John Basiger

SM

February 13, 2024

 

 

John Basiger was born in 1840 in Wangen, Switzerland, John Basiger came to the United States in 1854 with his parents.  His parents had first settled in Delaware County, Ohio where he was raised. He enlisted in April 22, 1861 in Company I, Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and transferred in 1863 to Company B, Thirteenth Veteran reserve Corps and served as a hospital steward.   He was mustered out in 1864.   He reentered a few months later as captain of Company H, 174^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but after nine months of service, he was mustered out again due to poor health.  In 1870, he married Miss Ellen Smith of Kenton, Ohio.   The next year, their daughter, Nellie was born.  She only lived to the age of nine when she died of typhoid fever.   Their other child Jessie was born in 1873, but only lived ten months.   Jessie’s grave is one of the earliest in the Larned Cemetery. 

John R. Basiger established a Harness and Saddle shop in Larned upon arriving in 1879, and closed in 1885.  The Basigers had moved to Larned in 1879, and he was employed as a traveling salesman for the St. Louis Leather House.   He held a patent for a hook and terrett pad and hame strap buckle.       Their residence was on 4^th Street in Larned. In 1883, his shop was robbed him of $75.  The shop stood on the east side of Broadway, and was known by the big collar which hung out front.    He was part of the Company F regiment of the Kansas National Guard.   In 1886, he had established a cattle ranch, the Walnut Hills Pasture, north of Larned between the Walnut and Pawnee Rivers on one of the highest points in the county.  He raised thorough-bred, high-grade and shorthorn cattle.  Also in 1886, he began plans to bring a railroad to this ranch.  That year, he was awarded a badge from the Cattlemen’s Association. He opened a real estate office in 1887.     That same year, he sold his cattle in order to focus his attention on real estate, and sold the remainder of his ranch in 1888, and shifted his focus on managing the Southern Kansas Mortgage company. 

The location was on the south west quarter of section 15 in the Township 22 Range 16.   In the 1890s, he served as chaplain for the B.F. Larned Post No. 8, G.A.R.

After Ellen Basiger passed away in 1905 at the age of 67, Captain Basiger kept his ranch near Frizell Station for another year.   In 1906, he married Mrs. Rose Allen Katar, an accomplished musician and vocalist, and daughter to prominent abolitionists.  She was a graduate of the Conservatory of Music in Leipsic, Germany.  They lived on the corner of Topeka and Sixth Street which was considered “one of the most beautiful and palatial in Larned.”

Beginning in 1910, the Basiger family moved to Florida to winter there in the milder climate. In 1915, they donated one hundred volumes and 41 portfolios to the Cummins Memorial Library in Larned.   They had moved to Colorado Springs, where he passed away at the age of 84 in 1924.   He was buried in the Larned Cemetery.