William Right (Buck) Basden was born near Montgomery, Ala., May 12, 1829 to Jesse Basden and his wife, Mary (Powell) Basden. Jesse Basden was born near Raleigh, N.C. about 1789 end died in Alabama in 1833. Mary (Powell) Basden was born about 1791. With her sons, William Right, John, and Jesse Fowell Basden, Mary came to Arkansas in the year 1845. Her brother-in-law, William Basden, a wheel-wright, also accompanied them. They settled on a homestead near Sulphur Springs, Columbia County.

 

     William Right Basden's brother, John, served through the Civil War. He died of yellow fever in New Orleans, never having married.  His brother, Jesse Powell Basden married Nellie Smith in Columbia County, Arkansas, to which union one daughter, Mollie, was born. While serving in the Civil War, he contracted measles from which disease he died. William Right’s sisters married in Alabama and did not come to Arkansas with their mother, but at later dates. They were: Annie who married Charles Hodge, Zelpha who married Thomas Smyth, and Sarah who married Thomas McLure. The McLure family came to Arkansas in the year 1871.

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     William was married in Ouachita County, Arkansas in December of 1850 to Rebecca Abigail Hixon who was born in Alabama May 1, 1834 and died in Arkansas Oct. 10, 1883. Her father was John Hixon, born in Alabama about 1801 and died in Columbia County, Arkansas about 1856, having come to the state in 1846. Her mother was Cynthia (Smyth) Hixon who was born in South Carolina in 1810 and died in 1885.

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     William engaged in farming before the Civil War. At the outbreak of the War, he was made Captain of his company which was made up at Sulphur Springs. After the Civil War, he returned to farming and also ran a mercantile business. He served as Representative of Nevada County in the Arkansas Legislature from 1870-1871. He bought a homestead six miles west of Rosston in the year 1869 and was a charter member of the Holly Springs church (Methodist) and served as an official of the church for many years. He was always an outstanding figure in every worthy enterprise of his church and community. In 1889 he moved his family to Hope, Arkansas. From there he moved to Wortham, Texas. He died at Sumner, Texas on April 9, 1908. His body was brought to Nevada County, Arkansas and buried at Mount Olive Cemetery near Rosston.

 

     Children born to William Right Basden and his wife, Rebecca Basden:

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Mary Jane, b. Feb. 12, 1852, mar. James Louis Satterwhite, Dec. 13, 1868

Sarah Francis, b. April 25, 1857, mar. James H. Bennett Nov. 25, 1878

John Hixon, b. Sept 23, 1864, Unmarried, died in 1916

Joseph Jewell, b. May 10, 1872, mar. Fleda Hall, Sumner, Tex. in 1901

 Jannie Edna, b. Dec. 19, 1874, mar. William Henry Bounds, Nov. 1, 1893 in Wortham, Texas

There were several children who died before reaching maturity whose names are unknown

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 Arranged from data sent May 1940 by Mary Jane (Basden) Satterwhite and Jannie Edna (Basden) Bounds, daughters of William.