Mary Isabel Ellis ("Mibs") was born in New York City to Isabel Fitch Ellis and Wesley Ellis. She graduated from Kingston Academy in Kingston, New York in 1905. After teaching for a year in a one-room schoolhouse in Kripplebush, New York to help finance her college education, she entered Emerson College in 1906. Emerson was a three-year college at the time and she graduated in 1909, majoring in English and dramatics. She then taught at the Bloomsburg State Normal School in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania until marrying Austin Basten, in 1912. Austin Basten was a businessman who worked with various firms until starting his own business. The couple had three children: Louis Bevier, David Ellis,and Mary Esther. They lived in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Hartford, Connecticut and Indiana before retiring to Lynchburg, Virginia. Basten did some writing, including a brief account of having seen the Panama Canal under construction, and gave occasional talks on various topics; she was also active in local garden clubs. In 1972, the couple moved to their daughter's home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.
From the guide to the Mary Isabel Ellis Basten MS 665., 1837-2004, (Sophia Smith Collection)
