There are none of the Ashmun name now in Blandford but there were three generations of the family of importance in the town's earlier history.
Justus Ashmun was the first to come to Blandford. In 1777, the approach of Burgoyne's army compelled residents of a village some forty or forty-five miles above Albany to evacuate. The village may have been Ft. Edward. Justus was one of this group.
He became proprietor of the Levi Pease corner tavern in Blandford, but not at first its owner. However on April 3, 1779, Robert Pease conveyed "a certain property near the Meeting House, being well known by the name of Pease Tavern and being part of the said farm". The purchase price was 1200 pounds, which was a considerable sum at that time but the inn was well known and so was valuable.
The corner tavern was located at or near a cross roads in the center of town. The present North Street continued south into Granville and what is now Route 23 ran east and west thru the town to western Massachusetts. Consequently the tavern was a most convenient stopping place for many travelers. Also, some cold March town meetings opened in the old meeting house and were adjourned to "Landlord Ashmuns" house where there was warmth and refreshment. At times, Ashmun was moderator of town meetings. Many were the "vandues" held at the tavern as attested by land records in the Springfield Registry of Deeds.
"Justis Arshmun" was appointed one of Blandford's Committee of Inspection and Safety on April 3, 1778. He held the same office in 1779 and 1780. In 1779, he was chosen "to Represent the Town in a State Convention to be held at Concord the fourteenth Day of July in Order to put a stop to the further Depreciation of Our Currency."
In 1782, he was one of a committee to supply the pulpit, as at the time there was no permanent minister. The same year, he was one of a group to number and estimate the pews in the meeting house when it had been voted to seat the meeting house according to age, pay, and dignity.
Justus Ashmun's fine qualities must have been very evident soon after he came to Blandford to have been entrusted with so much in a short time.
His family was large. Administration papers for his estate list his wife, Keziah, four sons and four daughters. Of these, Eli P. Ashmun claims our attention. He was born June 24, 1770 before the family came to Blandford. Judge Theodore Sedgwick of Stockbridge encouraged Eli to become a lawyer and he entered Sedgwick's office for a five year period of study, which he completed in four years. He purchased land in Blandford at what is now the corner of Main Street and Russell Road and erected a house where he practiced law. The fine old house was torn down in comparatively recent years to make way for a filling station, more is the pity.
In 1807, Eli removed to Northampton. After leaving Blandford, Eli served in both the Massachusetts House of Representatives and in the Senate. In 1816, after the resignation of Mr. Gore of the U.S. Senate, he performed the duties of that office for two years. He died May 10, 1819, in his 49th year.
Eli P. Ashmun's eldest son was John Hooker Ashmun, born in Blandford, July 3, 1800. He studied at Williams College for three years and was graduated at Harvard in 1818. He became head of the Northampton Law School. Later, he received an appointment as Royal Professor of Law in the Dane Law School of Harvard, the first to occupy the chair which was founded by Isaac Royall. His untimely death occurred April 1, 1833. Samuel Bowles, in the Springfield Republican said "He possessed one of the subtlest intellects that was ever devoted to the disentanglement of legal questions.
A younger brother of John Hooker Ashmun was George, born in Blandford, December 25, 1804. A graduate of Yale in 1823, he, too, be- came a lawyer and was admitted to the bar at Northampton. In 1830, he was in Springfield, in partnership with Reuben Atwater Chapman, a Russell native, who became Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
On his 50th birthday, George Ashmun, in response to a newspaper request for facts concerning his career, wrote the following rather non- committal account: "If it is important to the world, hereby know all men that I was born in Blandford (then in Hampshire County) just one half century ago this blessed day of Christ, December 25, 1804; that I passed four years at Yale in the supposed pursuit of what is commonly called an education, and graduated in 1823; that I was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives four times, namely, 1833, 1835, 1836, and 1841 and was Speaker of the House in the last named year; twice to the Massachusetts Senate, namely 1838 and 1839 and three times to the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, including six years from 1846 to 1851; since which time I have been in private life, where, if Providence prospers me, I intend to remain. Such is my public history during the 50 years that are completed today."
Between the above lines could be inserted much of interest. Ashmun, when in the State Legislature, worked for the continuation of the railroad from Springfield to Albany and was one of the state officials on the first train to run all the way from Boston to Albany, December 31, 1841. Candles made in the early morning in Boston were used to illuminate Albany for the occasion that night.
He was strongly anti-slavery. He associated with and was esteemed by leading men in the troubled times of the Civil War period. His practice took him often to Washington, where he met old congressional friends and made new ones in the group of men who became leaders of the new Republican party. They turned to him for permanent chairman of the Chicago convention of 1860. It was a feverish time and feelings ran high. A newspaper report of the day said, "In the chair, as in private councils attending the progress of the convention, he shone out with all the old power; his voice ran clear through the great Wigwam and stilled the passions of the excited thousands." Ashmun was spokesman of the committee that went to Abraham Lincoln's home officially to apprise him of his nomination for the office of President.
On the fateful night when President and Mrs. Lincoln were to leave the White House for Ford's Theater, Ashmun arrived with a friend. Lincoln invited them to be his guests at the theater but they had another engagement. Thereupon Lincoln wrote on a card, "Allow Mr. Ashmun and friend to come in at 9 A. M. tomorrow." Those were the last words that Lincoln wrote! This now in Library of Congress,
And so Blandford can be proud of the three generations of this family. They were able, intelligent, and possessed great integrity.
from Stone Walls Magazine, Winter, 1975
Justus Ashmun was the first to come to Blandford. In 1777, the approach of Burgoyne's army compelled residents of a village some forty or forty-five miles above Albany to evacuate. The village may have been Ft. Edward. Justus was one of this group.
He became proprietor of the Levi Pease corner tavern in Blandford, but not at first its owner. However on April 3, 1779, Robert Pease conveyed "a certain property near the Meeting House, being well known by the name of Pease Tavern and being part of the said farm". The purchase price was 1200 pounds, which was a considerable sum at that time but the inn was well known and so was valuable.
The corner tavern was located at or near a cross roads in the center of town. The present North Street continued south into Granville and what is now Route 23 ran east and west thru the town to western Massachusetts. Consequently the tavern was a most convenient stopping place for many travelers. Also, some cold March town meetings opened in the old meeting house and were adjourned to "Landlord Ashmuns" house where there was warmth and refreshment. At times, Ashmun was moderator of town meetings. Many were the "vandues" held at the tavern as attested by land records in the Springfield Registry of Deeds.
"Justis Arshmun" was appointed one of Blandford's Committee of Inspection and Safety on April 3, 1778. He held the same office in 1779 and 1780. In 1779, he was chosen "to Represent the Town in a State Convention to be held at Concord the fourteenth Day of July in Order to put a stop to the further Depreciation of Our Currency."
In 1782, he was one of a committee to supply the pulpit, as at the time there was no permanent minister. The same year, he was one of a group to number and estimate the pews in the meeting house when it had been voted to seat the meeting house according to age, pay, and dignity.
Justus Ashmun's fine qualities must have been very evident soon after he came to Blandford to have been entrusted with so much in a short time.
His family was large. Administration papers for his estate list his wife, Keziah, four sons and four daughters. Of these, Eli P. Ashmun claims our attention. He was born June 24, 1770 before the family came to Blandford. Judge Theodore Sedgwick of Stockbridge encouraged Eli to become a lawyer and he entered Sedgwick's office for a five year period of study, which he completed in four years. He purchased land in Blandford at what is now the corner of Main Street and Russell Road and erected a house where he practiced law. The fine old house was torn down in comparatively recent years to make way for a filling station, more is the pity.
In 1807, Eli removed to Northampton. After leaving Blandford, Eli served in both the Massachusetts House of Representatives and in the Senate. In 1816, after the resignation of Mr. Gore of the U.S. Senate, he performed the duties of that office for two years. He died May 10, 1819, in his 49th year.
Eli P. Ashmun's eldest son was John Hooker Ashmun, born in Blandford, July 3, 1800. He studied at Williams College for three years and was graduated at Harvard in 1818. He became head of the Northampton Law School. Later, he received an appointment as Royal Professor of Law in the Dane Law School of Harvard, the first to occupy the chair which was founded by Isaac Royall. His untimely death occurred April 1, 1833. Samuel Bowles, in the Springfield Republican said "He possessed one of the subtlest intellects that was ever devoted to the disentanglement of legal questions.
A younger brother of John Hooker Ashmun was George, born in Blandford, December 25, 1804. A graduate of Yale in 1823, he, too, be- came a lawyer and was admitted to the bar at Northampton. In 1830, he was in Springfield, in partnership with Reuben Atwater Chapman, a Russell native, who became Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
On his 50th birthday, George Ashmun, in response to a newspaper request for facts concerning his career, wrote the following rather non- committal account: "If it is important to the world, hereby know all men that I was born in Blandford (then in Hampshire County) just one half century ago this blessed day of Christ, December 25, 1804; that I passed four years at Yale in the supposed pursuit of what is commonly called an education, and graduated in 1823; that I was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives four times, namely, 1833, 1835, 1836, and 1841 and was Speaker of the House in the last named year; twice to the Massachusetts Senate, namely 1838 and 1839 and three times to the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, including six years from 1846 to 1851; since which time I have been in private life, where, if Providence prospers me, I intend to remain. Such is my public history during the 50 years that are completed today."
Between the above lines could be inserted much of interest. Ashmun, when in the State Legislature, worked for the continuation of the railroad from Springfield to Albany and was one of the state officials on the first train to run all the way from Boston to Albany, December 31, 1841. Candles made in the early morning in Boston were used to illuminate Albany for the occasion that night.
He was strongly anti-slavery. He associated with and was esteemed by leading men in the troubled times of the Civil War period. His practice took him often to Washington, where he met old congressional friends and made new ones in the group of men who became leaders of the new Republican party. They turned to him for permanent chairman of the Chicago convention of 1860. It was a feverish time and feelings ran high. A newspaper report of the day said, "In the chair, as in private councils attending the progress of the convention, he shone out with all the old power; his voice ran clear through the great Wigwam and stilled the passions of the excited thousands." Ashmun was spokesman of the committee that went to Abraham Lincoln's home officially to apprise him of his nomination for the office of President.
On the fateful night when President and Mrs. Lincoln were to leave the White House for Ford's Theater, Ashmun arrived with a friend. Lincoln invited them to be his guests at the theater but they had another engagement. Thereupon Lincoln wrote on a card, "Allow Mr. Ashmun and friend to come in at 9 A. M. tomorrow." Those were the last words that Lincoln wrote! This now in Library of Congress,
And so Blandford can be proud of the three generations of this family. They were able, intelligent, and possessed great integrity.
from Stone Walls Magazine, Winter, 1975