Kings County Biographies

Transcribed by Craig A Hahn


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


 
BASS, ALEXANDER WELLINGTON
 
     In Dallas county, Mo., Alexander Wellington Bass was born, October 30, 
1861. It was in that county that he was reared and gained much of his education 
in the public school. When he was eighteen years old he accompanied his father 
to Boise City, Idaho, where he attended school two years longer. He early gained 
a knowledge of farming and at Boise City learned the carpenter�s trade. 
Eventually he returned to Missouri and started back to Idaho by way of the coast 
in order to see California. He stopped off at Hanford March 9, 1888, and liking 
the town and the country round about obtained employment on a farm, where he 
worked several months. Then, locating in Hanford, he took up carpentering and 
after three years became a contractor and builder. Three years later he added 
house-moving to his business and that part of his work became so important that 
it gradually commanded all his time and attention. As a contractor he had for a 
partner J. D. Ellis, and they confined their operations mostly to building 
residences, of which they built as many in their period of activity as any 
concern in this part of the state. As a house-mover his operations have extended 
throughout the San Joaquin valley from Bakersfield to Stockton and he was once 
awarded a four-month contract as far away as Santa Rosa. 
 
     As a Democrat Mr. Bass has been active in local and state politics for ten 
years. In 1909 he was elected to serve four years as a member of the board of 
trustees of Hanford. Fraternally he affiliates with Tent No. 40, K. O. T. M., 
the Foresters of America, and the Woodmen of the World. He was long a member of 
the old Chamber of Commerce and has for twenty-one years been identified with 
the volunteer fire department of Hanford. For twelve years he has served without 
pay as a trustee of the Hanford Cemetery Association. When he was elected there 
was no fund even to pay the sexton, but because of his good management the 
association now has a surplus of $11,000 to $12,000 at interest, a fund for the 
up-keep of the cemetery.
 
     September 6, 1888, Mr. Bass married Alice Howard, daughter of John A. and 
Mary Howard and a native of Clarke county, Mo. They have had six children: 
Earnest, born May 20, 1891; Ethel, July 9, 1897; Edna, August 16, 1900; Anita, 
April 12, 1902; Clarence, who died in 1906, aged seventeen years; Avis, who died 
at the age of ten months. Earnest is at home, Ethel, Edna and Anita are 
attending school. 
 
SOURCE:  History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical 
Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
Pp 505, 506