Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/155

ASHLEY.ASPINWALL. 1844 he was elected United states senator, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator W.S. Fulton, and in 1846 was re-elected for six years. He died in Washington, D.C. April 29, 1848. ASHLEY, James Monroe, representative, was born near Pittsburg, Pa., Nov. 14, 1824. He was self-educated, and when only fifteen years old left home and became a clerk on the store-boats of the Ohio and Mississippi, later entering a printing office at Portsmouth, Ohio, taking editorial charge first of the Despatch and later of the Democrat. In 1849 he was admitted to the Ohio bar. He went into the business of boat-building, at the same time continuing his connection with the press. Removing to Toledo, Ohio, he became a wholesale druggist. In 1858 he was elected representative to the 36th congress, serving as a member of the committee on territories, and on his re-election to the 37th congress he became chairman of that committee, holding that position during the 38th and 89th congresses, and thus supervising the organization of Arizona, Idaho, and Montana territories. He was re-elected to the 40th congress, and was nominated to the 41st, but was defeated in the election. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists' convention of 1866. In 1869 he was governor of Montana, and was later lieutenant-governor of Ohio. For several years he was president of the Toledo and Ann Arbor railroad company, besides being interested in manufactories. He died Sept. 16, 1896. ASHLEY, John Pritchard, educator, was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, April 14, 1862. He removed to Brooklyn, N.Y., was graduated at the Ohio Wesleyan university in 1890 and took post-graduate courses at Boston university and at the universities of Jena, Berlin, Leipzig and Oxford in Europe, 1890-95. He was president and professor of philosophy at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary 1895-98 ; president of the Michigan College association, 1898-'99; and of Albion college, Albion, Mich., from 1899. He wrote and lectured on various subjects. ASHLEY, Willam H., representative, was born in Powhatan county, Va., about 1778. He was educated in the schools of Virginia and removed to Missouri in 1808, where he settled near the lead mines and was appointed a brigadier-general of militia. He engaged successfully in trade with the Indians. When Missouri became a state in 1820 General Ashley was elected the first lieutenant-governor. He was a representative in the 22d, 23d and 24th congresses, 1831-'37. He died near Boonesville, Mo., March 26, 1838. ASHMUN, Eli Porter, senator, was born in Blandford, Mass., June 24, 1770. He received a classical education, and for some years he practised law in his native town, whence he was sent several times to the house of representatives of Massachusetts and to the state senate. In 1816 he was elected to the United States senate, from which body he resigned in 1818. He received degrees (A.M.) from Middlebury college, 1807, and Harvard in 1809. He died May 10, 1819. ASHMUN, George, representative, was born in Blandford, Mass., Dec. 25, 1804. A few years after his graduation from Yale college in 1823, he went to Springfield, Mass., where he practised law, gaining considerable prominence in his profession. In 1833 he was elected to the state legislature, serving four terms in the house of representatives, — one term as its speaker, — and two terms in the senate. He was elected a representative to the 29th Congress in 1845, where by re-elections he remained until 1851. While in Congress he made a reply to the attack of C. J. Ingersoll upon Daniel Webster, 1846; a speech on the Mexican war, 1847; and speeches on the revolution in France, and on the slavery questions, 1850. He was a director of the Union Pacific railroad. He died July 17, 1870, ASHMUN, Jehudi, missionary, was born in Champlain, N.Y., April 7, 1794. In 1816 he was graduated from the University of Vermont, followed a course of study preparatory to entering the Congregational ministry, and was appointed a professor in the Bangor (Me.) Theological seminary. Removing to Washington, D.C, he joined the Episcopal church, and edited a church magazine called the Theological Repertory. He was made agent of the colonization society, endeavoring to establish a colony of freedmen on the western coast of Africa. In 1822 he went with a body of freed negroes to Liberia, where, after several fierce attacks from the savages, he made friends with the principal chiefs, and successfully established the colony. He labored bravely and ably there for six years, and was then obliged to return to America on account of ill-health. He published Memoirs of Samuel Bacon, and contributed many articles to the African Repository. In 1835 R.R. Gurley published a memoir of his life. He died Aug. 25, 1828. ASPINWALL, William H., merchant, was born in New York city, Dec. 16, 1807. He served his mercantile apprenticeship with his uncles, G. G. & S. Howland, and in 1837 became a member of the newly organized house of Howland & Aspinwall, doing a large trade in the Mediterranean and Pacific. He retired from active participation in the firm's affairs in 1850, and instituted a steamship line between the Isthmus of Panama and California, and subsequently obtained from New Granada a concession for a railroad across the Isthmus, which was opened on February 17, 1855. The eastern terminus of the railroad was for a time called Aspinwall. Mr. Aspinwall resigned the presidency of the Pacific mail steamship company in 1858, and travelled in Europe,