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 John Spencer Bassett, Marker E-95 Posted by:  drmellow
N 35° 53.925 W 077° 32.331
18S E 270863 N 3975696
1867-1928. Historian. Professor at Trinity College, 1864-1906. Secretary, Amer. Historical Association, 1919-1928. Born here.
Waymark Code: WMDCM
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 05/24/2006
Views: 29
Text on marker:
John Spencer Bassett
1867-1928. Historian. Professor at Trinity College, 1864-1906. Secretary, Amer. Historical Association, 1919-1928. Born here.
This historical marker is located on Wilson Street at Albemarle Avenue in Tarboro. It was erected in 1987.
Duke University Libraries has a biography of John Spencer Basset:
Born in rural eastern North Carolina in 1867 amid the poverty of a defeated South, Bassett had intermittent schooling until his devoutly Methodist parents sent him to their church's college, Trinity, then in Randolph County. Entering as a junior in 1886 he experienced the arrival of a new president, John F. Crowell, for his senior year. Crowell came from the North unencumbered by southern tradition and prejudices and full of zeal for educational reform. Infused with the excitement of research in original sources and with a broadened perspective learned in the new courses of sociology and economics, introduced by Crowell, Bassett graduated with a degree in history. He began teaching in the public schools of Durham but he soon headed north to Johns Hopkins University to earn a Ph. D. degree in the famous seminar of Herbert Baxter Adams. After Trinity relocated to Durham Bassett returned but this time with the best education then available in his field and as professor of history at his alma mater. Of Adams, Bassett later wrote, "You have been to me more than an instructor. You have given me sparks of yourself, and you have made me hope that I might be a useful man in some not unimportant way."
At Trinity Bassett was a very popular teacher who had the willingness to work hard and the discipline to balance his teaching with his primary love of research and writing. Yet his devotion to his students was legendary. When tragedy such in one family a student's aunt implored Bassett to comfort the young man because her nephew had spoken of his great admiration for his professor. Another student made an intriguing comment about Bassett, writing, "He is the one faculty member who believes that Jesus Christ died for freshmen too."
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Marker Name: E-95: John Spencer Bassett
Marker Type: Roadside
Related Web Link: [Web Link]
Required Waymark Photo: yes
Local North Carolina markers without State Number Designation: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:Photos of your visit to the marker are required, but PLEASE, no old vacation photos taken just because it was there!
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Most of all, enjoy the History that North Carolina has to offer! From the Mountains to the Ocean .. it's all here!
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