Basye Family Papers, 1812-1960 (C2505)
3.9 linear feet
INTRODUCTION
Correspondence, legal documents, clippings, account books, scrapbooks, photographs, Bible records, and papers collected to establish the Basye family genealogy. Included are Bowling Green Methodist Episcopal Church and Cumberland Presbyterian Church registers, and early letters describing activities and family life in Missouri and other states, notably California and Wisconsin. Mining, the California gold rush, and the Civil War are also described. Numerous correspondents are women.
Basye daughters. From collection C2505 volume 2. For information about obtaining copies of images contact whmc@umsystem.edu.DONOR INFORMATION
Materials in the Basye Family Papers were collected by Otto Basye, a Kansas City attorney, and donated to the State Historical Society by his son, Paul E. Basye, a former Missourian and Kansas City attorney, on November 20 and 26, 1962 (SHS Accession No. 235).
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Isaac Walter Basye (1845-1925) was the original compiler of the Basye genealogy. Teacher, writer, and business man, he established a Normal School in Bowling Green, Missouri; wrote articles for Missouri newspapers and the State Historical Society; and sold school furniture throughout Missouri. His son Otto Basye completed the genealogy and published the family history.
Isaac's grandfather was John Walter Basye, the founder of Bowling Green. John Walter Basye built the first house in Bowling Green and the house is on the National Register. He was born in 1770, son of Edmond Basye, and died in 1845. He and his family came to Pike County, Missouri, in 1818, settling first in Louisiana, then in Bowling Green in 1820. The town of Louisiana was named after his daughter. Basye had been in Pike County as early as 1791 in his attempt to bring Methodism across the river into Missouri.
John Walter Basye's sons, Joseph Jackson, Isaac Newton, and James Jordan lived and mined in Wisconsin, Illinois, California, and Oregon. His son Lisbon traveled to the mining areas in Jasper County, Missouri. His son William Montgomery Basye was a farmer and stock raiser who served as alderman and mayor of Bowling Green in 1882, and was the father of Isaac Walter.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
This collection chronicles eleven generations of the Basye family through correspondence, legal documents, Bible records, newspaper clippings, account books, scrapbooks, photographs, and miscellaneous personal papers. Emphasis is on the John Walter Basye family of Pike County, particularly Bowling Green and Louisiana, Missouri. Numerous letters are written from other states, notably Wisconsin and California.
The original genealogical organization of the papers has been maintained. Materials are arranged in three series:
The first series, Lines of Descent with Genealogical Numeration, is arranged according to a genealogical letter and numbering system found on the original folders which housed the collection. The system corresponds to that used in Otto Basye's The Basye Family, in the United States, Kansas City, 1950. This privately published volume is located in the State Historical Society reference library.
Papers in this series are filed under the names of heads of families and consist of papers created by, or concerning, one or more of the children of that person or family. One person can, therefore, have papers or be mentioned in several different family sections.
Original folder labels giving the name of the head of family and listing his or her children, are filed at the beginning of each folder. Genealogical numeration consisting of a letter and number is next to each name listed on the original folder labels and also on the folder list for this series. For example, John Walter Basye (E 5) appears as a son under Edmund Basye (D 1), and as the head of his own family (E 5). When he is mentioned in the papers of other Basyes, the E 5 designation will be given by his name.
The first fifty folders of this series contain nineteenth-century correspondence and items. Correspondence is outgoing. The remaining ninety-four folders consist primarily of Isaac W. Basye and Otto Basye correspondence with various branches of the Basye family for the purpose of filling out the Basye genealogy and, with a few notable exceptions, offer little other than genealogy in the way of research possibilities.
The Edmond Basye (D 1) family papers include an Isaac Basye (E 2) letter from Isgourney, Iowa, 1858, on Baptist church activities, and a death in the family; Bible records on Basye and Nearn family members; John Walter Basye's (E 5) will, estate settlement papers and accounts, 1820-1837, deeds and land plat, and a letter concerning mail routes using horse stages from St. Charles to Palmyra in 1833 (f. 1-4). An account of the British invading Heathsville is found in the Isaac Basye (D 8) papers (f. 6).
The Taylor Basye papers (E 56) include family letters from Indiana, 1857, Price and Gilmore family information; and a photograph of a plaque commemorating the Taylor Basye Store in Grandview, Indiana, where Abe Lincoln once rested (f. 8).
In the John Walter Basye (E 5) papers, letters from his sons and the wife of his son, James Jordan Basye (F 22), are written from Wisconsin territory; Illinois; Columbia and Independence, Missouri; California; Nevada; and Oregon; 1839-1895; to their father and brother Lisbon and other family members in Bowling Green. Lisbon writes from Jasper County, Missouri. These letters offer excellent descriptions of mining life; family hardships endured; cost and scarcity of provisions; overland travel; the lure of California gold; California; family life; deaths of children; health concerns; and views on politics, religion, and temperance (f. 11-30).
Joseph Jackson Basye's (F 14) letters, 1840s-1861, include descriptions of a trip down the Wisconsin River and Indians (f. 12). Isaac Newton Basye (F 18) writes of business and the economic climate in Quincy, Illinois, in 1846; the Civil War; soldiers; and blacks in Illinois in the 1860s (f. 13).
James Jordan Basye (F 22) and his wife Elvira write from mining camps and towns in California and Nevada. Elvira's letters are exceptionally literate and full of figurative language in her amusing descriptions of her thoughts, her children, and day to day life in the mining regions; and particularly poignant in her recounting the deaths of her children, her husband, and the encroachment of old age (f. 17-19).
Lisbon Basye's (F 23) papers include accounts and receipts, an 1852 travel diary describing his trip from Bowling Green in Pike County to Center Creek Diggings in Jasper County and the return journey, correspondence from Jasper County describing mining operations and the hardships of miners in the area, farmers and farming, prices of staples, and remedies (f. 21-22).
William Montgomery Basye's (F 24) papers, 1845-1883, include memorandum books; accounts, notes, and receipts; correspondence; business papers; Pike County tax lists; deeds; a Cumberland Presbyterian Church register; and a broadside of his stallion's stud service. Reminiscences of St. Louis during the Civil War appear in the correspondence (f. 23-30).
James Basye (E 68) family materials include tales of overland travel to California from Cass County, Missouri, and describe fortunes made in gold mining, and crop prices (f. 34). A Civil War letter and military records of Thomas A. Basye (F 211), 36th Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, are in folder 37.
Descriptions of overland travel, sickness, Iowa, mining in Wisconsin, and a description of General Tom Thumb's appearance at a local fair, appear in the 1832 and 1850s letters of Isaac Newton Basye (G 58) (f. 38).
The Isaac Walter Basye (G104) papers, 1866-1954, include letters to his future wife while he was a student at Alleghany College, Pennsylvania; letters from his parents in Bowling Green; letters to his wife Laura Avery Basye from the Smith and Avery families in Arizona, Montana (1881), and Oregon (1879); a manuscript and notes on his grandfather, John Walter Basye, and newspaper articles he authored (f. 43-47).
Anna Elvira Basye Davis (G105) writes to her family in Bowling Green from Kansas, Iowa, and other locations, 1880s-1912, describing life on the farm, her children, health concerns, and economic hardships (f. 48).
Helen Virginia Basye Huse (H 86) writes of her childhood memories, country doctors, and conditions on the East Coast during World War II (f. 95); Fannie A. Basye Brown (H 90), a lonely widow in Wichita, describes her life and her gardening, 1899-1925 (f. 96); the miscellaneous papers of Otto Basye (H 123) include an 1863 Louisiana, Missouri newspaper, 1890s items from Depauw University and the Missouri Military Academy, a Spanish American War reporter's pass, and a 1921 letter from Genevieve Bennettt Clark (Mrs. Champ Clark) (f. 103-105); Nellie M. Henson's (H 309) letters, 1907-1908, reveal the thoughts and activities of a young teacher from Virginia. Nellie expresses her views on a variety of topics including courtship (f. 118).
The Miscellaneous series contains materials on the Basye home in Bowling Green; a notebook and notes on Basye family history and genealogy; a manuscript biography of John Walter Basye and Methodism in Missouri of the Louisiana Territory; early land grants and patents; election tickets, 1874-1800; the William B. Smith Papers, 1863-1900, n.d.; photographs; and miscellaneous items comprise this series.
The Smith Papers include pension papers and a Civil War letter from William, in the Pennsylvania Infantry Volunteers, to his father Samuel; a railroad pass; two foreign items; a marriage record; a prospectus of the Baptist Theological University of Missouri, 1890; and an undated religious flyer of W. D. Mahan, Boonville, Missouri.
Photographs include family portraits; the Kansas City Bar Association and Otto Basye, c. 1957; Mexican War veterans; Civil War and cemetery monuments; and a children's Sunday School class in Bowling Green. The majority of photographs are dated c. 1860s-1900s.
The Volumes include photograph albums; account books and day books from Louisiana and Bowling Green, 1812-1893; a record book of the Bowling Green, Missouri, Methodist Episcopal Church, 1869-1896; and three scrapbooks titled "Souvenirs and Papers Found Among the Papers of Isaac Walter Basye Pointing to the Principal Events in His Life."
The photograph albums contain portraits of Basye family members and related families--Davis, Clifton, Grant, Smith, Templeton, and Tombs. Photograph indices are included in the folder list and provide the information found on the back of photographs. Genealogical numeration is given if known. The photographs date from the 1860s to the 1900s.
Volumes 4-9 are combination account books and day books. They contain general merchandise accounts from stores in Louisiana and Bowling Green, Missouri, 1812-1826, and farm account books from Bowling Green, 1863-1893. There are indices for some volumes. Loose items from the volumes are located in folders preceding each volume.
Volumes 4 and 5 contain itemized general merchandise accounts which include furs, lead and powder, whiskey, liquor and beer, mackerel, tobacco, groceries and other staples, and dry goods. Captain Nathan Boone and Mississippi River traders had accounts. Trips to Fort Mason are mentioned. These account books were passed down through several families and contain entries by James Jones, Charles Howell, James Gentry, and Lisbon and W.M Bayse, all of Louisiana, Missouri. There are gaps in dates and pages are missing. Volume 4 consists of three sections: 1812-1813, 1818-1819, and 1820. Volume 5 consists of three sections: 1819-1820, 1825-1826, and 1826.
Volume 6 is the account book of James Ramey's store in Bowling Green, 1833-1834. John Walter Basye used the book, 1834-1845, to keep his mill and farm accounts, his coroner's accounts, his church class accounts, and his lodging house account for 1834-1845. There is a church class record for 1840. Pages 31-46 are missing from this second section. Lisbon and William M. Basye used the book from 1845-1861. Notes on estate settlements, cures for horse diseases, and the army worm attack in 1861 are included.
Volumes 7-9 are Basye farm account books, 1863-1878, 1867-1879, and 1881-1893. Included are livestock, horse, and mule breeding records; an 1866 letter from Kentucky concerning award winning pedigree of Bayse's jack; farm labor accounts; building accounts for a farm house; occasional comments on the weather and family concerns.
Volume 10 is the record of the Bowling Green, Missouri, Methodist Episcopal Church, 1869-1896, consisting of an historical record, probationers record, class record, membership, and pastoral and baptism records.
Isaac Walter Basye's scrapbooks include letters from former classmates and teachers and items from the Platteville, Wisconsin, academy where he was a student; letters from prominent Missourians including Walter Williams and Missouri governors; clippings of historical articles written by Basye for the Bowling Green Times on Bowling Green and Pike County, Methodism, historical figures and other topics; materials on school furniture, Sunday Schools and conventions; real estate business and farm sales; copyrights; deeds; horticulture studies; and photographs. The scrapbooks are indexed.
This collection offers an excellent genealogy of the Basye family. Researchers interested in overland travel, mining, pioneer families and women, the Gold Rush, the Civil War, Pike County history, and women's perspectives from the 1830s-1920s should find rich source materials. Photographs offer the added bonus of enabling the researcher to visualize the persons behind the pens, and persons mentioned in the correspondence.
FOLDER AND VOLUME LIST
INDEX TERMS
