Oscar T. Bassett - El Paso, Texas

El Paso, Texas

Bassett moved to Fort Worth, Texas in 1879, where he started a lumber business. He arrived in El Paso, Texas in 1880 to buy real estate for the Texas and Pacific Railway and to investigate some Arizona mines. Bassett returned to Indiana for the birth of his son (C. N. Bassett). His wife died soon thereafter, and Bassett returned to El Paso. On the way he stopped in St. Louis, Missouri to arrange financing for El Paso's first bank. He later became a stockholder and director of the First National Bank of El Paso, later known as the State National Bank. Bassett was also in the lumber business and was a large landholder. He had properties and banking interests in Oklahoma, Los Angeles and El Paso. He was president of the El Paso school board in 1882. Bassett also served as an El Paso city councilman.

He died in his office above a lumberyard on January 3, 1898.