 |
History and Government—Congressional Biographies—MissouriWilliam Henry ASHLEY
(1778-1838)
ASHLEY, William Henry, a
Representative from Missouri; born in Powhatan County, Va., in
1778; attended the common schools; moved to St. Genevieve, Mo.
(then Upper Louisiana), in 1803; engaged in the manufacture of
saltpeter; became a merchant and later a surveyor; moved to St.
Louis, Mo., in 1808; brigadier general of militia during the War of
1812; traded with the Indians and dealt in furs; unsuccessful
candidate for governor in 1824; founded an organization which in
1830 became the Rocky Mountain Fur Co., and conducted trading and
exploring expeditions to the headwaters of the Missouri River;
elected as the first Lieutenant Governor of Missouri and served
from 1820 to 1824; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-second
Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Spencer D.
Pettis; reelected to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses
and served from October 31, 1831, to March 3, 1837; did not seek
renomination in 1836 but was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor
of Missouri in 1836; died near Boonville, Mo., March 26, 1838;
interment in an Indian mound overlooking the Missouri River, near
his home, on the Lamine River, in Cooper County, Mo.
Bibliography
Clokey, Richard M. William H. Ashley: Enterprise and Politics in
the Trans-Mississippi. 1980. Reprint, West Norman: University
of Oklahoma Press, 1990.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
Related Links
|
24 X 7
Private Tutor
|
24 x 7 Tutor Availability |
|
|
Unlimited Online Tutoring |
|
|
1-on-1 Tutoring |
|
