[3] He prepared at Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale University in 1869 and was a member of Skull and Bones.

[4]: 489 Following his graduation from Yale, he began the study of law in Buffalo with Lanning, Cleveland & Folsom.

[5] Bissell entered Democratic Party politics as a candidate for presidential elector in 1888.

[7] Apgar's Corners in Tewksbury Township, New Jersey, was renamed in 1893 to the village of Bissell in an effort to sway him into ordering that a post office be created in the settlement.

[9] On February 6, 1890, Bissell married Louise Fowler Sturges (1866–1921) of Geneva, New York.