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In memory of

William Bassett

Albion, IL

May 28, 1817 - March 22, 1904

May 28, 1817 - Mar 22, 1904

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BASSETT, WILLIAM,

William Bassett was born on May 28, 1817, in the County of Kent, England. He was a descendant of Thurston Bassett who left Normandy, France with William II, Duke of Normandy, in 1066, and led an invasion of England and established himself as William I, King of England.

William left England with his parents in the early 1830's for the United States, arriving in the State of New York. From New York he traveled to the English pioneering town of Albion, Edwards County, Illinois about 1837.

As the story goes "William arrived at a large mud-hole in front of a store and asked the man porch where Albion was. The man replied "You're standing in the middle of it." William had come to Albion to be a gardener at the "Park House," home of the Flower family.

On October 12, 1839, Bassett married Charlotte Johns, the daughter of Robert and Margaret (Haines) Johns. Charlotte was born in the County of Cornwall, England on May 10, 1812. From this union, nine children were born: Charlotte (1836), Alfred (1840), George (1842), Harriett (1844), William (1846), Ellen (1848), Emma (1850), Thomas (1852) and William established a brickyard in Albion sometime around 1840 and called the brickyard "The Bassett & Sons Brickyard." It was located a short distance south of the Southern Railroad, almost directly south of Albion. By 1850, the brickyard was producing 400,000 handmade bricks per year, “honest but, admittedly, hard work.”

William and his family lived in a walnut long home near the brickyard and later lived in a brick home north of the brickyard between the plant and the railroad on a rise of ground called “Stumpy Hill.” The log home was then used as a slaughter house for beef and pork.

Mr. Bassett passed away on March 22, 1904, in Albion, and had reached the ripe age of 86 years, 9 months, and 28 days. His wife preceded him in death on April 3, 1886. Bassett’s death notice read in part, “He was a man whose word no man ever doubted, and who stood for the right in all things. The kindly face of William Bassett will much be missed in Albion.”

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