Preceded by Robert H. Wiles Name Homer Aspinwall Role Politician | Profession Farmer | |
Residence Florence Township, Illinois, United States | ||
Homer Franklin Aspinwall (November 15, 1846 – February 23, 1919) was an American politician, farmer, and wartime sea captain. Aspinwall was born in Stephenson County, Illinois, where he spent most of his professional life farming. The success of his farm led to his election as a county supervisor, and then to the Illinois Senate. He served eight years, during which the outbreak of the Spanish–American War led to his appointment as captain of a transport ship.
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Early life
Homer Aspinwall was born to John Aspinwall (1807-1889) and Lucy Shumway (1813-1883) in Stephenson County, Illinois 7 miles (11 km) west of Freeport on November 15, 1846. His father had suffered "His parents being in poor circumstances, he was compelled to earn his own living at the early age of seven years."
He attended public school and Freeport High School while helping on the family farm, then worked as a clerk in a wholesaling store, returning to the family farm again after two years of clerking. Florence Township.
Ancestry
Aspinwall married Emma M. Sheetz on December 18, 1874. They had a son, John Ray, and a daughter, Grace. Through his American pioneer ancestor, Peter Aspinwall, who had arrived to the New World around 1630, Homer Aspinwall descended from Nicholas Haute and the Knights of the Shire of Kent, who became Members of Parliament and Sheriffs for successive generations of his ancestors. He also descended from another early American Great Migration Puritan, Peter Palfrey, the father of Peter Aspinwall's spouse, Remember Palfrey, to whom he was wed by Governor John Endicott in 1661, following the death of his first wife, Alice Sharp.
Peter Aspinwall and Remember Palfrey are also ancestors of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, making Homer F. Aspinwall a fifth cousin of the former US President. He is also a fifth cousin of Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau. "The Rebel" Thomas Wyatt and Winchester Rifle namesake Oliver Winchester are each a sixth cousin to Homer Aspinwall. (FDR is a fourth cousin to each of Winchester and Wyatt.)
Career
An advocate of modern farming machinery, Aspinwall successfully developed his farm and became a prominent local citizen.
Aspinwall was elected tax assessor for Florence Town and held a variety of other minor offices there. He later elected to the county board of supervisors, where he served a four-year term. Aspinwall was a delegate to the 1880 Republican National Convention, supporting former President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1892, Aspinwall was elected to the Illinois Senate as a Republican. He served two four-year terms in the legislature. In 1896, Aspinwall campaigned for William McKinley.
At the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898, Asprinwall helped to raise a regiment and offered to serve as lieutenant colonel. However, the unit was not deployed, and instead, McKinley appointed Aspwinwall a captain and assistant quartermaster. He was tasked with overseeing the SS Manitoba transport ship, formerly of the Atlantic Transport Line. The ship transferred 12,000 servicemen over the course of the conflict. With the war over, Aspinwall was mustered out in February 1899, returning to his final Senate term.
Legacy
Homer Aspinwall served for two years as president of the Northern Illinois Agricultural Association. A Methodist, Asprinwall was the secretary of the Freeport Methodist Camp-Meeting Association. He was active in Freemasonry and was a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.
Aspinwall died in Freeport on February 23, 1919, and was buried there in Oakland Cemetery.