Colonel Bass was born on a farm near Salem, Kentucky, on January 6, 1827. He was descended from a line of early settlers in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Kentucky. In 1805, at the age of three, Sion’s father had been taken by his parents from Virginia to the wilderness of Christian County, Kentucky. Sion’s mother, Jane Todd Bass, who had come with her family from Charleston, South Carolina, was also an early pioneer in the bluegrass country. In Kentucky, Sion’s father acquired large areas of farmland and became prominent in local affairs. The young Sion enjoyed a normal, happy childhood with his brothers, John and Jerden, and his sister, Emily Jane. The children helped to till the fields and performed their daily household chores. Their most exciting diversions were holiday journeys to nearby Paducah where they could watch the barges and steamboats on the Ohio and Tennessee rivers. The children were educated in the schools of Kentucky. Sion, the eldest, later attended Bartlett’s College of Commerce in Cincinnati. After his graduation in February, 1849, Sion followed his mother’s advice and came to Fort Wayne. Jane Bass believed that Fort Wayne, already a thriving town, would offer good business opportunities for her sons because of its favorable location at the confluence of the three rivers. Chicago, she believed, would soon grow too large. In Fort Wayne, Sion found employment with the great western fur traders, Ewing, Chute, and Company, and soon became a trusted confidential agent of the firm. In this position, he became acquainted at first hand with the dangers and privations of frontier life. Very little material can be found concerning his private life in Fort Wayne. It is recorded, however, that he married Eliza Bayles, and that they were the parents of two daughters, Georgia and Beverly. And we do know that the young man was a devout member of the Episcopal Church. In 1853 Sion became a member of Jones, Bass, and Company, which manufactured iron products. In 1857 the firm was sold to the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad. In September of the same year, Sion Bass formed a partnership with William H. Jones. The partners established a new foundry and machine shop along the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad and the Wabash Railroad. In 1858 a partnership, which had been formed by Edward Force and Sion’s brother John, leased the plant. And the following year, the plant was sold to the Fort Wayne Machine Works. The activities of Sion Bass cannot be traced from the completion of the sale negotiations until the onset of the War Between the States.