Edgar Webb Bassick (1872-1948)

He was born in a one-room log cabin in Custer County, Colorado. His father struggled to feed his family as he prospected for gold, but in 1877 everything changed. His father struck gold, literally, and from then on the family's fortunes never looked back. Moving to Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1880, his parents bought P.T. Barnum's not-so-old mansion, Lindencroft. Edgar Bassick became Chairman of the People’s Savings Bank at Bridgeport and President of the Bassick Company - the world's largest producers of furniture and automobile hardware. In 1918, the Bassick Company was delivering 50,000 hand grenades a day to the U.S. Government and in 1929 Bassick paid out wages and salaries totalling $2-million, nearly all of which went to residents of Bridgeport. In 1924, he donated his parents' 6-acre Lindencroft estate on Fairfield Avenue to the city and built the Bassick High School as a gift to the community. He married Grace Elizabeth Morris and from 1928 they lived at The Oaks in Fairfield.