the practical affairs of life the close, systematic habits of the student, having the student’s zeal for research and investigation, and his clear, analytical methods of statement and exposition. He is a pleasant, genial gentleman, whom it is a pleasure to know and whose friendship is of value.