Arthur Bryan and Sarah Robinson Bass Collection

Arthur Bryan Bass was born on February 5, 1894 in Tarboro, North Carolina to Henry Turner Bass and Adah Mayo Pippen Bass. He had at least four brothers, Spencer, Mabrey, Walter, and Charles. His father died when Arthur was nine, and the boys lived with their mother on Church Street in Tarboro. During his early twenties, Arthur worked in Albany, Georgia as a foreman for the Virginia Carolina Chemical Company, a company that specialized in agricultural chemicals. He fought in World War I, and by 1920, he had returned to Tarboro, making a living as a manager at a cotton warehouse.

He continued working at the cotton warehouse in the 1930s and he married Sarah Robinson. Sarah and Arthur had a daughter, Adah Mayfield Bass (b. March 29, 1932) and twin sons, Henry Turner Bass and John Lewis Bass, born on September 4, 1934.

The farm that concerns most of Arthur Bass’s diary is a group of farms that he purchased during the 1930s through 1950s. He did not live on the farm, but continued to live in Tarboro at 109 West Church Street, where he was born.

Arthur Bryan Bass wrote every day in his journal. He recorded the weather, what work was done on the farm, and events in his life. Like many farmers' diaries, it is very succinct but very informative. The diary was given to the N.C. Museum of the Coastal Plain by three of his grandchildren, Sarah Bass Pikett, Bryan Bass, and Leigh Bass Kokenes.

Below is a photograph taken in 1955 of Arthur Bryan Bass and his wife, Sarah Robinson, courtesy of his grandchildren.

The Bass family has generously donated a collection relating to a 510-acre farm operation in Edgecombe County. The papers include diaries from the 1940s-60s; plat maps, soil surveys, maps showing crops grown and yields, bills, receipts, checks, a few popular culture magazines from the 1940s and 1950s, as well as a cow tag and two tobacco warehouse baskets. Like many in the coastal plain, the farm was a diversified operation, raising cotton, tobacco, peanuts, corn, cattle and hogs.