Ashley, Chester

Born: 1790-06-01 Massachusetts

Died: 1848-04-29 Washington, D.C.

Ashley moved with his parents to Hudson, New York. He graduated from Williams College and from the Litchfield Law School. He earned admittance to the bar in 1817 and started a practice in Hudson. Ashley married Mary W. W. Eliot on July 24, 1821 in St. Genevieve, Missouri. Ashley moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, and became one of the founders of the town. He was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in November 1844, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of William S. Fulton. Ashley was reelected in 1846, and served until his death in 1848.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 592; U. M. Rose, "Chester Ashley," Publications of The Arkansas Historical Association 3 (1911), 47-73.