Leon Burdette BASSETT, 1892-1973

Leon was born in Alfred, Allegany Co., NY, the second child of William Henry Bassett and Myrta Bliss. He grew up in Alfred and graduated from Alfred Academy in 1912. He went on to Alfred University, where his parents had also attended, and studied Ceramics. He graduated in 1916, and  two years later, he married Rachel Burdick of Westerly, RI. They had two children, Harriet Eloise, born July 12, 1920, and William H., born July 22, 1925. Leon was an engineer and did research for companies in Massachusetts, Illinois, and Wisconsin. During the Depression, he was unable to find work and returned to Alfred with his family. He took a job as a line man with the telephone company. He soon began working at Alfred University, where he taught spectroscopy for many years. In 1945, his wife Rachel died,  and he later remarried Virginia Foster of Alfred. He received an honorary doctorate in professional ceramic engineering in 1950. He died in Alfred, July 19, 1973.

Lois Elizabeth BOREN, 1894-1979

Lois was born in Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co., PA, June 23, 1894, to Addison Boren and Bertha Jane Linhart, both of families that had been in western Pennsylvania for several generations. The family joined the Unitarian church, after a disagreement with the Presbyterian minister over Addison's reading Darwin. Lois attended Pittsburgh Central High School and a secretarial school. In 1914, she married Samuel Ray Scholes, an engineer from Wisconsin. They had four children: Lois Ann, Samuel, Addison, and James. Lois took voice lessons while the family was living in Columbus, OH. She later became a choir director of a Methodist church in Moundsville, WV, and when the family moved to Alfred, worked as a choir director at two churches there.   She died in Alfred, NY, July 9, 1979.

Ellen was born 18 December 1887, in Chicago, Cook Co., IL.  Her parents, August Philip Boring and Sanda Stenberg, were both born in Sweden and moved to Chicago in 1886 or 1887.  She married Alexander Henderson in 1908.  They had two children, Eleanor Boring and Ronald Athol.  She died at the age of thirty two, January 27, 1920, in Moline, Rock Island Co., IL.

Rachel May BURDICK, 1895-1945

Rachel was born May 28, 1895, in Brookfield, Madison Co., NY, the youngest of four girls. Her father, Clayton, was a Seventh Day Baptist minister.  The family later moved to Westerly, RI, where Clayton was a pastor for 26 years.  Rachel's mother, Harriet or Hattie Eloise Crandall, died in Westerly when Rachel was fourteen. She graduated from Alfred University in 1915 with a Bachelors of Philosophy.   In 1918, she married Leon Bassett.  She died of breast cancer when she was forty nine, the same illness that caused the death of her mother and sisters.

Alexander was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, March 30, 1874.  When Alexander was three, his mother Elizabeth died from an internal abscess formed after childbirth, and the family left Scotland for the U. S. a few years later.  They lived on a farm in Iowa, and then moved to Chicago, IL by 1893.  In 1902, Alexander graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Arts. Alexander married Ellen Boring of Chicago when he was thirty four. Alexander worked at a variety of jobs: he was a traveling wholesale dry-goods salesman for a firm called Butler Brothers, and in 1913-1914, he opened a dry goods store of his own in Portland, Oregon.  This apparently did not work out, and the family moved back to Illinois. He worked at the Rock Island Arsenal, and later for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms during Prohibition.    Alexander's wife Ellen died in 1920.  With the help of Ellen's sisters Ruth and Emmy Lou, he raised his two children.  He later remarried Evalyn Warner.  He died in Canton, IL, on October 20, 1957.

Samuel Ray SCHOLES, 1884-1974 

Samuel Ray (often called Ray) was born January 22, 1884 in Marquette, Green Lake Co., WI, to Samuel Scholes, a blacksmith, and Harriet Mozley.  He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin and graduated in 1905.   Six years later, he received his PhD. in chemistry from Yale University.  He was interested in the making of glass and worked for glass companies after graduating.   When he was working for a company in Pittsburgh, he met Lois Boren.  They were married in April of 1914.  In 1932, he came to Alfred University in Alfred, NY, where he founded the glass technology department.  Ray had a wide range of interests, including fudge making, coaching football, and writing.  He died August 16, 1974. 

Elizabeth SCHRIBER, 1884-1979 

Elizabeth was born November 12, 1884 in Franklin Grove, IL, to Charles Schriber and Elizabeth Joss, who were both born in Switzerland.  She attended Northwestern University, graduating in 1907.  She was a high school math teacher in Sycamore, IL until her marriage to Harold Thrall, a Methodist minister, in 1911.  They had four children: Charles Frankie, Elizabeth Rose, Miriam Ruth, and Harold James.  Elizabeth died in Urbana, IL, July 9, 1979.

Harold Leonidas THRALL, 1885-1966 

Harold was born November 13, 1885 in Metropolis, IL.  His father and mother were both Methodists who graduated from McKendree College in St. Clair Co., IL.  His father, Leonidas, became a Methodist minister, and his mother, Edith, was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Women's Foreign Missionary Society. Harold also attended McKendree College, graduating in 1905.   Like his father, he became a Methodist minister, and served many congregations in southern and central Illinois.  He died in Galva, IL, April 8, 1966.