John Ash (American politician)

John T. Ash (November 30, 1783 – April 1, 1872) was an American farmer-turned-politician. He served in the Alabama State Senate in the first half of the 19th century.^[1]

Ash was born in 1783 in Athens, Georgia, to William Ash and Jane Fleming, the first of their seven known children.

Ash became a successful farmer, and served as a judge and member of the first Alabama State Senate.^[1] In 1821, Ash was one of five local leaders appointed to oversee the construction of a county courthouse and jail; the county seat was later named Ashville in his honor. Ash built a one-story dogtrot log house around 1820.^[2][3]

Ash married Margaret McCurdy "Peggy" Newton in 1813.^[1] They had at least fifteen children between 1814 and 1839. In 1817, he became the first white settler of what was then named St. Clairsville, Alabama, in 1817.^[4] Around this time, Ash's three-year-old daughter Betsy Ann died after falling from the wagon on which he was riding with his wife and her father,^[5] the Reverend Thomas Newton. St. Clairsville was later re-named Ashville in Ash's honor when it was incorporated in 1822.^[1][6]

In 1820, he built a home, now known as the John Ash House, in Ashville. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991^[3] and is now the oldest extant house in St. Clair County.^[4]

Ash died in 1872, aged 88. He had survived his wife by seventeen years and was interred alongside her in Liberty Cemetery in Odenville, Alabama.^[5]