CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Asa S. Bushnell

Republican politician from Ohio (1834-1904)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ720157 ↗
Source-derived summary

Asa Smith Bushnell I (September 16, 1834 – January 15, 1904) was an American Republican politician from Ohio. He served as the 40th governor of Ohio. Before becoming governor, he served as the president of the Warder, Bushnell and Glessner Company, one of four companies that would merge to form International Harvester. Other roles in business included serving as president of the Springfield Gas Company and the First National Bank of Springfield.

Biography

Bushnell was born in Rome, New York, and moved to Springfield, Ohio, at age 17. During the American Civil War, he raised a company of men for the 152nd Ohio Infantry, a 100-days regiment, and served as captain from May to September 1864. He was a Presidential elector in 1884 for Blaine/Logan. A business executive, Bushnell served as the Ohio state Republican Party Chair in 1885. He succeeded William McKinley as governor, serving two two-year terms from 1896 to 1900.

Valentine Anti-Trust Act

During the Bushnell administration, Ohio took an early leadership role in trust-busting.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Asa S. Bushnell” as republican politician from Ohio (1834-1904). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1834, 1904, 1864, 1884—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1834-09-16. The account is most persuasive where Bushnell, Republican and politician can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as republican politician from Ohio (1834-1904). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q720157. VIAF identifies the subject as 43678317. The Library of Congress control number is n2003082059. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1834, 1904, 1864 and 1884.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Asa S. Bushnell”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Asa S. Bushnell primary sources, Asa S. Bushnell archive and Bushnell research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Asa S. Bushnell”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Asa S. Bushnell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.