Born: September 14, 1866; Salem, Essex, Massachusetts
Died: October 24, 1948; Pasadena, Los Angeles, California
John Dwyer Ashton was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1866. He was named after his grandfather, John Dwyer, a shipping magnate in Salem, primarily importing leather and pig bristles from St. Petersburg for his brush factory in Boston[i]. John grew up in the same house as his grandfather at 336 Essex Street, built prior to 1800[ii]. The house still exists[iii].
John chose accounting and finance as a profession and in the1890’s, he moved to Yonkers, New York joining the Okonite Company, which was in the cable manufacturing business. Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in New York State, (behind New York City, Buffalo, and Rochester), and the most populous city in Westchester County. Often referred to as the “6th Borough”, it borders the Bronx and is located two miles north of Manhattan. There, he met Ella Cowles, whose family ran the Yonkers Herald Statesman, the dominant newspaper in Westchester County. The newspaper had been founded by Ella’s grandfather, John W. Oliver, in 1860. John and Ella were married in 1892.
John was an avid Democrat, became involved in local politics, and was elected as the Yonkers fire commissioner in 1907. He was outspoken in his criticism of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that controlled the party’s nominations and political patronage statewide. However, Tammany Hall also served as an engine for graft and political corruption, perhaps most infamously under William M. “Boss” Tweed in the mid-19th century. John’s outspoken political views caught the attention of young Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly before FDR ran for his first political office as a state senator in 1910. Ashton actively supported Roosevelt’s candidacy and influenced the Statesman Herald’s advocacy of Roosevelt. FDR was elected and John became one of his early unofficial advisors[iv].
By the time Al Smith from New York became the Democratic nominee for US President in 1928 (but lost in the general election to Herbert Hoover), FDR was Governor of New York. Ashton and FDR remained friends and Roosevelt sent his autographed picture (above) and a letter to John Ashton (below), lamenting the loss in the presidential election. It is interesting to note that the letter from FDR came in April, six months before the stock market crashed, leading to the Great Depression (and the rise of FDR to the Presidency).
Ashton rose to become Assistant Treasurer of The Okonite Company, which had grown rapidly with the expansion of the Trans-Atlantic cable and had gone public. But in October of 1918, Ella died of pneumonia. William Bright Ashton, their younger son who had contracted influenza on a troop ship returning from World War I, tragically died of influenza within 9 hours of his mother[v]. The loss must have devastated John, and shortly afterwards, he resigned from Okonite and liquidated his stock in the company. In an interview David and Valerie Good had with John McLean Ashton (“Uncle Mac”) in 2000, Uncle Mac recalled that John Ashton had amassed a fortune in Okonite stock[vi]. With the proceeds of his stock sale, he bought US Treasury bonds yielding 5%[vii].
We don’t know exactly when or why, but John moved to Pasadena, California in the 1920’s. We can only suspect that it was impacted by his daughter, Eleanore and her husband, Vance Lines, moving to a ranch in Ontario, California after their marriage in 1915. John’s other son, Oliver, had also moved to Southern California where he and Vance built up several automobile dealerships. Vance and Eleanore had a daughter, Jane, born in Pasadena in 1916. She called him “Mompy”, a term of endearment that has followed him for generations. He lived to see her graduate from Mills College, marry Howard Good, and have three great grandchildren-Valerie, Tony and David. He passed in 1948.
[i] Papers of Eleanore Ashton Lines, circa 1978.
[ii] Ibid
[iii] David and Cathy saw the house in Salem in 1998.
[iv] Ibid
[v] Interview by David and Valerie Good with John Mclean Ashton, 2000.
[vi] Ibid
[vii] Ibid