300 Summit St, Hartford, CT 06106, United States
Ashe attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
300 Summit St, Hartford, CT 06106, United States
Ashe attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
William Shepperd was born on September 14, 1814, in Rocky Point, North Carolina, United States. He was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Shepperd Ashe. His parents were both members of prominent planting families, and grandson of Samuel Ashe, governor of North Carolina and judge.
Ashe attended school in Fayetteville and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
William Shepperd Ashe engaged in rice cultivation, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1836 and commenced the practice of law in New Hanover County, North Carolina. He was a member of the North Carolina Senate from 1846-1848.
In 1849, he was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-first, Thirty-second and Thirty-third Congresses, serving until 1855. Not a candidate for re-nomination, he was again a member of the North Carolina Senate from 1859 to 1861 and was a member of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention in 1861.
During the Civil War, he served in the Confederate Army as a Major, in charge of all transportation from the South to Virginia. He also was president of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad Company until death being killed in a railroad accident on his 48th birthday.
William Shepperd Ashe was a Democratic United States Representative from North Carolina.
Despite Ashe's political career, he was best known as the "father of the North Carolina railroad." Mainly through his influence, this railroad ultimately materialized in the North Carolina Railroad, despite the advocacy of other routes by such distinguished figures as governors John M. Morehead and William A. Graham.
William was a deeply religious Episcopalian.
Ashe was a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson, and in 1844 he was a presidential elector on the Polk ticket. He was known as an ultra-Southern Democrat and supporter of internal improvements.
William married Sarah Ann Green of Brunswick County in January 1836. The couple had four children.
1763-1835
1772-1854
1816-1863
1807-1853
1809-1838
1811-1830
1815-1859
1816-1885
1823-1871
1824-1901
1831-1868
1840-1938
1841-1865
1856-1950
William Ashe was asked in the summer of 1861 by President Jefferson Davis, a long-time friend, to assume control of the Confederate government's transportation between New Orleans and Richmond.
