- William Henry Ashley
William Henry Ashley (1778,
Powhatan County , Va –March 26 ,1838 , Boonville, Mo) was a pioneering fur trader, entrepreneur, and politician. Though a native ofVirginia , Ashley had already moved toSt. Genevieve in what was then called Louisiana, when it was purchased by theUnited States fromFrance in 1803. That land, later known asMissouri , became Ashley's home for most of his adult life. Ashley moved to St. Louis around 1808 and became a Brigadier General in theMissouri Militia during theWar of 1812 . Before the war he did some real estate speculation and earned a small fortune manufacturinggunpowder from a lode of saltpeter mined in a cave near the headwaters of Missouri's Current river. When Missouri was admitted to the Union Ashley was elected its first Lieutenant Governor, serving from 1820 to 1824.Pioneering the fur trade
In 1822 Ashley and business partner Andrew Henry -- a bullet maker whom he met through his gunpowder business -- posted famous advertisements in St. Louis newspapers seeking one hundred "enterprising young men . . . to ascend the river Missouri to its source, there to be employed for one, two, or three years." The men who responded to this call became known as "
Ashley's Hundred ." Between 1822 and 1825, Ashley and Henry'sRocky Mountain Fur Company , did several large scale fur trapping expeditions in the mountain west. Ashley's men are officially credited with the American discovery ofSouth Pass in the winter of 1824. Ashley devised therendezvous system in which trappers, Indians and traders would meet annually in a predetermined location to exchange furs, goods and money. His innovations in the fur trade earned Ashley a great deal of money and recognition, and helped open the western part of the continent to American expansion.In 1826, he lead an expedition into the
Salt Lake valley. South of theGreat Salt Lake , he discoveredUtah Lake , which he named Lake Ashley [cite book|title=History of Utah|last=Whitney|first=Orson Ferguson|publisher=G. Q. Cannon|year=1892|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Zs8BAAAAMAAJ|pages=293] . He established Fort Ashley on the banks to trade with the Indians. Over the next three years, the fort "collected over one hundred eighty thousand dollars worth of furs" [cite book|title=Eleven Years in the Rocky Mountains and a Life on the Frontier|last=Victor|first=Francis Fuller|publisher=R.W. Bliss|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2Q8TAAAAYAAJ|year=1877|pages=33] . In 1828 he explored present-day northernColorado , ascending theSouth Platte River to the base of theFront Range , then ascending theCache la Poudre River to theLaramie Plains and onward to the Green River.Ashley the Politician
In 1826 William H. Ashley sold the fur trading company to
Jedediah Smith and some of his other men, and devoted his energy to politics. As a member of the Jacksonian Party, he won election to theUnited States House of Representatives in 1831, 1832, and 1834. In 1836 he declined to run for a fourth term in Congress, and instead ran forGovernor of Missouri , losing badly. Many attribute his defeat to his increasingly pro-business stance in Congress, which alienated the rural Jacksonians. After the loss, he went back to making money on real estate, but his health declined rapidly and he died of pneumonia at the age of 54. William H. Ashley is buried atop an American Indianburial mound inCooper County , Missouri, overlooking theMissouri River .External links
* [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=A000315 biographic sketch at U.S. Congress website]
* [http://members.aol.com/cybergts/william_ashley.html Cook, William Earl "Entrepreneur, Mountain Man of the West and Politician"]
* [http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0804993.html "Ashley, William Henry" "The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed."]
* [http://www.nndb.com/people/835/000082589/ "William Henry Ashley" "Notable Names Database"]
* [http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/periodicals/wrv/V4/N3/sp71j.htm American National Biography - Ashley, William Henry]
References
* Morgan, Dale L., "The West of William H. Ashley (Denver, 1964) ISBN
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