Uriah Bass, a sibling of Col. Richard Bass

Uriah  Benjamin Bass (1806-1872) was Dick's oldest brother.  Since Dick was born last, Uriah would have been 16 when he was born. (There's a petition to the courts following the death of their father in 1822 that says Dick was born in 1814 rather than 1819.) Just because that document survived time, I've though that the petitioner, Jepson Green, had succeeded in becoming the younger Bass children's guardian.  I know he married their mother. But other Ancestry trees suggest the younger Bass children may have been awarded to their oldest sister and her husband Rev. George. And there's even another document which asked the "Orphan Court" to pay another person for being the guardian.

But back to Uriah. In 1822 (year his father died) he married Celia (Selia) Bass in Wayne County NC. We don't know who her parents were at this point. The first child of this union was born in April 1823. They had 6 children in Wayne County, NC.

Oh, to back up a bit, the 3 elder Bass children of Uriah and Dick's generation had been born in Wayne County NC as well, though the last 4 were born after the family immigrated to Perry County AL.

Wayne County North Carolina:

Wayne County was established during the American Revolutionary War on November 2, 1779 from the western part of Dobbs County. It was named for "Mad Anthony" Wayne, a general in the (Revolutionary) war...  In 1787 an act was passed establishing Waynesborough on the west side of the Neuse River, on the land of Doctor Andrew Bass. ** The courthouse was built here.

 Population growth in Waynesborough continued through the 1830s. However, this changed once the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad was completed in the early 1840s. By then, a hotel had been built at the intersection of the railroad and New Bern Road, which grew into a community after the train started to transport passengers from there. 

More and more citizens soon relocated from Waynesborough to this growing village, named eventually "Goldsborough's Junction" after Major Matthew T. Goldsborough, an Assistant Chief Engineer with the railroad line. Later this was shortened simply to Goldsborough. In 1847, the town was incorporated and became the new Wayne County seat following a vote of the citizens of Wayne County. Local legend has it the Goldsborough supporters put moonshine in the town's well to encourage people to vote for Goldsborough. SOURCE: Wikipedia

 ** Dr. Andrew Bass is an ancestor who we'll read about in a few more days.

Uriah Bass, brother of Col. Richard Bass:

In 1830 he is living alone in Alabama, while that is the year his 4th of 5 children was born in NC...so he must have been traveling between the two places.

Then on Jan 30, 1834 he married Cynthia Hunter Bass (Victory) who was about 14 years old, in Alabama.  And the same year,  his last child with Celia was born in North Carolina.

I can't assume that Celia died.  But I soon found she didn't die, but moved elsewhere.

By the census of 1860, when looking quickly at those 6 children, I found 54 year old mother Selia Bass living with Uriah Bass Jr. (28) and 13 people in the household named Bass in Thomas County, Georgia.  Uriah Jr. moved further to Florida (near Orlando) with at least one of his brothers and their families.  The 1870 census in Florida doesn't include Selia (Celia.)

So I surmise she moved with her children, rather than her husband. And her husband felt free to marry another woman in Alabama.

However, that's not the end of Uriah's story with his wives.

Cynthia Hunter Bass (second wife of Uriah since 1834) was in Texas by 1848 when she married John Victery.

Uriah Benjamin Bass was still in AL. As a matter of fact, there's a 1835 document where he received land in return for service to the government in Perry County, AL.  The document clearly states Uriah Bass, signed by Andrew Jackson.  He had been too young to fight in the War of 1812, and in 1835 he was just 31 years old. I wonder how he got a land grant...however, he did have an uncle of the same name.

Then in 1845 Uriah married (third wife) Elizabeth R. Benson Plummer, a widow with 2 sons. They are married by the famous (in the Bass family anyway) Minister of the Gospel, Rev. Elias George. Mrs. Benson Plummer is also the daughter of Judge Gabriel Benson, so their marriage license states they have no reason not to be married.

I'm beginning to think a husband whose wife left him could marry again (something about desertion?) in Alabama. He's had 2 wives go elsewhere by then.

Uriah and Eliza have one daughter born in 1847, then Eliza died in 1848. By this time Rev. George has led his flock to Union Parish, LA. Though Eliza was buried at the appropriate time, in the 1850 census, Uriah lists her as his wife, as well as the 2 Plummer sons and his 2 year old daughter, Ann.  Ann died the next year.

In August 1852, Uriah married (number four) Mary Calderwood Bass, age 18 to his 38 years. They had 6 children, 4 of whom lived to adulthood.  The 1860 and 1870 census show him living in Marion, LA. He died in 1872 at age 66, and is buried with two of his wives and 4 children in the family plot. His will has his surviving wife, Mary as administratrix and mentions his surviving children, and grandchildren.


EDITORS NOTE: I just read a respected ancestry-tree who wrote of yet another wife of Uriah Bass, but did not have the first 3 of these, but did have his widow.  And that tree didn't have all the children that I had found.  Now I'm looking into this...