John B. Alley

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = John Bassett Alley

| image name = JohnBAlley (1).jpg

| width = 200px

| caption = Alley c. 1860–65

| office = Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from Massachusetts

| term_start = March 4, 1859

| term_end = March 4, 1867

| predecessor = Timothy Davis

| successor = Benjamin Butler

| constituency = {{ushr|MA|6|6th district}} (1859–1863)
{{ushr|MA|5|5th district}} (1863–1867)

| office2 = Member of the Massachusetts State Senate from the Essex District

| term_start2 = 1852

| term_end2 = 1852

| predecessor2 =

| successor2 =

| office3 = Member of the Massachusetts Executive Council

| term_start3 = 1847

| term_end3 = 1851

| predecessor3 =

| successor3 =

| office4 = Member of the
Lynn Board of Aldermen

| term_start4 = 1850

| term_end4 = 1850

| predecessor4 = Office established

| successor4 =

| birth_date = January 7, 1817

| birth_place = Lynn, Massachusetts, US

| death_date = {{death date and age|1896|1|19|1817|1|7}}

| death_place = West Newton, Massachusetts, US

| restingplace = Pine Grove Cemetery

| spouse = Hannah Maria Rhodes

| profession = Shoe Manufacture

| party = Liberty
Free Soil
Republican

| alma_mater =

| children = John and Emma

| allegiance =

| branch =

| serviceyears =

| rank =

| commands =

| unit =

| battles =

| awards =

| footnotes =

}}

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

John Alley was born on January 7, 1817, in Lynn, Massachusetts. He attended the common schools and Phillips Academy Andover. At the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to work for a shoemaker and was released at nineteen.

In 1832, his parents, John Sr. and Mercy (née Buffum), and his younger sister Sarah joined the Church of Christ in 1832, later renamed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."Minutes of a Conference", Evening and Morning Star, [http://www.centerplace.org/history/ems/v2n20.htm vol. 2, no. 20], p. 160.H. Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters (1994). Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books) p. 160. They moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, where Sarah was one of the first women to marry polygamously and became the first Mormon woman to bear a child as a polygamist.{{cite web|last=Bergera|first=Gary James|title=Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841–44|url=http://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V38N03_13.pdf|work=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|access-date=22 September 2013}}

In 1836, Alley moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and took a job freighting merchandise up and down the Mississippi River. In 1838, he returned to Lynn and entered the shoe manufacturing business. He established a hide and leather house in Boston in 1847.

Political career

Alley served as a member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council from 1847 to 1851. In 1850, he served as member of the first Board of Aldermen of Lynn.

He represented Lynn in the State Senate in 1852 and as a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1853.

=United States Congress=

In 1852, Alley was a [https://books.google.com/books?id=5OwWAAAAYAAJ Free Soil candidate] for U.S. Representative, but lost.{{Citation | first = Benjamin | last = Barstow | title = 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:. | page = 6 | publisher = Office of the National Democrat | location = Boston, Massachusetts | date = 22 September 1853 }}

He joined the new Republican Party and was elected 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.

Later life and death

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.{{Citation | title = Ex-Congressman Alley Seriously Ill | page = 2 | newspaper = The New York Times | date = August 31, 1893 }}

He abandoned active business pursuits in 1886 and died in West Newton, Massachusetts on January 19, 1896. He was interred in Pine Grove Cemetery, Lynn, Massachusetts.

References

Bibliography

Barstow, Benjamin: [https://books.google.com/books?id=5OwWAAAAYAAJ Speech of Benjamin Barstow], of Salem, page 6, (1853).
[https://books.google.com/books?id=DEwWAAAAYAAJ&dq=John+B++Alley&pg=RA12-PA360 History of Essex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men] pages 360–361, (1888).
Hobbs, Clarence W.: [https://books.google.com/books?id=COm2tS1wm88C Lynn and Surroundings], page 139, (1886).
Johnson, David Newhall: [https://books.google.com/books?id=fyQFAAAAMAAJ&q=Sketches+of+Lynn,+Or,+The+Changes+of+Fifty+Years Sketches of Lynn, Or, The Changes of Fifty Years], pages 468–471, (1880).
{{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Alley, John Buffum |volume= 1 |pages= 93 |year=1906 |short=}}