The Late Ashley Pond

Authors

Michigan Law Review

Abstract

On January 12th last, Ashley Pond died at his home in Detroit in his eighty-third year. By his death the University has lost one of its oldest and most distinguished alumni. Mr. Pond was graduated from the Literary Department in 1854. After studying law for a little over two years, he was admitted to the Detroit Bar. At that Bar he continued to practice for about half a century, and when he died was its senior member. Mr. Pond's career is an example to every lawyer and an encouragement to every young man of humble origin and narrow means. When Ashley Pond was a mere child, his father settled in Branch. County, Michigan. The boy was born in Northeastern New York at the foot of the Adirondacks in November, 1827. His youth was spent almost on the frontier, with Indians as occasional uninvited guests at his father's fireside. To get funds with which to support himself while in the academy and college, he taught school, acted as clerk in a country store, did any work that came to his hand. He was a mature man when he entered college, and 27 when he began to study law. By the time he was admitted to practice his father had died and he was charged with the support of an aged mother. To begin practice in a strange town is not too easy at the best. To have struggled till the age of 29 before getting ready to begin practicing is most discouraging.

Recommended Citation

Michigan Law Review, The Late Ashley Pond, 8 Mich. L. Rev. 396 (1910).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol8/iss5/2