Asa H. Willie, Sr. was born on October 11, 1829, in Washington, Georgia, the son of James Willie, Sr. , a merchant and farmer of influence, a native of Vermont, and Caroline Emily. Willie, Sr. was left fatherless at the age of four, his training devolving upon his mother, a woman of culture and determination of character.
He attended an academy at Washington, Georgia, and later another at Powelton, Georgia. In 1846, in company with his older brother, James Willie, Jr. he moved to Texas and took up residence with his maternal uncle, Dr. Asa Hoxie, at Independence.
A year or so later he began studying law with his brother at Brenham.
In 1849 he was admitted to the bar, before he had attained the age of twenty-one, by a special act of the legislature. He began the practice of the law at Brenham in partnership with his brother.
In 1852 he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the district attorney's office, and was later elected to that office for a two-year term. In 1857 he removed to Austin to assist his brother in his duties as attorney general, while the latter devoted his energies to indexing and superintending the printing of the criminal and penal codes of the state, which he had compiled and the legislature had adopted in July 1856.
A year later Asa removed to Marshall, Texas, and became a partner of his brother-in-law, a partnership that continued, except for the period covered by the Civil War, until 1866.
With the outbreak of the Civil War he offered his services to the Confederacy and was placed on the staff of Gen. John Gregg. After the latter's death he saw service under Generals Pemberton, Johnson, Bragg, and Hardee, taking part, among others, in the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. During the last year of the war he had charge of the exportation of cotton from San Antonio.
Upon the reorganization of the state government in 1866, he was elected to the supreme court for a term of nine years, but fifteen months later he was removed, along with Gov. J. W. Throckmorton and all other members of the state government, by Gen. Charles Griffin, military commander of Texas.
In 1872 he was elected congressman-at-large from Texas (March 4, 1873 - March 3, 1875), but refused to stand for reelection. He served as city attorney of Galveston in 1875 - 1876.
In 1882 he was elected chief justice of the supreme court of Texas by a very large vote. This position he resigned in 1888 to return to the practice of his profession in Galveston, where he died on March 16, 1899.
Asa H. Willie, Sr. was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Texas's At-Large district.
On October 20, 1859, Asa Hoxie Willie, Sr. married Bettie Johnson, by whom he had ten children.
