Lewis Dewart Apsley

Lewis Dewart Apsley (September 29, 1852 – April 11, 1925) was an American businessman and Republican politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1893 to 1897. Over two terms in the House of Representatives, he contributed to the legislative process during a significant period in American history, representing the interests of his Massachusetts constituents and participating actively in the democratic governance of the nation.

Apsley was born on September 29, 1852, and came of age in the mid-nineteenth century as the United States was undergoing rapid industrial and economic change. As a young man he entered the world of commerce, establishing himself as an active businessman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His early business career in that major commercial center provided the foundation for his later prominence in New England industry and politics.

In 1873 Apsley married Laura Marguerite Remington, a native of Philadelphia and the youngest daughter of Captain John S. Remington, a member of an old Philadelphia family. Laura Remington had spent her early life in Philadelphia and was widely regarded and much loved by a large circle of friends and admirers, among whom was Apsley, then an energetic young businessman. After their marriage, the couple resided in Philadelphia for several years before relocating to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1877, and then to Hudson, Massachusetts, in 1883. Their only child, a son named Willie George Apsley, died in 1880, a personal loss that marked their family life.

By the time he settled in Hudson, Apsley had become a well-established businessman, and he continued to build his commercial interests there. His success in business and his standing in the community helped propel him into public life and the Republican Party. Identified with the industrial and manufacturing interests of his region, he emerged as a representative figure of New England’s late nineteenth-century business leadership, which often overlapped with political leadership in the Republican ranks.

Apsley was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1893, to March 3, 1897. During his two terms in office, he represented Massachusetts at a time when the nation confronted questions of industrial regulation, tariffs, and economic policy. In the Fifty-fourth Congress he served as chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, a role that reflected both his party’s confidence in him and his own background in industry. He also held party leadership responsibilities beyond the House chamber, serving two terms as vice chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, where he helped guide Republican electoral strategy. In 1896 he declined to run for renomination, choosing instead to leave Congress at the close of his second term and resume his business pursuits in Hudson.

In his later years, Apsley’s personal life was marked by both loss and companionship. His wife, Laura Marguerite Remington Apsley, died in 1914. For nearly two decades before her death, the Apsley household had been managed by Laura’s companion, Abigail (Abbie) Fobes Aldrich Black, the widow of Apsley’s favorite cousin, Victor F. Black. Because of prevailing social conventions of the time, Abigail could not continue to reside in the household after Laura’s death unless she married Apsley. The two were married on May 1, 1915. In the years that followed, Lewis and Abigail Apsley traveled together to Europe several times and shared his remaining years in close companionship.

Lewis Dewart Apsley died in Colón, Panama, on April 11, 1925. His death occurred while he was away from Massachusetts, but his remains were returned to his longtime home community. He was buried in Forestvale Cemetery in Hudson, Massachusetts, closing the life of a businessman-turned-legislator who had played a role in both the industrial development and political life of his adopted state during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.