Henry Graham Ashmead (June 30, 1838 – November 27, 1920) was an American historian, journalist, and chronicler of Delaware County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. His ''History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania'' (1884) is one of the classic texts of southeastern Pennsylvania history.

Life and career

Ashmead was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

on June 30, 1838. His parents were John Wayne Ashmead, a successful lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Henrietta Graham Flower. His maternal great-grandfather and namesake, Henry Hale Graham, was the first presiding judge of the Delaware County Courts of Common Pleas. Both his parents were of English descent. Ashmead attended West Chester Academy in

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,671 at the 2020 census. West ...

, and Saunders' Institute in

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Although there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the n ...

. As a boy, he met

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

, and as a young man, he was a friend of Frank R. Stockton, who named a character in his Christmas story "Major Pendallas" after Ashmead. Ashmead read law in his father's New York office and gained admittance to the New York bar on November 29, 1859. He practiced law briefly alongside classmate

Leon Abbett Leon Abbett (October 8, 1836December 4, 1894) was an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party politician and lawyer who served two nonconsecutive terms as the 26th Governor of New Jersey from 1884 to 1887 and 1890 to 1893. His ...

, a future governor of New Jersey, but abandoned his legal career because of ill health, on the advice of his physicians. He later "embarked in outdoor uncongenial occupations in which he was unsuccessful". After his father died in 1868, he accompanied his mother to her hometown of

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area (also known as the Delaware Valley) on the western bank of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. ...

, where he embarked on a career in journalism and public history. He worked as a reporter and editor for the ''Chester Daily News'' and later the ''Delaware County Republican''. In 1882, he became secretary of the Pennsylvania Bi-Centennial Association of Chester. In 1885, President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

appointed him to the office of postmaster of Chester.

Family and death

Ashmead married Rebecca Frances Warner in 1872. Their son, John Wayne Ashmead, died at age 18. After his first wife's death, he married Emma Campbell in 1881. He died in Chester on November 27, 1920, at the age of 82, and is interred at

Chester Rural Cemetery Chester Rural Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery founded in March 1863 in Chester, Pennsylvania. Some of the first burials were American Civil War, Civil War soldiers, both Union Army, Union and Confederate States Army, Confederate, who died at ...

Publications

Ashmead authored several books and articles on the history of Delaware County. '' The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' predicted that his ''Historical Sketch of Chester'' "will prove of great value to the genealogist and antiquarian". He also wrote several minor stage plays. * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashmead, Henry Graham 1838 births 1920 deaths 19th-century American historians 20th-century American historians American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law American people of English descent Burials at Chester Rural Cemetery Editors of Pennsylvania newspapers Historians from Pennsylvania Historians of Pennsylvania Journalists from Pennsylvania People from Chester, Pennsylvania People from Delaware County, Pennsylvania Writers from Delaware County, Pennsylvania Writers from Philadelphia