Statesmen, Scoundrels, and Eccentrics: A Gallery of Amazing Arkansans

Chester Ashley

Chester Ashley Chester Ashley was one of the great political titans of early Arkansas. His life in Arkansas was brief, but like many of his contemporaries, he lived it in an outsized way. Ashley was one of the most successful founding fathers of Arkansas. An early settler in territorial Arkansas, he practiced law with the firebrand Robert Crittenden,made a fortune as a land speculator, built a mansion, and died a U.S. senator. He was referred to as the “Talleyrand of Arkansas” in deference to his diplomatic skills. The thing that really makes Ashley interesting is his duality. He was rich and successful, but, like many of his contemporaries, Ashley was something of a rogue. Historians are challenged to interpret him neatly, though Michael B. Dougan has described Ashley as a “wily speculator and devious politician . . . this prince of speculators, whose land deals were both legendary and dubious.” There is undoubtedly more to his life than Dougan allows, but one would never describe Ashley as one dimensional. The legendary Little Rock lawyer and founder of the law firm that bears his name, U. M. Rose, wrote a biographical sketch of Ashley in  describing “a man of great breadth of view and versatility of mind” who succeeded due to “superior abilities, great industry, and wise foresight.” A definitive history of Ashley is yet to be written, but that is not due to a lack of an interesting subject. Born in  in Amherst, Massachusetts, the Ashley family moved to Hudson, New York, when Chester was only six. He grew up in Hudson, was educated at Williams College in Massachusetts, and then attended Litchfield Law School in Connecticut, graduating in . He was among the better educated of Arkansas’s political leaders of all eras. After briefly practicing law in Hudson, Ashley, like many young men of his era, moved to the western frontier, settling in southern Illinois. From there he moved to Missouri, but in  Ashley showed  up in Arkansas Territory.The following year,he married Mary Watkins Worthington Elliott of St. Genevieve, Missouri. Little Rock was a mere collection of log cabins when Ashley arrived on the scene.Arkansas Post, the territorial capital on the lower reaches of the Arkansas River, was not well suited as the seat of government because of frequent flooding. Little Rock was being considered as a new capital.The problem was that two sets of rivals claimed ownership of the “point of rocks,” as the area was commonly known. Ashley was the attorney for one set of claimants,the investors who based ownership on certificates issued by the federal government to compensate victims of the New Madrid earthquakes of –. The other claimants were led by William Russell, a famous St. Louis land speculator who held a preemption claim, which took precedence due to being based on actual settlement. The legal and political maneuvering was intense. Ownership of the site of Little Rock was finally reached in a compromise of November ,,withAshley signing on behalf of the New Madrid claimants and Russell acting for the preemptioners. Thus, in a very short time after his arrival, Chester Ashley went from hanging his shingle to owning a large part of the future capital of a new territory. Ashley rose quickly in business,political,and social circles.Historian Walter L. Brown has noted that as the best trained lawyer in early Arkansas, Ashley was known for being cool, unexcitable, and professionally aloof—yet thoroughly read in the law.As a young man,Ashley was tall and handsome, his blue eyes piercing. Photographs show he turned gray early and put on weight. Fellow lawyer Albert Pike thought Ashley too portly to deserve the title “Colonel,” which came from his early service in the militia. Ashley’s public record was severely damaged by being heavily involved in the great banking fiasco of the s. Ashley, along with his close allyWilliam E.Woodruff,owned stock in theArkansas State Bank, and Ashley served as a director. The State Bank, along with the Real Estate Bank,ultimately failed,with corruption being one obvious cause. Ashley’s reputation also suffered by being the attorney for John Bowie in a prominent land dispute and was indicted for suborning a jury. Ashley might have been the richest man in Little Rock before the Civil War. He built one of the grand homes of the state. Occupying a  ANTEBELLUM POLITICIANS whole block bounded by Markham, Second, Cumberland...