Biography of Benjamin F. Bashor

The affable and genial subject of this article, who has labored so faithfully in this County, is granted with pleasure a representation in this volume of the history of Nez Perces, since he is one of the popular and prominent men in its precincts and since also he is a man of good principles and integrity.

Mr. Bashor was born in Las Animas County, Colorado, on April 3, 1873, being the son of Michael M. and Susan (Garst) Bashor, the father a German Baptist minister, born in Virginia in 1830, and his parents born in Pennsylvania. The mother of our subject was also born in Virginia in 1832, her father being born in Germany and coming to America when a boy and her mother a native of Pennsylvania and an immigrant to Virginia when young. Our subject’s parents were married in Tennessee, December 11, 1850, and in 1872 came to Colorado and the father preached in Trinidad.

When Benjamin was six years old the family came to Marion County, Oregon. He was educated in the common schools of that and Linn County at the Mineral Springs Seminary and then finished at the Willamette University in Salem in 1894. He taught two years and then came to Nez Perces County in 1896, taking a homestead in July of that year. He was postmaster at Steele, taught school, farmed, and acted as justice of the peace. In 1900 the Republicans nominated him for County assessor, and the people promptly elected him and in that capacity he is serving now.

October 16, 1898, Mr. Bashor married Miss Emma C. daughter of William C. and Rebecca Waide, and to them has been born one child, Vernon B., two years old. Mr. Waide is a farmer and was born in Ohio, in 1845, was a soldier in the Civil war and now draws a pension. The mother is a native of the Buckeye State born 1844. Besides Mrs. Bashor, they have children as follows: Martha Pope, Dora B. Day, John F. Nelson W., Charles W., Ida Hackett and Alice. Mr. Bashor has the following named brothers and sisters: Alary Bryant, Frederick F., George W., Adam A., Henry W., Noah N., Amanda C, Sarah M. Monsey, Jacob F., Levi M., Nancy Z. Rinehart, Anna Bashor, Suda E. Bashor.

Our subject and his worthy wife are members of the Baptist Church and devout supporters of the faith. He is a Republican in politics and active in that realm. Mr. Bashor has a good farm of two hundred and forty acres near Steele. His grandfather Bashor lived to be ninety-eight years of age and his grandmother was eighty-eight at her death; his maternal grandparents were also of good age when they died. Mr. Bashor is a man whose kindness and geniality have won him many friends, is a worthy citizen and has the confidence of all.

Source: An Illustrated History of North Idaho: Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho; Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903

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