Mary Harwick, Mary Harwick

I have been tracking down Mary Ann Bass Reese's mother.  As mentioned before on the June 25th post on the Bass family; Mary Ann's father, Lovell Bass, is the first entry on the Births page.  He is also the first entry on the Deaths page.  Just below Lovell on the Births page is "Mary Harwick was born Sept 11, 1800".  The strong implication is that this is Mary Ann's mother.  This is proven back in June when I link Mary Ann to the photo of the black bearded man, William W. Bass.  William is her brother still living in Warren, New York with another brother, Dr. Edgar Charles Bass.  Dr. Bass becomes a prominent man in Cazenovia, New York, and a contemporary biography of him states that he is the son of Lovell Bass and Mary Harwick.   I'm pleased to have this 2nd source of Mary Harwick's identity.

On the Deaths page just below Lovell Bass is "Mary Bell Died Nov. 13th 1878".  In 1850, Mary Ann's two brothers as young men are residing with a Henry Bell (Adam Reese's uncle) and his wife Mary.   So I had thought Mary Ann must have been friends with her husband's uncle's wife.  Recently I made e-contact with Ken, a great-great grandson of Lovell Bass.  In sharing our information, my friend Ken tells me his belief that Mary Bell and Mary Harwick are the same person.  No Way!  But he has old family letters saying that Mary Bell is buried in the Bass lot with the two brothers, William and Edgar Bass.  I confirm this is true by finding the burial listings of Evergreen Cemetery, Cazenovia Villiage, Madison County, New York. http://home.comcast.net/~ingallsam/Cemeteries/Cazenovia/CazEvergreen/CazEverE-I.htm  Mary Bell is buried alongside the two brothers, obviously her sons.  One of the Ken's old letters gives the same birth and death dates for Mary Bell as I have for Mary Harwick.    I'm convinced that Mary Bell and Mary Harwick is the same person.  Her 1st husband, Lovell Bass dies in 1833 when Mary is just 33.  Time enough for her to marry Henry Bell, brother of Adam Reese's mother, Elizabeth Bell.  Already the mother of 3 children with Lovell (Mary Ann, William, and Edgar Bass) Mary Harwick becomes a stepmother to the widower Henry Bell's two daughters (Rosalinda and Sarah Bell).

While trying to find out more, I discover in the 1870 census that Rosetta Reese, Mary Ann Bass Reese's daughter is staying with Henry Bell, her paternal great uncle, and his wife Mary Harwick Bass Bell, her maternal grandmother, plus her cousin William Bass in Warren, New York.  Remarkable, really. The Bell, Reese and Bass families are so intertwined in one household.

   This discovery gets my attention. Rosetta Reese, who is still single in 1870,  has returned from Wisconsin to her hometown in Warren, New York, to be a schoolteacher in like her cousin William.  Rosetta is educated and well traveled.  We know that she later goes back out West to be with her parents and get married.  Rosetta would have been in a very good position to know the family genealogy.  As mentioned in the Three Daughters post below, Rosetta appears to be the chronicler of the bible from 1878 until her own death in 1913.   But who takes possession after that?