Asa Owen Aldis (Vermont Supreme Court Justice)

Asa Owen Aldis (September 2, 1811 – June 24, 1891) was a Vermont attorney, judge and diplomat. He served as a justice of the

Vermont Supreme Court The Vermont Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority of the U.S. state of Vermont. Unlike most other states, the Vermont Supreme Court hears appeals directly from the trial courts, as Vermont has no intermediate appeals court. The Court ...

, and as U.S. Consul to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Biography

Asa O. Aldis was born in St. Albans, Vermont on September 2, 1811, the son of

Asa Aldis Asa Aldis (April 14, 1770 – October 16, 1847) was a Vermont attorney, politician, and judge. He served as chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court in 1815. Biography Asa Aldis was born in Franklin, Massachusetts on April 14, 1770. His mothe ...

, who served as a justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. His mother was Amey (Owen) Aldis, whose father Daniel J. Owen had served as

Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island The current lieutenant governor of Rhode Island is Sabina Matos, who was sworn in on April 14, 2021, after Daniel McKee succeeded to the office of governor. The first lieutenant governor was George Brown. In Rhode Island, the lieutenant gover ...

and Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. His sister Miranda was the wife of Vermont Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kellogg. He was descended from John Aldis and

Nathan Aldis Nathan Aldis was an early settler of Dedham, Massachusetts who served on that town's Board of Selectmen in 1641, 1642, and 1644. He served in a variety of other positions in the town and served as a deacon at First Church and Parish in Dedham. He s ...

. Aldis graduated from the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is amon ...

in 1829. He studied at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

and

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

, attained admission to the bar in 1832, and practiced in partnership with his father. Aldis continued to practice in St. Albans after his father's death, first as the partner of John Smith, and later in partnership with Smith's son

J. Gregory Smith John Gregory Smith (July 22, 1818 – November 6, 1891) was a Vermont businessman and politician. He is most notable for serving as the 28th governor of Vermont from 1863 to 1865, the last of Vermont's American Civil War, Civil War chief execut ...

. A Republican, In 1857 he was elected a justice of the

, and he continued to serve until resigning in 1865. The deaths of two daughters, one in 1862, and one in 1863, caused Aldis to solicit a diplomatic appointment that would enable him to move his children to a healthier climate, and he left the Vermont Supreme Court in order to accept appointment as U.S.

Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

. While en route to Nice to take up his new duties, a third daughter died in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Aldis served as Consul in Nice until 1871, when he returned to the U.S. to accept appointment as a member of the

Southern Claims Commission The Southern Claims Commission (SCC) was an organization of the executive branch of the United States government from 1871 to 1880, created under President Ulysses S. Grant. Its purpose was to allow Union sympathizers who had lived in the Southern ...

, which reviewed and made recommendations for reimbursement on claims for property seized and damaged by the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. In 1880, he was appointed to the French and American Claims Commission, which resolved claims made by French citizens for property that was seized or destroyed by the belligerent parties during the American Civil War. He served in this position until retiring in 1884.

Death and burial

In retirement, Aldis was a resident of

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. He died there on June 24, 1891, and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in St. Albans, Vermont.

Family

In 1836, Aldis married Elizabeth Sterne Lynde (1815-1837). They were the parents of a daughter, Elizabeth, who was born and died in 1836. After his first wife's death, in 1841 Aldis married Mary Townsend Taylor (1824-1909), with whom he had six daughters and two sons: * Mary Aldis (1844–1863) * Miranda Metcalf Aldis (1846–1862) * Harriet "Hattie" Aldis (1848–1865) * Helen Lynde Aldis (1849–1935), the wife of

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real estate developer Bryan Lathrop, in 1875. * Cornelia Aldis (1854–1921) * Owen Franklin Aldis (1852–1925), a Chicago attorney and real estate developer who served on the board of directors for the 1893

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

. * Arthur Taylor Aldis (1861–1933), a Chicago real estate developer. * Amy Owen Aldis (1865–1918), the wife of Richards Merry Bradley Jr. (1861-1943), a prominent real estate investor.

References

Sources

Books

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Newspapers

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aldis, Asa O. 1811 births 1891 deaths People from St. Albans, Vermont University of Vermont alumni Vermont lawyers Vermont Republicans Justices of the Vermont Supreme Court American consuls Burials in Vermont Harvard Law School alumni Yale Law School alumni 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers