The Lewis Dent Home / “The Long House”

Lewis Dent and his wife and family arrived in Knights Ferry in 1851 and built the first home in Knights Ferry. Julia (Lewis’ sister), George and Captain John Dent (John’s home was on the Old Canyon Rd.) married Ulysses S. Grant in 1848. John and Ulysses were classmates at West Point Military Academy. While stationed in Eureka and Benicia CA, Captain Grant visited his brother-in-law twice in 1852 and again in 1854. This was before he became famous as a Civil War general and then the eighteenth President of the United States. This home was later owned by Louis Bassee, a lawyer, who opened a law school in his home. Mrs. Bassee operated a private school for the children of its more affluent citizens. It was sold in 188 to Mr. Lodtman. For the next fifty years it was to be the home of Chalres and Lena Kennedy.