CLARKE, Mrs. Mary Bassett, born in Independence, N. Y., 18th November, 1831. She is the daughter of John C. Bassett. a well-to-do farmer of western New York, and Martha St. John Bassett, both persons of education and refinement. She was the seventh in a family of twelve children who lived to maturity. She was educated in Alfred University. Although ill-health limited her opportunities, she was graduated from the university in 1857. At the age of fifteen she commenced to write for publication, under the pen-name "Ida Fairfield," in the "Flag of Our Union." With some interruption by ill-health, she continued many
MARY BASSETT CLARKE.
years to be a contributor to that paper, to the "Rural New Yorker" and to local papers and periodicals. She became the wife of William L. Clarke on 8th September, 1859, and removed to Ashaway, R. I., which place has since been her home. For several years her writings, both prose and verse, have been principally given to periodicals issued by the Seventh-Day Baptists, of which sect she is a member.