William Henry Ashley

Early life and ventures

Although born a native of Powhatan County, Virginia, William Ashley had already moved to Ste. Genevieve, in what was then a part of the Louisiana Territory, when it was purchased by the United States from France in 1803. On a portion of this land, later known as Missouri, Ashley made his 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 the Current river in Missouri. When Missouri was admitted to the Union, William Henry Ashley was elected its first Lieutenant Governor, serving, from 1820-1824, under Governor Alexander McNair. Ashley ran for governor of Missouri, in the August 1824 election, but was defeated.

Entry into the fur trade

In 1822, William Henry 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 Arikara Indians at their villages near the Grand River. Ashley reported twelve men killed and eleven wounded, of whom two died.

Later political career and death

In 1826, Ashley sold the fur trading company to a group including Jedediah Smith to focus on politics. As a member of the Jacksonian Party, Ashley 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, instead running unsuccessfully for Governor of Missouri. 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. On March 26, 1838, William Henry Ashley died of pneumonia, at the age of 58. Ashley was buried atop a Native American 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.