William Henry Ashley

For other people named William Ashley, see William Ashley (disambiguation).

William Henry Ashley (c. 1778 – March 26, 1838) was an American pioneering fur trader, entrepreneur, and politician.

Early ventures

Though a native of Virginia, Ashley had already moved to Ste. Genevieve in what was then called Louisiana, when it was purchased by the United States from France in 1803. That land, later known as Missouri, became Ashley's home for most of his adult life. Ashley moved to St. Louis around 1808 and became a Brigadier General in the Missouri Militia during the War of 1812. Before the war he did some real estate speculation and earned a small fortune manufacturing gunpowder 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 under Governor Alexander McNair. He ran for governor of Missouri in the August 1824 election, but was defeated.

Entry into the fur trade

Further information: North American 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's Rocky Mountain Fur Company, did several large scale fur trapping expeditions in the mountain west. Ashley's men are officially credited with the American discovery of South Pass in the winter of 1824. Ashley devised the rendezvous 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 1825, he led an expedition into the Salt Lake Valley. South of the Great Salt Lake, he discovered Utah Lake, which he named Lake Ashley. He established Fort Ashley on the banks to trade with the Indians. Over the next three years, the fort "collected over one-hundred-and-eighty thousand dollars' worth of furs". In late 1824 he explored present-day northern Colorado, ascending the South Platte River to the base of the Front Range, then ascending the Cache la Poudre River to the Laramie Plains and onward to the Green River.

On June 2, 1823, General Ashley was beaten by Indians with weapons he had sold them and lost eighteen of his men. Ashley reported twelve men killed and eleven wounded, of whom two died.

Political career

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 the United States House of Representatives in 1831, 1832, and 1834. In 1836 he declined to run for a fourth term in Congress, and instead ran for Governor 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 Indian burial mound in Cooper County, Missouri, overlooking the Missouri River.

William H. Ashley is the namesake of the small community of Ashley, Missouri. Also Ashley Falls and Ashley Creek in northeast Utah, and the Ashley National Forest.

References

• Morgan, Dale., The West of William H. Ashley, (Denver, 1964) ISBN

External links

• William Henry Ashley at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• "Ashley, William Henry" The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.
• "William Henry Ashley" Notable Names Database
• American National Biography - Ashley, William Henry

Political offices
Preceded by Position established	Lieutenant Governor of Missouri 1820–1824	Succeeded by Benjamin Harrison Reeves
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Spencer D. Pettis	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri's at-large congressional district 1831–1837	Succeeded by John Miller