The Biographical Dictionary of America/Bassett, Homer Franklin

​BASSETT, Homer Franklin, librarian, was born at Florida, Berkshire county, Mass., Sept. 2, 1826, son of Ezra and Keziah (Witt) Bassett. He removed with his father to Rockport, Ohio, in 1836, doing farm work to procure an education at the Berea seminary. In 1848 he entered Oberlin, intending to take a full course of study, but ill-health compelled him to leave school in 1849, and he returned to New England. He became a student of the natural sciences, and in 1853 established a school in Wolcott, Conn. In 1868 he became the principal of a private school in Waterbury, Conn., still making a specialty of the study of natural history, and particularly of insect life. In 1873 he was appointed librarian of the Silas Bronson library in Waterbury, founded in 1870. The library under his predecessor comprised about 13,000 volumes, which number was more than quadrupled in 1895. In 1894 a new library building was erected. Mr. Bassett was awarded the degree of M.A. by Yale university in 1894. He wrote; "Description of Several New Species of Cynips and of Diastrophus," in the "Proceedings of the Entomological society of Philadelphia," and "Waterbury and her Industries" (1889).