Ashbel P. Willard

Ashbel Parsons Willard
Indiana House of Representatives
In office
December 5, 1850 – December 4, 1852
12th Lieutenant Governor of Indiana
In office
January 10, 1853 – January 12, 1857
GovernorJoseph A. Wright
Preceded byJames H. Lane
Succeeded byAbram A. Hammond
11th Governor of Indiana
In office
January 12, 1857 – October 4, 1860
LieutenantAbram A. Hammond
Preceded byJoseph A. Wright
Succeeded byAbram A. Hammond
Personal details
Born
Ashbel Parsons Willard

October 31, 1820
Oneida County, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 4, 1860(1860-10-04) (aged 39)
Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Alma materHamilton College

Ashbel Parsons Willard (October 31, 1820 – October 4, 1860) was state senator, the 12th lieutenant governor, and the 11th governor of the U.S. state of Indiana. His terms in office were marked by increasingly severe partisanship leading to the breakup of the state Democratic Party in the years leading up to the American Civil War. His brother-in-law John Edwin Cook was involved in John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and was executed. Willard went to the south to advocate unsuccessfully for his release, and became despised by southerners who accused him of having a secret involvement in the raid. He died two months before the start of the war while giving a speech on national unity, and was the first governor of Indiana to die in office.