Asahel C. Beckwith
American politician

Asahel Collins Beckwith (1827–1896) was an American senator. A Democrat from Wyoming, he was born in Mentor, Ohio, and was appointed to serve in Washington from 1893 to 1895 in the 53rd United States Congress, but his resignation due to investigation prevented him from taking office.
Appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1893, caused by failure of the state legislature to elect him to office, Beckwith took his seat February 6, 1895. Beckwith presented credentials as a Senator-designate March 15, 1893 (special session of the Senate), but was not sworn pending investigation of his right to the seat. He resigned July 11, 1893, before final action was taken by the Senate. The seat was vacant from March 4, 1893, to January 22, 1895.
“Asahel C. Beckwith” enters the record as american politician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Asahel, Beckwith and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 7, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4803331. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1827, 1896, 1893 and 1895.
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This entry incorporates text from “Asahel C. Beckwith” 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.