Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

Bridgeport. He was educated by private
tutors and the old Park Institute, the Uni-
versity School, and the Hotchkiss School,
Lakeville, Connecticut. His first employment
was with the Crawford Dyeing and
Cleaning Company of Bridgeport, with
which he remained two years, when he
organized the Bridgeport Metallic Pack-
ing Company, of which he became pres-
ident. He continued in this position for
five years, when he disposed of his business
and in 1907 went with the Burns &
Bassick Company to learn the business.
He was successful in this, and later was
made secretary and manager. On the
death of Mr. Burns he still continued as
secretary and manager, and later became
chief engineer of the Bassick Company,
retiring from the organization January i,
1925. For years he had been a director
of the company.
Mr. Bassick is a Republican in politics,
a member of the Brooklawn and Algonquin
clubs, and the Fairfield Country
Club. February 18, 1913, Mr. Bassick
married Lillian Cordelia Wheeler, daugh-
ter of Wilmot C. and Sarah F. Curtis
Wheeler, both of pioneer Connecticut
families. Mr. and Mrs. Bassick are the
parents of a daughter, Lillian Cordelia
Bassick.
HAVENS, Elmer H.,
Iron Merchant.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Perhaps no man has contributed more
substantial and progressive effort to the
cause of education in the city of Bridgeport
than has Colonel Elmer H. Havens,
who for twenty years has been a member
of the Board of Education, serving first
as secretary and afterward president,
which office he continues to fill, so great
was the demand of the people and of his
fellow members that he occupy that posi-
tion, to which he was drafted against his
will following his two years of voluntary
retirement after a continuous service of
eighteen years. Colonel Havens is a member
of Hunter & Havens, leading iron and
steel merchants of Bridgeport. He has
served his city in various important ca-
pacities, always without remuneration,
over a long period of years, having been
a member of the City Council and of the
Board of Health before entering upon his
honorable career as a member and the
executive head of the Board of Education.
He has been a member of the staff of
two governors of Connecticut, through
which service he attained his rank of
colonel. He has also been a member of
the Republican State Committee and of
the Republican City Committee of Bridge-
port ; in fact his record of service to State
and city is a well rounded and meritorious
one, to which he has generously contrib-
uted of his time and talents.
Colonel Havens is descended with other
members of the old colonial family spell-
ing their surname with a final "s," this
being the only family of that name and
period north of Virginia regularly doing
so, and his immigrant ancestor was William
(i) Havens of England, who came
to Rhode Island and was admitted an inhabitant
of Aquidneck, later called Rhode
Island, in 1638, and on April 30, 1639, he
and twenty-eight others signed a compact
: "We ... do acknowledge our-
104
selves the legal subjects of His Majesty,
King Charles, and in his name do hereby
bind ourselves into a civil body politicke,
unto his laws according to matters of
justice." William (i) Havens had a
grant of four acres of land at Portsmouth,
Rhode Island, in 1644. December 2, 1662,
he leased his dwelling house with all lands
belonging thereto to his son John. His
will was proved September 25, 1683, his