Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 3rd ed., 1886. Warren County.

HIRAM S. BASHAM was born in Breckinridge County, Ky., September 30, 1824. His father, Bartlett Basham, was born in Bedford County, Va., in 1774, and when a boy came to Kentucky with his parents. He served as a soldier in the Seminole war, and afterward engaged in agricultural
pursuits in connection with the business of "ginning" cotton. He was twice married; first, in 1798, to Miss Rachel Mayberry, who died in 1821, leaving eleven children: George, Barbara, Polly, James H., Obadiah, Margaret, Elijah, Benajah, Rachel, Savanna and Allen. His
second marriage was with Miss Nicey Simmons, and occurred in 1822. At her death, April 8, 1873, she left ten children, of which number Hiram S. is the eldest; after him were born Loretta, Lucinda, Napoleon, Carroll, Elihu, Nancy, Margaret, Samuel and Candace. Obadiah Basham,
the father of Bartlett, was a native of Virginia and a veteran in the war of the Revolution, in which he served five years, and some time after removed to Kentucky and located in Breckinridge County, where he continued to reside until his death, about the year 1850. Hiram S.
Basham was born and reared on a farm, where he remained the support of his parents until their deaths. Being the eldest son the business of the farm devolved upon him to such an extent that he had very few opportunities of attending school, and his education is almost entirely
practical. He is self-made, having started in life without any capital except that vested in health, strength and resolution. He is now the proprietor of a farm of 140 acres of good land, that produces abundant crops of grain and tobacco. Mr. Basham attributes much of is success in
life to the assistance and management of his wife, whom he married August 30, 1855. She was a Miss Paradine Taylor, a daughter of Joseph and Polly (Hudnall) Taylor. To Mr. Basham and his wife have been born seven sons - Lazarus P., Philander J., Napoleon C., Hiram A., Bartlett W., Elijah and Elihu - and two daughters - Mattie and Mary T. Mr.
Basham is a Master Mason in Elijah Upton Lodge, No. 377, and he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Politically he is a Republican. He enlisted in the Sixteenth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry October 23, 1864, and after participating in the engagements at Fort Fisher, Fort Anderson and Wilmington, received an honorable discharge from the United States service June 10, 1865.