User:Lady mcse/sandbox

Thomas Bass (January 5, 1859 -- November 20, 1934) was born as a slave and died as a world renowned horse trainer, horse trader, and inventor of equipment for more humane horse training methods. His skills and reputation earned him invitations to ride at world fairs and before presidents and royalty, in spite of the color of his skin, which would normally bar him from riding in many of these events.

Bass was born in Mexico, Missouri on a plantation owned by Eli E. Bass. His mother was a slave girl by the name of Cornelia Gray, and his father was the plantation owner’s son, William Hayden Bass. Tom lived and worked in Mexico, MO for most of his life.

Early Life
Presley Gray, Tom’s grandfather on his mother’s side, was a coachman for the plantation, and Tom learned a great deal about horses from him. By the time Tom was a teenager, he was known for his ability to work with stubborn or “dangerous” horses, and he later turned this skill into a career. He started out in 1878 working as a coachman for a hotel, and later as trainer, rider, and purchasing adviser for a horse trading company, Clark & Potts. By the age of 24, Thomas Bass was successful enough at his trade, that he was able to purchase 4 acres in order to start his own business.

Marriage and Family
Angie Jewel was married to Tom Bass on September 20, 1882. They had one son, Inman, who lived from 1897 to 1932.

Prior to meeting Angie Jewel, Tom also fathered twins with a woman by the name of Mimi Johnson, whom he did not marry.

Inventions
Many of the training methods Tom learned as a boy were ones he considered too severe. His training methods were described as making friends with the horse and getting the horse to want to work with him rather than forcing it into a performance. As a result, Tom had a blacksmith create a different style of bit that was less harsh on the mouth. When shown to Joseph Potts, he was so impressed with it, that he fronted the money for Tom to have it manufactured. Tom never had it patented, and only sold it for the cost of manufacture, saying that he made it for the horse, not to make money from it

Math and accounting were a difficulty for Tom. Buyers and sellers came to know that he would often delay a purchase decision considerably after hearing numbers, sometimes returning at a future date to complete a sale. His wife Angie helped him with the business as much as she could, but he often had to judge on the spot whether he would be making money on a deal, or losing it, or breaking even. As a result, he developed a corn kernel abacus method of accounting. Those long breaks between hearing numbers and finalizing a sale frequently involved him going someplace private, and using kernels of corn he had stored in his pocket to represent the dollar amounts in question, adding and removing kernels in order to calculate his profit or loss.