BASSETT, ROBERT EVANS AND IDA (STATAN) AND ELLA (CANTLEBURY)

by Thelma Bassett Pearman

Entry F22 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Robert and Ida (Staten) Bassett 1922

Bob was born October 1897 to John and
Elsie Bassett in Hooker County. The only
school records available for him were prob-
ably his last two terms in 1915-16 and 1916-
'17 at which time he attended the Haney
School and was a teenager at the time. The
school was somewhere in Southwestern
Hooker Co. His homestead was somewhere in
McPherson County. He began working on
area ranches at an early age just as his older
brothers and sisters had.

Bob was talented in music, learning to play

the violin and harmonica. He played the
"fiddle" for dances in Tryon when he was
living there on his homestead. He was good
also at mechanics and that became his
profession later in life. He served in the Army
during WWI, being sent to Germany where
he suffered Shell Shock and became afflicted
with Tuberculosis of the spine. He was
discharged June 2, 1919 with a disability,
having to wear a back brace.

He married Ida Statan, a native of Kansas,
in Mullen in 1922. They moved around a
great deal. They had no children. They were
divorced a few years later. Bob did not stay
in our area. He spent quite a bit of time in
Wyoming.

Bob married Ella Cantlebury, a girl from
Pinedale, Wyoming. They had two sons,
Robert John and Buddy Francis. They came
back to Nebraska in about 1938 accompanied
by her younger brother, 13 years old, Glen
Cantlebury and stayed with Dell for a short
time, then continued on to Arkansas where
they made their home until Bob became ill.
He was taken to a Veterans Hospital at
Memphis, Tennessee where he died August
4, 1939 and was buried there. It is not known
where the family went or where they are at
present.