Thomas Samuel Ashe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thomas Samuel Ashe (19 July 1812 – 4 February 1887) was a U.S. Congressman from North Carolina between 1873 and 1877. He had previously served in the Confederate Congress.
Born in Hawfields, Orange County, North Carolina, Ashe attended Bingham's Academy in Hillsborough, then the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1832. He was admitted to the bar in 1834 and began to practice law in Wadesboro in 1835.
In 1842, Ashe was elected to a single term in the North Carolina House of Commons, from 1847 to 1851 he was solicitor of the fifth judicial district of North Carolina, and in 1854, he served in the North Carolina Senate.
During the American Civil War, Ashe served in the Confederate House of Representatives from 1861 to 1864, and was elected to the Confederate Senate in 1864, but the war concluded before he was able to serve.
In 1866, Ashe was state counselor for North Carolina, and in 1868, he ran unsuccessfully for Governor. He was elected for two terms in the United States House of Representatives, serving from March 4, 1873 to March 3, 1877. Although he chose not to run again in 1876, he was elected an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1878 and re-elected in 1886. Ashe was still serving on the court at the time of the death in Wadesboro in 1887.
Thomas Samuel Ashe was the cousin of fellow Congressmen John Baptista Ashe and William Shepperd Ashe.
