Resourceful Disciple

RESOURCEFUL DISCIPLE the LIFE, TIMES, & EXTENDED FAMILY of THOMAS EDWARDS BASSETT (1862-1926) by Arthur R. Bassett Prologue Purposed Audience and Prepared Authorship Part 1: For Whom the Bells Toll: Three Target Audiences It might be argued that every written composition, either by intent or subconsciously, has an intended audience to whom it is addressed; this biography, as indicated in the title, has three: 1) those interested in the facts surrounding the life of Thomas E. Bassett, 2) those interested in his times, and 3) those with an interest in his extended family. 1) Those Interested in His Life In one sense, this is the story of a single solitary life, selected and plucked from a pool of billions. It is the life of Thomas E. Bassett. He is not only my grandfather; he is also one of my heroes, so I hope that I can be forgiven if at times this biography exhibits overtones of a hagiography.1 I feel that his story deserves to be preserved, if for no other reason than his life was so extraordinary. It is truly a classic example of the America dream come true. Like most of his immediate descendants, I had heard the litany of his achievements from my very early childhood: first state senator from his county, first schoolteacher in Rexburg, first postmaster, newspaper editor, stake president, etc. However, as far as I know, no one has laid out the entire tapestry of his life in such a way that the chronological order and interrelationship of these accomplishments is demonstrated. This has been a major part of my project in this biography. Not only is he my grandfather; he also is the progenitor of scores of others. I trust that this biography will also prove of interest to them. Therefore, one of the audiences to which it has been directed is those others who have been endowed with his DNA. I have tried to put together the facts of his life in a meaningful manner for the edification of these others, if for no other reason. 2) Those Interested in His Times Another major audience this biography is designed to address is those with a general interest in social history, especially in that of his times, stretching, as his life did, from the American Civil War to the Roaring Twenties in the US. Not only was this an extremely important formative era in 1A biography that idealizes its subject American history, it was also a major pivotal period in Mormon history. This biography affords an opportunity to see what this time period looked like, lived from within. Much has been written about Mormonism in the eastern US, and in mid- and southern Utah, but far less about Mormonism in the northern part of the Great Basin Kingdom. I have attempted to address that deficiency, especially as it relates to the Snake River Valley and life among the Mormons in early Rexburg, Idaho. Those Interested in His Extended Family My third major target audience is those who are descendants of Thomas E. Bassett’s extended family: both the posterity of his siblings (the William Bassett family, the Hughes family, the Muirs, and the Bakers); as well as the descendants of his own children (the Gudmundsens, the Comstocks, the Salmons, and those of his son, Myrthen). The stories surrounding the marriages of Thomas E. and his siblings are a quintessential example of the Mormon version of the American melting pot. All their stories are saturated with intriguing accounts from early LDS church history. Converts from the mines of Scotland and the shipyards of Wales heeded the call to gather to Zion, settled in Mendon, Utah, and joined in marriage there with the children of early converts to Mormonism arriving from the eastern part of the United States (from the Mormon settlements in Kirtland, Ohio; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Nauvoo, Illinois, etc.), who came to Utah with its earliest pioneers. One of the great tragedies of life is how quickly families lose track of each other. Within as little as two generations, the offspring of brothers and sisters often end up total strangers. Unfortunately, this has been the lot of the family in which Thomas E. was reared. A major goal I hope to accomplish with this biography is to reunite, even to a small degree, his posterity with those of his siblings, that they might not continue as total strangers and foreigners to each other. Part 2: Divine Nudges or Simple Coincidences? The Author’s Preparation Shakespeare, in one of his more inspired moments, penned the couplet: “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.”2 Often, while compiling this biography, I have thought about that quote. Increasingly, I have come to wonder if it is possible that divine powers beyond my own have ordained this story to be preserved, and if, for some unknown reason, I may have been chosen and 2Hamlet V, 2, 9-11. 2 directed by divine nudges at various points in my life to help prepare me to write it. One of the major reasons for this prologue (this extended autobiography within a larger biography), is to examine the question, “Is it possible that one could be chosen and prepared by divinity from early in life for a project such as this?” Or, more specifically, “Were these apparent nudges in my life (leading me toward experiences that have aided me in the writing of this biography) possibly from divine forces, or were they just plain simple coincidences?” Though I was never fortunate enough to know my Grandfather Bassett in this life (he died nine years before I was born), his impact on me has been profound. It certainly seems possible to me that events have prepared me to compile this, his biography. Familiarity with the Setting I was born and reared in St. Anthony, Idaho, approximately twelve miles from Rexburg, the site where the major portion of his life was played out. Consequently, I grew up familiar with all the sites mentioned in the biography: Rexburg, Sugar City, Salem, Teton, Driggs, et al. While I was growing up, on every Memorial Day, my mother would gather some bright red peonies and some deep purple lilacs from the bushes in our backyard, and as a family we would make an annual pilgrimage to place these flowers on my grandfather’s grave (and those of his wife, my grandmother Bassett, and their daughter, Elsie May) in the Rexburg cemetery. And commonly, following church on a Sunday afternoon, my parents would pack up my siblings and me in our red 1939 Dodge, and drive to Rexburg for ice cream cones. The ice cream parlor (as they were called in those days) was less than a block from the house that forms the basis of Chapter 18 in the biography. If I remember correctly, the house was still standing at that time, and it was on those Sunday excursions that we were treated to my father’s stories about the house, stories about my grandfather and his accomplishments, and stories about Bassett Bridge (spanning the Teton River, just a short distance east of Evan’s ice-cream establishment, where we purchased our Sunday treat). Sadly, the house and bridge (as well as the ice cream parlor) are now all gone. My First Two Years at BYU: An Interest Ignited From the time I was old enough to understand the meaning of the word “ancestor,” my father told us stories about his father. But my first serious interest in my grandfather was sparked when I was a freshman in college at Brigham Young University, and had begun a serious study of Mormon history in my religion classes, trying to figure out if/where, any of my ancestors played a role in that history. I came home from my first quarter of college at BYU at the Christmas break in 1953, and was 3 telling my father how much I had been impressed by a talk given the preceding quarter at a BYU devotional by Elder Matthew Cowley of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In response, my father stated that his family had always felt that Elder Cowley’s father, Matthias Cowley (also a member of the Council of Twelve), had been the one who encouraged my grandfather’s entry into plural marriage in 1909 (nineteen years after the 1890 manifesto issued by President Wilford Woodruff–which manifesto ostensibly ended the practice of plural marriage in the LDS church at that time). For some reason, I always took a perverse pride in the fact that I had ancestry involved in plural marriage, which pride surfaced whenever polygamy was mentioned in a Sunday School (or other church) lesson, and the teacher would ask if any of us in the class had polygamous ancestry. In my mind that fact somehow seemed to accord me a special relationship to the early history of the church. But, as I attempted to find out more regarding my grandfather’s involvement in polygamy by quizzing my father further on the matter, he always pleaded ignorance regarding the details of the marriage on the grounds that he was only six years old at the time the event occurred (though he obviously knew much more from later events). So I just left the matter sitting on a shelf in the back of my mind, assuming that I would never know the details, and moved on. During my sophomore year at BYU, I took two classes that may have influenced this biography as well. At BYU we were required to take an English class every quarter for the first two years.

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