Eldred A. Ash

ASH, ASHLINE

Posted By: Debbie Clough Gerischer (email)
Date: 5/16/2005 at 18:46:24

ELDRED A. ASH, who was the popular superintendent of the public schools of
North English, is an enthusiast in his service as an executive and educator,
and his school policies are progressive and well ordered. His administration
in North English was initiated in 1927, but in 1929 he left there to accept
the position of supervisor of special classes at Muskegon, Michigan, a city of
60,000 population.

Mr. Ash was born at Edgewood, Clayton County, Iowa, September 15, 1894, and
is a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of that county.
His father, Charles H. Ash, was born in Kane County, Illinois, but moved to
Iowa when a small boy and in the Edgewood community he was reared an educated
and was there long and successfully engaged in farm enterprise. There he was
influential in community affairs and besides serving as township trustee he
gave loyal service as a member of the school board of his district. He and
his wife, whose maiden name was Hattie Ashline, and who likewise was born and
reared in Clayton County, lived at Cedar Falls for three years and then
returned to the farm at Edgewood. At Cedar Falls their two younger children, Laurel
and Raemond, are attending school. Eldred A. of this review, is the eldest
of the four children, and the next younger is Miss Mae W., who removed to
North English for five years, but is now teaching at Marengo, Iowa. The
religious faith of the family is that of the Presbyterian Church. The Ash lineage
traces back to staunch English origin, but the family has been established in
America many generations. The maternal grandfather of the subject of this
sketch represented Iowa as a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war.

Eldred A. Ash passed his childhood and early youth on the parental home farm
and supplemented the discipline of the rural schools by completing a course
in teh high school at Edgewood, in which he was graduated in 1913, as
valedictorian of his class, as well as its secretary. He soon put his acquirements
to practical test and use by taking a position as teacher in a district
school of his native county. During the four years he was thus engaged he
continued to assist in the work of the home farm during the summer vacation
periods, and when the nation entered the World war he responded to the call of
patriotism. In the early part of 1918 he enlisted in the United States army, and
after preliminary training at Camp Dodge, Iowa, he was assigned to Company D,
Three Hundred Twenty-fifth Infantry, at Camp Gordon, Georgia. April 27,
1918, he embarked with his command for overseas service, and in France he lived
up to the full tension of conflict, with service in the Meuse-Argonne and the
Saint Mihiel sectors. He remained in France one year and within a few months
after the armistice brought the war to a close he returned to his native
land, he having received his honorable discharge, at Camp Dodge, May 17, 1919.

After the close of his World war service Mr. Ash entered the Iowa State
Teachers College at Cedar Falls, and after there continuing his studies one year
he resumed his service as a teacher in the schools of Clayton County. In the
following year he taught in the consolidated school at Dundee, Delaware
County, and he then resumed his studied in the college at Cedar Falls, where he
was graduated as a member of the class of 1924 and with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts. He then assumed the position of principal and normal training
critic of the high school at North English, and the admirable record he made in
his three years' incumbency of this position was crowned by his advancement, in
1927, to that of superintendent of the public schools of this attractive
little city. He held the superintendency two years and then accepted this
present position at Muskegon, Michigan.

Mr. Ash is an active member of the Iowa State Teachers Association and
National Education Association. His political allegiance is given to the
Republican party, and he is affiliated with the American Legion. The name of Mr. Ash
still remains on the roster of eligible young bachelors.

-source: A Narrative History of The People of Iowa Volume IV 1931
-transcribed by Debbie Clough Gerischer, co-coordinator of the IAGenWeb Iowa History Project