Calvin Perry Bascom, general manager for the business conducted under the name of the Fayette R. Plumb Company, Incorporated, of St. Louis, was born in Ellsworth, Kansas, October 17, 1876. His father, Daniel Craig Bascom, a native of the state of New York, removed to Kansas in 1868 and there engaged in ranching for a number of years, contributing to the early development and progress of that district. He afterward returned to the Empire state, taking up his abode in Rochester, and has now passed away. In early manhood he wedded Agnes Johnson, a native of Vermont, their marriage, however, being celebrated in Ellsworth, Kansas, in 1873. Mrs. Bascom is still living and now makes her home in Rochester, New York. Their family numbers two sons and two daughters.
The second eldest of the family is Calvin Perry Bascom, who was educated in the public and high schools of Rochester and also attended the Rochester University and the New York Trade School. He then started with his father in the heating and plumbing business in which he continued for four years, but desirous of improving his education and still further to qualify for the practical and responsible duties of business life he went to Boston where he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was there graduated in 1904 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He next accepted a position with the Fayette R. Plumb Company, Incorporated, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in October, 1904. He had charge of manufacturing there for six years and on the expiration of that period came to St. Louis in 1910. Here he designed and superintended the construction of their plant and when it was put in operation he was made general manager thereof. This company manufactures all kinds of hatchets, axes, and hammers, and during the war was engaged in the manufacture of bayonets for Russian and Serbian armies and also entrenching implements, scabbards parts and other supplies for the United States government. He likewise designed the Bola knife known as pattern 1917, C. T., which was the type used almost exclusively by the American troops. His factory also manufactured the Bola knife but could not supply the demand and had to turn orders over to other factories to be filled. Through the manufacture of the design which he perfected the government was saved several million dollars. The plant is now operated along the usual line of its manufactured products and its output is extensive, the business reaching a most gratifying annual figure.
In 1909, in New York city, Mr. Bascom was united in marriage to Miss Virginia Clark, a daughter of William Clark of Camden, New Jersey, and they have become parents of two sons: William R. and John Calvin.
Mr. Bascom is a republican in his political views and has always been a most loyal and progressive citizen. He represents one of the old American families, his ancestry on this side of the Atlantic being traced back to the year 1634. He has ever stood for those things which are essential in modern citizenship and which are of real worth to the community and commonwealth. He belongs to the Central Presbyterian church and has membership in the Triple A Club, the University Club, the St. Louis Tennis Association of which he is president, the Bowling Club of which he is a director, the St. Louis Engineers Club and Tuscan Lodge, A. F. & A. M., Missouri Consistory, No. 1, Scottish Rite and Moolah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is most faithful to any cause which he espouses and is actuated by a spirit of progressiveness in all that he undertakes. He is greatly interested in bowling and tennis and the firm with which he is connected has provided athletic grounds for the use of its employees.