USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 11 > Part 15
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Dr. Fones was president of the Con- necticut State Dental Association, a mem- ber of the Connecticut State Dental Com- mission, the Northeastern Dental Asso- ciation, The American Dental Associa- tion, and is deeply interested in educa- tional work, having been a member of the Bridgeport Board of Education for seven years and having served as its president in 1922-23. He is a Republican in politics, a member of the University and the Brooklawn Country Clubs of Bridgeport.
A summary of Dr. Fones' highest pro- fessional-and civic-services to his com- munity and country at large would quite properly embrace these salient facts: He has established an auxiliary department in dentistry for the prevention of dental disease-a new profession for women known as dental hygienists. At pres-
ent there are ten training schools for the education of dental hygienists, and twenty-six states have amended their dental laws to permit these dental hy- gienists to practice. It was in Bridge- port in 1914 that, at the instance of Dr. Fones, there was started the first edu- cational preventive dental clinics in the public schools of that city. To-day they are the popular vogue over this country and in Europe, the inception of this pro- gressive movement having been in the city of Bridgeport.
Dr. Fones married, November 16, 1892, Elizabeth Harwood, daughter of Henry Harwood, a banker of Chicago, Illinois.
BASSICK, Edgar W., Manufacturer.
It was the good fortune of Edgar W. Bassick, widely known industrial captain and man of affairs, of Bridgeport, to have been very happily born. On the paternal side his immigrant ancestor was a linguist of note and became fluent in seven dif- ferent languages, being also a sea trader to a considerable extent. His grandfather was a prosperous Maine farmer, who gave each of his children a good education and saw them well started in life. His father was the discoverer of the first gold field in Australia ; he became one of the pioneer gold mine discoverers and owners of fa- mous gold producing mines in America. The son, Edgar W. Bassick, whose activ- ities have ramified over the American continent, inherited his father's and his great-grandfather's capacity for big busi- ness, and he has amplified that inheritance many-fold. Besides his heavy industrial investments, he is prominently identified with banking circles in Bridgeport. Dur- ing the World War he was one of the most highly valued men in the service of
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the government, being at the head of a division under the War Industries Board.
The origin of the surname Bassick is found in the French surname Basquet, meaning a native of Biscay. In England the spelling is Bassack, and Burke gives the coat-of-arms as follows:
Arms-Azure, three piles wavy, in point or, on a chief of the first as many mascles of the second.
The family seat was at Stepney, Mid- dlesex, England.
(I) George Bassick, the first of the name in this country, emigrated from England to Canada, where he settled on the shore of the St. Lawrence River, and was there educated by a Colonel Coleman. He became noted as a linguist, being known to speak at least seven different languages. It is said that he came to Prospect, Maine, to act as interpreter. He settled at Hampden, Maine, in 1790, pur- chasing lot No. 126 in the center of the town. A considerable portion of his time was occupied with trading, and he was lost at sea on the vessel "Blackbird." He married in Maine, Sarah Goodell, who at- tained the age of ninety years and died at Prospect. According to the Federal Cen- sus of 1790, he was still at Frankfort, now Winterport, Hancock County, Maine.
(II) William Bassick, son of George Bassick, was born at Boxport, or Pros- pect, Maine, 1790-1800, and died at Wal- do, Maine, at the age of seventy-seven years. He was reared by his mother, re- ceiving his education in the district schools, and was engaged in farming at Prospect, throughout the active years of his life. He was an earnest, conscientious man. He married Polly Chase, who died at the age of seventy-seven years. Their children (born at Prospect) : Eliza Ann, married Edward Gay; William; Mary Jane, married Winthrop Ellis; Nathaniel ;
Margaret, married William Adams ; John, died young; Ira, died at the age of five years; Edmund Chase, of whom further. (III) Edmund Chase Bassick, born August 10, 1833, son of William and Polly (Chase) Bassick, died March 15, 1898, while on a business trip to Denver, Colo- rado. His early life was spent on his father's farm at Waldo, Maine, until he was fourteen years of age, when he shipped on his uncle's vessel, and made a voyage around the world. He later shipped as second mate on another vessel and went to Australia. Although he was not much more than a mere boy, it was while he was in that country that he dis- covered the first gold to be found on that continent. News of his discovery was followed by the wild rush to the gold- fields that featured the stirring scenes on sea and continent in the years around 1850. After spending six years in Aus- tralia young Bassick returned to his home in Maine. In 1873-74 he was in Colorado, prospecting its hills in search of gold. In 1877 he discovered what was afterward known as the Bassick mine in Querida, Custer County, in the Wet Mountain Valley, near Silver Cliff, Colorado. This mine developed one of the richest pro- ducers of gold in the United States. Sub- sequently Mr. Bassick acquired interests in other mines all known as rich mining properties. He also became heavily in- terested in Colorado coal lands. In the fall of 1880 Mr. Bassick came to Bridge- port and acquired the old Sherwood place at Hancock and Fairfield avenues, and later purchased the beautiful residence, "Lindencroft," built by the late P. T. Barnum. From the very first of his com- ing to Bridgeport Mr. Bassick was a firm believer in the ultimate growth and pros- perity of the city, and in the eventual development on a large scale of the West
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End, where he owned large realty hold- ings. His long acquaintance with mining properties had raised him to the place of expert on the determination of the value of such properties ; and his advice on these matters was eagerly sought by owners and prospective investors. He was a man of quiet manner, clear insight, vigorous action, and keen judgment. He was de- voted to his family and found his greatest pleasure in their society. He was an ardent lover of flowers and took great de- light in his extensive grounds and green- houses. He enjoyed an acquaintance that extended the country over, and his pass- ing was deeply mourned by all who knew him. He married, in 1871, Rebecca Eliza- beth (Webb) Walters, daughter of Fred- erick Cleveland and Cynthia Davidson Webb. Their children : Edgar Webb, of whom further; Frederick Cleveland, a sketch of whom follows; William Ros- coe; and Margaret Harriett, who married William H. Parks, of Springfield, Massa- chusetts.
(IV) Edgar Webb Bassick, one of the leading manufacturers of Connecticut and a financier widely known in that State, whose vested holdings are centered in some of the most important industries of the country, was born in Elston, Kansas, April 22, 1872, and removed with his par- ents, Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Chase Bas- sick, to Denver in 1879, and later to Bel- fast, Maine. In 1880 he came with his parents who settled in Bridgeport, where he was educated at the hands of private tutors and in the old Jones School and in the public schools of Bridgeport, conclud- ing his studies with a course at the Peek- skill Military Academy, Peekskill, New York. His first employment was as office boy and billing clerk with the American Tube and Stamping Company, where he remained two years. He then removed to
Kansas City, Missouri, where he engaged in the wholesale and retail notion busi- ness. After a year spent in Kansas City, at the request of Mr. Burns, of the old Burns & Silver Company, of Bridgeport, who asked him to return to that city to enter his employ and to grow up with his increasing business, although the offer was not very alluring, he accepted it, be- ginning at the very bottom rung of the ladder. He worked his way upward un- til, in 1897, he was made secretary of the company. In 1898 his father died in Den- ver, and the son went West and took over his father's affairs and adjusted them satisfactorily ; and in doing so he demon- strated his capacity for doing things on a large scale. In 1900 he returned to Bridgeport and joined the Burns & Silver Company, purchasing a stock interest; and a few years before Mr. Burns' death, in 1911, he acquired a one-half interest in the M. B. Schenck Company, castor manu- facturers, of Meriden, Connecticut. Upon Mr. Burns' death, Mr. Bassick became president of that company. When the World War burst upon the nations Mr. Bassick went to New York city, opened offices and engaged in the sale of explos- ives to the French government and of large quantities of time fuses for the Canadian government. He next pur- chased the Universal Castor and Foundry Company of Newark, New Jersey, and shortly afterward organized the Bassick Company, which took over the Burns & Bassick Company, the M. B. Schenck Company and the Universal Castor and Foundry Company, capitalized at one and one-half million dollars, preferred, and three million dollars, common stock. Not long after the United States entered the World War, the great Bassick plants were mobilized on war work, manufacturing hand grenades and harness hardware. Mr.
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Bassick was appointed chairman of the Harness Hardware Division by the War Industries Board. He was also interested in a shipbuilding plant at Mobile, Ala- bama. The war ended, the Bassick Com- pany purchased the Alemite Lubricator Company of Chicago, and organized the Bassick Manufacturing Company. In 1923 the Bassick Alemite Company's Delaware corporation was formed and it took over the plants of the Bassick Company, the Bassick Manufacturing Company, the Alemite Products Company of Canada and later the Allyne-Zerck Company of Cleveland, Ohio, and the E. F. Evans Company of Detroit, Michigan. The Bas- sick Alemite Company was the holding company, and was the parent of the Bas- sick subsidiaries. Mr. Bassick is also identified with numerous other enter- prises. He is vice-president of the Bridge- port Savings Bank, a director of the First National Bank and a trustee of the Young Women's Christian Association of Bridge- port. His clubs are Brooklawn and Fair- field Country and India House of New York. He is a Republican in politics. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons and is a communicant of St. John's Episcopal Church, Bridgeport.
Mr. Bassick married, May 18, 1897, Grace Elizabeth Morris, a graduate of Smith College, and a daughter of Mar- shall E. and Margaret Winter Morris of Bridgeport. Mr. Morris for a number of years was associated with his father in the Sewing Machine Cabinet Company of Bridgeport, and was a large real estate holder in that city.
Mr. and Mrs. Bassick are the parents of three children: I. Elizabeth Morris Bas- sick, educated at the Courtland School in Bridgeport, the Capen School and Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts ; married Tracy Campbell Dickson, son of
General Tracy C. Dickson, United States Army ; has two children : Tracy Campbell Dickson, 3d, and Grace Bassick Dickson. 2. Edgar W. Bassick, Jr., born in Febru- ary, 1902, educated in public schools of Bridgeport, the Taft School of Water- town, Connecticut, and the Tome School, Maryland. 3. Marshall Morris Bassick, born in October, 1912.
BASSICK, Frederick C.,
A modern philosopher, no doubt bor- rowing from ancient opinion, declared that the education and preparation for life of any person should begin genera- tions before birth, the meaning being that a child must depend upon its forebears for success in a great measure. Much de- pends upon ancestry.
Frederick C. Bassick, son of Edmund Chase and Rebecca Elizabeth (Webb- Walters) Bassick, was born at Rosita, Colorado, December 2, 1876. On his paternal side an immigrant ancestor was a linguist of note, becoming fluent in seven different languages. He was a sea trader to some extent, and thus knew the world. His grandfather was a prosperous Maine farmer who gave each of his chil- dren a good education and saw them well bestowed in life. His father discovered the first gold field in Australia, and it was he who by his rich find started the great gold rush to that continent in the early fifties. Thus he was one of the pioneer gold mine discoverers and owners of one of the most famous gold mining enter- prises in the world. (See ancestry on a preceding page.)
Frederick C. Bassick, son of Edmund Chase and Rebecca Elizabeth (Webb) Bassick, was born in Colorado, as noted. In his early boyhood he removed with his parents to Belfast, Maine, and later to
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Bridgeport. He was educated by private tutors and the old Park Institute, the Uni- versity School, and the Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Connecticut. His first employ- ment was with the Crawford Dyeing and Cleaning Company of Bridgeport, with which he remained two years, when he organized the Bridgeport Metallic Pack- ing Company, of which he became pres- ident. He continued in this position for five years, when he disposed of his busi- ness and in 1907 went with the Burns & Bassick Company to learn the business. He was successful in this, and later was made secretary and manager. On the death of Mr. Burns he still continued as secretary and manager, and later became chief engineer of the Bassick Company, retiring from the organization January I, 1925. For years he had been a director of the company.
Mr. Bassick is a Republican in politics, a member of the Brooklawn and Algon- quin clubs, and the Fairfield Country Club. February 18, 1913, Mr. Bassick married Lillian Cordelia Wheeler, daugh- ter of Wilmot C. and Sarah F. Curtis Wheeler, both of pioneer Connecticut families. Mr. and Mrs. Bassick are the parents of a daughter, Lillian Cordelia Bassick.
HAVENS, Elmer H., Iron Merchant.
Perhaps no man has contributed more substantial and progressive effort to the cause of education in the city of Bridge- port than has Colonel Elmer H. Havens, who for twenty years has been a member of the Board of Education, serving first as secretary and afterward president, which office he continues to fill, so great was the demand of the people and of his fellow members that he occupy that posi-
tion, to which he was drafted against his will following his two years of voluntary retirement after a continuous service of eighteen years. Colonel Havens is a mem- ber of Hunter & Havens, leading iron and steel merchants of Bridgeport. He has served his city in various important ca- pacities, always without remuneration, over a long period of years, having been a member of the City Council and of the Board of Health before entering upon his honorable career as a member and the executive head of the Board of Education. He has been a member of the staff of two governors of Connecticut, through which service he attained his rank of colonel. He has also been a member of the Republican State Committee and of the Republican City Committee of Bridge- port ; in fact his record of service to State and city is a well rounded and meritorious one, to which he has generously contrib- uted of his time and talents.
Colonel Havens is descended with other members of the old colonial family spell- ing their surname with a final "s," this being the only family of that name and period north of Virginia regularly doing so, and his immigrant ancestor was Wil- liam (1) Havens of England, who came to Rhode Island and was admitted an in- habitant of Aquidneck, later called Rhode Island, in 1638, and on April 30, 1639, he and twenty-eight others signed a com- pact : "We ... do acknowledge our- selves the legal subjects of His Majesty, King Charles, and in his name do hereby bind ourselves into a civil body politicke, unto his laws according to matters of justice." William (1) Havens had a grant of four acres of land at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1644. December 2, 1662, he leased his dwelling house with all lands belonging thereto to his son John. His will was proved September 25, 1683, his
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executrix being his wife Dennis, or Di- onis, who died in 1692. Children of Wil- liam (1) Havens: I. William (2). 2. John, married Ann, and both died in 1687. They had sons William, John, Nicholas, Daniel. 3. Sarah, married John Tyler, who died in 1700. She died in 1718. 4. Thomas, died in 1704. He had sons, Wil- liam, Thomas, and Joseph. 5. Robert; wife Elizabeth ; they had children, Robert, Ruth Elizabeth, William, George, Joseph. 6. George (2), of whom further. 7. Mary, married Thomas Cook, and died in 1670. 8. Ruth, married a Card. 9. Dinah. 10. Elizabeth. II. Martha. 12. Rebecca. 13. Margaret.
George (2) Havens, son of William and Dionis Havens, was born at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and died on Shelter Island, New York, February 21, 1706-7. He was made a freeman in 1680; taxed in Kings- town, Rhode Island, 1687; constable in Jamestown, Rhode Island, July 15, 1695. He was on Shelter Island in 1701. He married, in 1674, Eleanor, daughter of Ed- ward and Elizabeth (Mott) Thurston, Quakers of Newport. She was born in March, 1655 ; died November 7, 1747. She married (second) a Terry, of Newport. Children, born in Rhode Island : I. George (3), of whom further. 2. Jonathan, born February 22, 1681 ; married, January I, 1706-7, Hannah Brown. 3. William, died, unmarried, in 1746. 4. John, married Sarah (surname unknown) and had nine children. 5. Content, married Cornelius Payne. 6. Patience, married a Soper. 7. Desire, married Henry Gardiner, August 4, 1710. 8. Abigail.
George (3) Havens, son of George (2) and Eleanor (Thurston) Havens, died at Fishers Island, March 14, 1734; buried, on the 16th, at Groton, Connecticut. He is said to have been born on Shelter Island; but in a deed given by George Havens of
Kingstown, Rhode Island, in 1701, the giver calls himself the son of George of Shelter Island. His wife's name was Mary. Their children: I. Joseph. 2. Edward, married, 1724, Desire Terry. 3. George. 4. William. 5. Ebenezer. 6. Thurston, married, 1752, Jerusha Polly. 7. John. 8. Eleanor, married a Davilt. 9. Abigail, married a Fish. 10. Hannah. II. Mary. 12. Ruth.
Jonathan Havens, brother of George Havens of Shelter Island, had a son George, a grandson George, and a great- grandson George, of Shelter Island. The public records of Somers, Connecticut, in Volume III, of "Allen's Enfield, Connect- icut," contains the following tombstone inscriptions in evidence that George Havens lived in that town: "David, son of George and Sarah Havens, died Sep- tember 22, 1822, aged ten weeks," and "Infant son of George and Sarah Havens, died May 2, 1837." George Havens, great- grandson of Jonathan Havens, married, November 22, 1781, at Saybrook, Connect- icut, Lucretia Denison, and there was a Jonathan Havens in New London County, Connecticut, in the census of 1790.
Colonel Havens' grandfather was George (one of the more immediate an- cestry) Havens, who was a resident of Somers, Connecticut. His son was George (2) Oliver Havens, born November 6, 1831, at Somers; died July 31, 1918, at Bridgeport. He was reared on a farm and educated in the district schools. In 1859 he came to Bridgeport and entered the employ of the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine Company, and he remained with that concern until 1912, a period of fifty- three years, when he retired. He was ever interested in local affairs of Bridge- port, being also a Republican in his poli- tics ; and he gave excellent service both as councilman and alderman from the old
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Fifth Ward during the terms of office of Mayors Morford and De Forest. For several years he was chairman of the old Barnum School District in the days when the city of Bridgeport had many school districts, and before the era of consolida- tion. He was a member of St. John's Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and for forty-three years was a member of Samuel H. Harris Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He married Clara M. Moore, daughter of Jonathon and Cla- rissa Moore, of Brookfield, Massachusetts. They were the parents of two sons: I. Frederick W. Havens, of Springfield, Mas- sachusetts. 2. Colonel Elmer H. Havens, of this review.
Elmer H. Havens was born October 2, 1864, a son of George Oliver and Clara (Moore) Havens, and was educated in the grade and high schools of Bridgeport. For a brief period he was employed in the grocery establishment of Rogers & Mor- ford, and in 1887 he organized the firm of Patchen & Havens, iron, steel and heavy hardware merchants. Two years later his firm was consolidated with S. S. Hunter, and the new organization was known as Hunter, Patchen & Havens. In 1912 Mr. Patchen retired from the firm, and the business was carried on under the style of Hunter & Havens. Upon the death of Samuel S. Hunter in 1914, his son, Roland L. Hunter, succeeded to the partnership, and the firm continues to be known as Hunter & Havens. In the ear- lier days of the firm's career the metal chiefly sold by them was wrought iron, but the wonder working changes in ma- chinery, formulas and processes had de- veloped the products into open-hearth steel, which to-day forms the major part of the firm's merchantable line. The firm has an enviable reputation and is one of the best known in the iron and steel trade
in this section of New England. It has a valuable good-will, which is synonymous with the large volume of business which it enjoys.
Mr. Havens since attaining his majority has always been an ardent supporter of the Republican party. He continues un- abated his interest in municipal affairs in his home city as well as in the political doings of the State. He entered actively into the municipal life of the city in 1891, when he was elected a member of the Council from the Fifth Ward. In 1893 Mayor Taylor appointed him a member of the Board of Health, and when Mayor Mulverhill came into office he appointed Mr. Havens to succeed himself on the Board of Health. In 1903 Mr. Havens was elected a member of the Board of Education, and he began then a period of service which has been of untold benefit to the city in the administration of its school department. Mr. Havens continued to be a member of the board until 1921, and for many years was honored with the offices of secretary and president by his fellow members. He voluntarily retired, in 1921, believing that he had given his full meed of service in that capacity to the city, but only two years elapsed when he was drafted, much against his will, to stand for election to the same board. He was elected and at once resumed his for- mer duties as president, which office he still retains. During his incumbency many reforms have been instituted and improvements established ; among these are the building of the Central and War- ren Harding high schools, which stand as monuments to the wise and beneficient administration of Bridgeport's school de- partment. Mr. Havens has been a di- rector of the Bridgeport Public Library for eight years, and in that capacity has given to that important center of the
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city's civic life the benefit of his many years of experience in educational matters. Governor George L. Lilley, in 1908, hon- ored Mr. Havens with an appointment to his official staff, the position carrying to the appointee the rank of colonel. Upon Governor Lilley's death Colonel Havens was reappointed by Governor Frank B. Weeks. His membership of the Re- publican State Committee and of the Bridgeport Republican City Committee has covered a considerable length of serv- ice, in which he has been of invalu- able aid to the political movements and achievements of his party. Colonel Hav- ens is a director of the First National Bank of Bridgeport and is president of the Norwalk Company of South Norwalk, Connecticut. He is affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons and the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows. He is affiliated with the First Presbyterian Church, Bridgeport. His clubs are the Algonquin and Brooklawn Country, Bridgeport.
Colonel Havens married, June 10, 1891, Emma Curtis, daughter of Freeman Lewis and Georgianna Howard Curtis, of Strat- ford, Connecticut. Mrs. Havens is a sis- ter of Judge Howard J. Curtis of the Con- necticut Supreme Court. Colonel and Mrs. Havens have children : I. Helen Curtis, a graduate of Columbia Univer- sity; married Howard Lyons Stone of Bridgeport, and has children, Donald, de- ceased; Howard, Jr .; and Jean Stone. 2. Mabel Howard, a graduate of Wellesley College; married Garner Kippeu Birds- eye, and has one son, John Havens Birds- eye. 3. Kate Elinor, a graduate of Colum- bia University; married Dr. George Cowles Brown, and has children, Eliza- beth and Curtis Havens Brown. 4. Eliza- beth Moore, educated at the Emma Wil- lard School, Troy, New York; married
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