John B. Alley

John Bassett Alley
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 5th district
In office March 4, 1863 – March 3, 1867
Preceded by	Samuel Hooper
Succeeded by	Benjamin Butler
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 6th district
In office March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1863
Preceded by	Timothy Davis
Succeeded by	Daniel W. Gooch
Member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1853
In office 1853–1853
Member of the Massachusetts Executive Council
In office 1847–1851
Member of the Massachusetts State Senate Essex District
In office 1852–1852
Member of the Lynn, Massachusetts Board of Aldermen
In office 1850–1850
Preceded by	None, New office
Personal details
Born	January 7, 1817 Lynn, Massachusetts, USA
Died	January 19, 1896 (aged 79) West Newton, Massachusetts
Resting place	Pine Grove Cemetery
Political party	Liberty Party Free Soil Party Republican
Spouse(s)	Hannah Maria Rhodes
Children	John Stewart Alley, Emma Rhodes Alley
Profession	Shoe Manufacture
Religion	Quaker

John Bassett Alley (January 7, 1817 – January 19, 1896) was a businessman and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.

Early Life

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Alley attended the common schools and Phillips Academy Andover. At the age of fourteen was apprenticed to work for a shoemaker. Alley was released at nineteen. In the meantime, his parents, John B. Alley Sr. and Mercy Buffum Alley, and his younger sister, Sarah Buffum Alley, joined the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints) in 1832, later renamed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,^[1][2] and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois where Sarah was one of the first women to marry polygamously, and became the first woman in Mormon history to bear a child as a polygamist.^[3] He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1836. Freighted merchandise up and down the Mississippi River. He returned to Lynn, Massachusetts in 1838 and entered the shoe manufacturing business. He established a hide and leather house in Boston in 1847. He served as member of the first Board of Aldermen of Lynn, Massachusetts in 1850.

Political Career

He served as member of the Governor's council 1847-1851. He served in the State senate in 1852. He served as member of the constitutional convention of 1853.

Alley was a Free Soil Candidate for Congress in 1852.^[4] Alley was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1867). He served as chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads (Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1866. He became connected with the Union Pacific Railroad.

During the 1880s and 1890s Alley was involved in a protracted lawsuit known as the Snow-Alley case which damaged his health and cost him a large part of his fortune.^[5] Alley abandoned active business pursuits in 1886 and lived in retirement until his death in West Newton, Massachusetts, January 19, 1896. He was interred in Pine Grove Cemetery, Lynn, Massachusetts.

References

1. "Minutes of a Conference", Evening and Morning Star, vol. 2, no. 20, p. 160.
2. H. Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters (1994). Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books) p. 160.
3. Bergera, Gary James. "Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841-44" (PDF). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
4. Barstow, Benjamin (22 September 1853), Speech of Benjamin Barstow, of Salem: on the abolition propensities of Caleb Cushing. Delivered at the Massachusetts National Democratic Convention, held at Boston, Sept. 22, 1853. to Franklin Pierce:., Boston, Massachusetts: Office of the National Democrat, p. 6
5. "Ex-Congressman Alley Seriously Ill", The New York Times, p. 2, August 31, 1893

Bibliography

• United States Congress. "John B. Alley (id: A000155)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• John B. Alley at Find-A-Grave
• Barstow, Benjamin: Speech of Benjamin Barstow, of Salem, page 6, (1853).
• History of Essex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men pages 360-361, (1888).
• Hobbs, Clarence W.: Lynn and Surroundings, page 139, (1886).
• Johnson, David Newhall: Sketches of Lynn, Or, The Changes of Fifty Years, pages 468-471, (1880).

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.