History of Blandford, (Hampden County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

Eli Porter Ashmun, senator, was born in Blandford, Mass., June 24, 1770. He received a classical education, and for some years he practised law in his native town, whence he was sent several times to the house of representatives of Massachusetts and to the state senate. In 1816 he was elected to the United States senate, from which body he resigned in 1818. He received degrees (A.M.) from Middlebury college, 1807, and Harvard in 1809. He died May 10, 1819.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

George Ashmun, representative, was born in Blandford, Mass., Dec. 25, 1804. A few years after his graduation from Yale college in 1823, he went to Springfield, Mass., where he practised law, gaining considerable prominence in his profession. In 1833 he was elected to the state legislature, serving four terms in the house of representatives,?one term as its speaker,?and two terms in the senate. He was elected a representative to the 29th Congress in 1845, where by re-elections he remained until 1851. While in Congress he made a reply to the attack of C.J. Ingersoll upon Daniel Webster, 1846; a speech on the Mexican war, 1847; and speeches on the revolution in France, and on the slavery questions, 1850. He was a director of the Union Pacific railroad. He died July 17, 1870.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Cushing Eells, missionary, was born at Blandford, Mass., Feb. 16, 1810; son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Warner) EelIs; and a descendant of Samuel Eells, an officer in Cromwell's army, who immigrated to America in 1661. He was prepared for college at Monson academy, Mass., and was graduated at Williams in 1834, and from the Theological institute of Connecticut in 1837. He was ordained a Congregational minister in October, 1837, and on March 5, 1838, was married to Myra Fairbank of Holden, Mass. They offered themselves as missionaries to the American board of commissioners for foreign missions and were appointed to Oregon, arriving at Walla Walla in August, 1838, having made most of the journey from Missouri on horseback. They served among the Spokane Indians until June, 1848, when they removed to Willamette valley, where Dr. Eells taught school, the foundation of Willamette university at Salem. He was for several years the first teacher in what was afterward Pacific university at Forest Grove, Oregon; and taught in other places until 1860, when he returned to Walla Walla and laid the foundation of Whitman college. He was elected president of its board of trustees on the granting of its charter in 1859. He gave to the college nearly ten thousand dollars and spent nearly a year in the east working in its behalf, securing for it about twelve thousand dollars. In 1872 he removed to Snohomish and afterward to Colfax, Cheney and Medical Lake, Washington Territory, and organized and was the first pastor of six Congregational churches. In 1888 he retired from active work and made his home with his son, the Hon. Edwin Eells, at Tacoma, Wash. He received the degree of D.D. from Pacific university in 1887. He died in Tacoma, Wash., on his eighty-fourth birthday, Feb. 16, 1893.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor