ASHE, William Shepperd, (brother of John Baptista Ashe of Tennessee, nephew of John Baptista Ashe of North Carolina and cousin of Thomas Samuel Ashe), a Representative from North Carolina; born in Rocky Point, N.C., September 14, 1814; attended school at Fayetteville, N.C., and pursued classical studies in Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.; engaged in the cultivation of rice; studied law; was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1836 and commenced the practice of law in New Hanover County, N.C., the same year; presidential elector of the Democratic ticket in 1844; member of the North Carolina senate 1846-1848; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-first, Thirty-second, and Thirty-third Congresses (March 4, 1849-March 3, 1855); chairman, Committee on Elections (Thirty-second Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1854; served as president of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad Company from 1854 until his death; again a member of the North Carolina senate 1859-1861; delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Charleston in 1860; member of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention in 1861; during the Civil War served as a major in the Confederate Army, in charge of all transportation from the South to Virginia; killed in a railroad accident near Wilmington, N.C., September 14, 1862; interment in the family burying ground at ‘The Neck,’ near Ashton, Pender County, N.C.
(Source: Biographical Directory of the United States 1774-present.)
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