Mary Ann Elizabeth (Mae) Powell Bass, my gg Grandmother

 For women's history month, March 2022

A repost of a blog already written about one of  my great great grandmothers.

Mary Ann Elizabeth (Mae) Powell Bass (1825-1871)

Mary Ann Elizabeth Powell was born on 21 Feb 1825 in Perry, Alabama, where her father had received a land grant from his service in the War of 1812.

Pitts' Folly (no relation to the Bass family) is a historic antebellum Greek Revival residence located in Uniontown, Alabama. The house was built by Philip Henry Pitts as his main house. It was designed by architect B. F. Parsons, who also designed the nearby Perry County Courthouse in Marion. Many local legends detail how the house gained its name, but they all center on the people of Uniontown believing it to be folly, or foolishness, that Pitts was building such a large house.

Mae met and married (at age 14) Richard Bass (later to be called Col. following the Civil War) in her home town, (see Here for more on him) but they started a migration to Texas, stopping along the way for several years. By the time she was in a census at age 25, she had a daughter, Julia (9) born in Alabama, and a son, James (7) born in Louisiana, and daughter, Ellen (5) also born in Louisiana.  That census of 1850 showed the family living in Union Parish, LA.

Lowry-Ford House & Kitchen, (no relation to Bass family) Washington Street (County Road 45), Marion vicinity, Perry, AL. Now known as the Henry House and listed on the National Register of Historic Places

In the 1860 census the family lived in Walker County, Texas, with a 5 month old baby Elizabeth, who was born in Texas, but they could have moved there at any time since 1850.  Ellen is no longer listed, and another daughter, Nancy C. is 6 years old, born in Louisiana.  There's a cousin living with the family as well, whose name is Emily W. Traylor.

What is interesting about both the Union Parish LA census and especially the Walker County, Texas census, is the listing of various relatives along the same road...all farmers at this time. I'm pretty sure her parents lived on the next farm, but her younger brother who was a physician is also in the neighborhood.

Woodland, home of Sam Houston in Huntsville, Walker County, TX. Built in stages beginning about 1847, it was the residence of Sam Houston from 1847 to 1859.

My great grandmother, Elizabeth "Bettie" Bass Rogers was born in 1861.  (More about her HERE)

In the 1870 census we see a mixed family, with the youngest Bass daughter at 5. And Sarah is back, 16, and below the 2  servants' listing is James at 27.  Col. Richard (Dick) Bass is now a merchant, and son James is a clerk in Dry Goods.  I wonder if James worked with his father, but he is still in his father's household.  Emily Trayor is now 23, still living with them.

Mary Ann (Mae) Powell Bass died on 12 Oct 1871, at age 46.  Was she forgotten, or perhaps just her real name was...when daughter Elizabeth died, and when Mary died, neither of their survivors could give her name as their mother, (on their death certificates) though they both knew Richard Bass had been their father.


 

  

Here's her headstone in the  Old Waverly Cemetery, Walker Co., Tex

Her parents were buried nearby, James Moore Powell (27 Feb 1791 Bertie County, NC - 27 Feb 1868, Walker County, TX) 
and Nancy Jones Traylor Powell (16 May 1804, Oglethorpe County, Georgia - 27 Jun 1881 in Old Waverly, Walker, Texas)  

James Moore Powell (1791-1868)

Nancy Jones Traylor Powell 1804-1881

Waverly Cemetery

Historic marker

"Waverly Cemetery This cemetery is situated on the land originally purchased in 1853 by Mary M. Lewis, James E. Scott, Laura A. Scott, and Milly D. Scott. The first recorded burial was that of John Andrew Jackson (1822-1855), a pioneer settler of Waverly. Three gravestones dated 1852 indicate reinterments rather than earlier burials. Hamlin F. Lewis, John Elliot Scott, and Robert Lindsey Scott left Alabama for Texas but fell victim to cholera in 1852 and were buried along the way. Relatives of the men had their remains placed in this site in 1859. In 1857 Waverly Institute purchased 200 acres of land which included the burial ground. Through the efforts of Henry M. Elmore (1816-1879), President of Waverly Institute Board of Trustees, twelve acres were officially set aside for cemetery use in 1873. The town of Waverly was a cultural, educational, and religious center before the Civil War. When New Waverly was founded on the railroad in the 1880s, Waverly declined, but its cemetery remains in use. The burial ground has always been associated with the pioneer settlers of Waverly. In 1965 descendants of the settlers formed a cemetery association to maintain the site." Source: Walker County Historical Society Location: GPS Coordinates: 30.53308, -095.36353 

I also am aware that this family may well have enslaved persons in their various farming ventures.

I haven't found any slave listings to see if they did have enslaved persons. But just look at a plantation house, and it smacks of having servants. The Bass family did have 2 servants in the 1870 census, when Col. Richard had become a merchant instead of a farmer.

Ada & George Rogers Sr. and granddaughters Mary Elizabeth and Barbara Booth Rogers 1948 Houston TX. I'm adding this photo to posts in the George Rogers Family Tree.