She was raised near Smith's River and Blackberry Creek in Henry County, VA. On 24 January 1793, in Henry county VA she married Burwell Bassett. He died when she was 39.
In 1843 her sons George Hairston Bassett and Burwell Bassett Jr led a large emigration to Monroe County, MO following the emigrant route known to so many, taking wagons to Wheeling where they boarded boats that carried them down the Ohio. Thence, they made their own way.
The Bassetts took more slaves to Missouri than did most other families and purchased great tracts of land. George Hairston Bassett bought one thousand acres for his start. They raised grain and tobacco and were prosperous for a time.
Their mother, Mary did not accompany them on the first trip. She vowed she would not go and was ignored, for the plans were to take her with the next group to leave Henry county. When Mary arrived at the new plantation, she wrote her son Alexander back in Henry county, telling him to remain where he was. "Missouri ain't no fit place to live," were her words.
There is a story told in the family that she devised a way return to Henry county, somehow using or relying upon the children of her son, Burwell. George & Burwell sought an injunction against her. She was forbidden by law from leaving. Court records for this period do exist; but Bassett vs. Bassett has never been found. There is no doubt that she was very unhappy, and little doubt that this story has been embellished.
Mary remained. Unfortunately her last years were filled with the terror of the Civil War in a part of the border state of Missouri known as Little Dixie where Southern sympathies were strong. Guerilla warfare and bushwhacking were rife in Monroe county. Raiders ran back and forth across Monroe county. Their cruelest crime, the Centralia Massacre was committed about 15 miles from the Bassett plantations on 27 September 1865 when 24 Union soldiers were forced from a west bound train, lined up and shot in the head.
One can hope that Mary Hunter Bassett, age 87, somehow missed knowing that this happened. The next year, what slaves remained were freed and life for the Bassetts of Monroe county was never again the same. Mary died July 26, 1866. She had been living with her son, William Nathaniel Bassett and his wife Jane Staples Bassett.
Children Not Linked Here:
Mary md. Charles Philpott, md. 2nd Woodson Morris
Martha md. Burwell Bassett
In 1843 her sons George Hairston Bassett and Burwell Bassett Jr led a large emigration to Monroe County, MO following the emigrant route known to so many, taking wagons to Wheeling where they boarded boats that carried them down the Ohio. Thence, they made their own way.
The Bassetts took more slaves to Missouri than did most other families and purchased great tracts of land. George Hairston Bassett bought one thousand acres for his start. They raised grain and tobacco and were prosperous for a time.
Their mother, Mary did not accompany them on the first trip. She vowed she would not go and was ignored, for the plans were to take her with the next group to leave Henry county. When Mary arrived at the new plantation, she wrote her son Alexander back in Henry county, telling him to remain where he was. "Missouri ain't no fit place to live," were her words.
There is a story told in the family that she devised a way return to Henry county, somehow using or relying upon the children of her son, Burwell. George & Burwell sought an injunction against her. She was forbidden by law from leaving. Court records for this period do exist; but Bassett vs. Bassett has never been found. There is no doubt that she was very unhappy, and little doubt that this story has been embellished.
Mary remained. Unfortunately her last years were filled with the terror of the Civil War in a part of the border state of Missouri known as Little Dixie where Southern sympathies were strong. Guerilla warfare and bushwhacking were rife in Monroe county. Raiders ran back and forth across Monroe county. Their cruelest crime, the Centralia Massacre was committed about 15 miles from the Bassett plantations on 27 September 1865 when 24 Union soldiers were forced from a west bound train, lined up and shot in the head.
One can hope that Mary Hunter Bassett, age 87, somehow missed knowing that this happened. The next year, what slaves remained were freed and life for the Bassetts of Monroe county was never again the same. Mary died July 26, 1866. She had been living with her son, William Nathaniel Bassett and his wife Jane Staples Bassett.
Children Not Linked Here:
Mary md. Charles Philpott, md. 2nd Woodson Morris
Martha md. Burwell Bassett
She was raised near Smith's River and Blackberry Creek in Henry County, VA. On 24 January 1793, in Henry county VA she married Burwell Bassett. He died when she was 39.
In 1843 her sons George Hairston Bassett and Burwell Bassett Jr led a large emigration to Monroe County, MO following the emigrant route known to so many, taking wagons to Wheeling where they boarded boats that carried them down the Ohio. Thence, they made their own way.
The Bassetts took more slaves to Missouri than did most other families and purchased great tracts of land. George Hairston Bassett bought one thousand acres for his start. They raised grain and tobacco and were prosperous for a time.
Their mother, Mary did not accompany them on the first trip. She vowed she would not go and was ignored, for the plans were to take her with the next group to leave Henry county. When Mary arrived at the new plantation, she wrote her son Alexander back in Henry county, telling him to remain where he was. "Missouri ain't no fit place to live," were her words.
There is a story told in the family that she devised a way return to Henry county, somehow using or relying upon the children of her son, Burwell. George & Burwell sought an injunction against her. She was forbidden by law from leaving. Court records for this period do exist; but Bassett vs. Bassett has never been found. There is no doubt that she was very unhappy, and little doubt that this story has been embellished.
Mary remained. Unfortunately her last years were filled with the terror of the Civil War in a part of the border state of Missouri known as Little Dixie where Southern sympathies were strong. Guerilla warfare and bushwhacking were rife in Monroe county. Raiders ran back and forth across Monroe county. Their cruelest crime, the Centralia Massacre was committed about 15 miles from the Bassett plantations on 27 September 1865 when 24 Union soldiers were forced from a west bound train, lined up and shot in the head.
One can hope that Mary Hunter Bassett, age 87, somehow missed knowing that this happened. The next year, what slaves remained were freed and life for the Bassetts of Monroe county was never again the same. Mary died July 26, 1866. She had been living with her son, William Nathaniel Bassett and his wife Jane Staples Bassett.
Children Not Linked Here:
Mary md. Charles Philpott, md. 2nd Woodson Morris
Martha md. Burwell Bassett
In 1843 her sons George Hairston Bassett and Burwell Bassett Jr led a large emigration to Monroe County, MO following the emigrant route known to so many, taking wagons to Wheeling where they boarded boats that carried them down the Ohio. Thence, they made their own way.
The Bassetts took more slaves to Missouri than did most other families and purchased great tracts of land. George Hairston Bassett bought one thousand acres for his start. They raised grain and tobacco and were prosperous for a time.
Their mother, Mary did not accompany them on the first trip. She vowed she would not go and was ignored, for the plans were to take her with the next group to leave Henry county. When Mary arrived at the new plantation, she wrote her son Alexander back in Henry county, telling him to remain where he was. "Missouri ain't no fit place to live," were her words.
There is a story told in the family that she devised a way return to Henry county, somehow using or relying upon the children of her son, Burwell. George & Burwell sought an injunction against her. She was forbidden by law from leaving. Court records for this period do exist; but Bassett vs. Bassett has never been found. There is no doubt that she was very unhappy, and little doubt that this story has been embellished.
Mary remained. Unfortunately her last years were filled with the terror of the Civil War in a part of the border state of Missouri known as Little Dixie where Southern sympathies were strong. Guerilla warfare and bushwhacking were rife in Monroe county. Raiders ran back and forth across Monroe county. Their cruelest crime, the Centralia Massacre was committed about 15 miles from the Bassett plantations on 27 September 1865 when 24 Union soldiers were forced from a west bound train, lined up and shot in the head.
One can hope that Mary Hunter Bassett, age 87, somehow missed knowing that this happened. The next year, what slaves remained were freed and life for the Bassetts of Monroe county was never again the same. Mary died July 26, 1866. She had been living with her son, William Nathaniel Bassett and his wife Jane Staples Bassett.
Children Not Linked Here:
Mary md. Charles Philpott, md. 2nd Woodson Morris
Martha md. Burwell Bassett
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