MARION COUNTY, GA -BIOS Thomas Peter Ashmore Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: "Judith Gresham" Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/schley.htm Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm Thomas Peter Ashmore Thomas Peter Ashmore was born in Lincoln County, GA., April 2, 1812 and was a descendent of distinguished ancestors who moved from England to America long before the American Revolution and settled in Virginia. Later they went to South Carolina and in 1768 made their home in Georgia. In the early forties T. P. Ashmore came to Marion County to visit his sister, Mrs. James Powell and was so well pleased with this section that he remained and accepted the position as principal of the Tazewell academy. His fine reputation as a teacher attracted many students from the adjoining counties. He also had private classes in Greek, Latin and higher mathematics. When the courthouse transferred to Buena Vista he taught there in the new academy. He had charge of the girls and Thaddeus Oliver was master in the boy’s department. He published the first newspaper in this county and his able editorials were appreciated throughout the state. He also served as surveyor of Marion for a number of years. He was a man of brilliant intellect, but was in a way a recluse. He was never married and lived largely to himself. He possessed great genius for mathematics and astronomy and deserves a high place in the permanent records of the state for his remarkable calculations. For a number of years T. P. Ashmore shared with Robert Grier in preparing the astronomical work of Georgia. For forty-five years he made the calculations for the almanac which was named for Robert Grier, beginning in 1838 and continuing until 1882 when this important scientific task was given to his nephew, Otis Ashmore. T. P. Ashmore was one of the greatest mathematicians of his age and if he had lived in one the world’s centers, his ability would have attracted world wide attention. He left to Otis Ashmore his prediction of the great total eclipse of the sun on May 29, 1900, giving its track across the United States and all the facts concerning it. His prediction was made while he lived in Buena Vista nearly fifty years before it occurred. His calculations were accurate and when compared to the actual occurance, as his nephew witnessed in 1900, his performance is remarkable. After the close of the war in 1865, T. P. Ashmore returned to Lincoln County, Georgia where he died, February 4, 1884. He was buried in the old Ashmore graveyard, which is within one hundred feet of the spot where he was born. No monument marks his grave, and no portrait of him is in existence. From the “History of Marion County 1827-1930” by Nettie Powell