Research - Rresources - Biography

Hi Everyone,

I am Keith Evan Hayes the creator and web master for the historic Bassett settlement website.  I was born, raised and educated  in Kokomo (Howard County) IN and completed college at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN (Political Science Degree).  I have been working in the IT field for over 20 yrs and just recently started to devote a large amount of time to genealogy research, especially regarding  my descendants from the Bassett ancestry line, that lived in the  Bassett settlement and other early African American settlements located in  Indiana. During my journey I utilized DNA analysis testing  which helped in my research regarding the Bassett settlements (NOTE:The Bassett settlements generally included Ellis and Rush settlements based on my research and was the longest lasting and most referred to historically).  I had help from a variety of sources and individuals that I intend to eventually acknowledge throughout  this website.

The founder, Brittion Bassett who was my 4th great grandfather was a "free-born colored" (birth date between 1776-1785) that lived in a world where he had less rights (legally and culturally) then most slaves and was actually subject to a "free-colored tax"  for being black and free.  The bit of humor  in this horrible political and cultural environment was how many in North Carolina, labeled themselves as "Mulatto"  in an unsuccessful effort to avoid the tax. So Grandpa Bassett (who was in fact mixed race (black father, white mother) decide to travel with family and children from Greene County, North Carolina to Indiana evading slave hunters along the way to settle first in Parke, Vigo counties then eventually to  Howard county Indiana, to only face even more racism and hatred due to the color of his skin.    

I learned during my research that even after my grandfather settled in Indiana, a free state, laws were enacted to tax them extra because he was free and black therefore a threat since he had no master, but yet they persevered and build a thriving self-sufficient community in the back yard of the Ku Klux Klan NOTE: Kokomo, IN has an infamous history related to KKK activities.

The road to their settlement was called derogatorily  " Nigger Pike" and the Bassett and Rush cemeteries were the only place "coloreds could be buried" well into the early 1900s. During my visit to the Bassett Cemetry I realized that only a dozen or so graves existed out of probably the hundreds buried there.  So the question should be asked what happen to those graves, what  who and why were these graves desecrated?   Their children couldn't attend the white schools so they built their own school and church and farm their own land to survive.  Lastly I wonder what really happen to these settlements and how the lost their land? 

 I created this website to as a testimonial to their human spirit to survive and thrive despite the odds against them, as well as, document my descendants accomplishments in building a new community despite numerous obstacles. As I traced and uncovered my ancestry and descendants  I realized what a great accomplishment it was to established an all black self-sufficient rural community in the mist of a pre-Civil war cultural and racist local  political and economic environment. I eventual started to realized how these settlers' descendants moved on to Kokomo, Logansport, Crawfordsville and Noblesville to help build and contribute to  those communities.

I want their struggles and accomplishments to be remember, acknowledged and lastly and most importantly an official commendation  by the community at large. 

Combination Atlas Map of Howard County, Indiana: Compiled, drawn and published from personal examinations and surveys, 1877. Knightstown, IN: Bookmark, 1976.

Gall, Morris. The Negro in Howard County. Kokomo, IN: Kokomo Chamber of Commerce, 1970.

Hackett, Brian L. "Hoosier Freemen: Harboring Negroes in Antebellum Parke County." Indiana Trace of Indiana and Midwestern History,Summer, 2009. 

Slater-Putt, Dawne. “The People of Bassett-Ellis and Rush African-American Settlements Ervin and Clay Townships Howard County, Indiana, 1840-1920.” (Manuscript at the Kokomo Public Library, Kokomo, IN)

Snell, Ronald David. “Indiana’s Black Representatives: The Rhetoric of the Black Republican Legislators from 1880 to 1896.” Ph.D dissertation, Indiana University, 1972.

Tetrick, Ron. “Artis, Bassett, Colbert, Hall and Rush Pioneer African American Families of Howard County, Indiana,” 2008. (Manuscript at the Kokomo Public Library, Kokomo, IN) 

Thornbrough, Emma Lou. The Negro in Indiana before 1900: A Study of a Minority. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. “Aggregate Amount of Each Description of Persons within District of Indiana,” 1: 352. Sixth Census of the United States, 1840. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Office, 1841.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population of Civil Divisions Less Than Counties; Table III State of Indiana,” 1:124 Seventh Census of the United States, 1850 Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Office, 1852

U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population of Civil Divisions Less Than Counties; Table III State of Indiana,” 1:124 Eighth Census of the United States, 1860.  Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Office, 1862

U.S. Bureau of the Census. “Population of Civil Divisions Less Than Counties; Table III—State of Indiana,” 1: 124. Ninth Census of the United States, 1870. Washington, D.C.: U.S. 

Government Printing Office, 1872.

Audrey C. Werle “Research Notes on Indiana African American History,” M 792, William Henry Smith Memorial Library, Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, Indiana.