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Possible tombstone of Mary Bassett (1827?-1845?)

Family tradition has held that in addition to Laura (Edgecomb), Lewis, and Lavisa (Ward), Samuel and Elsie Bassett had a fourth child, Mary, who died at the age of 17.  The 1830 census record shows a female under the age of 5 living with the family and a female aged 10 to 15 was also listed in the 1840 census. She is not mentioned in the 1850 census, the first one that provides the names of all members of the household, so presumably she died before then.  This information and the birth dates of Laura (June 1824), Lewis (Nov 1825), and Lavisa (June 1832) suggest that Mary may have been born in about 1827.  To my knowledge, Mary's name appears in only one official record as a witness to a deed in March 1842. If she had been born in about 1827, she would have been about 15 when she served as a witness.  That seems a bit young to be a witness to a legal document, but an older age would push her birthdate too close to that of Lewis. 

For many years I have pondered the small and nearly illegible tombstone just to the south of Samuel Bassitt's in the Sproat (Wolfe Rd.) Cemetery in Bath Township, Allen County, OH.  Then it struck me that it was likely that it might be Mary's.  

After enhancing the contrast of a photo of the stone, it became apparent to me that two of the letters in the name could have been R and Y.  There was enough room to the left of these letters for about two others and the second of these could have been an A.  It also became clear that the final two lines were the age in the typical "years, months, days" format - the "d" on the final line is quite apparent.  It also appeared that the third line from the end was a year beginning with "18".  If this were actually Mary's tombstone, then the third digit of the date would be a "4" and there is a hint to the left of the downward stroke that this may be the case.  The last digit could be a 3, 5, 6, or 8.  If it were a three and her birth date was in about 1827, that would be consistent with the family tradition that she died at about age 17.

If this stone had the typical format of the time, the 4th line should begin with "Died" followed by the date.  The first word in the line could be the word "Died" and the letter that follows appears likely to be a "D".  The next two letters could easily be an "e" and "c", making the month December.  One could imagine a 5 for the day of the month, but that is complete guesswork.  Fortunately, the day is the least important part of the date at least it appears that she may have died in Dec 1843. 

The age is less clear.  The "21 d." is quite easy to make out.  There appear to be two digits in the month, thus the first must be a "1".  The second digit therefore must be either a "0" or a "1" and 1 appears most likely.  The years are more problematic.  I have drawn relatively narrow letters for "yrs".  However, a larger "y" followed by "r." is perhaps more likely.  The problem with the latter is that it allows room for only one digit between the "d" of "Aged" and the "y" of years.  If this were Mary's stone, the years would have to have two digits.  The first digit after the "d" could easily be a "1", although "4" and possibly "7" could not be excluded.  I have shown the age as "16" because 16 years and 11 months is close to the traditional age of 17. 

What about the second line?  If this stone were at all typical, the second line would identify her family relationship ("wife of ...", "daughter of...", etc. and a family name).  It is not at all clear to me what the letters say.  There are enough letters and they are in the appropriate position to spell "Bassett", "Bassitt", "Basset", or some other variation found in the records (both parents could not write so records were generally phonetic, see the discussion of How do you spell Basse/itt?) but this is guesswork. 

  The third line is a mystery to me.  It looks like a date and if it is, then it probably begins with "18".  In comparison with the year in the 5th line, the third digit could be a "4".  The last digit could be a "1".  If this interpretation is true, then the date could be a birth date of 1841.  It is not typical on tombstones of the time to give the birth year, but it is not clear what else this could mean.  So another possibility is that the stone reads "born 1841 Died Dec. [?] 1846  Aged 4 yr. 11 m 21 d."  If this interpretation is true, then it is hard to reconcile this stone with the family tradition of Mary. 

Photography under better lighting conditions may make it possible to clear up some of these issues.  But the possibility that this is Mary Bassett's tombstone is satisfying because it would mean that in 1865 Samuel Bassitt was buried next to his daughter who had died twenty years earlier. 

Comments?  Questions?  Contact Steve Baskauf