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Stephen Elisha Bassett was born near Byron,
GA. in 1833 and grew up as the
second from the youngest child of Stephen and Jane Bassett. According to
the
old Bassett Bible pages, he joined the church as a young man of 18, and was a
practicing Christian for the rest of his life, devoting much of it to spreading
God's word.
He married Frances Hicks (daughter of Elijah H. Hicks and Martha Fudge),
on
Feb. 18, 1855 in her father's home in Crawford County. (3) He was 22. She
was
20. Early in their marriage, the couple settled near Fort Valley on
the
Hardison Place, north of town on Taylor's Mill Road. In 1865, he purchased
the
property and built the "Bassett homeplace" (also on Taylor's Mill
Road), known
for many years now as Pineola. Here they raised their family and spent
many
years. The Bassett homeplace remained in the family for over 100 years,
occupied by sons and grandsons and their families.
Stephen Elisha and Frances were married for nearly 35 years and were the
parents of 9 children, 7 of whom lived to adulthood, Gus, Walter, Stephen,
Elisha
"Lish", Charlie, Sidney and Fannie. His pet name for her was
"Puss" (1)
In his early years, the Rev. S. E. Bassett (as Stephen Elisha was listed in
later records) was a Methodist minister and Circuit Rider, traveling and
preaching, performing marriages and burying the departed, around the
surrounding
counties. These ministers were known as "Saddlebag Saints" for
their efforts at
carrying the Word on horseback. (2) Stephen Elisha also farmed and was a
highly successful businessman. He ginned the cotton of his neighbors, sold
cotton
gins, and acquired extensive property in both Georgia and Alabama.
He was
also one of the incorporators of the Dow Land Bank of Fort Valley as well as
one of the founders of the Fort Valley College, the first college for blacks in
the state.
In a disagreement with the Methodist church in 1882, he was granted a
letter
of removal (a form of resignation). He thereafter donated the land
 for and
built and established his own church, the Congregational Methodist Church
on
Persons Street in Fort Valley. He preached there for 12 years.(2) He
also
organized the Crawford County Wesleyan Congregational Church. At the time
of his
death in 1897, he was superintendent of the Congregational churches of
Alabama for the Congregational Home Missionary Society.
In 1884, the Bassett homeplace was being managed by a Mr. Lonie Taylor (3),
which sounds as if Stephen Elisha and Frances may have moved to town when he
built the new church. This is also the year that his son, Stephen Hicks
Bassett, purchased the homeplace from his father and his own family moved
there.
He would seem to have been a many faceted man; a farmer with very large
holdings, a successful businessman, and a man dedicated to his religious calling
for all of his adult life, paradoxical, but much admired.
Following the death of Frances in 1889, he married "Miss Tommie"
Young, who
had been the governess for his daughter Fannie.
When he died, in 1897, his funeral service was preached by the Rev. S.E.
McDaniel on the words;
"I have fought a good fight,
I have kept the faith,
I have finished the course.
Servant of God well done,
Rest in thy loved employ." (4)
Stephen Elisha is buried in Oaklawn Cemetery, Ft. Valley, with a wife on
either side.
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